Gluten-free week - day 2

Yesterday Albuquerque was erased with a giant eraser of wind and dust. Winds over 50 mph snapped trees and caused all kinds of havoc in the city on an otherwise peaceful Sunday. Friends on the West side said they couldn't even see us down here in the valley. It was like we didn't exist. And I'll have to confess, a bleak desolation grabs hold of me when I look out of my window and don't see the Sandia crest looming in the distance. The air was turbid and opaque and there were no more mountains. It was as if I was living in the plains again. Perhaps you know this, but after being around mountains for so long, flatness is decidedly tedious. I became immediately claustrophobic.

And so it was that I spent the better part of my Sunday in the kitchen, concocting new gluten-free ideas. I, just like many of you, am a creature of habit, and I especially enjoy getting into wholesome habits. Preparing my own food is one of those habits. And, much like everybody else, I don't have a lot of time to spare. So generally speaking, the meals I prepare are nutritious but necessarily quick to make. Any recipe that's over 20 minutes in prep time makes me lose my interest.

Now, if usually I'm not keen on spending a whole lot of time cooking, this Sunday was definitely an exception. And I wouldn't even recommend making the baked fries I spent over an hour making and another half an hour cleaning up after (yes, really), if they weren't really, really, unequivocally delicious. So yes, make this - if and only if you have lots of time on your hands and don't mind spending two hours making something that you'll gobble up in ten minutes. Otherwise, go with salads and fruit, throw in some nuts or cheese, you can't go wrong with that.

For brunch: over-easy eggs, cornflakes with kefir and apples with almond butter. This is the new-American breakfast, by the way, I'm starting a thing.

Have I mentioned how brilliant apples with almond butter are?

For dinner, salad from baby bok choy, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, olives and crumbled goat cheese.

These baked fries took a lot of muscle to make - not to mention they stuck to the pan, bastards - but they really were high on the scale of awesomeness, especially dipped in sour cream. They are supposed to be like Arby's fries only, you know, the version without all the poisons.

Recipe for irresistible fries from here.