Molasses Spice Cookies and some reviews

Well, this past weekend certainly made up for the last one!! We had a great weekend, on top of AWESOME weather it was filled with delicious food!! Friday night Dan's parents were in town and took us to Davio's in downtown Boston, where they have a huge GF menu. I had roasted chicken with some spinach, yum!!

Saturday we hit Wagamama in Harvard Square, we've been here a few times and they always send the manager over to explain everything I can eat and take my order specially. Very tasty! After Wagamama we headed to Davis Sq in Somerville to try out KickAss Cupcakes, where they serve GF cupcakes!! Review coming soon in a separate post...

The biggest surprise was an awesome brunch spot in Boston, on Newbury Street. The Other Side Cafe, located west of Mass Ave on Newbury, was a gem. We were meeting up with Derek who was in town from California for a few days. Our other friend Jen T choose The Other Side to meet, citing great experiences and food there. I am very wary of brunch places, so I packed my purse with some fruit and bars just in case. But lo and behold.... they had a little line on their big menu stating "Ask about our Gluten/Wheat Free and Vegan Menus". Whoopiiieeee!! Had myself a nice little brunch there :). Although the music was a little loud for brunch, it was a fun place to eat. And the nicest part was that they didn't force a check on us as soon as we put our forks down. They let us sit and hang out as long as we wanted, and only brought the check when we asked for it. Love it! Will definitely be going back.

On Sunday, Dan and I did some serious cooking! We had a little bit of a Meat Share backup. So we cooked up 5lbs of sausage (!!!), 1lb of ground lamb, and 2lbs of pork shoulder!! That should cover our lunches and dinners all week, and then some :)

Soon I'll post recipes for some of that. But for now, I will just leave you with these perfect-for-fall Molasses Spice Cookies. Mmmmmmm...






Dan's preferred method of consumption:

Molasses Spice Cookies, from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients
1/3 cup granulated sugar (about 2 1/2 ounces), plus 1/2 cup for dipping
2 1/4 cups flour or GF flour substitute (I use Better Batter, you can order online)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup molasses, light or dark

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1/2 cup sugar for dipping in 8- or 9-inch cake pan.

2. Whisk flour, baking soda, spices, and salt in medium bowl until thoroughly combined; set aside.

3. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter with brown and granulated sugars at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add yolk and vanilla; increase speed to medium and beat until incorporated, about 20 seconds. Reduce speed to medium-low and add molasses; beat until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to lowest setting; add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl down once. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at bottom. Dough will be soft.

4. Using tablespoon measure, scoop heaping tablespoon of dough and roll between palms into 1 1/2-inch ball; drop ball into cake pan with sugar and repeat to form about 4 balls. Toss balls in sugar to coat and set on prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are browned, still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), about 11 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Do not overbake.

5. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes, then use wide metal spatula to transfer cookies to wire rack; cool cookies to room temperature and serve. (Can be stored at room temperature in airtight container or zipper-lock plastic bag up to 5 days.)

The hard part

I had a great weekend, but a much less celiac victorious one than last weekend (surprising, considering I was in nowhere New Hampshire last week, no?)

Friday night, Dan and I met some friends at Tommy Doyle's in Kendall Square. Pub type restaurants don't seem friendly to the gluten-free, so I ate beforehand. Which is good, because when I asked whether they could accommodate a gluten-free meal (just out of curiosity of course, not out of the desire for more food... um... yeah), our waitress said "um, no, I don't think we can". And then she walked off. There was no "let me ask the chef" or "let's take a look". I am always appreciative and pleasantly surprised when I find out that a restaurant either has gluten-free options or is willing to accommodate. So why did I find this so upsetting? It probably didn't help that I'd had a rough week at work and was pretty tired (could you please at least bring me my glass of wine a little faster??). Supposedly 1% of the population has Celiac disease, which between Boston and Cambridge alone means about 7,000 people. I don't expect every restaurant to be safe for us, but I guess with so many affected people I think that a restaurant should be aware of the problem and maybe a little more polite about it. But maybe that is just too much to ask.

On Sunday we went to Cape Cod for the day to celebrate my Grandmother's 95th birthday (wow, I hope I got the age gene from you, Grandma). When we arrived at the house, there was a big old box of meltaways sitting open on the counter. Do you know what a meltaway is? Well, let me show you.



Besides being all chewy, gooey, and melty, they smell darn good too. Now I know I am not supposed to be eating things like this anyway, you know what with the core and all, but for some reason it's just worse knowing that I couldn't cheat if I wanted to. So I sat in the living room with 7 other people happily munching away on these bad boys... and I ate a few pieces of fruit instead. So there.

Later we went for lunch at the Wayside Inn, which was fine. I got the spinach salad with chicken. The waitress checked with the chef to make sure the chicken wasn't marinated in anything bad. She was helpful and friendly. The food? Well, it was a spinach salad with cold chicken. Enough said.

To end the day, the group headed to the Chatham Candy Manor, which makes THE BEST fudge in the world. Bolt statement, I know... but really, this place rocks. It's been a summer staple for as long as I can remember. Summer trip to Chatham always meant a stop (or five) at the Candy Manor.
They have a little statement on gluten that you can read upon request, and while they list a few "these should be safe" items, they also clearly state that all of their chocolate uses shared equipment and they don't guarantee anything. Damn oreo fudge, you ruin it for everyone. I'm sad that this chocolate haven is a no-no for me from now on. At least I had a delicious Clif Twisted Fruit snack to satisfy my sweet craving.

That's all for now, less whining and more real recipes coming soon, I promise :)

Racing and Fueling with Celiac (photos added!!)

On Sunday I had my first major race with Celiac Disease, it was a half ironman triathlon in New Hampshire. I had to switch up a lot of my carb loading, race fueling, and recovery food after I learned about my gluten problem, and this was the first time racing long distance with my new nutrition plan. I was nervous about this to say the least!! Besides the race day fueling, I wasn't sure if I would find the right stuff to eat for the 2 days leading up to the race since I was staying in a hotel and wasn't going to have access to a kitchen.

But hot dog, I found some good stuff!

Friday night called for a BIG dinner. I actually found an italian restaurant near our hotel with GF pasta, Fratello's, but they were packed to the brim with other athletes in town and the wait was way too long. So we headed over to Uno's, where they have a nice little GF menu. I had grilled rosemary chicken with rice and mashed potatoes. Yummmm!

Saturday morning means PANCAKES!! I was SO PSYCHED to find Heritage Farms Pancake House. It was incredible. They were an adorable little pancake place in the middle of nowhere. They had a great menu of pancake flavors and even let everyone choose 2 different types! For me, they had GF pancakes.... and they would even let me customize them!! I could have any of the flavors I wanted, and they would make them from scratch with a GF base. Wow. I was boring and went with chocolate chip, I was afraid something fun like pumpkin would cause some undesirable side effects on race morning :). Anyway, these pancakes were amazing. They didn't taste GF! And Tony of babyfelos even said his (non GF) pancakes were the best he'd ever had! I can't wait for a reason to be able to stop by this place again.

Heritage Farm (how CUTE is this place??):

My awesome GF pancakes:

Breakfast gang, minus Brian who was taking the photo:

The rest of the day I snacked on GF Rice Chex cereal, rice cakes, GF crackers, Tapioca Bread, and baked chips. For dinner we went back to Uno's and I had basically the same thing as Friday night, minus the rice. Not supposed to eat too much for this meal.

Race morning, I had my usual breakfast: lots o applesauce, a banana, a bottle of sports drink, and a protein shake. I had to switch my sports drink from PowerBar to Gatorade, as PowerBar drinks are not safe. I was lazy and had purchased one of the regular Gatorade bottles from the store, the purple kind, and it gave me heartburn for a little while. Next time I'll use the performance powder like I should have done!

Throughout the race, I ate Hammer Bars (chocolate chip are DELICIOUS!!) and PowerBar gels (double latte with 2x caffeine) on the bike, and Clif Shot Bloks on the run. Luckily this race offered Gatorate drinks on the course, so it was safe to drink from the aid stations. Otherwise I would have had to stick with water or bring more of my own drink mix (annoying!!).

For recovery food, I brought Hammer Recoverite since that has been working for me, but I completely forgot to have it after the race was over. Instead, I had some fruit, a Hammer Bar, and later some homemade GF peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that I had baked at home before heading to NH. They were delicious, I'll share the recipe soon.

And finally, we stopped (AGAIN) at Uno's on the way home where I had their GF pizza. So far, it's my favorite! Yum!!!

All in all, it was a great weekend and an amazing race for me. I can't even tell you how much better I am feeling these days! It was a PR for me by about 20 minutes!!!

Kudos to Kim and Tony for their great races too!!

Oh, in case you are wondering... I've abandoned the SCD diet. I will for sure still use their recipes, but it's just way to overwhelming right now. Regular old GF dieting seems to be working just fine.

The endoscopy

Ok, so normally I don't write about personal stuff on here. But, this relates to Celiac Disease, which directly affects my cooking (and eating...). And I've been getting a bunch of questions about it, so figured this would be the easiest way to share!

For those that don't know, there are a few ways to determine whether you have Celiac disease, but the only true way to tell is through a biopsy of the small intestine tissue. The reaction to gluten in Celiac patients damages the villi lining the small intestine. A blood test can determine whether your body produces a high level of the anti-tTG antibody and tell you that you PROBABLY have celiac, but only the biopsy can tell for certain. For this, they send a endoscope down your throat, through your stomach, and take a look at the small intestines.

So, after almost 2 months on a gluten-free diet, I was told to start eating gluten again to prepare for the biopsy. I was a little annoyed at the whole process, but oh well. I certainly got my fill of gluten products during the past month.

I was not looking forward to the biopsy. I had to fast for at least 6 hours with no water for the last 3 hours, and since it was scheduled for 3pm on a Wednesday, that meant 6 hours at work without food. Me without food = grumpy. Me without water = very thirsty and uncomfortable. Turns out (annoying fasting aside), that the whole experience was kind of fun. Getting wheeled around on a gurney, being hooked up to all kinds of machines... cool! I've never had anything like this done, closest thing would be getting my wisdom teeth yanked. But that doesn't count because I was in a dentist chair.

I was not going to be allowed to get myself home after the biopsy, so I had to arrange for someone to pick me up. Hello, Dan!! I drove myself to the office and parked the car, Dan would ride his bike over later. I knew I'd be given some intravenous sedation, and didn't know how out-of-it I would be after the procedure, so I texted Dan to let him know where the car was parked.

After getting checked in, I was quickly called back. An awesome nurse brought me to a hospital-y looking area with lots of beds. She told me to change into a gown and get on the wheely bed. After I did so, she started to take my vitals. A funny exchange while she was doing so:

nurse: "huh"
me: "what do you mean, huh??"
nurse: "are you a runner or something?"
me: "yes" (amongst other things)
nurse: "oh okay, phew"
me: "why??"
nurse: "your heart rate is just really low. lower than we're used to seeing. but that's okay, it means your heart is very efficient"

I would notice later that the monitor kept flashing red and beeping anytime my HR dropped below 50, which it kept doing (I was lying down!!).

After she finished and hooked me up to an IV, another nurse came to wheel me into the procedure room. I was very impressed how she was able to get that big bed around the narrow hallways so easily.

Once I was in there, they started to hook me up to more machines. They put 2 sticky monitor thingies on my chest and one on my side. They put a clip on my finger and oxygen in my nose. They sprayed the back of my throat with a gross foamy local anesthetic. Twice. After chatting with my super spunky and awesome GI doctor (thanks for the recommendation Nancy!!), a tiny little Romanian lady with crazy hair and clacky high heels, it was time to get started. The nurse who was assisting told me that she was going to start me on the sedatives, and that I'd feel the effects pretty quickly. And that I did! Weeeee!

After that... I don't remember much. At all. I vaguely remember them putting something in my mouth, to hold it open. I remember them telling me to roll on my side. And then, I remember starting to open my eyes, I was back in the staging area with all the beds, and I could see a bunch of nurses at the desk. I remember closing my eyes quickly, because I was really tired and I thought that if they saw me waking up they'd make me leave. I don't know how much time passed. Finally a nurse came and brought me some water and juice... shortly afterwards they brought me to go find Dan.

I don't even remember too much once they handed me over to Dan, I was way out of it! Good thing I told him where the car was :)

I don't have the results back yet, but the discharge form they handed me told me they took a biopsy, and that I need to go back on a gluten-free diet right away. Dan I and I decided to head out for dinner, for one last bread-filled dinner! We ended up at Bertucci's, the perfect place for the last meal ;)

Check out some photos they took while they were in there! Cool!

Gluten friendly restaurants

I just wanted to write a quick post about gluten-free restaurants. As I keep telling people, avoiding gluten-filled foods like pasta, bread, etc is really not the problem. That is the easy part. The hard part is dealing with cross-contamination, like when a cook stirs a bucket of rice with the spoon she has been using to stir the pasta. Or when she throws your eggs onto a griddle where they also cook pancakes. Also, a piece of grilled chicken is always suspect... soy sauce is a no-no and is unfortunately a very common marinade. It's very hard to know what is going on behind the scenes in a restaurant, which can make eating out difficult for the gluten-free.

There are a few websites like this one that list gluten-free restaurants in the area (scroll to the bottom). Many of these places have a special menu, a statement, a promise, etc- something to let you know that they will keep your food in a special area and that it won't come in contact with foods/pots/pans/bowls/utensils containing gluten.

So far, I've been very impressed with: Legal Seafoods, The Elephant Walk, Stone Hearth Pizza (yes, GF pizza!!).

I also just found out that Boloco is gluten-friendly. Before I found out I have Celiac I used to order a BYO burrito bowl (with just chicken, salsa, broccoli, and pinto beans) all of the time for lunch. I used their website to determine that all of those things are still safe for me(their chicken has no bad marinades). But on top of that, when I was ordering at the restaurant I mentioned being gluten-free and the woman at the register yelled for everyone to change their gloves. Awesome! I read online that Chipotle has a similar policy.

I also had some good experiences on Cape Cod over the 4th of July weekend- BZs Pizza in Dennisport was amazing- Dan even loved it so much he asked to go back the next day! Chatham Bars Inn was very accommodating- we called ahead and alerted them I would be coming for dinner. The chef called me back and told me to identify myself when I arrived and have my server help me pick out something that he could make GF.

I was very excited to find a breakfast joint up in NH where I can safely carbo load for a half ironman I am doing up there in a few weeks. Breakfast is by far the hardest meal to eat out since it is dominated by carbs in most restaurants, and I was really worried about how I would get in my usual day-before pancakes. So far this summer I've been able to make GF pancakes at home. But I'll be spending a few days up in NH for Timberman with no access to a kitchen. Heritage House offers gluten-free pancakes... SWEET!! Can't wait!

I'll keep posting on good GF places I find!

Meat is back on the menu!

So, I am planning on posting more "real" food recipes. But before I start that, I wanted to write a little bit about meat.

Up until the fall of 2008, I hadn't eaten any red meat for 8 years. When I was younger, hamburgers were probably my favorite meal. But during my first semester of freshman year in college, I read "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. That book changed the way I thought about meat. From what I understood of the book (keep in mind this was a long time ago, my memory is a little foggy and my then-freshman brain was programmed to read the assignment as fast as possible), meatpacking plants had become sloppy and dangerous places to work. The priority had become quantity, not quality. Poor conditions and unskilled workers compounded the problem, and the result was tainted meat. The book boiled it down to one particular line which made my stomach churn and caused me to go cold-turkey on beef: "There is shit in the meat."

Being the germ-o-phobe that I am, I stuck with my conviction and didn't eat a drop of beef for years. I wasn't even tempted. However, my friend Grace recently told me about local farmers who raise their own animals on their own farms, and then sell the meat to their supporters. The animals are raised to be all-natural, grass-fed, happy creatures. Grace found one farm in particular, Chestnut Farm, which seemed great. Besides the fact that the grass-fed animals are a million times healthier for you than hormone-injected/corn-fed ones (read this about how grassfed beef has only a tiny bit more fat than commercial chicken!), the meatpacking process seems a lot more controlled and healthy. I'll take it! I signed right up and have been getting 10 pounds of meat a month since the fall. We get a mix of beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, and ham/pork depending on the month. Let me tell you that first bite of beef was hard... and I started slow... but now I am loving it. Sometimes we get a weird cut that I don't know what to do with, like a tiny pack of ribs, but I figure one of these days we'll just throw it all in the crockpot.

I made two small legs of lamb over the weekend, post coming soon!

Where to begin?

I've just discovered the world of baking blogs. I was looking for something fabulous to bake for my little sister's birthday. I don't remember how I stumbled across it, but here is what I found: http://thecrepesofwrath.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/filbert-gateau-with-praline-buttercream/. Um, wow.

I discovered that this incredible looking cake was the result of a Daring Bakers Challenge. Baking challenge??!! Endless blogs on baking??!! I was instantly intrigued. I combed through some of the other Daring Bakers' blogs, and I found some really great stuff. I love baking, always have. I remember back to my first solo attempt at baking in middle school. I made chocolate chip cookies out of a kids cookbook, which is probably still sitting in the cookbook rack at my mom's house. I've been cooking ever since! I love to cook pretty much anything (except seafood, blech), but baking is my specialty... and I love a challenge.

So, my goal with this blog is to challenge myself and to share my favorite recipes! I will try out recipes from other baking blogs, hopefully take part in Daring Bakers Challenges, and post my favorite recipes from over the years. It will mostly be baked goods, although you might see the occasional savory recipe as well! I've always toyed with the idea of leaving my comfortable, safe desk job to open my own bakery. I hope this can be my outlet for cooking, since such a dramatic career change would be unwise in our current economy.

Oh... if you are wondering about the blog name, my other hobby is triathlons. I've been competing in this sport for a few years now. I started competitive swimming young, took up running in high school, and in 2006 decided that biking wouldn't be too much of a stretch. After my first triathlon, Mooseman International, I was hooked. I've done several more races since then, including an Ironman at Lake Placid in July of 2008. Ironman was an incredible experience, but the training left little to no time for my other passions. So, I am back to shorter distances and a fuller life!

Most endurance athletes would consider baking a no-no (including my coaches). Low bodyfat and all that nonsense. I do strive to eat very well for the most part, however I allow room for splurging. Lean meats, fruits, veggies, and nuts make up my base diet. But I squeak in some goodies every now and then, especially when baking! I am able to keep it in balance. Everything in moderation... and 10-15 hours a week of triathlon training helps.

First post will be a review on that yummy Filbert Gateau!!