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This past holiday season, my boss’ treat to our small staff was a trip to a local hot pot restaurant. With a little effort, we were able to work around my food allergy issues, and it was a really great staff lunch. Well, except for the being too full to walk afterwards part.
I started thinking about how hot pot could be adapted and made at home. It’s not horribly hard, it turns out, and thanks to my need to packrat all of my parents’ 1970s entertaining supplies when I moved out, I had so equipment that could be adapted to home-style hot pot. I used a chafing dish, though I also have a fondue pot, and I think the latter might allow for more heat. Both the chafing dish and the fondue pot are designed for small cans of Sterno fuel. A portable electric burner is used at most of the local hot pot restaurants, though a few have tables with built-in burners. An electric wok or frying pan would also be an excellent option.
But I’ve labeled this post “Kitchen Stories” because it includes this pot. My parents were very social people, and they were married for a good number of years before kids. All of the 1970s-era cookbooks I’ve collected feature things like my parents’ chip-and-dip set (white and gold grapes) and things like this chafing dish, in a less tarnished state. Those types of parties, with large spreads of food, are a feature of my early childhood. But while we got a bit of the food, we soon went off to bed. I remember the chafing dish primarily from Friday night dinners during Lent, when my mom would make cheese fondue for a meatless dinner.
Like all of the outdated kitchen stuff that ended up in the basement, I scavenged this chafing dish when I left home (difference between the chafing dish and a fondue pot — the water pan between the heat and the food that spreads out the heat). It’s been used a few times, but mostly it has served as a decorative piece in my kitchen, and it’s rather terribly tarnished. Good tip — a paste of salt and white vinegar helps a ton to take the tarnish off copper). It felt really good to use something I just paid to move across the country, and the hot pot is an amazing use.
Glass noodles, thinly-sliced squash (not thinly sliced enough), and mushrooms
The basic idea of hot pot, if you haven’t had the joy of the experience, is that a tasty broth is heated to boiling and then used as the vehicle for cooking a host of raw meats, seafoods, vegetables, and noodles, which are then eaten with a personalized dipping sauce. The remainder of the feast is soup. What’s awesome about this — well, actually, there are two things. First off, hot pot is an experience as well as a meal, and it’s fun. But the second thing, and what is moving me to write about it and post, is that if you make this all at home, you can customize it to suit you. Exclude your allergens, cater to your tastes, accommodate a variety of people’s needs.
Napa cabbage and baby bok choy
For my homemade hot pot, I started with homemade chicken stock. I think beef would be more traditional, but I had the chicken bones and veggies around. Because of the style of dipping sauce I wanted to use, I used roasted garlic and fresh ginger in the stock, as well as extra peppercorns. I did not use much salt. Your broth can be customized to your tastes!
For hot pot dinner, I reheated the broth to a good boil before adding it to the chafing dish. I added the tomatoes to the broth, as that was an addition in our broth at the restaurant that I really liked, plus we had them in the house. In retrospect, I would have boiled the squash for a bit on the stove top, too.
For table top cooking, we had thinly sliced pork butt and steak, which I can buy locally. Hot pot slicing is about a thick deli slice thickness. If you’re slicing at home, I’d suggest freezing the meat you’re using for 15-20 minutes and using a Very Sharp Knife. We had small mushrooms (enoki would be my recommendation), napa cabbage, baby bok choy, and some winter squash, though this didn’t cook through very well.
Tamari (in our maple syrup crock), the little Nessie soup ladle, and gluten-free gochujang
Dipping sauces can be customized to your tastes, but for our use we had tamari (gluten-free soy sauce), scallions, minced garlic, sesame oil, cilantro, and red pepper flakes. Mix them up and figure out what suits your tastes! Or try any other dipping sauce you have on hand. It’s all about experimentation with flavors.
The Hot Pot spread.
Hot pot is fun and adaptable and is definitely worth a try. If you do try it — or if you go out to a place where you can find food that meets your needs, let us know about it in the comments!
So as many of you know, my husband and I bought a house in January so we could have a garden and grow food, have space to can and do food prep, and make all the things that I need, like soap, lard and tallow, that were really inconvenient to make in a second story balcony apartment. We now have a large garden, a huge lawn, and a lot of fruit trees. And when spring came, we also had a crap ton of ticks.
Because of my allergies and as I was trying to grow safe food, I didn’t want to use pesticides. I looked into diatomaceous earth, but I didn’t want to kill the bees. I looked into commercial stuff I could spray on my clothes, but they didn’t have the inactive ingredients listed, so I didn’t know if it was safe for me. I found an all-natural tick repellent at Blue Seal Feeds that used essential oils, but it had citric acid (corn) in it. I looked online for other all-natural repellents, but they had other corn or coconut derivatives. So I did a little googling, swiped some of the ingredient list from one of the all-natural repellents, and came up with a do-it-yourself version. Make no mistake, it reeks. But if I sprayed down my clothes and my rubber boots with it, I didn’t get ticks. Now, I don’t know if that was coincidence or not, but since I really don’t need Lyme disease in addition to my body deciding to be allergic to the world, I’ll keep using it. Also, if you want more information on ticks and tick-borne diseases, check out the information from the CDC.
Put all the ingredients in your 4 ounce spray bottle, put the sprayer top on and shake well. Spray on clothes and shoes. Make sure you don’t get it into your eyes, it would not be fun.
It also seemed to help with the black flies, but I’ve not yet tried it with mosquitoes. When I do, I’ll let you know how it goes.
This started out to be a different post. Denise and I had gone to a public lecture at one of the big medical facilities in our area to hear an immunologist talk about food allergies. I don’t think either of us held out hope that we would be enlightened, but given our conversations after, I think we’d both hoped to learn something.
We didn’t.
The questions from the audience showed a hunger for knowledge, for answers. About half the audience seemed to be there because they have children with allergies. The other half seemed to be adults with unexplained chronic health issues or actual diagnosed adult-onset food allergies, looking for information and answers. We did not really get answers. There was an implied dismissal of patients who have anything less than full anaphylactic shock (and, again, that was not all that clearly defined other than “can lead to death.” If the actual definition is applied — any reaction involving more than one bodily system reacting — all of us in the food allergy and most in the food intolerance worlds have been in anaphylaxis way more often than we’d believed.). There was also very polite scoffing at anyone searching for answers who believes that food allergy or food intolerance might be the problem.
Denise and I have both encountered this in our fun exciting journeys through western medicine and the US health insurance and health care systems.
Here’s the rub: For some of us really unlucky people in the world, our bodies have decided that foods, some foods, are enemies worse than viruses. This food fight can take a variety of forms. Food allergy is an IgE-mediated allergic response to a food. Food intolerance can be a lack of digestibility (e.g. lactose intolerance) or something more vague than that. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease. The only one of these things that has a clear clinical diagnosis protocol is celiac. In all of these cases, though, the prescription is the same: Avoid eating the things that make you sick. This is generally just good life advice, but when the fight in you takes days, weeks, (or a trip to the ER) to resolve, it’s a little more serious.
So without clear diagnostic protocols, and with a pretty basic (if really time-consuming, life-altering, and fucking annoying) treatment plan — avoid the food — how do you, a sick person, get actionable information about what to do to improve your own health? How many of you have asked your medical professional about certain tests, certain diagnoses, or certain studies that they hadn’t ever heard of? How many of you have relayed information about how you experience symptoms in your body, whether in relation to food or not, and had a doctor ignore that information because they don’t know what it means diagnostically? How many have been told that food has nothing to do with your issues, even if your issues are digestive? How many have waited months to see a specialist who spends 5 minutes listening, shrugs off everything you’ve told them, and then prescribes a drug without explaining anything about it?
I think this is common for those of us with adult-onset food issues — allergies, intolerances, and the like. I know that I read more than my primary care practitioner on the research about food allergies. She has admitted that. She has suggested tests and diagnoses and let me go off to research them and see if I think the descriptions of symptoms fit with my experience. At first I was not on board with this, but now? Who knows better what I feel in my body than me? I’m the only one living here! Besides, she has maybe hundreds of patients. I have only myself and my own symptoms to read up on.
When I research, however, how do I find valid information? Who do you trust, how do you vet your information, and how do you avoid bad data? How do you tune out the really bad advice?
I trust that most of the research being done by federal health agencies (NIH, CDC, FDA) is based on solid scientific methods, that they will be properly cited, and that the authors will be clearly identified. I trust research being done or promoted by FARE is the same. I trust that data provided by major hospital and research groups (Mayo, Dartmouth, Mass General, Kaiser) is also scientifically valid. But bear in mind — scientifically valid and useful are two different things. Like many other people with food allergies, I think I’ve learned as much if not more from other food allergy sufferers as I have from “proper” scientific research. I’m not a scientist, and neither are most of the other food allergy bloggers. Nor are most of us dieticians, doctors, pharmacists, or other medical professionals. But we live it, this food allergy life.
So this is how I try to weed out useful information from randomness. Writers I trust relate their own personal experiences of symptoms, suspected causes, trials and missteps in figuring things out, methods of “research” on themselves, any helpful or non-helpful information from medical professionals, tests, and outcomes or results. They do not try to generalize this to everyone. Most food allergy writers know how idiosyncratic allergy and intolerance presentation is, and they write with that in mind. Writers who generalize that their personal story must be everyone else’s, writers who purposely or knowingly relay “health information” that has been debunked or disproved, writers using anything that sounds like a “health information headline” in a major news outlet (i.e. alarmist and click-baiting), or anyone promoting a magic cure, I do not trust and generally drop from my reading list. Writers who do their research and cite it, I am more inclined to trust and keep reading. This includes anyone whose research is “I tried this and here’s what happened.” Sometimes, we learn best by doing.
Anyone who dismisses all alternative treatment methods outright, I don’t trust. It’s one thing to share studies that show efficacy or lack thereof of different alternative treatments. It’s also great when, again, people share their personal experiences and even their theories. Most of us who are in this boat are or have been desperate at one point or another, and if you try some supplement or massage therapy or anything else in hope, how can I blame you? I understand. Doesn’t mean I’ll follow you, but I’ve done my own experimenting.
The wealth of information available to us is a benefit and a pitfall, I think. Anyone who has had a long bout of ill health with no good answers from their doctors has probably tried the sugar water, and I don’t fault them for that. This is one of the reasons that the gluten-free trend doesn’t bother me that much. People don’t feel great and they are searching for answers. But too many “health” blogs and “health” companies out there promote magic cures that do nothing or, at worst, cause additional harm. I do not believe in magic cures.
You are the only person who has to live in your body and deal with whatever is wrong with it. If you can learn to pay attention to what it’s telling you, I think that is generally your best chance for achieving your own optimal health. This one I feel okay making a generalization on — what better primary source of information do you have than your own bodily experience? With the information you get from paying attention, you can evaluate health information and treatment options from the internet, from well-meaning friends and family, and from your health care professionals.
We don’t have a magic cure. If we did, honestly, I’m not sure I would trust it. I guess the closest thing we’ve come up with as “magic” is being able to make and eat good food that doesn’t want to kill us. That is why we write this blog. I hope at least one or two of our recipes has made you forget you’re being “deprived” of “normal” foods.
So, food allergies can change your life plan a bit. When I (Denise) was young, my witnessing and participation in family dysfunction and associated drama made me decide that I pretty much never wanted to own real estate. I viewed it as a trap, because if you rented, you could bug out at any time, and there were no strings other than some financial penalties for getting out of a lease early. In addition, it was limited responsibility, as it was the landlord’s problem to fix the sink, or whatever else came up, and plow and mow lawns and all that stuff I had very little interest in doing. Also, as a younger adult who owed $100,000 (which later ended up being $130,000 due to hardship forbearance interest capitalization) on my student loans, it’s not like anyone was going to loan me any money to buy a house. The only thing I missed about living in a single family house was being able to have a garden, but it wasn’t a priority at the time. Gardening was something I had done as a kid and a teenager for fun, but when I was still a practicing attorney, it’s not like I had time to spend in the garden when I was working 60 to 80 hour weeks.
When I was diagnosed with food allergies, I wasn’t thinking that my living space needed to change. Most of the first round of foods I lost after testing positive and failing food allergy challenges just necessitated a change in cooking style. When the second round hit, yeah, I needed to make my own lotions, toothpaste, laundry detergent, shampoo, and so on, but it still wasn’t that bad. And then corn reared its golden, pointy head, and said, “Oh yeah? Watch this.” Because I love my condiments and because a corn allergy means no more processed food basically, and because I didn’t have tons of time to make stuff up from scratch each time I needed it, and there was limited freezer space in the apartment (not to mention the 4-5 day power losses we were experiencing every other winter), I elected to learn to water bath and pressure can. Picture over 500 jars of canned food in a two bedroom apartment. Also, picture processing 60 pounds of tomatoes into whole canned tomatoes that you paid a crap ton of money for at your local CSA farmer’s in a small two bedroom apartment kitchen with no windows. And then corn said “Oh, and hey? That Kiss My Face Soap you’re using that’s safe for your coconut allergy? I’ve managed to get myself in that too, although I’m not on the label.” So I started making my own soap, using lye and potassium hydroxide to make my own soap, bar and liquid respectively, to use for soap, shampoo, and laundry detergent. We did it in Mary Kate’s parking lot, and I made a couple of batches on my second floor balcony, with a board under the crock pot so as not to spill caustic lye solution on the downstairs neighbors. Hilarious right?
I had known in the back of my mind since just after the corn diagnosis (about a year and a half before we started looking) that we needed to buy a house. But I just didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be a grown up and deal with all that responsibility, because I had enough stupid food allergy food prep and making-my-own-everything crap to do. So I ignored it for a really long time. But before Stitches East 2014 in October (huge yarn and knitting convention for the non-knitterly), just after picking up a microwave I was borrowing so that I could nuke all the safe food I had canned, wrapping the glass jars in towels in a suitcase because corn totally rules out restaurant eating, I saw a for sale sign and started thinking about it. Maybe because I was sick as a dog with a head cold, the strength of my denial as to the reality of the situation became weak. And then when I got back to the apartment, I went on some real estate sites, and two hours later called my Mom and asked if she thought I was crazy to even think about it. And when she said that she had been thinking that it was probably something I need to do, when she is also fairly anti-real estate, it was really annoying. Because I’d hoped she’d talk me out of it, and if she wasn’t, it was probably fairly obvious that that’s what I needed to do.
So after getting referred to a mortgage company by a friend (if anyone in NH needs a mortgage guy, seriously, Frank is the man), and finding out that there were first time home buyer programs that I could take advantage of and I’d have to put very little money down, it appeared I could buy a house. Which was again, somewhat annoying, because I’d kind of secretly hoped that I couldn’t get financing. But the fact of the matter was, I just couldn’t continue doing what I was doing in my apartment space, spending what I was spending on safe vegetables, and hoping that the neighbors didn’t call the cops on me thinking I was making meth while I made soap on the balcony.
So we signed a purchase and sale in November, negotiating a closing date at the end of January (my lease wasn’t up until the end of March and we were trying to mitigate the financial hit). The big draw on the house was that it has three acres, a good bit of it is cleared, and there are already apple, pear and cherry trees and grape vines, and there was already a fenced in garden area (the photos are from the real estate listing, it’s not close enough to spring yet):
Garden photosGarden photos
We had to paint the whole interior except the walls on one bathroom. These are the before pictures:
Red Wine Vinaigrette Using the Salad Dressing Recipe Theory
Red Wine Vinaigrette Using the Salad Dressing Recipe Theory
Red Wine Vinaigrette Using the Salad Dressing Recipe Theory
Red Wine Vinaigrette Using the Salad Dressing Recipe Theory
Garden photos
Garden photos
dining-room-1
dining-room-2
dining-room-3
entryway-1
entryway-2
entryway-3
entryway-4
family-room-1
family-room-2
first-bedroom-1
first-bedroom-2
first-bedroom-3
first-floor-bath-2
first-floor-bath-3
garage-1
garage-2
garage-3
kitchen-1
kitchen-2
master-bedroom-1
master-bedroom-2
master-bedroom-3
second-bedroom-3
second-bedroom-4
second-floor-bath-1
These are in progress and finished painting pictures. Seriously, I never want to pick up a paint brush again. And if I ever tell anyone that I’m going to paint the entire interior of a house, including ceilings again, slap me. Even with vast amounts of help we got from our friends, for whom we will be forever grateful, it was a crazy undertaking.
stairs
stairs-2
stairs-3
dining room
stairs
kiwi’s room
master bedroom
kitchen
kitchen
kitchen
kitchen
dining room
dining room
hall way
master bedroom
office
kiwi’s room
family room
family room
entry way
dining room
dining room
kitchen
second bathroom
second bathroom
second bathroom
second bathroom
We moved in at the end of February. We unpacked for three weeks, and I got hives from the boxes again (thanks corn!). Here are the unpacked photos, except for the bedroom because I apparently forgot that, and I don’t feel like picking it up and making the bed now so that I can take a picture to put in the slide show:
office
office
office
family room
family room
family room
family room
kitchen
kitchen
kitchen
dining room
dining room
dining room
family room
family room
family room
We’ve had to fix the insulation and ventilation in the roof, which we knew about, and we’ve fixed the furnace twice, which we didn’t know about, and we’re about to replace a water heater, which we didn’t know about either, and a tub and surround because the valve that goes between the shower and faucet decided to let go after we moved in (it’s stuck on the shower setting, so that’s good). And since the plumber’s going to be here, and the double sink in the kitchen is awful for canning, we’re replacing the sink and faucet in the kitchen as well. So, regular new homeowner stuff, except that’s kind of why I never really wanted to buy a house in the first place.
But we’re settled, we have room to move and work now, I’m able to store my canning equipment and food in the garage, and we’ve been able to start our garden some of our seedlings, and we’ve been gifted a few by a friend (Thanks Mary R!):
office
Kiwi’s room
Rainbow peppers from Mary R
Tomatoes from Mary R
Basil from Mary R
Okay, so maybe the Homer Simpson Chia Head isn’t for the garden, but now I have a place that gets enough light that I can have house plants that don’t die. Not that I’m sure that a Homer Simpson Chia Head counts as a house plant.
Eventually, once the snow clears and I’m able to get the garden started in earnest, and I start working on projects again, as I’m low on my homemade liquid soap, and most of my canned food, I’m sure I’ll be much happier about the change. I’m think I’m still in the shell-shocked and exhausted phase, but I think this was the right move for us. I just wish that our street name was different – we now live on Corn Hill Road. Given that my corn allergy was the impetuous for buying this house, I really think I need to get a sign for the house to hang over the door. I want to call it “The House of Irony.”
Here’s your thought experiment for this bright Monday: you live in New England. The snow piles are so high that you, in your sensible, fuel-efficient sedan, can’t see to turn corners. Another blizzard is predicted — the third in a few weeks — to last two days. But you live in New England, and you ignore it. Without really planning it, you get snowed in for two days. You could, were you industrious, brush the car off, shovel it out, brave the roads and hit the grocery store. Or you could scavenge in your own well-but-bizarrely-stocked kitchen and not bother to get dressed. Surely there’s enough food in there for two days.
What do you do?
You can start with soup. What I love about stock is that it’s a way to not waste bits and pieces — you get stock! This also means, though, that there is no real recipe for stock. I mean, you can write one. Wehavebefore. But this one is more of a concept than a recipe. I read something somewhere, likely on Facebook, about making stock in your crock pot. I think I may have linked it on a Friday. I mean, brilliant, right? So if you have a snow day, are not sure what to eat once you’ve demolished the leftovers in the fridge, and own a crock pot, this recipe is for you. Even if it’s not snowing. And even though this isn’t really a recipe.
Stock ingredients
Basic technique: Fill crock pot with stock ingredients. Fill with water. Cook for about a day.
But here’s what I do: I collect things in the freezer. When I roast a chicken or buy a rotisserie one, I keep any skin I don’t eat and all the bones — throw them in a bag in the freezer. Add other things you aren’t using — some leftover vegetables you don’t finish, mushroom stems, the quarter of an onion you don’t need for that recipe, the herbs you bought and don’t need all of. Don’t add celery — it just turns to mush in the freezer– and I’m not a fan of brassicas in stock at all (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage) because they are very strong. Everything else? Fair game.
This stock I took photos of started with a chicken I cooked, leaving all the skin and bones and one whole thigh (I got sick of chicken that week). I also added a bag of “leftovers” from the freezer — mushroom stems, probably three quarters of an onion, and some peas. I did thaw these for a bit, but I’ll tell you my secret cheat for that in a minute.
To this cache from the freezer, I added everything that was still good in the fridge — a few handsful of parsley, a small bunch of thyme, a few carrots, some sad celery with the brown bits cut off, and a tablespoon or so of salt. Sometimes, I add peppercorns. Sometimes, I’ll roast some of the veg first; this adds great flavor, but it’s not necessary for good stock. If you have no fresh herbs, add some dried. I usually add a bay leaf, but I was out this time around. Thyme, basil, oregano, dill — all are good in stock. Add what sounds good. You can also add a bit of tomato paste, but this time, I had just finished a jar of pasta sauce for lunch, so I rinsed it out and added that water to the stock, too.
Pack all this in your crock. Then fill the crock with water. Put on the lid and cook. It really is that easy. Cook 4-6 hours on high (recommended if you started with anything frozen), or 8-12 on low. I’ve never overcooked stock, so I think this is a pretty forgiving recipe.
IF you have started with some frozen or partially frozen parts, here’s how to cheat — generally, crock pots don’t do well with frozen foods. They just don’t get hot enough. I thaw things for a few hours or overnight in the fridge first, but then I add a few cups of boiling water. Not starting from cold seems to help. You can also run the pot on high for the first hour and then turn it down.
When your stock is done, you want to strain out all the “stuff” you just extracted flavor from — I use a giant kitchen bowl with a colander in it. Dump the entire pot in, and then lift out the colander full of bones and vegetables.
If you plan to use plastic to store your stock, let it cool to room temp first. If you’re using jars, it works fine to pour it in hot. Stock should keep about 5 days in the fridge, and a few months in the freezer. Or, hey, get fancy and make some risotto right away with the hot stock.
Let us know if there are any particular ingredients you love in stock!
Courtesy of a holiday trip to the Philadelphia area, I’m so glad to bring you a few brief restaurant reviews. I am finally becoming somewhat comfortable traveling and eating out despite my food allergies. Frankly, it’s about time! I’m still not all that daring, as being sick when on the road is awful, but the Philadelphia area had a lot to offer. (I’ll admit — I also just brought breakfast: instant gluten-free oatmeal, tea, and an electric kettle. Starting off safe makes each day easier.)
We had three notable stops on this trip, places worth sharing with all of you: the Sweet Freedom bakery in Bryn Mawr, Agno Grill in Philadelphia proper, and Yantze Chinese Gourmet in Lansdale. Sweet Freedom and Agno are dedicated, 100% gluten-free restaurants. But let’s go backwards and save dessert for the last, yes?
Yantze Chinese Gourmet is a very nice Chinese restaurant in a very dull and mostly empty strip mall in Lansdale, a suburb north of Philadelphia, and the above link goes directly to their gluten-free menu. It’s a pretty decent menu with a lot of classic American Chinese restaurant dishes on it, and all lunches come with soup and ice cream. There is a chicken rice soup that is solely on the GF menu, which is what I had, and there is a lemon sorbet option for dessert (I did not try that). The staff seems well-versed in what it means to have a gluten-free menu, and I felt comfortable eating there. I ordered the cashew chicken, a personal favorite, and it may have been one of the nicest versions of that dish I’ve ever had.The chicken was moist, the celery crunchy, the cashews nicely toasted and the sauce was flavorful, but not too thick and there was not too much of it. There are a lot of dishes containing nuts, though, so if that’s one of your allergens, your mileage may vary on this review. No photos from this one — I wasn’t thinking of a review at the time, but it really was good enough to mention. This is upscale Chinese.
Agno’s Rice Bowl with chickenAgno’s Steak Wrap
Agno Grill in Philly is a Mediterranean “fast casual” kind of restaurant near Rittenhouse Square that I read about in Kaila’s review at GF Life 24/7. Actually, that recommendation is part of the reason I’m writing about more than just the bakery. Knowing that other people with food allergy issues had an experience worth sharing is incredibly helpful and reassuring. Agno Grill was staffed by two knowledgeable women who were able to answer all my questions about ingredients in their food. I only wish I’d remembered to ask what was in the wraps (I didn’t want one, so it didn’t cross my mind!). I ordered the rice bowl, topped with chicken, the roasted carrot mint salad, the tomato cucumber salad (which did not have feta in it, as the photo on the website shows), and some of the pickled beets, with the lemon oregano sauce. My dining companion ordered a wrap with the steak, the same carrot and tomato salads, and the quinoa tabbouleh, with tzatziki sauce. I also had an iced mint tea, which was excellent. The individual flavors of all the vegetable ingredients really stood out in this meal, even the beets (which I keep trying, even though, eh, I don’t love them). This was a great filling lunch, and if this was in my neighborhood, I would be there regularly.
Sweet Freedom Cinnamon Roll
Ah, Sweet Freedom. The Sweet Freedom Bakery’s list of “free”s is long and very much like my own list of allergies, which means it was freeing for me — of everything in the bakery’s two cases, the only thing I could not order because of my own allergies was the banana chocolate chip cupcake. Because of this, I had trouble not ordering everything.The bakery is vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, corn-free*, wheat-free, peanut-free, soy-free, casein-free, non-GMO, kosher, and refined sugar-free. I admit, I skipped over the last few, and I had no idea until I was looking at the menu again that the place was refined sugar-free — you won’t notice, I promise. They do use a lot of coconut, so they are not “nut-free,” but this was not an issue for me.
*you can read their corn information here, towards the bottom, but they do source vanilla and leaveners without corn. the xanthan gum is corn-derived. YMMV on that.
My top choice was the samoa cupcake. We also ordered a coconut caramel doughnut and a cinnamon roll. We also ordered cookies to take with us — the double chocolate mint chip (good), oatmeal raisin (amazing), a pumpkin cookie (okay), and a snickerdoodle (good). The cinnamon roll was a bit more of a cake texture than a “normal” cinnamon roll, but it still had the outer “crust” and chewiness of a proper cinnamon roll and the taste was spot on. We took another one of these with us for breakfast. The doughnut was a moist cake doughnut with good crumb and rich flavor. The coconut on top neither added to nor detracted from the doughnut; I wish I’d had a chance to taste another flavor of doughnut. To compare, you know?
The samoa cupcake, though, was truly amazing. The cupcake was a yellow cake with a good crumb and lacking the softness that sometimes undermines gluten-free vegan cakes. The cupcake was filled with a rich chocolate frosting and caramel sauce, topped with a vanilla (I think?) frosting, coconut, and caramel and chocolate drizzles. It was rich and decadent and quite lovely. I would try any other cake from this bakery, happily.
It’s possible that Sweet Freedom is out of your way when you visit Philadelphia. It’s worth the detour.
I know, you’re thinking that maybe a pre-holiday post should be cheerful or full of cookies or booze or something, yes? Well, instead we’re thinking more “tragedy prevention” and “preparedness.” We did name our blog “apocalypse,” after all. Being prepared lets me enjoy things.
As great as the holidays can be, they are also potentially dangerous for those of us with food allergies. Potlucks, family dinners, travel, eating out … so many places we don’t fully control our own food. As much as we work to mitigate our own risks, accidents happen. So while we hate to pull this gloom cloud into your holidays, wouldn’t you rather discuss what to do IF something happens than deal with the tragedy of being unprepared?
What is your plan for an accidental food allergy exposure? Do you have one? If you do, do the people around you know what it is and how to work it or help you? Do you AND the people around you know all the possible symptoms of an allergy exposure? It’s not just throat-closing sensations.
DON’T ASSUME. MAKE SURE. HAVE THE CONVERSATIONS.
FARE has an action plan you can use. Make sure your friends and family a) know your allergens, b) know your plan, and c) know where you keep your epinephrine injectors and/or your antihistamines. Make sure they know how to stab you if they need to, make sure they know what to do next. Don’t rely on the ER. You know you’re the only one who can properly advocate for your own care, but remember to do it before you need people to read your mind.
I guess I always feel that if I’m prepared for the worst (you know, like anaphylaxsis) then you can relax and enjoy everything else.
I bought Cara Reed’s cookbook Decadent Gluten-Free Vegan Baking a few months ago. Cara is the genius/madwoman behind the Fork and Beans blog (the woman made her own Cheerios, seriously). I bought the cookbook because I’ve made a few of the recipes on her blog (starting with these adorable ghosts, although I made a lot of weird shapes instead), and I knew that they worked, so I was excited by the cookbook. I am not being compensated for this review — I bought the cookbook with my own hard-earned money, and then I spent the rest of it on gluten-free flours to bake with.
This is, hands-down, one of my top 5 cookbooks I’ve ever purchased. Only a few cookbooks capture my kitchen this way, where I keep picking them up and picking out something new to make from them. I love cookbooks, and I enjoy just reading them. But for the majority of cookbooks, they sit on my shelf a lot and I think about making things from them. This one? I’m baking from, nearly weekly.
THIS IS NOT A HEALTH FOOD COOKBOOK. For anyone who thinks “gluten-free” and “vegan” both mean some weird definition of “healthy,” um, yeah, this isn’t it. This cookbook is cookies and cakes and pastries and sugar and then some more sugar. It is awesome. Cara Reed’s goal in food seems to be bringing us all the cookies and things that we miss, living with food restrictions (chosen or not). She makes pop tarts.
Reed’s recipes are all based on one of her two flour blends. I’ve only made the standard one, and I’ve been through 3 recipes of it (it makes 9 cups. NINE CUPS.) I’m sure I’ll get to the second blend; I keep meaning to. But making flour blends is one of the *sigh* *so much work* BAH parts of gluten-free baking, so the fact that I have one on hand means I’m more likely to bake. The fact that this one is half sorghum was also a selling point for me; so far, I’ve had more luck with sorghum than any other gluten-free flour.
The one and only “problem” I’ve had with any of these recipes is that, in my oven, the cooking times are too short, by anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. At the moment I’ve misplaced my oven thermometer, but it was good 6 months ago. Regardless, this is a pretty easy issue to fix. It is consistent enough that I’m adding 5 minutes of time to every recipe and then going from there, though. Different ovens.
So far, I’ve made the following recipes:
Chocolate Cloud cookies, which were quick, easy, and chocolate
Brown Sugar donuts
Cracked Pepper and Herb Drop Biscuits (but I made them plain)
Gingerbread cupcakes
Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes
Blackout cake
Whiteout cake
Chocolate “Soufflés” Individual cakes (more like lava cakes)
Cinnamon Streusel Coffee cake
Pumpkin Streusel bread
Dark Chocolate Quick bread
and several frostings for this
High on the list of things to try:
the Samoas
Cheese-Its
cheesecakes (Key Lime Bars, and strawberry cheesecake)
Chocolate Indulgence biscuits
the almond croissants and danish squares
Cinnamon Raisin loaf
Okay, does that list make you drool? If not, really? I’d offer photos, but it turns out that I’ve not remembered to photograph a single one of these recipes. They are *that good.*
When I had to start gluten-free baking, along with the vegan side (the egg allergy was new at the same time, but I was so good at vegan cake already that it didn’t matter), I failed so much. I made brownies that no one wanted to eat. The experiments that weren’t inedible just weren’t very good. I tried a few cookbooks, but honestly, I was disappointed, overall, with the results. Gluten-free failures are expensive, too! I have been a baker since I was 10 years old. I have always loved baking, especially cakes. I’ve gone through several obsessive baking phases — first Bundt cakes and then for a while vegan cupcakes. This is a less thematic baking cookbook to be obsessed with, which is nice. But the other thing that’s nice is that these recipes all work.