potatoes!

So first off, food allergies got a shout out at the White House Correspondent's dinner last night:

An extended news-media-as-high-school metaphor: “Fox is the jocks. MSNBC is the nerds. Bloggers are the Goths. NPR is the table for kids with peanut allergies. Al Jazeera is the weird foreign exchange student nobody talks to. Print Media, you’re the poor kid who died sophomore year in a car crash. Cheer up, we dedicate the yearbook to you!”

As a fact, I do listen to NPR when I'm driving sometimes. :)

Anyway, sorry it's been awhile! I've been busy and all I can say is that that trend will continue. The next few weeks are busy with some major events for school, so I'll be hoofing it with food allergies the best I can. Also, my seasonal allergies are flaring right now which has, rather annoyingly, made my food allergies way worse. I've had to be particularly careful recently and it hasn't always worked in my favor. In fact, fritos honey BBQ chips have very nearly the same packaging as the spicy BBQ chips and that meant that I accidentally bought the ones with yeast in them (honey BBQ). Be wary, food shoppers. It's been an opportunity to experiment with what "autolyzed yeast extract" means for me in terms of allergenicity...and it's working out okay.

I wanted to post a simple and very easy to manipulate for your own flavor choices recipe that I made recently. My microwave broke and I had to resort to only having an oven to cook in and a toaster oven to rewarm/reheat. That meant turning to the potato staple. I eat lots of potatoes (and corn, since everyone always asks this--potatoes and corn are what i rely on) and this was a handy recipe to make and eat until my landlord replaced my microwave.

Ranch-Bacon Cheesy Potatoes

http://joyouslydomestic.blogspot.com/2012/10/roasted-ranch-potatoes-with-bacon-and.html

Ingredients:

2 pounds potatoes (unpeeled, washed and cut into chunks)
1/2 cup ranch dressing (bottled, not packet)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus more for topping (if desired) (I used more like 1/2c)
1/4 cup crumbled, cooked bacon (I sprinkled more on top with the cheese)
1 tablespoon dried dill weed
3 scallions, washed and chopped
Salt
Pepper
Non-stick cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add (in a large bowl) the ranch dressing, dill, cheese and bacon.  Add in the potatoes.  Sprinkle in a generous pinch of salt and pepper.  Toss to coat potatoes.

Spoon into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish.  Cover with foil.

Bake for 60 minutes.  Stir gently halfway through to get the bottom potatoes rotated so they don't become burnt and to ensure that the middle and top potatoes get a chance to brown. 

Remove foil.  Raise oven temperature to 400 degrees.  Gently stir again, as necessary.

Bake for an additional 15 minutes, then sprinkle on a little more cheese, if desired.  Bake a few more minutes or until everything is gooey, browned and bubbly on top.

Serve with scallions sprinkled on top for garnish.

Great with a dollop of sour cream.

I didn't end up adding the scallions on top and I've never eaten sour cream with my potatoes, but that's what I mean about this being a great recipe for manipulating for your flavor tastes. I've been thinking about using a ranch dressing--the powder kind--to coat the potatoes and see if the ranch flavor is stronger that way. I'm rather pototoed out right now though, so it'll be awhile before I come back to this. Also, an excellent recipe to share at family dinners!

But don't burn yourself making it like I did....big mistake. The door rebounded onto my arm and I have this fabulous burn on my arm that has three distinct stripes on it that make it look like I've been assaulted--they're exactly the right size, shape, and spacing to look like someone grabbed my forearm. Thankfully, the weather's been cold enough for me to wear long sleeves.

up to speed

hello all! I've had some revelations re: my food allergies here which are for both the good and bad.

but there's a little something that happened today which was totally disgusting and i had to share...i was at the salad bar at lunch. there is precious little that i can eat in the cafeteria except the salad, so that's where i usually head. i have my doubts about the ingredients in the salad dressing, but i'll get by. regardless of all that, i was waiting patiently behind someone who was in my way at the dressing end of the line and i noticed that as she poured the dressing on her salad, she smeared the ladle all over the hard boiled eggs she had placed on her salad. my eyes about bugged out as i watched her do this three more times (also mind boggling at the calories she just dumped on that previously healthy salad!). it was indeed the dressing i was about to use but i chose something else. but holy cow! if i were anaphylactic, she just contaminated the ladle and also the entire salad dressing by putting it back in the tub.

like i said, mind boggled, eyes bugged. i mentioned something later to a friend and she was surprised that eggs are even allowed on the salad bar anymore and i made the comment that no one's thought about it. you don't think about things like that unless you have to.

speaking of, i just read a fabulous (for me) book called Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, by Sandra Beasley. she's got the long list like i do, but unfortunately gets the throat-closing, etc anaphylaxis symptoms. Just like I can't eat yeast, which eliminates an unbelievable amount of food, she can't eat dairy. She talks about things like a college roommate eating cheese pizza and talking on the phone. Sandra then picks up the phone and gets hives from the oils left on the phone. That's what came to mind with this lady with the eggs in the cafeteria today (Sandra also mentions the perils of the college cafeteria--too true!).

Regardless, what i loved about the books is that I don't feel so alone in the world. When you have a *list* of food allergies, it can be very traumatizing to go out. She mentions things like having friends at weddings to swipe food off her plate; she had a friend who had a cupcake specially made for her so she could eat cake at that bride's wedding. I have friends with whom I regularly can eat food and trust them so that i don't have to read all the food labels--they're the ones with whom I spent Christmas Eve and also Easter.

It's unbelievable sometimes the tricks I have to implement. Sometimes I can get away with freely admitting to allergies--that happened at a wedding i went to recently, where the cake was served with chocolate covered strawberries. The groomsman sitting next to me asked how I could possibly pass up on a chocolate covered strawberry and I laughed it off, "Easy, I'm allergic!" to which he responded with something like how that was a good reason. Early at this same wedding reception, however, I felt compelled to eat rice. I could eat the fish and green beans and be totally fine with food, but a friend of mine passed me the risotto in a well meaning attempt to make sure I could eat whatever I could. It was okay, I had taken a pill in a preemptive move and damn, was that good risotto, but it came with sacrifice.

I can sometimes slither out of eating things, like the strawberries, or sometimes not, like the rice. It was also difficult when I recently attended a luncheon. I know the cook had done a roundabout check on the food allergies because shrimp and chicken were both offered....with rice. Eggs were completely avoided. Almonds were slivered onto the salad. It was a minefield. And being a small luncheon, unavoidable with being rude and that is a huge thing for me. I muddled through and went home with a pounding headache and some misery later in the afternoon.

Food allergies can also be wielded when i'm feeling malcontent. I was at a party where the hostesses did a very poor job mingling divergent groups of people and just overall it was not a good experience. At the end, they were passing out cookies as a favor...I bluntly said something like no, i wasn't interested, I'm allergic to eggs--completely meaning to make them feel bad. I have had only a twinge of regret over the comment because I truly believe that people should be more considerate of things like that (I also could not safely eat any of the food at the party) but...yeah. I shouldn't wield my food allergies as a weapon.

Either way, none of this is easy on me. I discovered that rice gives me an eczematous rash...ON MY FACE. Also on my leg but that's not as much of a cosmetic sacrifice. It probably explains why I could never get that patch on my leg to clear up. My face has always given me trouble, but has been remarkably clear in the last year or so...the thing about skin? 28 days to regenerate. Which meant that rash was here to stay. I also recently came home from a lunch where, once again, there was nothing I could eat, so I took a pill and powered through some broccoli salad and then remembered that i was allergic to grapes...the raisins in the salad were suddenly little bombs waiting to attack. I spent the afternoon curled up in bed in agony (grapes + eggs).

Nothing about this is easy. As always, it's a reminder for everyone to not take for granted that which we all frequently do...I am reminded on a daily basis how blessed I am to be able to walk and talk and move independently and have a family that loves me...so while I struggle to find anything to eat, it's generally not too much of a sacrifice. Most day. :)

In other news...I did successfully manage to go out to dinner the other night. I cannot remember the last time this happened. And granted, I brought home half of my grilled shrimp entree because I wasn't certain the glaze they put on it was safe (it was, i had the rest last night) but it was a success. I had massive anxiety the whole time my mom and I were out, but it was indeed a success.

Watch out allergy sufferers...pollen is creeping up on us all! (And it makes the food allergies worse, btw).

More recipes to come...I got pinterest to feed my need for allergen-free recipes. :)

cheesy biscuits

Now you all know that i love to make bread that I can actually eat. I also love cheese. when you combine the two, all the better!

These were a big hit at Easter dinner...

1 Container of Pillsbury Grands Biscuits (original called for flaky layers…really?)

1 8oz package of mozzarella

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

1 tsp. Oregano/Italian Seasoning

1. Open biscuits and flatten. Preheat to 350.

2. Cube mozzarella into approximately 2” chunks. (I had some left over which I grated and used instead of the parm)

3. Place 2-3 cheese chunks on flattened biscuits and seal well. Place seam side down on baking pan.

4. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with parmesan and Italian seasoning (I used garlic powder).

5. Bake at 350 for approximately 15-20 minutes until golden and firm.

Now, as you might expect, some cheese leaks out depending on how well you sealed them. I had cheese leak out of nearly all of mine, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Trimming and eating melted cheese was a delightful part of this. As such, I think flattening the biscuits and creating a crater in the middle to give you more dough to create a seal with will probably be an avenue I explore in the future. 

They are, rather obviously, best served warm.