National Restaurant Association Show Focuses on Food Allergies

This week is the National Restaurant Association’s Annual Trade Show in Chicago and the vendors are starting to take notice! The big trend seems to be the number of vendors who are now offering gluten-free and allergy-free foods.

There are 75 booths in this year’s show that featured gluten-free products, with Enjoy Life Foods displaying a booth at the show for the first time. They are promoting their new Plentils, packaged lentil chips, which seem to be a big hit with schools and universities country-wide. They want to offer a gluten-free alternative without the cross-contamination worry.

I am also excited to hear that Chicago-based Eli’s Cheesecake is now making a vegan cheesecake option made with Tofu and dairy-free cream cheese. They currently offer two varieties—Belgium chocolate and carrot cake. Yes, finally! Manufacturers are starting to notice that not only is there an increasing number of people with dairy allergies, but that the number of people who are adopting a Vegan lifestyle is also on the rise.

Now if I could only get them to get rid of the nuts in the carrot cake cheesecake. One step at a time….

The Comfort of Memories

Comfort can come in many forms. It can be a touch from a loved one, a special word of wisdom from a friend or sometimes, even a card from someone you might not even know. This year, for me, comfort has come in the delicate form of a beautiful purple and white orchid or the sound of cascading water from a nearby waterfall.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my father-in-law’s passing and it is still hard for me to believe that it has been a year since his heart failed him during his usual Sunday brunch. My father-in-law spent most of his life as a lawyer who also ran the local VFW. After his retirement, my in-laws moved to Florida and my father-in-law spent most of his time with a camera in one hand and a shovel in the other. He started growing native plants and quickly moved up to growing orchids. He would grow them in pots and attach them to the various trees in his yard. It always amazed me that these ugly, gangling bulbs in pots just hanging off the palm trees would grow to the beautiful orchids that often filled his home.

There is a lovely lady who helped my father-in-law when he was sick and who now comes in to work on the house. She has become the nurturer now and has been taking care of these orchids for us. On our visit last month, after a very long drive down, we were greeted by one lovely purple orchids and one very delicate white orchid. It really felt like we were coming home to the same home we have always loved visiting and will continue to love as long as we can.

Five months later we lost my mother-in-law to cancer. Is was yet another tough blow to an already turbulent year. She had been battling lung cancer with such courage and grace that we didn't even know it was that bad until it was too late. She passed away on my son’s 17^th birthday but this time we had the opportunity to say our goodbyes to her.

One of my fond memories of my mother-in-law was her love of waterfalls. Whenever someone new came to the house, my mother-in-law would take them around the inside of the house and then lead them outside to the front porch. This is what she really wanted them to see; the beautiful view of the waterfall and oak trees from her front porch. This is the true reason she fell in love with her house. On most late afternoons you could find her reading or sleeping on her front porch; the sounds of the cascading water in the background and the waning sun filtering through the leaves.

On the morning she died, that same waterfall stopped working within a few minutes of her passing. Our caretaker, who had become friends with the maintenance man, asked if anyone had shut off the waterfall that morning to work on it. He found it odd that for some reason, the waterfall that morning had just stopped working for a couple hours and then had come back on later. I feel as though my mother-in-law’s beloved waterfall was somehow telling us how important she was and that it too would truly miss her.

We keep that memory close to our hearts and every time we visit, the sounds of that same waterfall now give my husband and I some comfort knowing that we will love her little sanctuary just as much as she did. That is why whenever we are visiting, we will take the time to sit out front and think about what a wonderful person she was.

We will continue to visit their house as long as we can and when we do, we will bask in the sight of my father-in-law’s elegant orchids and listen to the beautiful sounds of mother-in-law’s waterfall and we will find comfort.

Vegan Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole

If you are in the United States, you cannot travel by car without seeing signs for the Cracker Barrel Restaurant off most major highways. In our many travels, we have passed too many to count and yet each time we pass one we are amazed that they are always packed. For our family, all Cracker Barrel restaurants, like most other breakfast places, are places we don’t even dare to go in to. The prospect of bringing a severely allergic person, like our teen, into a restaurant that serves mostly egg and egg containing items is enough to give me nightmares.

That doesn't mean we cannot enjoy one of their dishes in our own home! One of the recipes they are famous for is their Hash Brown Casserole. There are a lot of recipes for this dish on the internet but I adapted mine from CDKitchen which has over 2300 copycat recipes on its website. This one does not contain sugar or condensed soup (a dairy allergy no-no) that most other recipes have. I first made this casserole two years ago to rave reviews and have made it for our Easter brunches ever since.

Vegan-style Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole

26 Oz Bag of Frozen Country-style Hash Browns

2 C Shredded non-Dairy Cheddar Cheese (or Colby if no dairy allergy)

¼ C Minced Onions

1 C Non-Dairy Milk (soy, rice)

½ C Beef Stock or Canned Broth

2 T non-Dairy Butter, Melted

¼ tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the hash browns, vegan cheese and onion in a large bowl. Next, combine the milk, beef stock, half the melted butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper in another bowl. Once your wet mixture is well blended, pour over the hash browns and mix well. Place the remaining 1T butter in a large, ovenproof skillet and melt over high heat.

Once the skillet is hot, spoon in the hash brown mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cheese has melted (around 7 minutes). Put the skillet in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes. Turn the oven to broil and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes or until the surface is golden brown and slightly crispy.

You can make this the night before by cooking it most of the way, let it cool, cover and place in the refrigerator. The next day, take it out and let it come to room temperature before putting back in the oven. Reheat to warm it and then broil to finish it up.

This is a great casserole for Christmas or Easter brunch.

My EpiPen Junkyard

This is what I found when I went looking through all our medicine cabinets. Not 1 but 13 expired EpiPen cylinders. Since they come in packages of two, I’m not sure what happened to my No. 14 but maybe it’s now in medicine cabinet limbo. I have been searching of some Sudafed for my teen. She has been sick with the flu which has now turned into a very bad sinus infection. We are on currently on day 9 of being home and just feeling plain, yucky!

Just like old cars in a junkyard, my teen’s expired EpiPens have landed in my medicine cabinet waiting be turned into scrap, but where to dispose of them? Our local Walgreen Pharmacy used to collect all expired auto-injectors which I loved because all I had to do was ease into the drive up window and drop them off. It was just that easy and so convenient since there is always a Walgreen's just around the corner.

Apparently this change came around 2010, which would be the date on the oldest EpiPen in my junkyard stash. I have since made a call to our local Police Department which has a drop-off for expired medicine disposal, but they no longer accept any meds with needles in them. So, my only option is to drop them off at our County Health Department. Sigh! I’m not sure when I’ll get there!

Does anyone else have a medicine cabinet that looks like this?

Diary Free Easter Chocolate

I had good intentions of getting this out earlier but I just realized that Easter is next Sunday. I associate Easter with spring flowers and since I have yet to see any daffodils or tulips in my yard, I thought Easter was along way off. Thank goodness a good friend just asked me for dairy-free Easter candy recommendations or I would only have the usual jelly beans and Starburst candy. No fun chocolate Easter bunny for my teens' basket. How sad!

It is not too late to order but you will need to be quick. Last year, I bought four Vegan chocolate bunnies from Divvies bakery. Three of them made it in the baskets, one in my dog's stomach! Whoever said large amounts of chocolate can be harmful doesn't know my dog. Not only did she love the 4 oz. solid chocolate bunny but she has now become a chocoholic! Please do not take this as a recommendation to feed your dog chocolate because it is supposed to be VERY BAD for them; my dog hasn't figured this out yet.



While we loved the flavor of the Divvies product, the solid chocolate was just too much chocolate for us so I decided to check out other Vegan sources this year. Go Dairy Free is a great site for products and this is their 7th year of putting together a list of 12 different chocolatiers from the U.S. and several from the U.K. that produce dairy free products for Easter and Passover. The selection is quite extensive. You'll find eggs, chicks, ducks, and plenty of bunnies. the prices range considerably; however, there are a few items that are not too expensive. If you are concerned about nuts, I would contact the chocolatier directly before placing your order since some of them also produce items with nuts or peanut butter.

This year I decided to order from Premium Chocolatiers because their manufacturing facility is tree nut, peanut, and milk-free and they have the cutest Easter lollipops. Just the right amount of chocolate for us! Alisa Fleming from the Go Dairy Free website also raves about the wonderful milk and dark chocolate taste that has "won my taste buds over." I cannot wait to taste the white chocolate bunny lollipops!

 

Friends And Allergies

Webster's Dictionary defines a friend as:

noun \ˈfrend\

: a person who you like and enjoy being with

: a person who helps or supports someone or something (such as a cause or charity)

For a teen with food allergies, the second part of this definition is especially important. A true friend knows that you are allergic to peanut butter so they bring jelly sandwiches to school so they can sit next to you. A true friend asks if they can order a pizza without cheese for you. A true friend is interested in trying out your latest "non-dairy, nut and egg-free" recipe.

My teens' friends are true friends. Not only do they love to sample her many versions of cookies, brownies and cupcakes but they also love to come over and help her cook. Sometimes their experiments don't always turn out the way the want but they always have a fun time trying. In fact, I ran out of flour, sugar and baking powder over Christmas because they were baking on a daily basis.

The other day, one of her friends dropped off some extra cupcakes they had made for a party the night before. They had used one of Katie's recipes for Chocolate Lover's Chocolate Cupcakes. They had some left over so they dropped them off for us to enjoy! Very thoughtful and very delicious!

Last weekend, it was another cold day and Katie and another friend were sick of the snow. With no desire to go outside or to go sledding, they asked me if they could make Rice Krispy Treats. Our pantry was stocked so off they went.

A little while later, I peeked into the kitchen to see how it was going and this is what they had been making; SpongeBob and Patrick Rice Krispy treats. This made my heart sing!

Snow Girl

This statue has been a part of our back yard for over 10 years. At one time, she was holding two darling butterflies as she was lifting them up to fly away. The butterflies are long gone but I still love the look of pure enjoyment and wonder on her face.

Every fall I put all our topiary away for the winter but for some reason this year we ran out of time and even my lawn furniture ended up covered in snow. So for the first time, our little "Butterfly Girl" looks like she is excited to have a chance to play in the snow.

That was until more snow came......and more....and more snow and soon our little "Butterfly Girl" was up to her chin in snow. This morning we work up to 5 more inches of snow. Now when I look out all I see is my little girl saying, "Why me?"

At least the dog likes it!