Reload

Millet, you are one thirsty grain! My new favourite weekend breakfast, and a brilliant substitute for anyone on the fence about oats. Toasted slightly to lend a wonderully smoked, nutty flavour, and then simmered in a 3:1 ratio of liquid to grains. I certainly don't have the patience to keep a mindful eye on the stove top for half an hour on a week day; it's amazing enough that I (aim to) make it out for three 5K runs at 6:00 a.m during the week. But I take the time over the weekend as it's effectively filling after a long run, being high in energy and iron. I'm probably not hydrating properly if the millet is drinking up more than I am.

Next step: brewing with millet!

Americana

A 12 mould mini doughnut tray has proved to be investment of the season! There is a bit of a production line feel to making mini doughnuts: dispense, bake, butter, roll in sugar, repeat. Take 1 was gluten-free cider doughnuts using reduced cloudy, pressed apple juice. The recipe used generated a staggering 4 dozen mini-doughnuts so they were unleashed onto colleagues and quite a hit. It'll be an asset for the fundraising.

#Glutenfree cider doughnuts

While my appetite for savoury, spicy, and aromatic foods trounces my sweet tooth, attempt two will be to make something without cinnamon to cater to the odd few who have an aversion to the spice. Vanilla buttermilk with a frosting of some sort, I'm thinking, which in turn means I'm thinking of icing sugar on every imagineable surface.

The half to the whole

With the Ealing Half Marathon under my belt, I feel confident about the 26.2 mile run in Brighton. The Ealing Half was such good fun, with tremendous local support and a jaunt through quaint, somewhat rural bits of London like Perivale Park that I never quite realised were there. I ran the half at an arguably safe pace in light of the fact that it was much hotter than anyone could have hoped for but it's fun to look at the GPS data and see that the sign near the 2-mile mark before Aston Road warning of zombies behind me and safety ahead well and truly gave me a boost.

Having run the half and been quoted as uttering "I could do that again", I concede that I am aware that running a full marathon is not just a matter of adding a multiplier. The inevitable, infamous "wall" when your body is depleted of stored energy, for one, is an obstacle to prepare for, both physically and mentally. I do think the fact that I regularly consume as much as a bear going into hibernation is a good start. I've had the vague objective of hitting an average pace of 9 minute miles since I started running. I currently sit at about 10 minutes on long runs. I have been advised that focusing on the distance itself rather than time should be my motivation as a first timer so the pacing is more of a long term goal. My username holds no relation to pacing, but rather an obscure sci-fi reference and nod to a comment my sister made one night playing Rock Band. The fact that I can now use it as a drive to live up to my own name, as a runner as well as a nerd, is all the better.

Brighton Marathon 2015

I will officially be running the Brighton Marathon for Coeliac UK in 2015! A cause quite obviously dear to me, I will be raising funds to help Coeliac UK conduct research into this auto-immune disease and raise awareness in the community, food manufacturing industry, grocery stores, and commercial kitchens across the UK. In the two years since my diagnosis, I have seen impressive and reassuring developments in the manufacturing industry, with better labelling amd availability in shops but I do think there is room for improvement in the way of awareness in commercial kitchens and restaurants, which is part of what Coealiac UK strive to do.

Running the Brighton Marathon by the sea will be a great challenge. It will be nice to have a fonder memory of Brighton than the time a seagull knicked my ice cream; a right ninja it was, but I'd let my guard down. Brighton also has a wealth of gluten-free restaurants I am eager to try, and having recently watched Nick Cave's biopic 20,000 Days on Earth, in which Brighton features prominently, I have a comforting, albeit unconventional, soundtrack for the broadening training regime. On the calmer front, more gluten-free baking is on the horizon for fundraising ventures. If you'd like to donate, please do click through; you have my thanks in the form of words, sentiment and gluten-free baking samples if you so choose - provided you're within commuting distance of London, or Montreal over Christmas!

Halloween 2014

Another Halloween, another late night, science fiction picture show and a warm-up pumpkin carving session before we rocked London in Rocky Horror fancy dress. A solid 3 hour carving session. Pumpkin acquired from the new fruit and veg stand outside Canada Water station with a few pieces of fruit thrown in for free to sample. I'll be back. But that's another franchise altogether.

Life of Pie

Pie remains my pinnacle, the epitome of dessert perfection. Step aside, queen of puddings, the wildcard of a versatile pie crust can trump all.

Two of my happiest kitchen memories involve baking pies with friends. One a late night sweet potato pie in Helsinki, the other, a daytime venture to make a gluten-free lemon meringue pie in Berlin.

The sweet potato pie night was made even longer by the fact that we had forgotten to actually turn on the oven to bake the potatoes, but it is otherwise, the most foolproof recipe imagineable; 3 large baked sweet potatoes and most of a tin of sweetened condensed milk combined to the viscosity of a thick pudding, with cinnamon and nutmeg to taste for the filling, poured into a blind baked shell and baked until set and just starting to catch colour. On occasion I've also incorporated pumpkin into the potato mixture to make it a fitting addition to any Thanksgiving spread.

Gluten-Free Lemon Meringue Pie: (Stiff) peaked perfection

A good test of determination lay in the lemon meringue pie venture in that we whipped the egg whites by hand, given that the recipe we tweeked to render gluten-free was called something along the lines of "Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie" and we were certain no Grandma we know would cop out and use an electric mixer. I'm convinced years of playing Mario Party proved their worth in our display of endurance with repetitive motion. Now to hone in the fine motor skills by practicing with some Minecraft.

Knotted

Finally! A recipe that requires no real additional or unconventional steps to satisfyingly render gluten-free. That being said, it's time-consuming for something that incorporates only 3 core ingredients and a hint of seasoning.

Nevertheless I have fond memories of making gnocchi with my family; three generations, packed into a kitchen, covered in flour, rolling small bits of potato dough off the prongs of a fork, memories of my mother yelling at me for rolling them too vigourously onto the floor and/or eating them raw. Happy memories, I promise you.


Armed with her sound advice of using baking potatoes, I purchased a small gnocchi board; a ridged paddle of wood off which you roll the morcels of dough to get that ridged top on each little dumpling. It's less awkward to maneouver than a fork and while I feel the purchase is justified in its authenticity, having been procured at an Italian village street market for a mere €3, a fork would still suffice, and frankly be easier to clean. Any old gnocchi recipe, bake (don't boil!) the starchiest potatoes you can find, and substitute any all purpose gluten-free flour - one with a rice component for best results.

Add this one to the list of foods that Brits have trouble pronouncing. Hearing them butcher "mille-feuille" is also comical. Seeing them attempt to spell it, on the other hand, is shameful.