Tag Archives: cookies

Joni’s Kitchen

30 Sep

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This month, we headed back east to Montauk to see our friends get married. I used my trusty Find Me Gluten-Free App to see if there was anything GF friendly near where we would be staying. I ended up hitting the jackpot with Joni’s. While ordering, I noticed an array of GF baked goods on the counter including a plethora of doughnuts! I devoured my cinnamon doughnut outside on one of their faded turquoise picnic tables. I then had the zen rabbit wrap with chicken.

unnamed-1When ordering, the lady (perhaps Joni) assured me that they would be changing their gloves and taking precautions to limit cross contamination. This spot is just blocks from the beach and definitely had a local’s feel to it. I wish we were in the area for more time so I could have had a couple more meals here!

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Rori’s

6 Feb

GF Ice Cream ConeThanks to a tip from Laura via our Gluten-Free Santa Barbara page, I caught word that there is an ice cream spot in Montecito that has gluten-free cones! I literally RAN there as fast as I could. Rori’s which is located in the newly revitalized Montecito Country Mart is the cutest little ice cream shop you will ever see. And… not only do they have GF cones, but they also have GF and dairy free chocolate chip cookies to make ice cream sandwiches out of! The girl behind the counter was very knowledgeable about which flavors were and were not safe for me to eat. I decided on the fresh mint patty with chunks of chocolate in it. I love that it is February and I was able to enjoy a GF ice cream cone out in the sunshine. Does life get much better than this?

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Deer Valley – Silver Lake Restaurant

20 Dec

Chili Con CarneWhile in Utah, we spent two days skiing at Deer Valley. Both days, we had lunch at the Silver Lake Lodge in the Silver Lake Restaurant. There are different stations with gluten-free items clearly labeled. Whenever I was unsure about an item, I found that the staff was very knowledgeable about the ingredients. On the first day, I had the Chili Con Carne with all the fixings. It was the perfect meal to warm up. I didn’t even bother looking at the bakery station since I assumed there would be nothing for me. However, my husband spotted a huge gluten-free cookie which was much appreciated by my taste buds.

GF CookieThis thing was the size of my head. The second day we were there, I had their turkey chili.

Turkey ChiliThe chef had recently changed the recipe to make it gluten-free. It is now thickened with rice flour and masa which gave it kind of a southwestern taste. Of course, I had to have another GF cookie for dessert!

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The Farmer and the Cook

22 Jul

Just about a 35 minute drive from Santa Barbara is a special spot called The Farmer and the Cook. This all organic, vegetarian cafe get most of their produce from their nearby farm. More importantly, on weekends, they have gluten-free pizza! I started with a special salad that had sweet corn, green beans, avocado, lettuce and a barbeque tomato vinaigrette. I then ordered the GF Mexican Pizza.

This pizza had caramelized onions, goat cheese, summer squash, red peppers, jalapenos and pesto. The crust of the pizza was predominantly garbanzo flour and had a really nice consistency. One of my fellow diners also got a gluten-free pizza. 

This one was the Yukon Gold Potato and Rosemary Pizza. It had potatoes, parmesan, mozzarella, red pepper, caramelized onions, garlic and rosemary. All of the ingredients used were so fresh and full of flavor. There is a small market inside where you can purchase produce and packaged goods, many of which are gluten-free! Additionally there are baked goods including a GF peanut butter cookie that was calling my name.

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Pizza By The Slice!

9 May

Is that a beautiful sign or what? Behold, the first restaurant in Santa Barbara to offer gluten-free pizza by the slice. Adama, which already had a gluten-free menu, now has gluten-free pizza and a bakery that is almost entirely GF. Last night, we shared an order of the Fritto Misto to start. It was just as good as the last time we had it. We also got a slice of the GF pizza just to try it.

The bread was good, but there was only a tiny bit that served as an outer crust. That edge was nice and crunchy, but this was definitely a fork and knife pizza as it was softer under all of the tasty toppings. I then ordered the special… falafel with their GF ciabatta bread.

I am not sure if I have ever had falafel but it was really good. The outside was nice and crispy. The bread was really good now that I could taste it a bit better. It was served with a GF tabbouleh that was made from millet. Then came the fun part… dessert. All of the desserts in the case were gluten-free other than the oatmeal raisin cookies (the oats they use are not GF-certified). We went with the apple pie served with soy vanilla ice cream and a peanut butter cookie.

They warmed up the pie which was a nice touch. There is just something about warm apple pie that makes everything right in the world. The peanut butter cookie had a good taste but the consistency was a bit off.

It is just really exciting for a local restaurant to continue pushing themselves to give us GF peeps more and more options when dining out!

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Room Service

17 Mar


Do you know what is fun about staying at the Four Seasons Westlake Village? You can call down to room service and have them bring you up some GF cookies and ice cream. These cookies reminded me of the WOW cookies I had recently. They were soft and chewy. The ice cream with the fresh berries was really good too.

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Picnic and the Zoo

29 Feb

It had been awhile since I had seen my friend and her adorable baby so we decided to have a picnic in Alice Keck Park and then go to the zoo! I brought us gluten-free sandwiches made on Udi’s bread from Whole Foods. They were incredibly good.

Is that not the cutest baby you have ever seen? He rolled around a bit while we devoured the sandwiches. For dessert, I brought some cookies that I saw at the store.

These reminded me of a thicker version of the Entenmann’s cookies that we had in our house growing up. They were chewy and had a really good taste. After our picnic, we headed to the zoo to see some animals.

This giraffe just wanted to hang out with us, even following us as we were starting to leave! It was fun to see young Daniel, the giraffe, and the newest resident, Michael. Next time, we may just have the picnic at the zoo since there is plenty of grass to spread out on!

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GF Chrismukkah Surprises

23 Dec

Last night my husband and I celebrated Chrismukkah. We celebrate by giving and getting eight gifts all in one night. Since one of the gifts he had ordered for me hadn’t arrived as of a couple days ago, he got back-up gifts which were quite delicious. He ordered gluten-free items from Mariposa Baking Co. It appears that they are based out of Northern California. Above, you are looking at the GF Focaccia. This was so good. We warmed it up a bit before eating it. There was a slight taste of rosemary that gave it a really nice aftertaste. He also got me the Sour Cream Coffeecake. I really liked this but I almost wish there was a bit more of the streusel on top. Finally, in my stocking I found gingerbread cookies!

Also from Mariposa, these were amazing. They come in a pack of 6 so I will be munching away on these for the next few days! To top off the festiveness, we went driving to see our favorite holiday lights at 1209 E. Quinientos Street.

A friend lives here and always manages to put more lights up than the last year. I know that he was on the cover of the News Press a few days ago. Here is an article online that they posted about him and his house from a few years ago.

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Our Daily Bread

4 Oct

GF muffin, cookie and thumbprint

This morning, I really wanted a muffin, so we tried Our Daily Bread. They have loaves of GF bread for purchase, carrot cake muffins, cookies and thumbprint pastries. I asked if they could make their sandwiches with the bread, but they said no. It also seemed like they weren’t too careful about cross contamination. After using tissue to handle my husband’s muffin, the man then went to use the same piece of tissue on my GF items before we stopped him. It is definitely exciting to have more options in town, but I hope that businesses take the whole GF thing seriously and educate themselves and their staff.

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Ultimate Bagels

29 Sep

After a tasty meal at Tupelo Junction the other day, I walked by a sign at Ultimate Bagels that said they had gluten-free items available. I was in a rush and couldn’t stop in, but after following up, it appears that they have gluten-free cookies. Cookies are better than nothing, but wouldn’t it be great if there was a place that offered GF bagels? For now, I guess I will have to continue to order my bagels from Joan’s.

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