A New Favorite Restaurant

I love going out to eat, trying new restaurants, and exploring new menu items.  Now that I'm gluten free I don't have a lot of options and the ones I do have are usually chains.  While I appreciate gluten free menus like the ones at Chili's and Outback sometimes I want to eat somewhere local!  Right now my main options are both in Fayetteville, WV.  Pies and Pints is my go to for pizza.  I've blogged about it several times in the past and it's been a long time favorite...but you can't eat pizza all the time.  I think we all know the main thing missing from gluten free diets are delicious sandwiches!  They are such a convenient food...so many combinations...so delicious!  Well thanks to the Secret Sandwich Society I can now enjoy an awesome sandwich just like everyone else!

These are the best sandwiches I have ever had gluten free or not!  My entire family agrees!  The combinations are unique and always delicious!  Everything is so fresh plus it's local and organic when possible!  You don't see a lot of that in WV!

I started my meal with a fabulous spinach bisque.  So creamy and the seasonings were spot on! 

I opted for the daily special.  Roast pork, tomato chutney, fresh mozarella, and garlic aoli.  Wow...I can't even find words to describe how delicious this was!  The chutney had hints of cinnamon that really made the sandwich!  Served with potato chips and a pickle.  Both fabulous and made in house!

This may honestly be the best lunch I've ever eaten. I would eat here every single day if I could!  You don't have to get gluten free bread but if you did you probably wouldn't even notice the difference.  The bread is that good!  In addition to this sandwich I have also tried the Kennedy, the Ulysses, and the Hanibal.  All were absolutely spectacular! It's so nice when local restaurants take the time and effort to accomodate a gluten free diet!  I certainly appreciate it!  It's worth the 40 minute drive!

Valentine Goodies

Valentine's Day is a favorite in our home and for good reason!  It just so happens to be my daughter's birthday!  This year she turned 16.  Wow I feel old typing that! So instead of my husband and I doing the romantic fancy dinner, chocolates, and flowers routine we have a big family dinner.  I cook my daughter's favorite foods and a make a delicious cake.  I will save the dinner entree for a later post and just discuss the good stuff here.  Dessert!  I was perusing the blog world for ideas when I came across a recipe for a sweetheart cake roll on Eat, Live, Run. It looks so gorgeous and honestly what about chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache doesn't sound delicious?  I wasn't sure how well it would work gluten free since it is being rolled up and gluten free treats are known for being crumbly and not staying together.  I decided to go out on a limb and take a chance.  I am so glad I did.  I followed the cake directions exactly and used Gluten Free Pantry's All Purpose Flour mix.  For the frosting I decided to make my own cream cheese frosting as I think buttercream is a tad too sweet in rich desserts.  Plus I could eat my weight in cream cheese icing happily. 

Not the prettiest picture due to the wax paper but I promise it tasted fantastic.  You 100% could not tell it was gluten free.  My family kept asking if I was positive I was able to eat it!  Always a sign of successful gluten free baking! :)

After the success of the roll-up cake I decided to tackle another project I had been interested in forever.  Cake pops!  I was going to use the Betty Crocker gluten free cake mix that I thought I had...but it turned out I didn't have one.  Now I remember using it to make cupcakes on my birthday.  Ooops!  No fear...I just made a cake mix out of what I had on hand.  Worked out well because I didn't really need a 13x9 pan worth of cake.  Here is my mix for an easy cake.

Easy Vanilla Cake Mix

1/2 stick of butter softened

3/4 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup of Pamela's Gluten Free Baking Mix

1 Egg

1/2 cup milk

*This makes an 8 in. cake.  Double to make a two layer cake or a sheet cake. 

Mix butter and sugar.  Add vanilla and egg.  Stir in baking mix alternating with milk.  Mix well.  Pour into pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Longer for a bigger cake. 

To make the cake balls I added a touch of pink food coloring.  I crumbled this cake and mixed it with homemade cream cheese icing also tinted pink.  I rolled the cake into balls and inserted the lollypop sticks.  Froze the cake balls for about 30 minutes and then dipped in melted semisweet chocolate.  Roll in sprinkles and place in the fridge to harden.  I made some with sticks and some without.  A few I rolled in pink candy melts because I ran out of chocolate.  These were so good and so easy to make.  I think I will be looking for excuses to make these in the future.  They are ridiculously delicious. 

Just in case you have never made cream cheese icing here is a quick recipe.  It's the easiest thing in the world and tastes 100 times better than store bought.

1 block of Neufchatel or full fat cream cheese

1/4 to 1/2 cup of powdered sugar (depends on how sweet you like it)

2 TB milk

1 tsp of vanilla or other flavoring

1 drop of food coloring if desired

Mix all ingredients with an hand mixer until smooth and spreadable.  Add more sugar and milk if you need it sweeter or it's too thick or thin.  Easy as that! 

 

Eggs: They are what's for dinner!

All this week the only thing I've been wanting for dinner has been eggs!  I love eggs so much!  I managed to talk my husband into eating eggs three evenings this week! 

I may have thrown a little beef in there to sweeten the deal! I sometimes eat at a nearby diner and get this bunless burger with an egg, three kinds of cheese, and bacon. Sounds healthy, eh?  Well I wanted something a little leaner this week.  Lean beef, a slice of reduced fat cheddar, and a fried egg.  So delicious!  Served with a salad so I can get my veggies in! :)

This terrible picture is my favorite egg sandwich.  Toasted Udi's with a fried egg, reduced fat cheddar, and jam.  The jam sounds weird but truly it's delicious.  It's a perfect dinner and it takes about 5 minutes to make!  Win-win!

Dealing with Chipotle Withdrawl

It's no secret that I am in LOVE with Chipotle.  Sadly I am also four hours away from the nearest.  Anytime I travel I make it my mission to get a carnitas burrito bowl.  When I'm not traveling I try to make my own at home.  I use a base of brown rice and pinto or black beans. Then I top with shredded pork roast, cheese, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.  Heaven in a bowl.  This pork roast is one of my favorite meals.  So easy too! I make this in a six quart crockpot.

1 pork shoulder roast (your could probably use a loin roast but this one shreds better)
2 TB of minced garlic
1 TB cumin
1/2 lime
2 cups of water

Place roast in crockpot.  Spread garlic on top and sprinkle evenly with cumin.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Squeeze lime half over top of roast.  Pour the water around, but not over pork.  Throw the juiced lime half into the water and cook on low for 8 hours.  Shred and serve. 

Saturday I went on a shopping trip with my daughter and my best friend and her daughter. Our daughters were celebrating their February birthdays so they wanted to eat at the Olive Garden.  We stopped in for lunch and I played it safe having only a crouton-less Caesar salad.  It wasn't the best lunch ever but I wanted the girls to have a special meal.  Lucky for me on the way home I saw a little strip mall Mexican place and decided to stop in on a whim.  They had carnita soft tacos on corn tortillas.  Soooo delicious. I sprinkled them with lime juice and rolled them up with a touch of guacamole.  I can't get them off my mind, but luckily they are only an hour away! :)

In other news it's freezing cold and snowing here....again.  I am so ready for winter to end!  I think Cocoa is too!  Thanks for ignoring the random socks in this picture.

Things that you don't see everyday...

Went out for sushi,

And saw this...

What, you've never seen someone take a life-size Princess Leia cut out into a sushi restaurant? 

The best laid plans....

...Are doomed to fail.  Tonight we had a party to go to.  I was so excited that it was going to be at Chick-fila because I know I can get a safe gluten free meal there.  My go-to order is a chargrilled chicken sandwich with no bun, add provolone cheese with a side salad and a fruit cup for dessert.  However due to the fact that we are in the midst of a blizzard the restaurant decided to close early.  So the party was relocated to Pizza Hut.  Could there be a worse choice for a gluten free meal?  The worst part?  I had no time to find a suitable dinner before the party started and it seems that someone snacked on my emergency stash of Larabars!  So I had to make a cup of coffee to bring along.  Coffee helps kill my appetite for a brief spell.  It got me through the party at least!  It was worth it to see my adorable nephew so happy!

After the party I rushed home (well as much as you can rush with half a foot of snow) and made my favorite quick meal.  Scrambled eggs with bacon and cheddar.  I love breakfast food for dinner!  Luckily I had a slice of leftover bacon in the fridge so I didn't have to wait for it to fry. 

To serve with it I had a coffee protein shake.  I used the Starbucks Via in vanilla.  It has an interesting marshmallow like flavor. I find you really need to mix it with more water than called for or it is soooo bitter.  I mixed it with ice, natural vanilla protein powder, and 1/4 cup of low fat milk.  It was so foamy on top.  Really good.  I do love my coffee. 

Anyhow this goes to show that in a pinch you can make a quick, relatively healthy meal in no time...no drive thru required!

New Year, New Dishes!

Well 2010 flew past!  The older I get the faster time goes. I don't really do resolution for New Year's.  It seems like anything I say I'm going to do doesn't happen.  I think there are more important motivations to be healthy than the date on the calendar! I will say that now the holidays have passed I will be changing my diet.  I have been going out to eat, going to family dinners, and having pot lucks at work and as a result I think I've been getting a lot of gluten contamination. Pepto is making an all to frequent appearance in my life and I have just been feeling achy, rundown, and blah.  There will be a lot more whole foods being eaten at home!  Frequent dining out is just getting to be too risky.  Sad but true.  So to make meals at home more exciting I got new dishes!

My mom has used Corelle dishes my whole life and they have been dropped a thousand times and never break.  My old dishes on the other hand have suffered many casualties.  One bowl, two salad plates, and a coffee mug.  Most of the survivors are chipped.  It was definately time for new ones so I went with the most break resistant I could find.  I did have to get square plates.  I love a square plate, not sure why.  Anyhow the box says they are stylish! ;P

For the first dinner on the new dishes we are having lentil soup.  I love lentils!  I made lentils as a side dish for some Tikka Masala the other night.  I made enough so we'd have leftovers for the soup.  Here is my recipe for lentils...this would be better with a different type of lentil, but my store only has brown so that is what I use. 

Lentils

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp minced ginger

2 cups of lentils

3 cups water

1 TB tumeric

2 tsp Better than Bouillon (chicken)

2 TB garam masala

 In pan heat garlic and ginger in a bit of nonstick cooking spray.  Add lentils, water, and tumeric bring to a boil.  Add bouillon.  Reduce to simmer at medium heat and cover.  Watch and add more water if lentils are looking too dry.  Cook about 20-30 minutes.  Add garam masala and heat about 5 minutes more.  Serve.  Use leftovers in soup.

Lentil Soup

2 cups leftover lentils from above

1 box of natural chicken broth

1 cup of cooked brown basmati rice

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 cup of frozen or fresh spinach leaves

salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to pot and simmer for about 20 minutes or until ready to serve.  The lentils are pretty heavily seasoned so you don't really need to add much to flavor the soup. 

I hope everyone is having a healthy and happy New Year!  I am going to try to blog more this year since I'm a bit of a blogging slacker. 

It's the Season of Food Gifts!

I've been seeing a lot of debates on the pros and cons of food gifts.  I personally love giving food gifts for the simple reason that there are a lot of people in my life who I cannot afford to buy Christmas gifts for but who are special to me and deserve recognition.  Enter the food gift.  You can start stockpiling basics like chocolate, dried fruit, nuts, etc. in the weeks leading up to December so when the holidays are upon us you are ready to get cooking!  Before I was gluten free I often made jars of cookie, cake, and muffin mixes.  Obviously I can't do those anymore because I'm sure no one wants to make gluten free baked goods if they don't have to!  I thought about making gluten free cookies myself and handing them out but I wasn't sure how well they would be received.  Often when I eat gluten free cookies and cakes I exclaim how you can't even tell they are gluten free and I notice my husband getting a "hate to burst your bubble" look across his face! I honestly think I have been gluten free for so long that I can't really remember what foods are "supposed" to taste like. Therefore I thought it would be in everyones best interest if I made treats that were naturally gluten free!

Please pardon my craptastic picture by the way.  This ugly blob is chocolate fudge.  Naturally gluten free and almost universally loved.  I always use the same basic fudge recipe and I always mix up my add in.  This recipe I call:

Holiday Fudge

1 can nonfat sweetened condensed milk

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 shot of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup cashews

Heat milk to a slight simmer.  Stir in chocolate.  Remove from heat stir til melted.  Add Captain.  Stir til incorporated.  Fold in cranberries and cashews.  Pour into 8 in. square pan and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.  

Another option is chocolate bark.  Easy and fully customizable.  Use white, dark, or milk chocolate.  Use dried fruits, nuts, fancy sea salts, assorted crushed candies, crushed cookies, sprinkles, coconut, etc. Anything goes.  Just melt your chocolate (in this instance I used white), spread in an even layer on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with topping (I used cashews and cranberries).  Put in the fridge or freezer to harden.  Break into pieces.  Put in cute bags or boxes and distribute! 

I found these adorable boxes at the Dollar Tree.  I wrapped the fudge in foil and placed in the boxes.  Now all I have to do is give them away and hope they are enjoyed! 

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas!  

The Season's Best

Winter is a great paradox for me.  I love all the seasonal foods, the parties, buying gifts, and spending more time with family but I hate slick roads and cold weather.  This weekend we are the midst of our first real snow.  Kind of late in the year for us too.  We were spoiled by good weather too long this fall.  Hopefully it doesn't snow like it did last year.  I swear it snowed every single day for three months.  It was misery.  Enough complaining...on to the things I like this season! :)

   The best cold weather breakfast?  Cream of Rice with Eggnog and homemade cranberry sauce.  So creamy and delicious with the fabulous tartness of the cranberries.  Quick to make too.  Just cook the cream of rice with half a cup of water and half a cup of eggnog.  Then top with cranberry.  I make my cranberry sauce with orange juice and brown sugar.  Just boil the cranberries in juice til they pop, stir in brown sugar, and heat til thickened.

Last weekend we had a late Thanksgiving at my mother in law's.  My contribution was the Bisquick Impossibly Easy French Apple Pie.  Everyone raved about it.  Especially my husband.  Oddly I thought it was just okay.  I'm more of a chocolate or cheesecake dessert person though.  I will say gluten free Bisquick makes life a lot easier!  I know a lot of people enjoy mixing ten different gluten free flours together and experimenting but I am lazy and I don't have room to store all those flours so I love this mix and Pamela's mixes.

Speaking of mixes I love...Chebe.  I made the cheesy rolls for Thanksgiving and they were a hit.  Another good mix is the pizza crust.  Last night we were snowed in so I whipped up a delicious pizza.  My secret is baking the crust in my cast iron skillet. I usually go non-traditional with pizza but last night I wanted it to be like classic delivery so I just did pepperoni, mozzarella, and shaved Parmesan. I need to try making calzones with the mix soon!   

It's so nice to know that so many seasonal favorites are naturally gluten free!  Like mulled cider.  I used Honeycrisp Apple Cider and Trader Joe's mulling spices and simmered for about 20 minutes.  Then I stirred in a shot of Captain Morgan's and added a festive cinnamon stick! A great drink for a cold night.  Especially soothing when you feel under the weather.

Gluten Free Thanksgiving, Eggnog Ice cream, and a Mozaik Giveaway!

I am loving my Thanksgiving holiday!  First off I get a four day weekend which is always a great thing and I got two great dinners in as many days! :)  In my family we go to my in-law's houses on Thursday and we celebrate with my family on Friday.  This is because I'm an only child and my husband isn't so this just works better for all involved.  Dining with my husband's family is trickier because I am at their mercy as far as gluten goes.  Sadly it is never 100% safe to eat food prepared in a non-gluten free kitchen.  All it takes is a little flour or a bread crumb to drop into an otherwise safe dish and contaminate it.  Someone stirs with the wrong spoon.  Tons of room for errors.  It really depends on how sensitive you are whether or not you want to chance eating anything at all.  Yesterday I felt brave so I made a plate. For today's dinner I did a lot of the cooking.  I made sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, wild rice stuffing, chebe rolls, pumpkin cheesecake struesel bars, coconut pie and eggnog ice cream.  Basically I was in the kitchen for over 5 hours!  I love cooking so that was good with me! :)

First up was a Sweet Potato Cranberry Bake recipe I found on All Recipes.  I followed the instructions exactly except for subbing pecans.  I'm not crazy for walnuts. This was so good and different from the usual.  I LOVE cranberries and orange together.

This dessert doesn't look wonderful but it tasted heavenly!  I found this recipe on the Live Gluten Freely website and I used the Betty Crocker yellow cake mix I received from My Blog Spark to make it.  Pumpkin Stuesel Cheesecake Bars.  Everyone claimed this as their favorite dessert.  So good.  I made a second recipe from the same site and it was also very tasty.

Impossibly Easy Coconut Pie.  This uses gluten free Bisquick and it is impossibly easy.  I think I will definitely be taking this to potlucks in the future!

I made Chebe cheese rolls.  They are small but so, so good.  No one missed the gluten! They are kind of more like hush puppies than rolls in size though.

 Strangely the most popular recipe of the night is the one that all pictures of disappeared!  Well unless you count this one.  See that little black dish behind the ham?  That would be the Wild Rice, Sausage, and Apple Stuffing.  It was so delicious!  I could've eaten the whole pan, I just love rice.  I left the onion and celery out of this recipe because we don't like them.  Onions are known as the Devil's Fruit in our home.  :P    Also I used country style ground sausage instead of Italian and Lundberg's wild and brown rice blend. It was kind of like dirty rice with a granny smith apple.  So delicious!!!

Mom made the turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, and green beans.  Everything was so good! I love Thanksgiving and I was hardly deprived due to gluten issues that's for certain!

Notice the plates and silverware in this picture and the platters for the turkey and ham above?  These are all plastic ware!  My Blog Spark send me this Mozaik 8 piece place setting, serving plates, a serving bowl, and serving spoons free to try.  Mozaik is perfect for events where you want something classier than paper plates but don't want to break out the fine china.  These are durable enough to wash and reuse but inexpensive enough to be thrown away.  I am going with the wash and reuse because I'm thrifty and it's more environmentally sounds to reuse them.

Here is the smaller dessert plate.  Featuring a scoop of my eggnog ice cream!  I say it all the time but my ice cream maker has got to be the best kitchen appliance I have ever bought!!!  Ice cream is so easy to make!








EGGNOG ICE CREAM

1 cup of low fat eggnog
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 cup of half and half
2 tsp of rum extract
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of nutmeg

Stir all ingredients together and pour into ice cream maker.  Process for 25-30 minutes.

So as for the Mozaik Giveaway....Nothing complicated.  Just leave a comment telling me when and why you would choose to use Mozaik.  A winner will be chosen at random.  Enter by next Friday December 3rd at midnight!

I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!  I sure did!  I am so blessed with an amazing family and terrific friends! :)

Average Gluten Free Day

People always tell me how they feel so sorry for me because I can't eat gluten and I'm always explaining how it really isn't that huge of a deal.  There are tons of great things I can eat and I rarely feel deprived.  (Don't ask me on Thanksgiving though!  lol) So here is a rundown of what I eat in a day.

Here is a typical breakfast.  Fage 2% mixed with Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter and a sliced banana.  High protein and delicious.  This keeps me full til lunch!

Lunch was leftovers of maple roasted chicken and veggies.  This is a recycled photo...I didn't eat rice today actually.  Just chicken and veggies.

 Snack was a honey crisp apple and some delicious blackberry mojito green tea.  Amazing stuff.

Dinner was a comfort food classic.  Meatloaf with mashed potatoes.  Please disregard the mustard greens in the picture.  Those landed in the trash.  I love turnip greens and collard greens so I thought I'd enjoy these.  Ummm not so much.  Literally it took a sheer force of will not to spit them back onto the plate like a bratty 4 year old.

No day is complete without dessert.  Tonight I made chai spice cookies.  Sadly I got creative and made these with coconut flour.  I would definitely recommend using a GF all purpose flour blend.  These were edible but not anything to brag about.  Too coconutty and the texture was almost powdery.

If all else fails you can't go wrong with an eggnog latte! :)

Maple Roasted Chicken and Veggies

I made the best fall dinner Monday night.  Maple roasted chicken and vegetables.
 

I love nice, caramelized roast veggies.  So yummy and such a simple dinner. 

1.5 lbs chicken (legs, thighs, breasts, or a mix)
1 very large sweet potato
2 carrots
3 cups of brussel sprouts, halved
salt
pepper
thyme
maple syrup
olive oil

Chop the veggies and spread on a baking sheet with the chicken (you'll probably need two or a large roasting pan).  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme, maple syrup, and olive oil.   Cover with foil.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.  Stir the veggies and bake 15 additional minutes uncovered.  Remove from oven, recover with foil and let sit 5-10 minutes.  Serve with brown rice.

The best part is that you have time to squeeze in a workout video while dinner bakes! :) 

Gluten Free Bonanza!

The weather changes and dropping temperatures have really got my sinuses acting up.  I've had a headache by the end of the workday almost daily for two weeks.  Therefore I was super excited to come home to a package full of gluten free goodies!

This was received courtesy of My Blog Spark and General Mills. 

As you can see it came with a large variety of items for me to sample.  Though I must say my husband has claimed the Fruit by the Foots for himself and that is perfectly cool with me.  I don't love the ingredient list on those plus they've never been my thing. As for Todd, they bring him great joy.  I did eat a pack of Gushers just because I hadn't had them since I was a kid.  

The only product in the package that I was completely unfamilar with was the Potato Buds.  I usually make homemade mashed potatoes.  So I decided that trying those was first on my agenda.  Turns out I had already planned to cook shephard's pie for dinner so I subbed the Potato Buds for my usual potatoes.

It turned out quite good.  Both my husband and I enjoyed it.  The texture of the potatoes were a little weird compared to fresh but that could have been because I used less better than the instructions indicated. 

Overall I was pleased and it got dinner on the table way faster which is great for a weeknight after work. I always come home starved!

As for the other products, I have made and enjoyed the brownies numerous times.  The whole family loves them!  I have used the yellow cake mix to make Irish Cream Cake on St. Patrick's Day.  I live on Larabars, especially when traveling or in a situation where I can't be sure of getting gluten free food.  Lastly, Gluten Free Bisquick is a new breakfast staple in our home. So basically this package was pretty exciting for me!  I kind of wish there was something in the box I didn't like so I looked more objective! lol

I do have the opportunity to give a reader this same box of goodies.  I'm pretty sure I only have three or four readers so your odds of winning are good!  I'll make this simple and just say if you leave a comment by this Friday 11/19/10 letting me know which product you'd be most interested in trying and why you are in the drawing.  The winner will be picked at random.  :)

Summer in Baltimore

In August we had a super fun long weekend in Baltimore.  I kept meaning to blog about it, and never got around to it.  Since the temperatures are dropping and winter is on the horizon I decided I'd post them now!

We stayed in Fells Point with a friend in the most gorgeous row house. We walked so much that weekend, I love walkable cities! :)  I was excited to see the site where Homicide was filmed because I used to watch that show every week with my dad.  

We walked all around the harbour and toured the Seven Foot Knoll lighthouse.  I think lighthouses are so neat!

We saw the National Katyn monument.  Very pretty!

I was excited to see the Domino Sugar plant because who doesn't love sugar?  Well aside from Dr. Adkins...

We had the best dinner at McCormick and Schmick.  This is a crab and avocado tower.  So good! :) 

I love see murals painted on the sides of buildings.  It's such a fun idea!

Saturday night we went out to a few bars and just walked around exploring the city at night.  I was very excited to find B.O.P. Brick oven pizza...gluten free!!!  It was probably the best gluten free pizza I've ever had.  It made we want to consider moving to Baltimore!  lol!  There is nothing like having a few drinks and then eating way too much late night pizza.  I've really missed that since going gluten free!

The funniest thing was we were approached by this crazy lady who was obviously on some sort of drugs.  She had a crazy convoluted story about why she needed some of our pizza.  So we shared.  Then she walked off.  A few minutes later we heard crazy screaming and cussing.  She got in some sort of altercation with a cop and was arrested. Well at least she got some awesome pizza first! 

Our last night in Baltimore our host took us to her favorite Mexican restaurant...

Arcos in Fells Point.  Very good.  I got the lamb barbacoa.  I also got a flaming Mexican coffee.  So cool to watch them make those!

Todd got a flaming fried ice cream.  I couldn't eat it but everyone else enjoyed it immensely.  I don't know why food on fire is so fun!

Well obviously these are not the best pictures or the most comprehensive.  We did so much shopping, eating, sight seeing, and walking that weekend.  The best part?  I ate gluten free with no issues whatsoever!  I can't wait to go back to Baltimore! It meets all my criteria, historic, near water, fabulous food, and cool people! :)