Gluten Free Mama

I am all, well almost all I only have a couple cups left maybe, out of my Gluten Free Mama flours and this is a very serious situation. When I stumbled upon this flour I figured I’d give it a try and so far not one thing I’ve made with it has turned out bad, it’s delicious. My mom is also in love with this flour and recommends it for bread, I still haven’t tried it with bread so I’ll have to do that soon. One bonus in my mind is that it’s a Montana company and I do love to support American and Montana made products, I justify any extra expense for them by saying “well it’s made in America”, see I’m doing my part in this economy.


Since I’m out I ran to Rosauer’s last night after work to purchase more and what do I find? They are out of all Gluten Free Mama products! I about had a fit in the aisle but I calmly hid my disappointment and searched for it down other aisles knowing I was out of luck. So I guess I’ll have to stop at the Co-op or Oak Street Market this weekend to stock up. The Co-op only carries one of these flours and I think it's the Almond Blend mix. Both of these mixes are delicious and they’re great options for when I want pre-mixed flour because I don’t feel like making my own blend. As my sweet mother put it “who has time for that crap”. Sometimes none of us do so this is a great option.

I use the Almond Blend for everything and the Coconut Blend for sweet treats like brownies and cookies. These images are straight from their website.

Montana Ale Works

This last weekend Dave and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary. It’s about two weeks early but we had to take advantage of my mom visiting and thus having a free babysitter. Dinner and a movie was our plan so we headed to Montana Ale Works to try out their gluten free pasta. We settled in at our table and inquired about GF beers, they do carry Red Bridge if that’s your thing along with a lot of wines and liquor. We started with an order of the Taos Dip for a starter and then I requested the Mac & Cheese with the GF penne. Our waitress asked if we needed the GF pasta because of an allergy and we said yes, she then informed me that she didn’t think the Mac & Cheese sauce was GF because of one of the cheeses. I asked if it had blue cheese in it and she said she’d have to check with the kitchen. She also added that their chips, like the ones with our ordered Taos Dip, are prepared in the same bin as the calamari so there is a cross contamination possibility. We cancelled the appetizer at this point. Dave then orders the Chicken Gorgonzola with the GF penne and again she told us that dish isn’t able to be GF either because of the sauce and she went to the kitchen to inquire for us. It turns out the GF Mac & Cheese is served with bread crumbs on top of it and she didn’t offer the option of not having the crumbs on top. They believe the gorgonzola contains gluten though I question this because most blue and gorgonzola cheeses are no longer made using wheat or barley. They also prepare the gorgonzola sauce using a Rous that makes it not gluten free. Dave opted for the salmon and I had the spinach salad, both GF and delicious though we were disappointed we weren’t able to try the GF pasta. I plan to e-mail Montana Ale Works to suggest they work on offering their pasta dishes as true GF options, otherwise why even bother with the GF pasta? The people they attract due to the GF penne can’t even enjoy it. I do want to give our waitress kudos, she was very knowledgeable and double checked everything with the kitchen and you can’t get better than that. Oh wait, yes you can, it comes with GF penne. Sorry there aren’t any pictures of our meal but I will recommend the Four Sisters Shiraz.