My friend's and I do this little thing called "Wolfpack Mondays," which started off as a singular evening of cheese and bread to celebrate a dear friend and to commiserate with a rather unfair rejection. Given, we are all seniors, the urge for nostalgia and friendship formed Wolfpack Mondays. It's actually quite a nice little tradition, though like all college extra-curriculars, its fallen a bit by the wayside during the midterms/ahhh I have to deal with real life things. And honestly, I'm mildly a sucker for waxing in exclusivity when it comes to friends. Which is a rather poor combination when your negative personality (as demonstrated just now) tends to make forming great friends a rather uphill battle. But hey, the most negative people are often the most idealistic because they hold such high expectations about the world right? But anyways, I've been trying to make Wolfpack Mondays into an excuse for me to make food night. It's been a bit of a hit/miss. On one had, I did manage to make oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies. But on the other hand, the attempt to make Nilla Wafer ice cream sandwiches with sliced strawberries ended up becoming an eat Nilla Wafers and strawberries party when the ice cream turned out too be a bit too goopy for forming structurally sound sandwiches.
Oh, btw, there are only 5 Mondays left, including commencement, for those who are wondering.
2) Gluten Free Pasta Partay
My second alternative after Monday night Nilla Wafer ice cream sandwiches were a dud was to make a little post infused with science on gluten-free pasta, what it means to be gluten intolerant, what celiac disease is exactly, and why you should not consider switching to gluten-free just because you think its healthier. On Thursday, I attended a special Pasta E Basta guest chef dining event that featured a gluten-free pasta menu (sponsored by Barilla), that included a little demo on how to make pesto and boil pasta (since that is a skill...?). Alas, since listening to an America's Test Kitchen podcast episode where they discussed the practice of taking pictures while dining out, I've been a little self-conscious of the act. Regardless of pictures or not, the pasta was really excellent. Barilla definitely gets major props for making a fine mixture of corn/rice taste and have the texture of normal wheat pasta. Plus, the macaroni and cheese they served was to die for.
But, speaking of gluten free, definitely check out the blog Science Based Medicine about gluten sensitivities (list of gluten related posts). I've also linked one of their more recent posts that gives a good overview of celiac vs. non celiac gluten sensitivities. Gluten-free is definitely a little confusing since it is both a serious disease for some, and a rather silly diet fad for others. I remember thinking that both celiac and gluten sensitivity were primarily a fad diet thing before I found out one of my childhood friends has celiac and she made me realize that there are several people out there who do suffer serious consequences from eating gluten. Celiac is actually a very specific autoimmune response to gluten that can kill you if you don't eliminate gluten from your diet. There are other non-celiac gluten intolerances that are an active area of medical research, which you can read more about in the links I have posted. Some of the fad-diet gluten-free labeling is actually detrimental to people with actual celiac because they can only tolerate a very specific parts-per-million (ppm) of gluten in foods. However, currently there isn't very strong regulation about what this ppm is, so companies looking to cash in on the gluten-free diet fad may label foods as "gluten free" when in fact they have a higher than tolerable ppm of gluten in them.
I think this post turned into just a 2x as long post rather than a short, hey look at the things I was thinking of writing about. My bad. Also, I apologize for the lack of food photos, but check out my tumblr on the left side bar if you ever need to stare at food pictures. Or you know, go to foodgawker.
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