Minnesota- land of Celiacs

 If it is January and you are looking for something to do, why not follow our new tradition and go to Minnesota! The streets are vacant, the hotel rates are low and the Mall of America is practically a ghost town. No lines to stand in and no trouble finding a table. In all seriousness, we had a grand adventure this week. We survived the great white north. Well, more like the great all-the-leaves-have-fallen north. Minnesota in January is frigid. It is windy, cold, and kind of snow-less  If there was snow it might be more fun but this go round we were not blessed with the powder. We were blessed with lots of family time and loads of options when eating out.

Among Alton's great adventures, we took him to the Mall of America aquarium. He ogled the fishes and drooled on a tank or two. He was kind enough to let his Aunt Jess hold him for a while so we had a break from the constant weight lifting. Picture carrying the heavy pet food bag around all day...and make it wiggle!

After the aquarium we decided to do a little shopping. They have a Bettie Page store which sells oh so adorable dresses that are overpriced and made from cheap fabric. Yet, we left with two. What can I say, I love a good cut and pattern? There is something to be said for great customer service. The shop keeper, Shannon, greeted us, introduced herself and was extremely helpful. That kind of thing always makes me happy to support a business. I live in constant fear of the next generation of snot-nosed punks running everything. It is so hard to find helpful people... even in service jobs. So, the best part of trying on dresses...was it wearing cocktail dresses over snow boots with bruised knees from a fall? No, it was walking out of the dressing room to show off for my in-laws! Yeah me. I walked out of the room expecting my husband and kidlet and the whole gang was there! Oh, boy.

Shopping done...time to eat! Gluten free food choices are rare. America loves the gluten...the dairy, the soy, etc. Finding food in a mall is like winning the lottery. Needless to say, I had a Jamba Juice for lunch. No kidding. This brought up our second food dilemma for the trip...making lunches. The next day we went to the Minnesota Zoo. It was a balmy 5F outside....the sun was shining, the ice was glistening.....I practically ran into the building from the parking lot. Inside the zoo was actually quite lovely and really designed to embrace the fact that half of the year you will freeze to death if you aren't a variety of moose, snow monkey, mountain cat, etc. We packed lunches in the knowledge that the Alton's Grill inside would have no safe foods for us.

So, here it is. My tirade on gluten free bread.
Crap. Dry, over priced crap.
The brands are all trying to look like a loaf of bread which is great but since you don't kneed gluten free dough, it never completely sells itself. They are all frozen or refrigerated after having been frozen. We managed to buy a fresh loaf from a local gluten free bakery -Bittersweet Bakery in Eagan- but even that suffered from being dry. Perhaps the problem was more that we went on a Monday and they had been selling that particular half loaf for a few days. Strangely, when I make gluten free bread at home it is almost too moist. What makes up the void? Processing. That has to be it. My bread is eggs, a mixture of oat/rice flours and some oil. They are make of starches, rice flour, safflower oil, extra processing crud and what I am pretty sure is fine grit sand paper. Perhaps that is the next great invention. Maybe someone on Shark Tank will come up with a gluten free bread that I can but that doesn't require cough drops post consumption.

Back to the bakery. This bakery at first was like the heaven parting and angels singing. We actually found a gluten free bakery. How awesome is that? Well, once there we were "greeted" by Mr. I am too old to get up this early and pretend to smile. He knew nothing about the product and obviously didn't have Celiac or any level of gluten free care. A common problem with Celiac persons is lactose intolerance. So, why there was dairy in half the products or the chocolate chips had dairy is beyond me. I think they must have overlooked that part. Additionally, there was soy in 75% of the items on the menu. For us, that is a no-go.  We managed to find one muffin, one 1/2 loaf of bread and one lemon cake square. $12 later, we made sandwiches that nature kept chilled for us in the car while we played with the critters. Sadly the bread still made us want to simply roll up the meat and just eat that. The lemon cake was a delicious and moist surprise though so that kind of made up for it. Also, the muffin was delicious so I would be willing to go back for sure.

Eating out can be even more of a problem, especially in North Carolina where allergies are seen as an inconvenient choice by most wait staff. Thankfully Minnesota is actually a gluten free friendly state. I found an article discussing that in America Celiac is about 1 in 133. In Minnesota, thanks mostly in part to the genetic stock coming from Norther Europe, the prevalence is about 1 in 50. For us this translated as every single restaurant had a gluten free menu or a staff member who was willing to help. It also meant that the staff was informed as to proper cooking techniques, what gluten is (you would be surprised) and how to make foods gluten free. For the most part, we had great success. It was all great until I realized that not every place thought fully about how gluten can hide. At the Green Mill I opted for the Cobb salad from their Gluten Free Menu and realized that the bacon could be glutened and simply hoped that it was not. We had total confidence when eating out at Pizza Lucé. Our waitress was eager to be helpful as she had a kid same as Alton. Her child had MSPI (milk soy protein intolerance) and a gluten intolerance. This lead to a long conversation about symptoms  treatments, lack of medical help and finding the right pediatric GI. She has been there and had the same troubles we have had. Can you imaging knowing what is making your child sick, testing the theory, then retesting it just to be certain and walking into the doctors office and having him laugh at you? That is what we both endured. It took her 3 pediatric GIs to find one that was educated enough o be able to help her.

The Athena pizza was delicious. They had dairy and soy free cheese available. Here is our pizza's description- we left off the feta cheese and switched to the optional Daiya Cheese.
 You don’t need to consult some internet oracle to know this little goddess has fresh spinach, tomato, feta cheese, Kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, red onions, Greek oregano and toasted garlic with light mozzarella on Bianca sauce.

So, all in all we had an amazing time in Minnesota. Our trip, which could have been very painful, was delightful. The grocery stores were filled with gluten free alternatives. Byerly's had a special gluten free section but also had options mixed in with the regular. One thing that stood out to us there was that the gluten free baking goods were separated  That made me sigh with happiness. Since Celiac makes you sensitive to parts per million, the flour that inevitability flies out of the bags and gets on everything always coats our bags of gluten free mixes and gives me a heart attack. We always take them home and wash the outsides prior to opening. I was so happy to see that they divide their baking sections.

Back to Minnesota any time soon? Oh yeah, you bet ya!