Success!

I have successfully made chocolate chip cookies!! Oh happy day!!! I feel the need to use a lot of exclamation marks!!!!


I used the recipe for chocolate chunk cookies in Silvana Nardone's book Cooking for Isaiah (a beautiful book that I highly recommend) but I substituted coconut oil for the shortening. They need a little more work to get the texture right, but the girls didn't want to stop eating them. So I count that as a success.

By the way, regular chocolate chips are not always dairy free. (And did you know that MILK chocolate has dairy in it? Who knew?!?) But fortunately I found this really tasty product: Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

I love that this company's products are free of the 8 common allergens, 4 of which we're trying to avoid in our household. So far I've only tried their candy bars and chocolate chips, but I believe I'll be introducing myself to the rest of their product line soon.

Who Says I'm Not an Optimist

I made my first foray into experimental gluten- and dairy-free baking last night. Sure, I've followed some recipes and made some passable stuff. But this was my first venture into uncharted territory. Let's just say it involved a hankerin' for some chocolate chip cookies. And the realization that lard is a gluten- and dairy-free item. I know, I know, I can hear you groaning. But it was just one of those ideas you get in your head and it won't go away until you try it. And I did discover a couple of things. Like this: There isn't enough vanilla and cocoa powder in the world to cover up the taste of lard. See, did any of us really know that for a fact before? And this: There's a really good reason that I've never seen a recipe like the one I made up last night in a cookbook.

Ah well, back to the drawing board. I will not be denied a chocolate chip cookie for long!

This is what happens...

...when the University of Michigan grad in the family takes a young boy to have casts put on his legs. If the University of Minnesota grad had been present, I'm sure this never would have happened. Maybe a lesson has been learned here? Yeah, I didn't think so, either.


He looks really bothered by the whole thing, doesn't he?


This is J-Man's third and final set of casts. In about 2 weeks, we'll downgrade to braces. You know what I'm really looking forward to? Throwing the kid in the bathtub.

Meehan Hope Fund

Over to the right of my screen you'll see a link to donate to the Meehan Hope Fund. If you've never read the Because I Said So blog written by Dawn Damalas Meehan, you're missing out on some good giggles. She's going through a really rough patch in her life right now. But you know what, she isn't a huge whiner...like I am. :) Over the last year, when I sometimes haven't had much to laugh at, her blog has been a light moment in my day. And I felt that I could do something easy to help her out, like take 2 seconds to post a donation link on my blog. If you're interested in finding out more about her, just click on over to her blog at Because I Said So from the Blogs I Read list over to the right of the screen.

For more ideas about how to help, including prayer requests and an address to send cards, see this post:
I'm Hijacking This Blog

Diet

So it turns out that I am indeed allergic to gluten and casein. Farewell cheese, I hardly knew ya. Not the whole picture, though. I'm also suspicious of eggs. I'll see the doctor next Monday to try to hash that out. On the upside, every piece of the puzzle that falls into place is one step closer to me being "cured".

Here's my current list of dietary no-no's:
gluten (wheat, barley, rye)
casein (dairy products)
soy
peanuts
vegetable oil

Have you ever tried to go to the store and buy products without any of those ingredients? It seems that I'll be spending a lot more time in my kitchen.

Happy Birthday to Me!

When Big K asked me why the mall was closing early last night, I told her that everyone needed to head home early and bake me gluten-free birthday cakes. I haven't seen any of those show up yet. Hmmm....