Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Second month, second race..and some kitchen work too!

A couple of weeks ago The Mike was ill, our weekend plans were cancelled and I needed something to do, so I searched and found a 5K not all that far away (that's all relative though, isn't it?) 

I debated and debated on the gasoline for driving, the entry fee for same day registration, the fact that I  haven't been running much of late.  Then I realized, "I did a race in January, I can do this one and start the feat of at least one event each month of 2013!" THERE, I set a goal :-) 

About 300 people, young, old, all skill levels, who came out on a chilly day.  A group of about thirty were there with camo shirts on celebrating the life of someone who had passed away in December.   As we went out to the starting line, two folks in front of me were talking; the older of the two apparently had a collapsed lung injury of some sort and he said, 'I went to the doctor yesterday and he inflated the lung and told me I could race as long as I didn't "over-do" it'.  WOW.  How is that for dedication and perseverance!!

Temps were in the mid 20s. The course wasn't completely free of snow and ice, so it was a bit of a task to stay on the toes and not hit a rough patch.  The 5Ks I've usually done are an out/back or box pattern. This one was an start to out for about a kilometer, then return and run past the start to another turn, then run up a road to a turn around, then go back to the finish. . in essence, it was a two lollipop course.  I didn't really care for it.  The course did finish on a slight uphill into the parking lot which was fun. .. then you could go right into the park building, walk around the parking lot to cool down, or hang out at the finish line for others. 

I find that runners are generally open to talking to other people in an event, maybe not before a race or after the event when we're in our own little worlds about our run! Beside me at the start was a woman with 30 for 30 on her shirt (plus more). She's turning 30 this year and is striving to do at least 30 5Ks this year!  She decided against one fun race that is in our state solely because it was a 3mile/5mile event and not a true 5K.  

Race logo (photo from  Freezefest facebook page)

This same week we received our bread machine delivered so efficiently from www.amazon.com!  We haven't been eating a lot of bread in the house for a few reasons, gluten free bread is 1) generally quite a bit more expensive and 2) we've been eating meals with meats, veggies and fruit and haven't really needed bread except for occasional sandwiches.  That said, we were at dad's the previous weekend and he'd just gotten a bread machine (the same one I ordered) and it was SO GREAT to have fresh from the 'oven' bread that we realized for $75 we could either buy 15 loaves of bread this year, about one every other week, or we could buy make our own for less!    


First loaf of GF bread !  
The bread machine came with a few recipes in its instructional booklet and a few were specifically gluten free! I followed the recipe provided, and just used the three flours I use in baking rather than the ones it listed. I prefer to use Brown Rice, Tapioca (for some chewiness) and then Teff for protein/nutrition.  


Good texture and yeast holes!
This bread machine came with a 2# capacity loaf pan with two mixer blades. One can also purchase a 'split' plan from amazon where each mixer blade would be in a 1# bread area so you could theoretically make two small loafs at once (for presents, etc). 

Since The Mike's birthday came and went on a day he felt icky, he got a card and some good dinner, but nothing in the way of a cake until he was feeling better.  Sunday night he was feeling better and I made him Gluten Free On A Shoestring's Devil's Chocolate Cake Okay, I can't recall the exact name of it, but it's in her cookbook! and it's heavenly!  Since the Mike and I are trying to cut back on sweets and fats, we decided to forgo actual frosting, though this cake would be to die for if it had actual frosting on top! 



The Mike's birthday cake

I'm proud to say that 8x8 pan of cake lasted us a week!  That said, I'd recommend using a 9x9 pan when making this, it didn't overflow, but it poofed up about 1/2inch above the cake pan when baking.  As such, the lid on the pan wasn't usable for storage. 

Do you like to talk to others at races?
What is your favorite cake/dessert?