Yikes! We have too many products already — I’m thinking of cutting out a couple of muffins even — but we HAVE to make room for a few last things. Please tell us what’s important to you!

1. YEAST-FREE, SUGAR-FREE BREAD - we get a lot of requests for this one, but I think it’s impossible! We can make yeast-free CRUMBS, and yeast-free SPONGY PUDDING, and a few different varieties of yeast-free ROCKS, but gluten-free, yeast-free BREAD seems to be eluding us. What we CAN make, however, is a nice yeast-free flour tortilla. Anyone want a burrito?

2. GF-OAT BREAD MIX, TO SHIP. Ever since word got out that we’re making a kosher gf-oat bread, we’re getting flooded with requests from Orthodox Jewry across the continent. But it’s crazy to fly baked bread to Miami, or Toronto, or even Denver. And let’s be real: Y’all don’t care if it’s baked, you only care that it’s oats! Make it yourself - just add 2 cups water and 2 teaspoons of oil.

$7 for approx 22oz. bag, makes a single 2lb. loaf or 4 mini loaves.
(Includes 4 Novacart mini-loaf pans, while supplies last.)
Ships GROUND, but refrigerate it when you get it.

(Oats have high protein content - treat oat flour like ground nuts.)

3. SUGAR-FREE — ??? Cookie? Tartlets maybe? (Or is that too grown-up?) Does anyone worry about natural sugar in fruit? Should we sweeten with agave, or xylitol, or something new???

Sugar-free gets requested second only to yeast-free. (In fact, that’s usually how the question goes; “Do you have any yeast-free or sugar-free items?”) But we only have room for ONE more thing. What should it be?

Choices, choices, too many choices!! Please click on “comments” to help us decide!

(P.S. I don’t know why, but when you click “comments” you get to another page that starts just like this one! It’s a little confusing & I’ll try to fix it, but I wanted you to know so you’ll SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ACTUAL COMMENTS.)

Make sure to catch gfMeals.com / Your Dinner Secret on The KTLA Morning News tomorrow (Wednesday), between 6:00 and 9:00 AM PST. There will be 10 second teases randomly throughout the show and 3 minute segments around 6:40, 7:50 and 8:40.

KTLA’s remote reporter Gayle Anderson will be broadcasting from the Your Dinner Secret location in Woodland Hills, noshing on their mouthwatering gluten-free food (including maybe also a bundt or two!) and interviewing their team and their customers. In fact, the anchors will be eating their gluten-free goodies in the studio too.

If you do miss it, we’ll post the link to the streaming video on the KTLA web site.

Kudos to co-owner Roni Piterman for getting this kind of exposure & raising awareness
of celiac disease and gluten-sensitivity! Why it seems like only last week they featured YDS in the Daily News — oh, wait, that WAS last week! Keep up the good work, Roni!

We’ll be cheering for you tomorrow over our morning coffees and chocolate-zucchini muffins!

I still can’t believe it - it’s like the end of an era. Eugenie was our very first employee, and has had major influence on the shape of this bakery. Even before product development, there was branding, and from day one Eugenie has represented The Sensitive Baker with grace and class.

As for product development, which is really what she signed on for, what a star! The Morning Glory muffin, the Quinoa-Cranberry Cookie, the cheese that everybody goes “nuts” for on the pizza — these were all Eugenie’s creations, and remain some of our most popular products.

Eugenie has played every role in this bakery, literally from chief cook to bottle washer. She’s represented us at events, on the radio, and on TV. But it’s been almost a year and a half, and gone are the days of whipping up new taste sensations every day. Welcome instead to the world of churning out chocolate chip cookies, as many and as often as possible. Over and over and over again.

She says she loves doing it, but it’s like tying up a bird. Eugenie was born to fly.

Whatever Eugenie turns her hand to becomes infused with Quality. Here’s an example: We were experimenting with tuna salad, and every day Eugenie would make this delicious but kind of gourmet dish with, like, artichoke hearts and olives and garbanzo beans. But my father-in-law is a pretty big influence around here, too, and believe me he is not a fan of garbanzo beans in his tuna sandwich! I had to ask Eugenie: make the PLAINEST tuna salad possible. Imagine something you’d get from a cafeteria.

Eugenie wasn’t so thrilled with this directive. (Would you ask Beethoven to tone it down? He should do a little Muzak, maybe?) “I’ve never wanted to think of us as being like a cafeteria, making mass-produced garbage,” I think she said, and I never did either, but we need to appeal to everyone; from gourmets, to little kids, to the newly-diagnosed with still-sensitive stomaches.

So Eugenie came up with a dressing (no “bits” of ANYTHING) made from olive-oil mayonnaise, and fresh lemon juice, and other secret stuff. It makes the plainest looking tuna salad you ever saw, but if you eat a scoop of it on freshly toasted focaccia you’re going to swear it’s the best tuna sandwich you EVER tasted! Even my father-in-law thinks so!

Ah, Eugenie, we are going to miss you so much(!) but we wish you all the best! I know we’ll see you on Food Network one day — maybe making allergen-free birthday cakes for grateful children!

(Did I mention that the vegan chocolate cake / cupcake was her baby too?)

The question of the week seems to be, “What do you have for Passover?” Yeah. Um… Our bad, once again — We’re closed the entire week of Passover, and half the next week, as well. (We opened a can of worms when we brought oats into this place - we were essentially kosher for Passover until that moment. Not that the rabbis would allow any of our recipes — everything contains rice, which Jews of European descent don’t eat on Passover. But we wouldn’t have had to clean.) (sigh.)

Anyway, the point is, I thought it wouldn’t matter so much if we’re open Passover, since it’s the one time a year you can find a trustworthy gf-cake at a NORMAL bakery! Don’t believe me? Try this: Delice Bakery.

[Please note they're closed the whole week of Passover, too. That's what the "Chol Hamoed" bit means. The cakes are sold the week before Passover, starting April 13th.]

Kosher bakeries seem a tad slow getting on the internet (what’s up with that?), but I called:

Eilat bakery (310-205-8700) will be kosher-for-Passover. They’re closed the week of, selling GF products the week before, by reservation only. The Fairfax store (323-933-5000) may be open mid-week.

Schwartz Bakery (310-854-0592) Fairfax store (323-653-1683) will have kosher-for-Passover products packaged & sealed (be careful because they’re also selling chametz right up to the last day!); including bagels made from potato starch!

So, just to re-cap:

We are OPEN Thursday April 17th,
until 6:00 or until we run out of food, whichever comes first.

We are CLOSED Friday April 18th THROUGH Tuesday April 29th, 2008.

We Re-OPEN Wednesday April 30th.

SAVE THIS DATE:
Saturday May 3rd,
Moseley-Salvatori Conference Center
Good Samaritan Hospital
Los Angeles, California
9:00 am to 4:00 pm

This conference is always the event of the year for the gluten-sensitive and those of us who love you guys.

And this year’s speaker / guest list reads like a veritable Who’s Who of West Coast Celiac Disease. Here’s who they’re featuring:

Michelle Pietzak, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Pietzak will speak twice, once on Testing for Celiac Disease, and once on Follow-up Care for Diagnosed Celiacs.

Martin F. Kagnoff, MD, Director, Wm. K. Warren Medical Research Center for Celiac Disease, will lecture on Current Research at the center.

Danna Korn, Founder of R.O.C.K. (Raising Our Celiac Kids), author of “Living Gluten Free For Dummies” & “Cooking Gluten-Free for Dummies”; will talk about Living and Loving the Gluten-Free Lifestyle. She’ll also do a book signing - if you’ve worn out your copy of Living Gluten Free for Dummies (I know mine is about shot!) this is a good time to upgrade to an autographed edition.

Shauna James Ahern will have the luminous Gluten Free Girl available, and Karen Fine will promote her book for children, How I Eat Without Wheat. (Do you know Karen flew helicopters for the Navy for a few years? Is that cool or what?!)

There’s lots more going on as well - those are just the local heroes! But, speaking of local heroes, let us not forget to mention that the Celiac Disease Foundation itself is THE national organization providing support for celiacs and their families, and it’s founded right here in Studio City. Being part of a support group and getting the advice of a registered dietitian are considered to be the two top factors that correlate to a successful life as a celiac, living gluten-free. (I can’t quote my source offhand, but I’m sure I read that somewhere.) And note, please, that they’re also providing registered dietitians to answer your questions, right here at the conference.

Furthermore, the CDF promotes awareness of CD, in many different groups of people, from doctors so that they’ll diagnose more people correctly, to food manufacturers so that they’ll produce more safe food. They’re giving away the 2008 Champion for Celiac Disease Awareness Award - my vote is for whoever got them to take the barley malt flavoring out of the Rice Chex cereal!

Take a look at the program on the CDF website here. You can register online here. Do it now, the price goes up on the 11th. (Why wait? You know you’re going.)

Oh, and I almost forgot. Your Dinner Secret will be there and they’ll be sampling out our brownies. And, we’re providing our breadsticks for the luncheon. In fact, the whole day you will be plied with gluten-free goodies, from every gf-manufacturer in the country. (Why would you even think about not going?)

(And, why do I suddenly feel, like, Amish or something?)

[I don't want this to get buried in the comments: View Jenny on Larry King Live.]

I have SO many overdue posts to post! I had in mind a whole series of, like, book reviews. (I say “like” because I also want to include Dr. Pietzak’s DVD, Understanding Celiac Disease…, so it’s not just books.)

Anyway. Blogs are weird, the whole chronology thing throws me. Read the rest of this entry »

*
I think we’re blessed with a special angel in charge of PR. How else can we explain this terrific article on us in The Forward Jewish newspaper?

Keeping Kosher Gluten-Free - Forward.com”

Elissa Strauss, the writer, is a celiac currently living in New York, writing for The Forward obviously, but her mom who is also celiac lives here in LA, and the two came here together last time Elissa was in town. That’s how we explain it, on this plane….

***

Our bagels in The Forward! OMG, my zaidy would be so proud!! Thanks Keren Greenberg for the photo.

This has to be a quick post, but we must have gotten 10 calls in the last week about Matza, especially after the discussion of Matzo on Gluten-Free by the Bay.
Gluten-Free Bay: New Source for Gluten-Free Oat Matzo

Anyway; No we are not set up to do matzo, and it’s one of those things I’d really hate to do wrong. (It’s a good day when we can get pizza out of this place!)

So this is what I’m telling people:

Western Kosher will have gf-oat matzo.
444 N. Fairfax Ave, LA

It’s over $30/box yikes!
They don’t have it ’till next week but
CALL NOW AND RESERVE!
(323) 655-8870.

And yes, I did forward them the information that GF-btB posted about the Lakewood matzo factory, but they had not heard about it yet, so I don’t know if they’re going to be able to get any this year. They will have the British kind, but RESERVE! Reserve, reserve, reserve.

Meet David. He’s a real sweetie. He’s our new mashgiach - the guy who makes sure everything is kosher around here. Except for the lettuce, that’s actually not such a complicated job, but he is absolutely happy to fill in wherever he might he useful.

For example, I’ll tell you a story. Last week, a woman ordered cupcakes to be delivered to her in Glendale for her son’s birthday party in school Friday. We shipped them UPS on Wednesday expecting a Thursday delivery, totally routine. Except I got an e-mail Thursday night, the woman never got her cupcakes. For the first time EVER, UPS messed up - they said the address we gave them was wrong, when it wasn’t.

Previously, there would be nothing I could do. Glendale on a Friday? Don’t even think about it!

But last week David had come to the rescue on a more than a few deliveries & errands - his very first day he’d rented a truck & picked up 1,000 pounds of flour from Authentic Foods, while I went and got a root canal. (Truth.) So when I called the woman to confirm her address, I told her, “We’ll bring you the cupcakes tomorrow before your son’s party.”

And David, indeed, delivered on my promise. Here is what the woman wrote to me later that day:

I am so thankful that you did what you committed last night. You complete the party of my son. May God Bless Your Heart…

Maria M., Glendale, CA

Hey, it’s only been two months since we started serving lunch. For us, that may be a record of some kind, to get it all finalized and published in such a short amount of time. So, as simple as it is, we are proud to present… (drumroll, please…..)

… the lunch menu!