I ran my first road race since April yesterday. It was the aptly named "Got Guts 5k", Austin's only race dedicated to promoting Celiac awareness. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about being a Celiac running in a Celiac race. Anyways, I show up, and the race is shaping up to being a page right out of Stuff White People Like. Awareness fliers everywhere, everyone in their special (and expensive) running gear, free celiac screenings, and even a gluten-free food fair (in other words, a specialized farmer's market). And even better - they were filming an episode of an extra yuppie cable TV show at the race. So - keep your eyes open. I may just be on television in the near future. Continuing on, the race course was quite fantastic. Though the race was advertised as a "road race", the actual course was cross country style. There was mud and grass and huge hills. It was fantastic. As the eventual race leader, I even got to follow an off-road truck. And as the race winner (yay!), I got an extra huge coffee mugs with the question "Got Guts?" strewn across it. Win win situation. The gluten-free food fair afterward was fairly interesting and fun, but I am starting to tire of all the "gluten-free" substitutes such as gluten-free pizza, gluten-free pastries, etc. They never taste as good as the real thing, and they are vastly more unhealthy. I honestly enjoy something that is naturally gluten-free more, such as a pair of green chile enchiladas. Maybe that is just me though.
On Saturday, with all the football action going on, I started to salivate at the thought of chicken wings. With a race on Sunday, I decided to postpone any cooking until yesterday evening, when I made my first attempt at gluten-free (and honestly, any kind of) baked buffalo wings. The base recipe can be found here, but I substituted the all-purpose flour with white rice flour to ensure a gluten-free feast and used Smart Balance instead of standard butter (I also found out Frank's Red Hot is gluten-free!). The resulting chicken wings were absolutely delicious, and I recommend them to anyone, Celiac or not.
Finally, I tried one of Crispin's Artisanal Reserve ciders for the first time last night. Now, since I went gluten-free back in April, I have desperately missed quality beer. Seriously, what I wouldn't do to have a glass of Chimay. Gluten-free beer has completely failed at filling any void. GF beer just doesn't cut it. I have not traditionally been a cider kind-of-guy, not being a fan of sweet drinks. However, the "artisan cider" and "cider over ice" concepts have very much interested me. Anyway, I picked up Crispin's "Honey Cider" at HEB last night and had it over a glass of ice. And let me say - I'm a convert. The cider was absolutely crisp and delicious. You could not even taste the alcohol (even though it was 6.5%!). It tasted more like a dessert wine than a beer per se, but if you are willing to try new things with an open mind, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised. I know I was.
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