The hubs had a work call tonight so we decided to get some take-out from Fresco. I called to see if their soup of the day was GF and it was! Soup and salad sounded mighty fine to me, so I got the caesar salad and the potato leak soup. The salad was smothered with cheese which is just the way I like it. The soup looked pretty unappetizing as depicted below.
However, I love potato and leek soup and this was no exception. It was the perfect thing for a cold night!
We were at UCSB to train for my upcoming alumni weekend so we decided to bring some dinner home from Isla Vista. Although I really wanted to try Woodstock’s gluten-free pizza, the nachos at Cantina were beckoning me to take a trip down memory lane. These brought me right back to college as I used to have them at least once a week. YUM.
I love when I don’t have work on Sunday mornings because there is something about going out for breakfast on a Sunday that is just so enjoyable. Today, we tried Scarlett Begonia. As soon as we sat down, I saw that there was a gluten-free polenta and pear muffin on the menu. This was served warm and had a really good taste to it. While we started to devour that, we were served an amuse bouche. It didn’t appear GF so I stayed clear. I then had the soft scrambled eggs with spinach and aged gouda.
As I mixed the dish around, the aged gouda melted perfectly. This was a hearty dish as there were plenty of potatoes on the bottom. Finally, at the end of the meal, there was a little surprise that came with our check. It was homemade toffee. When I was trying to check what the ingredients were in it, the woman who I asked made it seem very difficult to get an answer. This brings me to my next point. I thought the food was really good but there was something about the service that rubbed me the wrong way. I was eavesdropping at the conversation between the waitress and the table next to us. The diners were explaining how they had seen the iPad ordering system at another local eatery. The waitress then had some attitude saying that they were the first ones to do it. Additionally, the way certain things were presented to us felt like they wanted a pat on the back. It wasn’t enough to prevent us from coming back, but it just felt like they thought very highly of themselves and wanted others to know that.
That toffee by the way? Pretty fantastic.
With the lighting, that doesn’t look too appetizing. But the smoked ham, lentil and red wine braised chard soup I started with at Intermezzo had a lot of flavor. I wasn’t looking to eat too much tonight so I just got some soup and vegetables. The market vegetables were fresh and perfectly dressed with some balsamic.
Now both of these items were great. But what I really wanted was the truffled parmesan french fries. Unfortunately, they are not made in a dedicated fryer. However, the husband enjoyed them immensely.
After eating, we went next door to the Au Bon Climat tasting room. This is one of my favorite pinots from this area, so I am very excited that they finally opened their own tasting room!
In other news, there appears to be a large hole on the butt of my jeans that was discovered while out tonight. Apparently this blog is not good for my waistline.
I had to pick something up at Nordstrom today, so I figured I might as well go have a salad in their cafe for lunch. When perusing the menu, I saw a note that they had GF pasta available there! This town is finally starting to catch on! I got the Pasta Primavera with the gluten-free penne. This included roasted zucchini, squash, peppers, carrots, onion, tomato, fresh basil and a herb butter sauce with some parmesan cheese on top. It was pretty light. The outside patio is the perfect place for lunch on a day when the sun is out.
Today I had the day off, and it was the perfect day to take the pup for a walk. After scaring her sufficiently with all of the costumed-clad kids on State Street, I had worked up an appetite. The front patio at Arts and Letters Cafe allows dogs so I decided to get a salad there for lunch. Pictured above is the Tyler salad without the blue cheese. This salad was fantastic and large enough to eat on its own. It consisted of Jidori chicken, Roots Farm romaine, house made bacon, red onion, avocado, tomato and red wine vinaigrette. YUM.
I have a bit of a cold and didn’t want to go out to eat so we decided to get food from Whole Foods for dinner. In one of the prepared food cases, I spotted a Take and Bake GF Pepperoni Calzone. After baking for 15 minutes, I had a little calzone of tastiness! It had tons of pepperoni in it, and was the perfect portion for dinner for one.
While I was there, I checked to see if they had the Whole Foods brand frozen GF pizza crusts. They have always been our favorite to use for pizza night since it is a thicker crust and holds well with a lot of toppings. Unfortunately, they don’t. When I asked if they could order them, I was told that I would have to buy the whole case of them. I would have thought that they would want to stock the shelves with their own brand. Oh well. I guess it is a good thing that there are so many GF pizza options in Santa Barbara these days!
I wasn’t feeling too well when I woke up this morning and realized we didn’t have any cold medicine so I made my way to the CVS on the Mesa. As long as I was in the Lazy Acres parking lot, I figured I may as well pick a couple of things up. In their bakery case, they have gluten-free muffins. I went with the blueberry muffin and picked up some OJ to get some more Vitamin C in me. I also got some of their three bean vegetarian chili to go so that I would have something warm to look forward to for dinner.
I wasn’t lying when I said that Lucky’s Onion Rings made with rice flour are unbelievable. That picture doesn’t even do them justice.
Last night, we had dinner in Lucky’s bar area. I started with their special soup which had white beans, tomatoes and fennel. Then we got to the good stuff. I had the petite filet cooked medium rare. My husband and I also shared the skinny onion rings and the hashed brown potatoes with gruyére cheese.
Make sure that you request the onion rings to be prepared with rice flour as they are typically prepared with a “normal” flour. This was such a good, filling meal. As always, there was some good people watching in the bar are while we were dining.
After running some errands today, I stopped at Simply Pies to see what gluten-free things were available. In the case, there was a vegetable quiche and chocolate cream pie that looked too good to pass up. 
I cut a sliver from the quiche and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds. YUM. The crust was flaky and had a good taste. I don’t even know if I had ever had quiche before but it seems to be a nice way to add a little variety to your breakfast. And then there was the chocolate cream pie…
Oh my goodness… this pie is so good. The whipped cream dollops on top were the perfect accompaniment to the chocolate. This little place on Hollister was so cute. I guess you can order any of their pies, quiches or pot pies to be made GF at least 24 hours in advance. The apple pie looked so incredibly good (with gluten) that I think I will have to try it GF. And pot pies?! How cool is that?!
gluten-free in sb 