Easter and Earth Day

It seems the monotony of the last month has caught up to us... or maybe it's because the snow's gone... but the last few days have been packed full of activities.

We don't usually do much for Easter. We used to decorate eggs like crazy when I was younger and we've dried them and kept them because some of them are pretty outstanding, but because Toby is allergic to eggs I've never really pushed the egg decorating thing.

This year though, he's old enough to look at it as an art project and not just as something he's left out of eating.

First of all he reminded me that we bought baby animal cookie cutters to make Easter cookies, so we did that. He keeps staring at these photos of ornate cookies and lamenting that we never put icing on ours, so we decided to paint-ice these ones.

A lesson in colour mixing before we begin.

Our masterpieces.

After our eatable eggs were painted, we coloured our real eggs.

Toby's first time dying Easter eggs.

I wanted to use natural dyes, but didn't plan ahead on this one at all so I scrounged together what I had. I found some frozen blueberries that we used for blue/purple, we used tumeric for yellow, and I tried to used some leftover artichoke water for green, but when you mixed in the vinegar (to act as a fixative on the eggs) it turned a horrible shade of apple juice.... so we used green food dye for green...

Ended up looking pretty good!

(Toby's favourite colour is green, can you tell?)

I hard boiled the eggs, foreseeing one being dropped, which it did. Toby was mortified, but I said it was ok because we could do something cool with it.

This Martha Stewart Spiderweb Eggs idea is in a book I have, so we tried it.
You're supposed to cook the eggs with the blueberries, so ours wasn't as dark, but still cool!

Because we used vinegar in the egg dye, Toby eventually piped up "Isn't vinegar supposed to explode or something when you put stuff in it?"
I confirmed that he meant baking soda, so we experimented with the leftover dye and a big bowl of baking soda.

SCIENCE!

The reason I've included Earth Day in this post is because Toby, knowing that the eggs we did would need to be broken so we could eat them before they went bad, still didn't want to get rid of the shells.
I said they're hard to take off in one piece when they're boiled.
He said he knew that, but maybe we could make an art project out of them instead of throwing them out.

So today he drew a picture of the Earth and we made an egg shell mosaic.

Our Earth Day  activities also included a clean up of the road in front of our house and discussions about littering and looking after the planet.
We thought we'd maybe wander around and get a couple grocery bags of trash, but we ended up with 6 grocery bags, plus three garbage bags we found in a ravine and a bucket full of dried cement. GROSS PEOPLE.

Happy Earth day everyone!

Recipe for a Winter Picnic

Recipe For a Winter Picnic

Supplies Needed:
One exited pre-schooler
One large floor space
One large blanket or table cloth
One picnic bag or basket
A variety of food

Begin by attempting to decipher what pre-schooler would like to pack for picnic. Make executive decision that spaghetti might not be the best choice. Settle for leftover mashed potatoes with beans, tuna salad sandwiches and fried egg sandwich (for those of us with no egg allergy).
Begin preparing food.
Direct pre-schooler to find ingredients in fridge and pantry.
Retrieve ingredients yourself after pre-schooler chooses to spend time dividing cherry tomatoes between 4 containers.
Instruct pre-schooler to find a container for the sandwiches.
Retrieve containers yourself while pre-schooler searches fridge for garlic stuffed olives. Give fork to pre-schooler to extract olives from bottom of jar.
Ask pre-schooler if the remains of tuna salad should be put in fridge or packed. Verdict: packed. Ask for container. Settle on dividing it between 2 containers instead of 4.
Allow pre-schooler to pack cans of beans and a can opener, even though they weigh a ton and you know you won't eat them.
Ask pre-schooler what beverage should be brought. Accept the lemon they hand you and the request for homemade lemonade.
Juice lemon while pre-schooler packs bags of almonds and boxes of raisins.
Stop juicing lemon and allow pre-schooler to stir after discovery that you were allegedly supposed to let pre-schooler juice the lemon.
Re-pack bag after pre-schooler dropped it on floor trying to carry it over to you.
Remember that you haven't found picnic blanket yet.
Hunt for picnic blanket in giant trunk full of blankets and sheets.
Lay blanket in pre-tidied play room.
Venture back to kitchen to get picnic bag, camera and cellphone (all important things for a picnic).
Spend over an hour eating all the food you packed (silly you, thought it was too much).
Photo document event.

Garden project

Happy New Years Everyone.
One year ago this week I started blogging!!

Alright, here's my question..
Would anyone be interested in buying veggies from Toby and I this summer on a pick-your-own basis?
I don't have the energy or the time to go to market every Saturday, but we love what we do and often have more than we need.
If there is enough interest we will be ordering extra seeds, so I'd like to know before we order in a few weeks if it's worth it to get a larger variety of things and more of them than we would normally get.
Typically we would have peas/snow peas, beans, salad mix/lettuce, radishes, zucchini, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, carrots, beets and peppers.... Thinking about some other kinds of veggies too, but not sure yet...Was thinking about having a variety of herbs for picking as well... maybe pumpkins in the fall but not sure if we have the room yet.
Lettuce and herbs would be sold by weight, and others would be sold by the bunch or 'each'.

Let me know what you guys think!

If there's interest I'll set up a facebook 'group' to keep everyone updated.

Gluten-free Goodness

Although neither Toby or I have been labeled as Celiac, I still try to do a lot of gluten-free baking and buy gluten free products for the variety. Toby has sometimes displayed extreme moodiness after having something with wheat it in. Still not sure if it's a coincidence or food related, but I've kept it cut back just for now to be sure.

Most times the reactions I get from people when I say what kind of 'diet' we're on is "Oh wow that must really suck".

Well why does it have to?? Gluten-free can be utterly delicious.

Ok, yes, if you take a bite form a gluten free pizza and then a bite from a 'normal' one, inevitably you're going to like the regular pizza better. But when you've eaten the stuff at the not-so-good end of the gluten-free spectrum you can truly appreciate the AMAZING stuff that they're coming out with.

-For one thing: Glutino.
Best. Brand. Ever.
Gluten-free pretzels. Honestly, better than regular pretzels.











And they have cookies that are better than 'real' cookies. Om nom nom

-Bob's Red Mill flours and mixes.

This is the brand of rice flour I get. Also was just turned on to the brownie mix. So freakin delicious. Tried their pizza dough mix and it was ok, but not fabulous. Still looking for a 'fluffy' GF pizza dough recipe..

-O'Dough's breads.

Closest thing to 'real' tasting bread I've found. Although there is a 'may contain traces of egg' clause and it gave Toby a rash... so no more fabulousness for me..

I've created a really good banana muffin recipe and have an amazing fruit cocktail cake recipe. It IS possible for things to taste good when gluten free.

People have been asking for my pie crust recipe. As far as I can tell, any kind of pastry is one of the hardest gluten free things to mimic because it just ends up being really crumbly.

The pie crust recipe I use is from a regular recipe, (The Canadian Living Cookbook, pg 226) I just substituted.

Double Crust pie steps
1. Prepare pastry for double-crust, 9-inch pie.
2. Prepare filling: In large bowl combine fruit, sugar and thickener, spices or other flavourings.
3. Line greased pie plate with pastry
4. Fill with fruit mixture
5. Cover with top crust
6. Back in 425F for 15 minutes, then reduce to 350F for 35-40 minutes more, until fruit is tender, juice in thickened and crust golden brown.

Basic Pie Crust (recipe makes two single shell pie crusts or one double-crust pie.)

2 1/4 cups pastry flour (I used rice flour)
1 tsp salt
(1 tsp xanthan gum, if gluten free)
3/4 cup shortening (I used lactose-free margerine)
4-6 Tbsp cold water

-In mixing bowl, combine flour and salt (and xanthan gum). Cut in shortening with pastry blender or rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few larger pieces. The fine crumbs produce tenderness, the larger produce flakiness.
(not sure if that last part really applies for gluten-free, but you get the idea)
-Stirring briskly with fork, gradually add just enough water, 1 Tbsp at a time, to make dough hold together. (I usually end up with 4 Tbsp i think) Press into ball. Cut in two, flatten each into a disc.
(This is where it get tricky if gluten-free. There will inevitably be crumbs, but hopefully the xanthan gum and water can combine enough to not make it fall apart completely. Just handle with care and try to keep it contained)
-Roll out between two pieces of wax paper to prevent sticking and cracking.
- Remove top layer of wax paper and carefully 'flip' crust into pie plate. (Maybe there's a more glamorous way of doing this, but it works... sometimes) Repeat for top crust.

Fruit/Sugar/Thickener ratios
Apple - 5 cups, peeled and sliced/1/2 to 1 cup sugar plus 1/2 tsp cinnamon/ none
Blueberry - 4 cups/ 3/4 cup/ 6 Tbsp flour or 3Tbsp cornstarch
Peach - 5 cups, peeled and sliced/ 3/4 cup/ 4 Tbsp flour or 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Raspberry - 4 cups/ 1 cup/ 4 Tbsp flour or 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Rhubarb - 4 cups, cut in 1/2" pieces/ 1 1/2 cups/ 6 Tbsp flour or 3 Tbsp cornstarch
Cherry - 4 cups, pitted/ 1 cup/ 4 Tbsp flour or 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Strawberry - 4 cups, halved/ 3/4 cup/ 4 Tbsp flour or 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Strawberry-Rhubarb - 3 cups strawberries plus 2 cups chopped rhubarb/ 1 1/2 cups/ 6 Tbsp flour or 3 Tbsp cornstarch

--If you are using frozen fruit instead of fresh, thaw just enough to separate, then proceed exactly as with the fresh fruit, but increase thickener. Generally frozen fruit requires twice as much thickener as fresh fruit because it produces more juice.

(For thickeners, flour will produce 'cloudy' juice and cornstarch will produce 'clear' juice. Rice flour tends to stay 'gritty' and doesn't fully dissolve, so I use cornstarch, but the pie needs to cook about 20 minutes longer to allow the cornstarch to cook fully)

Gluten-Free crumble topping
(This is my mom's creation since she loves apple crisp but can't have oats or flour)

1 cup GF flour
1/4 cup flax meal
1/2 cup brown sugar
'Some margerine' (about 2 Tbsp... )
'Drizzle' of honey.... about a Tbsp or less.

-Combine flour, flax meal and sugar in medium sized bowl
- Mix in margerine with a fork using brisk movements. Should resemble coarse meal.
- Drizzle in honey and continue to mix with fork until all flour is mixed in and starts to resemble coarser meal with little balls.

-Spread on top of whatever fruity thing you're making, be it pie or crisp. Should be golden brown when done, but tends to burn if left too long... on pies that need to bake longer either wait until fruit is half cooked before spreading on, or cover with tin foil when top looks golden.

Allergies

I have always wanted to know what it's like to live food-allergy free. To go grocery shopping without reading the label of every item you pick up.... and then dissapointingly put it back down. To go to a restaurant and not have to try and guess what might be in things before you make an order...
I grew up in a household of food allergies, so i'm used to it. I have a dairy intolerance - If I have dairy products too often I get high anxiety and my immune system drops out so I usually get a wicked cold at the end of a week of 'cheating'. My mom can't have gluten or rice or dairy (ie 90% of the stuff in a grocery store) So i grew up with home baking with weird types of flour. My sister has a gluten intolerance, but other than that can eat pretty much anything. My dad is supposedly sensitive to dairy, but he'd be the last to admit it lol.

All that is fine enough... I"m used to it... I wish it was different, but it's not like peanut butter where I stop breathing or something, so i cheat the odd time, or go overboard and regret it... but i'm used to it.

But being used to it doesn't really mean I"m happy about it. And so during my entire pregnancy I kept hoping and praying that Toby would be allergy free. I wanted him to be able to eat real food. Personally, I wanted to eat real food, because replacement foods are really expensive.

But at around three months of age the problems started.
As I've said before, Toby has never been one to sleep well. When he was young  he'd have screaming fits in the evening before finally wearing himself out, but then still waking and screaming 6-8 times during the night.
I looked up some stuff on the internet about screaming babies and found a lot of foods that were reccomended that breastfeeding moms not eat because babies with sensitive tummies get really bad aches.
I cut out broccoli, citrus, chocolate and onions. It doesn't seem like much, but it was just after Christmas and i had been eating a lot of chocolate and oranges and drinking orange juice, and as I later discovered there is either dehydrated onion or onion powder in EVERYTHING.
So the screaming got slightly better, but he still didn't like sleep.
Then the rash started.
A small spot on his belly... a few behind his knee... then some on his ankles....the whole underside of his arm... more spots on his belly... all over his neck.....

This is 6 months old... you can see the spots on his tummy and some on his legs.... the scratch on his head is from him raking at his face all night with his nails.

I had asked my doctor several times what to do and he just told me it was childhood eczema and to put cream on it to keep Toby from scratching.
But the itch wasn't the point.... the point was that it kept spreading and no matter how much cream I put on, it didn't go away. I wanted to know what was causing it. I kept telling myself that maybe I was overreacting, Maybe it was just sensitive skin like most babies have. But in the back of my head that nagging little voice said 'It's a food allergy.... he's got one... he's not going to get normal, easy food... you're doomed..."

I did a ton of research online about baby rashes. Most of them were not food related... the ones that were looked nothing like Toby's rash.
I found a list of common allergens in kids under 2, so I started cutting things out of my diet to see if it helped. I already wasn't consuming dairy, and I cut gluten out as well. It didn't seem to do anything...but it takes two weeks for a food to completely leave your system, and another week for Toby to feel better and then after that if the rash heals then I would be considered right. But that was a month. A month of not knowing if what I was doing WAS right and another month of the rash possibly getting worse.
So I cut out more all at once, including the stuff I had cut out because of assumed acid reflux.
No dairy, gluten, egg, corn, chocolate, onion, garlic, broccoli, strawberries, peanut butter or citrus. I also cut down on red meat.
Go read some labels in your pantry. I bet at least one of those things is in almost everything there.
I very quickly had to research vegan and vegetarian diets to figure out how to get enough proteins. I shopped a lot at farmers markets. Ate a lot of chicken and rice and peas.
Changing your diet THAT drastically is NOT recommended.... which I didn't find out until well into the change.... I felt the healthiest I'd felt in a LONG time, but I lost a lot of weight as a result. And if you've seen me, you know there's not much to lose. Plus I had a frequently breastfeeding baby sucking half the nutrients out of my body.
Months went by. I kept a nauseatingly detailed food journal. I started taking photos of his rash in progression. I started seeing a Naturopath. I started Toby on homeopathic supplements. I was incredibly anal about what he was allowed to eat when he started eating solid foods.

Rash pictures

Nothing I did made much difference. Some days his rash seemed fine. A few days later it flared up and I had no idea what I had eaten. I thought maybe it took two days for a reaction to show up so I kept waiting on suspicious foods to react, but never did. I was starting to give up. I told myself again that I was over reacting. I told myself again that it was just eczema.
But somehow I knew it was more than that... the rash changed to frequently.... it never went away.

Finally I figured it was either strawberries or egg.... or corn.... maybe....

He was eating a lot of different solid foods and didn't seem particularly better or worse. So one day, when Toby was 15 months old, I said screw it, here's an egg.
I gave him half a hard boiled egg yolk... he LOVED it....he wanted more but I said no, but then gave him half a banana muffin made by grandma (with egg in it obviously, but no gluten).

This is what happened

Well ok then.... I guess Toby is allergic to egg.
But I had cut out egg already right???
I went back and read my food journals. I re-read all the labels of the food I had.
Turns out I cheated a couple times and had a small piece of pie with 'possibly traces of egg' and the gluten free bread I had found and was all excited because it was delicious contained 'traces of egg'.
That's it.
That was enough.
I strictly cut out everything that even had the remotest chance of containing something that may have come into contact with an egg as some point in it's existence.

One week later.

Toby now has a small spot on his collar bone that flares up once in a while if I happen to eat a piece of cake or muffin or something. Once in a small while he'll ask for a piece of the cookie i'm trying to sneak behind his back, and i'll give him some, and the next day the spot on his neck is red.
I keep hoping he'll grow out of it. Some people say kids do by age 5. But I'm not sure if I want to believe that and get my hopes up. He can only eat baked goods if I make them with a powdered egg-replacer and I have a suspicion that gluten affects his mood, much the way dairy did with me when I was young. So I've been doing a lot of experimenting with gluten-free/vegan recepies.
But I have to say.... It's broadened my kitchen skills. It's broadened my culinary imagination.
Being forced to be creative in the kitchen has allowed me to have some fun with cooking and rediscover my love for food.
It's inspired me to want to take a chef training course once Toby's in school.
It's inspired me to want to open a vegan cafe and have a portion of the goods also be gluten-free.

Food allergies can be so restricting...But there a lot of people who CHOOSE to eat that way for better health, or political reasons, it doesn't matter....And as with anything the world has become more accepting of people who choose to follow different diets and the food industry is slowly increasing it's answer to the call for more 'food substitute' choices.
Maybe I can raise Toby to be one of the one's who answers.

Sick-time food

We've been really fortunate here to not be sick all winter. Save for a few days on stomach flu before Christmas, we've managed to avoid the colds and fevers going around.
Every time Toby or I show even the slightest signs of getting a cold I make a bunch of high vitamin, high anti-oxidant foods to boost the immune system.
Granted, Toby is a kid who will eat a wide variety of foods, and not all of these are suitable for kids under 18 months, but you can pull from these ideas what you will...

Garlic Soup.

One tub of homemade chicken stock
8 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 Tbsp dried oregano

For my chicken stock I cover chicken bones with water in a deep pot and add carrots, celery, several cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, rosemary, oregano and a touch of salt. Boil for a couple hours uncovered. The water will evaporate and the nutrients in the stock become concentrated. Ladle contents in to a sieve held over a large bowl or measuring cup. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate over night. Carefully spoon excess fat off that will have congealed on the top, stir the remaining juices, and then I pour into washed margarine containers for freezing.

For the soup, I pop out the frozen puck of chicken stock with about an inch of water into a pot and add the sliced garlic and oregano. Bring to boil. I serve it in a mug with a straw and we make a game out of drinking the broth to find the garlic chunks at the bottom and then fish them out with a spoon to eat (Toby's favourite part)

Benefits
-The broken down chicken contains amino acids that loosen congestion. Also it's a good way to get proteins back in your system during stomach flu.
-Garlic is an antioxidant and aids in circulation and keeping low blood pressure. It's used as an all-round immune and health booster in many herbal remedies.
-Oregano has anti-viral and antibacterial properties and improved respiratory health.


Garlic Ginger Tea

4 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 slices of fresh ginger

Pour two cups of boiling water over garlic and ginger and let steep.
It may sound like an odd tea, but it actual has a very mild soothing flavour!

Benefits
-Again, garlic is an antioxidant and will help clear your body of 'bugs' and boost your immune system.
- Ginger sooths the digestive tract and can help ease nausea. It has anti inflammatory properties so it can ease pain and reduce cold and flu symptoms.

Chamomile and peppermint teas (as long as they are true herbal teas and not flavoured tea leaves) also are very soothing and ease headaches and promote rest.



Salmon Avocado Salad


1 can solid sockeye salmon
1 small ripe avocado
1 Tbsp Nayonaise (or regular Mayo) (optional)
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 sheet of sushi nori (seaweed), crumbled
black pepper

This stemmed from Toby asking for sushi (even tho we'd just ate a bunch the night before) but i was out of rice so i gave him some nori to munch on while I made a salmon salad for lunch, and this yumminess was born.
Drain canned salmon and mash together with avocado in a bowl. Add mayo if desired - it makes a creamier texture, but if your avocado is really ripe and creamy you may choose not to use it. Add oregano, black pepper to taste and crumble the nori into the bowl. Mix well.
I served it with rice cakes, and Toby like sunflower seed butter on his.

Benefits
-Salmon contains Omega-3 Fatty acids, loads of vitamins, and calcium - especially from the calcified bones that appear in canned salmon.
- Avocado is packed with vitamins as well, and the high fat content of the fruit means you feel fuller on healthier food and are less likely to snack on other not-so-good foods (which is good when you have a cold!)
- Oregano, again, had anti-viral and antibacterial properties
-Nori, seaweed contains Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Potassium, Magnesium and Riboflavin
- Black pepper can diminish the amount of gas in the intestinal system and reduce bloating

This one wouldn't be good food for stomach flu, but to ward off the common cold it's great!


Even just throwing garlic and oregano in everything you make (rice, potatoes, stir-fry) is better than nothing!

Get well soon!!

Salmon Avocado Salad

The dip-and-scoop

The taste test

Yumm!!