I couldn't believe it when I saw it, but St. Dalfour's makes a kumquat marmelade. It's completely compliant for nonnie Os. I bought some up, but now realize that I no longer know what to put it on! There's not a rice cake in my house, maybe I'll go buy some.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Sambazon makes an acerola juice drink that doesn't have any citric acid/ascorbic acid or other additives. It does have sugar in it (cane juice), but I thought it was notable to find something like it without flavorings or additives added, it's flavored with a little ginger juice...nothing extra. Hooray! Despite the sugar, I have tried it, and it tastes a bit like Sunny Delight...which I never liked because it's junk, but I do like this, and it's not junk, it's pure and simple.

My use of calcium citrate may be biting me now, as my scalp is consistently goose-egged these days. It may be a detox reaction. I had a massage on my birthday, and she said afterward to drink lots of water because I may detox and get sore spots. I hadn't been drinking enough already, and later in the day it really flared up even though I didn't eat anything that normally bugs me. Then I noticed some talk of calcium citrate on a corn allergy group, and that it is made with citric acid, and thought "D'oh!" I now take only clearcal and phytocal. I imagine it may take a good deal of detoxing to get the remainder of the citric acid out of my system...if that is how it is. All the corn derivatives that I react to are fermented corn derivatives, so, where it stands now, I need to really avoid those... corn alcohols in natural flavorings, citric acid, corn-derived ascorbic acid, xanthan gum, to name a few.

I'll see my endocrinologist tomorrow, I imagine he'll give me more vitamin Ds to take, since once I ran out I started getting occasional mild symptoms again. He'll look over my thyroid and such as well, and see if anything else needs tuned up.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Hope you all had a good Valentine's day!

Yes, I did have cake too, but I was almost more excited about a salad I found at a restaurant on my birthday. We went for a day in the city, and hit a few restaurants and shops. I bought two new pairs of shoes, which is highly unusual for me to shop for shoes and find any that fit...then I wear them so long that they fall apart.

We went to Biaggi's, where they serve gluten free pasta, and I indulged on a little goat cheese with my pasta, which was lovely and I actually didn't suffer from it just this once. Then we went shopping and caught a movie, then went to PF Chang's for their gluten free chocolate dome, which I'd wanted to try since they added it to the GF menu. From there we went across the street to a new pizzeria that serves authentic pizza, like they serve in Naples. What on earth is a celiac doing going to a pizza restaurant on her birthday, you ask? They just opened and my husband can't get within a block of there without going in. I was full from the other food, and had my Italian restaurant standby of pellegrino to back me up. All they really do is pizza so I was surprised to see a nice simple salad on the menu, the only ingredients are arugula, lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Wow. It was really good. The server was very approachable about my wheat allergy (despite the irony of me even being there!) and made sure they were careful with the salad in the kitchen.

The world of eating out really has changed for celiacs...to be able to have a choice of restaurants with gluten free menus, and even a dessert option or two. It's great. Gluten free pizza has not arrived in Utah yet, but I have hope that someday it will. Arizona has it, California has it, and of course New York has it...it's just a matter of time. Of course, I'd still order some salad to go with it!

So, all in all it was a great birthday. It's rare to get away for a whole day out, and I loved it!