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Food Bloggers Give Panera’s Menu a Gluten-Free Makeover

Remember the team of activist food bloggers who took our list of America’s Top 10 New Sandwiches and made vegan versions of each sandwich? Well, Namely Marly and her team are at it again. This time, they’re giving one of America’s biggest bakery chains a GF makeover. Namely Marly writes:

I recently met a friend for breakfast at Panera and was surprised, nay shocked, to learn that they didn’t offer any gluten-free items at the bread bar. How could this be? Are they not aware of the growing number of people who are flocking toward gluten-free lifestyles?

The solution? De-gluten-ize the whole place! Namely Marly and her crew came up with gluten-free recipes for nine different items on the Panera menu. But will the bakery chain add any of these creations to their roster? Your move, Panera.

1. Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Recipe: Multiply Delicious

2. Caramel Pecan Rolls

Recipe: Namely Marly

3. Spinach and Artichoke Souffle

Recipe: Clean Green Simple

 

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in Breakfast / Desserts / Recipe / Restaurants / Trends / Veggie 4 comments
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The Legend of Umami

I first heard about the concept of umami when I was helping to open a Japanese restaurant a few years back. During our training, the chef was telling us about the Japanese word umami, which is the “fifth taste.” After sweet, salty, sour, and bitter, what is left? What is the taste that will truly satiate? Apparently it is umami, which loosely translates to “pleasantly savory.” Fair enough.

Umami seems to be a rather intangible concept. If you so desire, take a look at its Wikipedia article, which has all sorts of tips on what foods contain “high amounts of umami” and uses a lot of science-y terms that overwhelm me. To me, umami is my unicorn of the food world. It has a mystical appeal, only made more desirable by the fact that I don’t know if I fully understand or believe in it. But am intrigued by its powers.

A small restaurant chain in LA, unsurprisingly named Umami Burger, has attempted to harness the power of umami. Many of my California friends rave about it. On the cover of the June issue of Food & Wine there is an amazing-looking burger; Patrick and I decided we had to make it, and upon inspection of the recipe, discovered it was an Umami Burger with Port and Stilton. Perfect!

 

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in Cheese / Red Meat / Trends 1 comments
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Plate It or Hate It

Recent food world discoveries the ES crew is loving and hating…

Plate It: Saffron Chai

We’re already fans of chai lattes, but adding a hint of rich, flavorful saffron makes this taste like drinking a cup of gold. Available from Jaipur Avenue.

Hate It: Bacon Soda

We’re told you many times that bacon will never die, but it’s time for fake bacon flavor to take a hike. We loved this idea when we heard about it last year, but now that it has hit the market it turns out we actually like our soda to taste like corn syrup, not pork syrup.

Plate It: Whipped Cream Vodka

 

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in Bacon / Celebs / Drinks / Rants & Raves / Trends 3 comments
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When “I Do” Is Delicious: Food Bloggers’ Weddings

It’s that time of year again when all of your hard-earned vacation days are spent traveling around the world for other people’s weddings. But if you’re lucky enough to be friends with a food blogger, well then that $600 flight to South Dakota just might be worth it.

These days no one expects good food at weddings. I know to fill up on cheese, crackers and something sparkling during the cocktail hour because who knows how much of the dinner (besides that pumpernickel roll with butter, and my boyfriend’s pad of butter) will be worth consuming.

From a wedding reception I expect:

  • Free booze (with the bar open the whole night, not closed during the speeches, like I’ve unfortunately encountered before);
  • A first dance by the couple (or bride-father/groom-mother/bride-brother) that will make me tear up;
  • And some kick ass music. Plus, I want to see the bride dance to either Single Ladies or Like a Virgin/Like a Prayer. Something wonderfully inappropriate.

Okay, sorry. I have too many opinions from attending too many weddings. As you can see, though, I no longer even expect to eat something fantastic. But that was because I’ve never been invited to a food blogger’s wedding. Check out these drool-worthy feasts from true food lovers.

Five Delicious Food Bloggers’ Weddings

Orangette: Molly Wizenberg and Brandon Pettit

Menu highlights

  • Quartered apricots wrapped in prosciutto and grilled, served on thin toasts with herbed chevre (above)
  • Housemade fingerling potato chips with rosemary lemonade
  • Alderwood-smoked sockeye salmon with nectarine-serrano salsa or fresh herbs

(Photo and full menu: Orangette)

The Bitten Word: Clay Dunn and Zachary Patton

Menu highlights:

  • Soup shots, featuring sweet pea with Thai basil, roasted corn and mushroom with homemade bacon (above)
  • 36-hour smoked pulled pork BBQ sandwiches with homemade pickle and slaw
  • Ratatouille spoons with lime-poached shrimp

(Photo and full menu: The Bitten Word)

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in Lists / Trends 0 comments
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Deviled Eggs: Not Just for Parties

With all of our recent drooling over deviled eggs, I became a bit manic about boiling some eggs and stuffing them with tons of mustard. Deviled eggs aren’t too much work, but it’s usually not something one makes just to keep around the house. Well, I’m putting forth a movement for everyday deviled eggs.

It’s a perfect, portion-controlled, and healthy (compared to potato chips) snack for a quick nibble of protein and creaminess. I don’t add anything too fancy: simply mashing yolks with some mustard, horseradish, a touch of yogurt, salt and pepper. They keep for a few days and I dust with paprika right before eating for a fresh kick. (I also cut up a few—egg salad on demand—to fill a charred whole wheat tortilla wrap with lettuce, avocado, green garlic and extra mustard.)

in Eggs / Trends 4 comments
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Diggin’ DC Dirt: A Raised-Bed Garden Adventure

Part One: We’ve been framed

My indoor basil plant looks like this:

I know, pathetic.  Believe me, when I was pregnant, it was the inspiration for many “so you think you’re ready for parenthood” cracks. My response was, there is a reason that babies scream when they are hungry.

Elijah is eight months old now, and so far so good, so this summer, my dear spouse and I decided to take on another complicated project for which we were only minimally qualified: a raised bed garden.  I hear that these are trendy at present, but let me tell you, that trend hasn’t reached my neighborhood.  Our block seems to favor vegetation more like this:

New age sculpture or misguided but admirable attempt to grow a beer tree?  You decide.

We decided on the back porch as the locale for our foray into botany.  Large and concrete, it has thus far served little purpose aside from storing some semi-decaying deck chairs.  The whole back “yard” is paved over, so it seemed like concrete was our fate.  We called up our friend Pat, who jumped at the chance to bust out some power tool action.  He and Kurt (my husband) headed to Home Depot for supplies.  They were gone for about three hours, reasons for which are still unclear, and returned with some very long pieces of wood.  The folks at HD were kind enough to cut the 12-ft. boards into two sections, 10 ft. and 2 ft. Pat was a little sad about not having a chance to use his circular saw.

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in Personal / Trends / Veggie 0 comments
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