Pamela Sinclair

Planning a Gluten-Free Trip for the Holidays? Read This First!

We love to travel. Most of our trips are to national parks and monuments for a combination of history, geology, and hiking. We're lucky to live in a state with a ton of national parks, but they are all spread out, so you never quite know what you're going to find.

Being gluten-free does throw a wrench in our plans now and then, but we always manage to have fun, and I always manage to eat gluten-free.

How? A little bit of planning, a little bit of luck, and a little bit of being willing to throw everything out the window when things change. Let me show you how.

For a road trip, I always pack a cooler with my essentials. Flying? Try a collapsible cooler or one of those cooler bags. Plus, we always make sure to book a hotel that has a fridge and a microwave, so if all else fails, we can make a quick trip to the grocery store.

Before you go anywhere, research the web for restaurants that might serve gluten-free food. I've found that you can't rely on just one website to find gluten-free restaurants, so I use a multi-tiered approach. I keep a little travel journal that lists what I've found for the area we're going to visit, so I have a condensed guide to refer back to while we're trying to decide what to eat.

If there's nothing to be found on the web, then you've got to get creative - learn how to order gluten-free at a restaurant that has no idea what gluten is.

If, after all this, you still can't find a gluten-free meal in town, head to the grocery store. Don't think of it as a chore - you're on vacation! Instead, think of it as a chance to have a picnic. Grab whatever you think counts as gluten-free picnic food, then head out to a scenic overlook and go to town! Often these meals are way better than restaurant meals anyways - you get to enjoy the scenery you came to see, hang out with your friends and family, plus it costs less than eating in a restaurant! (Just be sure to pack out all your trash - you don't want to attract unwanted pests to picnic areas.)

This week, I'll be sharing some of the trips we've taken to national parks and monuments, plus what we've found to eat along the way. Some places are definitely better than others on the gluten-free spectrum, and I'll share that too.

Do you have any gluten-free national park experiences? I'd love to hear about them!

Quote

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

Robert Louis Stevenson

In Full Bloom

Roses have always been my favorite flower. They were the flowers my parents gave me after dance recitals, the flowers that graced my grandmothers' and mother's garden, the flowers that I dried to draw, and (embarassingly) wear in my hair to school. I just love roses.

I've never had much luck with keeping potted roses alive. I really don't think they're meant to live in pots anyways. And since we rent, I'm really not one to invest in a rose bush only to leave it behind when I move again.

Luckily, our new house has great big rose bushes. They've been badly pruned, but as soon as they came into bloom, I stopped worrying about that and stopped (to literally) smell the roses.

New Toy

You might have noticed it in a previous post...I have a new toy! A gorgeous (and huge) marble slab! A generous wedding gift from my cousin and his wife. I'm already loving it, and can't wait to make flaky pie crusts on it!

Mistakes are Fine by Me

So there seems to be this huge divide between Pinterest people and anti-Pinterest people. When it first came out I was in the former category, but then migrated to somewhere in the middle. Why? At first, it was copyright issues. Then, I realized that the same couple hundred things were making their way around and around and around and around. There wasn't anything new to see. And lastly, everything on Pinterest is so darn perfect. Who actually does that? Marketers quick to jump on the newest trend.

Now, I'm not knocking all the wonderful bloggers out there who really do make gorgeous arts and crafts and take wonderful photographs to boot. But mistakes are just fine by me.

Take this dessert. I had intended to make a variation on my coffeecake, but the changes I made turned what was supposed to be muffins into a crumbly sticky mess. No matter. Scrape as much as you can out of the pans, and pop it in the freezer. You'll find some use for it.

Like this: toast up the ruined coffeecake, whip up some cream, and top with raspberries. Instant dessert. (I'll even admit to having this for breakfast.)

See? Mistakes can lead to good things. When I obsess over being "Pinterest-worthy," I forget that mistakes can lead to valuable creative experiences. But only if I let them. Which is why mistakes are fine by me.

Have you made a mistake that led to a great discovery? Tell me about it!

Creamy Polenta and Chorizo

I love planning out my meals, but sometimes it slips my mind and I need to work with what I have in the fridge. This meal was one of those occasions. What do you do with mushrooms, onions, and chorizo that you haven't done a million times? Polenta.

There's really not much of a recipe for this one, since it's so simple. The mushrooms and onions were already cooked in the fridge, so it was just a matter of heating them up, and cooking the polenta and chorizo.

I used this recipe as a starting point, but used nearly half cream instead of water to get a rich, silky, creamy taste to the polenta. I also found myself using a bit more water. Then I let the polenta chill in the refrigerator, then fried spoonsfuls of it in bacon grease. I'm pretty sure the bacon grease was what made the dish so amazing.