Allergy Free (For me) Holiday Tradition

Well, it will be if I keep making it.

My mom told me  few years ago that her mother made cinnamon rolls every Christmas. That year, I made sure we had some, though I couldn't remember them at any Christmas before. Perhaps I just missed the significance. This year, with the recent diet restrictions, I wanted something similar. Something sinful and sweet to eat in the afterglow of ripped wrapping paper and new toys.

My father's love of apple pie is no secret, and gave me the idea for this year's Christmas day treat. He helped me make it, which was great. I finely chopped pecans and mixed with honey while he peeled, cored and thinly sliced five granny smith apples. I sprinkled the pecans on the bottom of an oven safe casserole dish. We piled the apple slices on top. In a skillet I melted a stick of butter substitute, three tablespoons of brown rice flour and a cup of raw sugar. I boiled it, then let it simmer as we finished the preparations, then poured this goop over the apples, sprinkled with remaining pecans, and threw it (not literally) in a 425 degree oven for fifteen minutes, then reduced the heat to 350 for another 50 minutes.

It was pretty good. I think next time I will try it with less flour- try for a more syrupy consistency, rather than the cake batter we had.

For those of you without allergies, here is the original recipe.

Food

I had a beautiful breakfast this morning (a relative term, I assure you). Green seedless grades still wet from a cold rinse, a firm plum cut in quarters with the stone removed, half an orange leftover from a marinade I made last night, a white peach dripping with flavor, and a handful of raspberries and black berries.

Free entirely of dairy, egg and gluten, just like everything else I will eat from now on. Today's breakfast was wonderful, but I'll admit I'm having trouble seeing equal beauty in all of my allergy free options.

I have known that I shouldn't eat dairy for all of my life, I am no stranger to dairy substitutes, milk with no animal fat that refuses to foam, cheese that won't melt. Sometimes I was good, and I went long enough without the real thing that even these substitutes were good enough.

Sometimes I was bad. Sometimes, I made pumpkin pie with real, sweetened condensed milk. I made cheesecake with a graham cracker crumb crust, held together by good old butter. Lots of butter. I relished the sweet creamy goodness of ice cream, of those pastry puffs. The world was full of delicious dairy and I loved it. My body didn't, and I've always known that.

Recently, in a quest to quell the headaches that keep me diffused and uncomfortable the majority of my conscious hours, I started seeing a naturopath. He suggested a blood allergy test. A few weeks later, and just a few days ago, I got the results. I am so severely reactive to dairy (surprise surprise) and eggs (that one was actually a surprise) that I can't eat them at all. I was only slightly less reactive to gluten. Do you know what is in almost everything? Dairy, egg or gluten. Often two or all three of the above. The doc dangled a wispy hope before me, perhaps, in time, I can reintroduce them, I can eat a small amount again.

I can't think that way. I can't live that way; Living on the precipice, just getting along until I am "allowed" to eat my favorite things again. For me to stick with this, for it to work, I have to make this a lifestyle change. I need to find the beauty and the flavor in the foods that my body can gain nourishment from. I need to enjoy these foods for what they are, not despise them because they are not cheesecake, pumpkin pie, or cream puffs. A peach will never be a cream puff.

Blogs like Gluten Free Girl and the Chef are inspiring- but at the same time, a little depressing. She can't have gluten, and has found a world of delicious flavor. The vast majority of her recipes include eggs or dairy. As they should, she can eat them. In the little research I've done, I've found that to be pretty true. Most things, if they are free of one of my allergens, include one of the others.

It is amazing how the resources for gluten free food abound- Triumph Dining sells stickers to label your food, restaurant and grocery guides, and even dining cards so you can communicate with servers despite language barriers about your gluten free needs. That's great, it's really awesome. Can I have one that talks about my diary and egg free needs too? Can I buy a book that talks about what restaurants and companies serve and sell food without dairy, egg or gluten? It would be nice, but I guess that would make it less of an adventure.

I'm really going to be okay, and like I keep telling myself, if this rids me of my headaches, it is more than worth it. I'll do it for the rest of my life, no questions asked. DONE. After a while of fruit and vegetables and meat, I will regain my spark of adventure. I'll try a batch of muffins with alternative flour, soy butter, and applesauce instead of eggs. I'll eat more salads, which really was never a strength of mine.

I'll buy cookbooks, and try things, and I think with time the appreciation of my body feeling better will make it easier to see how good this change is for me. Maybe I'll share some of my recipes here. I can't be the only one who isn't eating dairy, egg or gluten.

Incidentally, I wouldn't think there would be egg or gluten in imitation crab, would you? Yeah, we'd both be wrong. Days without dairy, egg or gluten: 0

Good Morning Mephisto

I am not sure how long I will be able to keep this up, but at least for the first few weeks of Mephisto's new life with me I am going to try to take pictures of him at least every day. Maybe even more than once a day. He is so adorable and so very vicious (at least in relation to all of my other plants, which isn't saying a whole lot really. I guess my little rose plant does have thorns...) that I want a record of how fast he grows.

This morning, I took pictures.


In this one here ^
He looks much the same as he did last night. To be expected, I suppose. He was just shipped miles and miles, and hasn't really had any direct sunlight yet.

<- In this one, if you look closely you can see the closer, top trap beginning to open. This is no more than five minutes after the above picture, where the same trap appears to be closed tightly. I didn't really realize it before, but in retrospect, that's awesome.




So I finished my essay, went to class, checked my school mail, and met my boss to go to an awards ceremony (I won student worker of the year! The woman only managed to mispronounce my name three different ways!). Alex helped me get the huge awesome vase of flowers that my wonderful boss gave me back to my place. She took a look at Mephisto, and behold!

Look at those chompers! 

I am waiting on some "monster mix" I bought off eBay. Venus Flytraps like nutrient poor "soil", and many sites recommend a 50-50 mix of Peat moss and Perlite. Untreated peat moss and Perlite were actually harder to get my hot little hands on than I had anticipated and ordering a pre-mixed solution seamed like the best option. He has enough in there to last a few days, but I will repot him (in the same small plastic pot) when the new stuff shows up. He lost a bit of peat moss in shipping, and while I'm sure he's fine, it looks a bit sparse. The mixture will drain better anyway.

Certain minerals will kill the little guy, and normal ceramic or terracotta pots often soak that kind of thing up and hold on to it. So it's plastic for my feisty little friend.

Meet Mephisto

Meet Mephisto.

A few days ago I was wandering the Internet (when I probably should have been doing homework - but really, when do I ever not have homework to do?) and I started looking at Venus Flytraps. I knew about then before, but I started reading up on all the special care they need and I became more enamored. I found a place that sold them, but it had a monetary limit and expensive shipping. I put posted "I want a Venus flytrap" to Facebook and forgot about it.

When I returned home after class today there were two boxes waiting for me. I figured Amazon had divided the order I had made last week in preparation for Jer's birthday into two orders. I was a bit confused by the large "Fragile" stickers on the one box, but didn't think much of it. I brought all of my things inside, started the song I'd shut off on my way out the door that morning (3oh!3's "Don't trust me"), and opened the top box. Inside was not part of the amazon order, but instead this lovely little plant!

I immediately msged Jer, and he said it wasn't him, and then texted my parents with multiple variants of "I HAVE THE MOST AWESOME PARENTS IN THE WORLD AND A VENUS FLY TRAP!"

I did some more research and I knew that Flytraps need a special soil- peat moss and sand, or similar ingredients. Lowe's almost had everything we needed, but everything came in HUGE bags, and the Perlite was treated with Miraclegro, a big no-no. We stopped at a plant store place, but they didn't have it either. I ended up ordering a premix online. I hope to take periodic pictures and keep track of his growth. Hopefully he opens up soon- I want to see the inside of those chompers!

Jer suggested the name: Mephisto. We have been playing some Diablo lately, and I thought it fit. : )

I'M VERY EXCITED.