Yesterday was one of those days where one son had a baseball game at 6, one son had an away lacrosse game at 6:30, one daughter and her coach (my husband) had basketball practice at 7:30, one daughter was working and then staying on to work out and I had a dinner where I was giving a little speech across town at 6:30. So when my youngest walked out of the kitchen with a stack of chocolate chip cookies in his hand at 5:30, I didn’t bat an eyelid because that was the sort of dinner we were facing.
“Those are my cookies,” said the celiac. “Those are gluten-free.”
“Who cares,” said the gluten eating kid, “they taste good and I’m hungry.”
And what happened next was fairly typical of two boys ages 10 and 12, the 12 year old took off and started chasing the 10 year old for the cookies. The 10 year old took off laughing, squeezing the cookies so tightly that the chocolate chips immediately start melting all over his hands.
I was annoyed and hollered over the din of thundering footsteps, laughter and the dog barking, “just let him eat the cookies, there are plenty more in the cupboard, get your own, blah, blah blah.”
The point being, the gluten-free cookies taste good enough that the “gluten-free” part of them is not even a big deal anymore.
The New York Times featured an article on the front page of their Wednesday Dining section entitled, “Gluten-Free: Flavor Free No More” and isn’t that the truth! Food options these days are delicious and, even more wonderful, they are nutritious. I am spotting the whole grain seal on more and more gluten-free products every time I shop!
Interesting grains are replacing the nutritionally void and flavorless rice flours and starches of my gluten-free diet ten years ago. I have made everything from Molten Lava cakes to Lemon Cake with a Berry Compote for guests who have no dietary restrictions and have wowed them with my gluten-free desserts.
While chocolate chip cookies are not the pre-game meal most nutritionists would recommend, I was amused that the kid who could eat any cookie in the cupboard chose the gluten-free variety because they taste good.
