Recently I went to a great GLUTEN FREE BAKERY that was opened in Cochrane, Alberta called GF Patisserie and it was fabulous!

My sister had told me about this bakery after reading Macleans Magazine in December. But with the roads so icy, and Christmas looming, I had never gotten there until now. I actually went right after Christmas but found them to be closed.

I am so, so happy I finally made it there.

They are located in the small town of Cochrane which is about 10 minutes from my house in NW Calgary. The bakery is located in a small blue house on 3rd Ave.

To find out their hours of operation, and information about GF Patisserie you can visit their website at www.gfpatisserie.com

While you are visiting this site, please click on the blog. It is called The Celiac Husband. It informs you about what is going on in the bakery and also recently, about which restaurants in Calgary carry their products.

I was so excited to be there, and had a lovely conversation with the owner about the bakery, her products, and of course being celiac. I mentioned that I had a blog on living with celiac and I hope they will be happy with my review.

In this box, I purchased a coffee cake, a lemon loaf, a brownie, and banana bread.

As you can see, I had a taste of the banana bread right away. It was moist and airy, something that is NEVER said about gluten free baking.

I also purchased a fresh loaf of flax sandwich bread and a “fresh out of the oven” flatbread. As a gluten-free baker, I have tried to bake almost everything. Bread always gives me a hard time. I want a loaf of bread that is airy, and not heavy in texture. I can promise you will be delighted with this bread.

See how light and airy this bread is?

So, one of the first things I did once I returned home was to make a sandwich. To trully test a loaf of bread you need to make a sandwich.

And again, let me tell you-FABULOUS!! I almost wept with joy. As someone, who grew up with fresh bread everyday, I really do miss it. But now, I HAVE MY SANDWICH BACK!

Since I am still trying to lose weight, and did not want to overload my calorie consumption, over the last 4 days I have been tasting the bakeries products.

The lemon loaf was delightful. The freshness of the lemon burst in my mouth.

The coffee cake, was mildly sweet, airy and with a touch of cinnamon.

The brownie, was again, not overly sweet and I loved the marbling – both in taste and texture.

Being able to make fabulous grilled cheese again is one of my favorite discoveries with the bread. I am having so much fun experimenting with different cheeses these days. Yum!

Please, if you are in the neighborhood of Calgary and in search of great gluten-free baking – make a trip to Cochrane and visit GF Patisserie.

You won’t be disappointed!

I am sure, some of you are thinking I have made a spelling mistake.. In Macarons…… Should it not be macaroons?

Actually, NO!

Macaroons are a coconut based cookie-and macarons are a French cookie. It is made with almonds. It has 2 delicate almond meringue wafers sandwiched with a luscious filling. Oh ya! Where, do you say-did I hear about macarons?

Well, as everyone who knows me well, knows,

I love Paris!

Even, just saying the word Paris, brings a smile to my face. And every time I am there I visit one of my favorite places Laduree.

It is a true Parisian gem. It is filled with delicate cookies, pastries, ice creams, and of course aromatic teas, and great meals. I have been to Paris 3 times, and every time-I make time for Laduree.

This is a close up shot of their window. Look at all those macarons stacked up-It is a joy for all my senses.

The last time I was in Paris I brought a box of macarons home.

However a dozen of these delicate cookies are not going to last for long- And unfortunately, I cannot visit Paris on a regular basis, especially not just for macarons.

So, I was pleasantly surprised after reading a blog called The Celiac Husband That a new stand had opened at the Calgary Farmers Market And it carried these delicate cookies.

I drove to the Farmers Market this weekend and picked up 6 macarons. The flavors I chose were rose water, salty caramel, framboise(raspberry) and dark chocolate.

WHAT A TREAT!!

Once I was home, I made myself a cup of tea, placed the raspberry one on a plate And took a bite.

Wow! What a joy to my taste buds it was. Crunchy on the outside and moist with a wonderful filling on the inside.

Please visit this booth at the Calgary Farmers Market-Macaron

You will not be disappointed in these gems.

And hopefully, it will remind you of Paris too!

Well, I owe all, who follow my blog, an apology.

I have not updated my blog in almost 2 weeks. Now, where was I you ask?

Sunny myself on a sandy beach?

Sorry, no. That is not my excuse.

You see my son, Cam does my blog for me. I type my blog into Word, insert all the photos I want to use, and then I forward it all to him. He then masterfully converts it all and uploads it into a blog for me.

Well, he has moved home. He had been living in Victoria, BC and now has moved back home. So, in the process of moving-he has had no time to work on it for me.

But, be assured, I have been baking and baking.

I have many good recipes to share with you and some, that didn’t work out.

Yes, this should have been seen before Christmas-but heck, baking is an all year thing!!

In fact, even though there are many, many Tupperware containers of cookies on my kitchen table, I felt like baking today.

Yes, that is silly-and yes, I did NOT bake.

Although, my other son, David-took the Tupperware container of sugar cookies down to his room today-he was tired of coming up constantly for one here and there. Yes, I have a winner recipe for sugar cookies-and I will share them with you. I have also been reviewing cookbooks lately. Trying out, others journeys into the gluten free world-and seeing if they were successful.

So, trust in this, that for the next week-there will be a new blog everyday. I have taken tons of photos and made hoards of cookies.

In fact, at 9pm right now I have a turkey in the oven. Why, again you say-do I have a turkey cooking so late? Well, my husband and I were at superstore this afternoon, picking up a few things, and they had marked down a fresh turkey to $15.

No? this is not a typo-and that is exactly why we took it home and I am now roasting it in the oven-for all of us to enjoy turkey for the next week. YUM!!

Here is my on going review of the cookbook:

“Artisanal Gluten Free Cookbook”

I have so far made only one thing from this cookbook-the Bread.

My first attempt results are still in question.

I found the dough very thick and heavy-and was questioning the results, even before I baked it.

Now, it did smell really good, and it did rise okay.

To me, all bread hot out of the oven tastes great. And this did taste good-however, I found it left me with a “sandy-almost gritty” feel after. My daughter thought it tasted good. I needed to do the next day taste test-and in this-I wasn’t sold. Again, I have only made it once-and will try it again to see, if the results are any different.

Tomorrow morning, I will make the Belgian waffles, and the cinnamon rolls and I will let you know, how these turn out.

Please stay tuned for more-and as promised the sugar cookie recipe will follow this week too.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year!

I have found that old habits are hard to break.

Such as, late in the evening I tend to want to throw some quick muffins or cookies into the oven. Before my diagnosis, I could just throw something quick together and within 20 minutes-there would be fresh baking.

Now that I am gluten free. Baking is more complicated. I have accepted that, but still sometimes, I want to be able to throw something quickly together.

So, I have been experimenting with gluten free mixes. I want to be able to throw something together quickly and have a great result.

Last night, around 8:30pm I felt like baking.

I did not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen-just wanted to whip up some quick yummies for the next day.

My sister had brought over a couple of boxed mixes the last time she was over for me to try. So I did!

The instructions were very simple-and when mixing they actually looked like regular muffins. I added mixed nuts, raisins, goji berries and some dark chocolate chips. The result was quite satisfying.

In fact, I took all the muffins to my exercise class this morning and everyone really liked them.

I was happy!

I will keep some of these boxes on hand now for my next late night baking craving. Next time though, I will add frozen blueberries-I think that would taste great!

How surprised I was when I arrived at my girlfriends house in Texas, and she showed me that she had made gluten free brownies.

She showed me that Betty Crocker now made gluten free baked goods.

Of course, I tried one-and they were DELICIOUS! Absolutely delicious! They were chocolately and gooey soft. YUM! YUM!

On the back on the box, it showed that they also made yellow cake, chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies. Haven’t tried them yet (heh, I am still trying to lose weight) but was very impressed and definitely will bring more than a few boxes back to Calgary. Brownies are one of those things that I love to have occasionally-and finding a gluten free box of them is more than okay.

Mmmm…good!

Part of the reason I decided to blog, is that I am a follower of other excellent blogs. Right now, my favorites are:

• Gluten Free Girl
• Karina’s Kitchen
• Gluten Free Gobsmacked
• Elana’s Pantry

Please check them out. They are funny at times, and also very insightful about living gluten free.

Shauna Ahern AKA Gluten Free Girl wrote a book titled: Gluten Free Girl. It was the first book I read after being diagnosed. I remember being so upset about all the foods I now couldn’t eat. And being raised German/Ukrainian- baking was second nature to me-and now-WHAT WAS I GOING TO BAKE? After reading her book-I remember being in awe-of all the wonderful foods still out there. Her description of various fruits and cheese made my mouth water. She made me feel, like I could survive this new road I was on.

I will never forget when Shauna posted a recipe for oatmeal cookie. I bought all the ingredients and followed her recipe. Now first let me tell you I never measure-I was taught how to cook, by just eyeballing everything.

A piece of advice-you HAVE TO MEASURE in gluten free cooking. Things will NOT turn out. I guarantee that.

Anyhow, I made those cookies-and I have to tell you I felt like I had come home. I used to bake all the time for my family, and did not know, how, I was going to continue doing that. The cookies were fantastic-in fact-they tasted just like all the other oatmeal cookies I used to make. I was me again That is what these blogs have done for me-they have given me the sense of normality-which, when you are gluten free-you feel you do not have.

The banana bread that is on the Gobsmacked blog-is unbelievable-in fact, I think it is better than the one I used to make with wheat.

On the blog Elana’s Pantry Elana recently wrote a cookbook called “The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook”. I am currently baking my way through this cookbook-and have found some recipes delightful.

On Saturday I went to the farmers market and picked up some sugar pumpkins for thanksgiving. That afternoon I roasted the pumpkin and made pumpkin pie. I followed Elana’s recipe for almond pastry (in her book), and was happy with the results. Next time I will cover the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil-for mine was a little too dark for me. But I took that pie to Lethbridge on Sunday to visit my mom and stepfather. My mom enjoyed the pie-and also liked the crust. To me-that is always a success. Share a normal thing like pumpkin pie with family and have all enjoy it-NO one is left out. YAH!

Another reason, I wanted to start blogging was that I found a lot of the sites I visit are mostly American-have not found a Canadian one. Sometimes, the ingredients listed for recipes are not available here. For example- Karina recently posted a recipe for green chile. She describes the abundance of green chilies available this time of year in New Mexico-and then described many different uses in recipes with them.

Well-here is sunny Calgary Alberta-we do not see a lot of green chilies-in fact I have never really seen any here. Now, I enjoyed looking at the recipes and they all sounded delicious-but after going to my local farmers market this past week-and finding NO green chilies available-I realized maybe other gluten free readers-were not able to get green chilies either. I needed to find recipes and ingredients available for people like me. Thus, why I am blogging.

So, please, I ask you-if you are looking for a recipe, have questions regarding being gluten free, want to share your gluten free recipes, or your valuable information regarding being gluten free, please let me know in the comment section below. If I do not have the answer I will get it.