Memorial Day Weekend

First, to all the families of all the service personnel who gave their lives for our freedoms, thank you. The debt citizens owe them cannot be paid.  This weekend is more than just the unofficial kick off to Summer.  The day is for acknowledging and remembering all those men and women who gave their lives because their country asked them to go and risk it all.

Despite the solemnity of the holiday, the long weekend is a time to get together with family and friends.  It is a time to relax and fire up the grill.  Like so many other families that's what mine did.  We drove down to Cape Cod, right to a really nice cottage next to the sea, and joined family for a bar-b-que.  This almost didn't happen.  Grilling has its pitfalls for the gluten intolerant, or any food sensitivity.  Unless you read labels carefully you can't be too sure what goes into your hamburger or hot dog.  Then, of course, there are the buns.  I will probably do a product review posting of bread very soon, yet on this occasion it was not a worry. The extended family went out of their way to be gluten free.

Some of the guys didn't notice, even though I'm sure there would have been some grumbles had gluten free been common knowledge.  As an aside, lots of hot dogs, sausages, and BubbaBurgers are gluten free.  It's the bread that kills you.  But I digress, steak tips and chicken grill very well.  The marinades were selected to be dietarily compliant.  Another digression - sauces and marinades can have gluten related stuff in them.  Read the labels.  Soy sauce, for example, is made from wheat and is often used to give a little salty tang to sauces.  The same goes for salad dressings.  Simple oil and vinegar gets boring.  Ken's Steakhouse brands are almost all gluten free, but again, remember to check the labels.

Back to the story, we had a great time hanging out by the water, eating lots of good food.  The adult beverages were fine.  Stella Artois is basically gluten free thanks to the brewing process (it's not labeled as such so if you are very sensitive or have Celiac's stick to stuff specifically labeled gluten free) and some flavors of Mike's Hard Lemonade is processed to be gluten free.  It was hard to go wrong with steak, chicken and roasted asparagus.  The kids tossed the Nerf football around, and I never knew nine year olds would enjoy croquet so much.

I am very grateful to my girlfriend's family for making an amazing bar-b-que that really accommodated our diets.  It was very thoughtful, and was not hard to do.  We brought down a dessert that went over very well, an apple pie from The Maine Pie Co that is gluten free.  And if they didn't tell you it was gluten free you would never guess it.  It's great.

Hope everyones' Summer started off just as well.  Looking forward to a wonderful Summer with all the good food I want and expect, but still in a way that will keep me healthy.