Gluten Free New Hampshire

I am visiting my in-laws in Derry, New Hampshire at the southern end of the state. After a few days here, I will be leaving the kids with their grandparents and heading to New Life Hiking Spa in Killington, Vermont, where I will hopefully be shedding a few pounds in their weight loss program.

But for now, I am on vacation and not yet officially "dieting" so I was thrilled to discover that little Londonderry, NH has a gluten free pizzeria called Julianos.

Hmmm... Derry and Londonderry. I don't really know why New England towns are named like this, but Londonderry is immediately adjacent to Derry, and the pizza place is located in Derry Plaza, which is in Londonderry, not Derry. Confusing.

Once we got there though, we knew we were in the right place -- they had written "gluten free pizza" on the windows in shoe polish, so there was no doubt. I was practically bouncing with excitement. I ordered a gluten free pizza with ham and fresh tomatoes. The tomatoes were chopped up pretty well, so they were easy to eat. Sometimes fresh tomatoes are served artistically rather than functionally and they can be hard to eat, but these were perfect. The crust was tasty and not too tough. The sauce reminded me of Sbarros pizza -- the stuff they sell by the slice in the mall. Not a fancy top-of-the-line pizza, just good old fashioned American pizza. Yummy.

Any of their toppings can be added to a gluten free crust (10 inch only), except for eggplant, hamburger, and breaded chicken. They also offer some pasta dishes: gluten free chicken, veal, or eggplant Parmesan, gluten free cheese lasagna, and either chicken pesto or broccoli in a garlic cream sauce, over gluten free ziti.

I did try their GF dessert -- cannoli, and I wasn't really impressed, but kudos to them for trying.

Fortunately for my "diet", I brought this home to my in-law's house and paired this pizza with a huge salad, so hopefully I haven't done too much damage to my weight loss plan. Also, my father-in-law placed my leftover pizza in the same box with the non-GF pizza, so I won't be over-indulging by eating leftovers tomorrow. Oh, well.

For more info on Julianos visit their website at www.julianosNH.com.

Sandy