Udi’s gluten-free

You probably didn’t expect to see a chicken salad sandwich that looks like this on a gluten-free blog, right?

Roasted chicken with diced celery, onions, homemade mayonnaise, a touch of mustard, maybe a little horseradish, salt and pepper. That you probably aren’t surprised to see here.

Warm, toasted bread. Even slices. The pliable feel of white bread flecked with whole grains. Brown and soft. Not the kind of bread you use as a doorstop. In fact, it’s just bread. Good bread.

This is Udi’s gluten-free mulitgrain sandwich bread.

We buy a loaf of this bread every single week. Sometimes two. (We’re lucky. Our island grocery store sells it, as does Whole Foods and now QFC in Seattle.) Lu is growing up with peanut butter toast for breakfast some mornings, egg salad sandwiches for lunch some days, and French toast on the weekends. She doesn’t know it’s “special bread.” To her, it’s just bread.

Here’s how much we love Udi’s bread: I’ve stopped baking my own bread.

Oh, I’ll go back to it, when the fall brings cooler breezes, when the idea of having a 450° oven blazing in the kitchen doesn’t make me a little sick, when I want baguettes for dipping in stews and braised meat dishes. (By the time our cookbook comes out at the end of September, you’ll be in the mood to make our crusty bread recipe too.) Right now, however, I’m not as interested in cooking as I normally am. I just want ripe heirloom tomatoes in thick slices, sprinkled with salt. I want peaches so juicy they drip down my arm as I stand over the sink. I want big bowls of salad with soft avocado slices and sunflower seeds.

I want sandwiches. These days, every one of those sandwiches is on Udi’s gluten-free bread.

Udi’s makes more than bread. They make blueberry muffins that have saved us on long car trips. They make cinnamon rolls, granola, double chocolate muffins, bagels, and pizza. They’re all good.

(The bagels taste like good grocery-store bagels. They’re not like the dense soft bagels I bought in Manhattan at Absolute Bagels. I don’t know if those are possible without gluten. But Udi’s bagels are as good as any bagels you’ll find in stores outside of New York or Montreal.)

As you might know, for a long time I focused on all the foods I can naturally eat, not the pizzas and pasta and bread. After a few years, however, I realized that I missed the experience of eating a great sandwich — roasted pepper, prosciutto, and mozzarella, for example — on bread that tasted good. That’s why you have seen so many baked goods on this site the past year: I threw myself into the challenge.

However, as much as I like the sandwich bread recipe I have on this site, I prefer Udi’s bread. Their multgrain bread is always in our kitchen. Often, it goes with me if we’re going to the city. You never know when you’ll encounter a picnic.

All of this is to tell you that we are proud to say that Udi’s Gluten-Free has joined us as a sponsor of this site.

As I wrote back in April, about our decision to open the site to sponsors:

“What felt really important to me and Danny both is that the ads you will see will be of use to those of you reading. If you wonder how to find a flour we mention or a food we really love or a place to buy kitchen supplies that has made our lives easier, you’ll be able to click on the links of our sponsors and find them immediately.

You should know that we will be limiting the number of sponsored ads here, keeping them only to companies we truly love, the ones who make food we eat happily and do business in a way that makes sense to us.

We are all a community here. We’d like you to support the companies that help make this community feel well-fed by clicking on the links over there to the right when you can.”

So welcome, Udi’s Gluten-Free. We’re so happy you’re here.

Let there be bread.