Making Tracks Round-up

This past weekend I participated – or rather waddled since I’m seven months pregnant – in the 9th annual Making Tracks for Celiacs 5K/10K. Because this was my first Making Tracks event, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. As I waited in line to register – quite a few of us registered the morning of the race -- I chatted up several veteran participants and learned that this year seemed to draw an even larger crowd than past years. One thing I noticed was the number of kids there, and the significant distances many of their families had traveled for the event.

From the results tally, it appears that more than 500 runners and walkers participated. Impressively, the Making Tracks website says over $37,000 was raised. Proceeds help support the programs at the University of Maryland’s Center for Celiac Research (several other cities also have their own 5K’s in conjunctions with Baltimore’s).

As for the race itself, I got a kick out of many of the t-shirts in support of ‘silly-yaks’ and ‘gluten-free cuties’ that I passed (or rather, that passed me). I also enjoyed checking out the Canton waterfront and Patterson Park.

But of course, my favorite part had to be all the gluten-free goodies at the end. I started with powdered doughnut holes from Celiac Specialties, then enjoyed a bagel from Against the Grain Gourmet, nibbled on a mini blueberry muffin made with Jules Gluten Free flour mix, snuck a black and white cookie from Katz’s gluten free and savored a pastry from Tenzo Artisan bakery. It was decadent and gluttonous, but I am eating for two -- something a few generous vendors noted as they gave me seconds.


See you out there next year!
Christine


Making Tracks for Celiacs: Celiacwalk.org

Some of my favorite vendors:

• celiacspecialitiesshop.com
• againstthegraingourmet.com
• Julesglutenfree.com
• Katzglutenfree.com
• tenzoartisan.com

Squished Bread?

Ok, Udi's you've won my love.  Let me share with you how we met.  It was a very warm day on May 1st in Baltimore, MD.  I was disappointed that I had been unable to attend the annual Making Tracks for Celiacs 5K in the morning, but when I was finally able to get back to my day, I headed to Whole Foods Market to stock up.  Now, up until this point, my standard bread was Whole Foods Market's Gluten Free Bakehouse's loaves. Yes, it needed to be toasted, but I was ok with that...it was good.

Being a gluten-free food finding machine, I was able to find every new gluten-free product they had in stock...and that happens to include Udi's granola (in the cereal aisle), loaves of fresh bread & bagels (with--you guessed it--the fresh bread), and cinnamon rolls (over in the bakery).  And yes, I bought all of them.  That's the confidence I have in Udi's.  Where did this confidence come from?  My tweeps on Twitter who just won't say a single negative thing about Udi's.  It was when I went to grab a loaf of bread that I realized that these people probably weren't lying.  This gluten-free bread is squishy.  Now, if there is one thing gluten-free bread buyers have never had to worry about: squished bread.  Well, Udi's, we now have that problem...and that may be the highest compliment you may receive.  (Oh, and the fact that you don't actually have to toast the bread to make it palatable.)

So, on this 91 degree day, as I unloaded my bags of groceries, I discovered that the guy who had bagged my groceries had placed something heavy on top of one of my loaves of Udi's bread, and the loaf was squished! Not crumbled, but squished... And a smile came across my face because I knew something good had entered my life.  So thank you Udi's for my new squishy gluten-free bread products.

Grano Pasta Bar (a.k.a. Little Grano)

Gluten-Free Pasta? Not cooked by me? In a restaurant?  Obviously I had to go and check it out.  So that's what I was doing on Thursday. Grano Pasta Bar is very small, probably seats about 14 total.  It's great because it's almost as though you've been allowed to come into someone's kitchen to sit down and have some great food.  The kitchen is right there on the other side of the bar, so you get to watch your food get cooked right in front of you, which is a treat in and of itself.

The menu is simple:  Choose a pasta. Choose a sauce. Done.  Want salad with that, ok -- we have a few types.  The portion size of the pasta dish is huge, so be ready for leftovers, which I'm always a fan of -- dinner and lunch the next day? It's a win.  If you want wine with dinner, bring your own, or do what we did and head down to the wine bar just down the street and end your meal there with a glass of wine and some dessert.  Brilliant.


Looking for a bigger place?  3 blocks up there's Grano on Chestnut.  Haven't been there yet, but it's on the to-do list.