Heidi Watson is the group organizer / contact person.  Kudos to her for getting the local support group started!  I enjoyed the meeting agenda.  I especially enjoyed the meeting’s inclusion of two local business owners: Natures Pantry Owner and Corrinado’s Pizza Owner. I have been to Natures Pantry a few times before, but it was nice to hear from the owner about some of the efforts she was taking to make it easier to find gluten-free products in her store.   I have heard of Corrinado’s Pizza before from friends, but never actually tried their pizza.  Well, the owner brought 3 of his pizzas for sampling by the group and they were very good.  He also explained in great detail the efforts that his staff goes through to ensure that their gluten-free pizzas are not contaminated.  Bravo to him and his staff for making this comfort food gluten free for the local community!  Casey and I will definitely have to stop there sometime and get a pizza when we are in a rush.

The group is very friendly and social which made for great discussions about all things celiac related.  I was especially interested to hear about doctor issues that almost everyone in the group had experienced.  The fact that most doctors just don’t have any experience when it comes to celiac disease.  This brought back the memories of Casey’s horrible dietician experience.

I am looking forward to the next meeting and hope that Casey can also attend.  I think I will also make something delicious for the group to enjoy at the next meeting since they seemed very excited about some of the foods I have made for Casey.

For those of you that were in the meeting and happen to visit my site, here are a few of our favorites:

• regular pasta – Instead use a gluten-free pasta of your choice (I prefer Dr. Schar’s Gluten-Free Penne pasta, available at Wegmans, Celiac.com).
• regular all-purpose flour - Instead use a general gluten-free mix (I actually use the brown rice flour mix from “Gluten-Free Baking Classic” ).