Tavolino at Patriot's Place, Foxboro, MA

My first visit to Tavolino was during my bachelorette party. My sisters found out that they make gluten free pizza and have a gluten free menu. I was impressed with the pizza enough to return the other night and to share a few slices with my GF brother.

Tavolino has a good sized GF menu, including around 15 different pizzas. It's a thin crust style, but is there every a non-thin-crust if it's GF? We sampled three different pies: sausage with hot cherry peppers, one topped with steak tips, and a chicken & broccoli pizza. The chicken & broccoli pizza is my absolute favorite. It has this luscious garlic cream sauce that compliments the toppings. My brother preferred his sausage and hot cherry pepper pizza, which I must say was a winner. I think the brother & I both concurred that the steak was the least favorite; that being said, proxy glutard loved the steak pizza.

I'd like to head back and try their chicken pasta dish.  I definitely will be back to try out many things on their menu....maybe even during the remaining patio dining season.

For around $11 per GF pizza (no upcharge!), this is a solid date night place or just a great place to have good pizza with your brother. 4 stars from Yelle. 

Stuffed Portobello Heaven

Those people over at Food & Wine Magazine sure know what they are doing. There's a fabulous recipe that I made for dinner tonight (Click for Recipe). It's a fabulous, light recipe with lots of flavor...and it's GF without any substitutions. Proxy Glutard (aka my husband, who isn't GF, but eats that way out of solidarity) loved it. I'd recommend saving this one for a night that's spent on the grill or when it's not already 85 and the height of humidity, but still, I'm glad I tried this out today.

I tweaked the recipe just slightly: While I mixed in the cheese as instructed, I sliced some more cheddar very thinly and topped the giant mushrooms with them, for extra flavor. Additionally, I salted the onions and spinach while cooking in the frying pan - I'm a big believer in layering the flavors as I cook, even when the recipe doesn't call for it. I just used a lighter hand with the salt at the end (barely used any) since it was already there in the different components.

I'm a bit obsessed with cilantro right now. It happens every summer. Though there's no shortage of this wonderous herb in my cooking during the three other seasons, I cannot get enough of it in the summer. This past weekend was filled with a wonderful Yelle original salad/salsa which included black beans, mangoes, sugar snap peas...and lots of cilantro. Seriously, it's a good thing there's no issues with consuming massive amount of this flavorful stuff.

High five for the stuffed portobellos. Good work Food & Wine people - keep it up.