Happy Blogiversary To Me!

So, it's a little late, but NOW I feel like celebrating. Will there be cake? Yes! Finally! I will be posting that recipe next. Will there be presents? Of course! I am holding my first ever give away drawing. I have seen other bloggers do this and I think it's a fabulous idea! I have met so many wonderful people in our allergy community this past year. All of you have encouraged and inspired me more than you can imagine, and I want to thank you for being a part of my life. In addition to my thanks, and a great big virtual allergen free hug, I want to give you presents! There will be two separate drawings for which Emily will be pulling names out of a hat...maybe even a party hat. The first is for a bag of Pamela's Gluten Free Bread Mix (formerly known as Pamela's Amazing Wheat Free Bread Mix, and quite frankly I'm sad that they changed the name), the second is for a bag of Tinkyada rice pasta (you choose the shape). If you are interested please leave the name of your blog if you have one...free advertising...and your email address in my comments section, and let me know which item you would like to try for (both would be fine). Also, if you are not comfortable leaving your email here for all to see, you may send it to me at cgweber@bendbroadband.com . If you win I will contact you for your address and to find out what kind of pasta you would like. The drawing will be held Monday, March 9th. Best of luck, I'd send them to everyone if I could! Once again, thank you all for joining me on this journey. Here's to another spectacular year!!!

Happy Birthday Emily!!!

Is that a great picture or what? That is a picture of the candy and silk rose petals being released from the fabulous pull string pinata that the girls and I made for the party. Emily decided that she wanted a fairy theme and since we were on a budget this year we had to get creative. I bought a couple of 88 cent school folders with pictures of the Disney Pixie Hollow fairies on them and we used them to cover a cereal box (and decorate the walls). Then the girls added some tissue paper flowers to the sides, and Emily suggested a little skirt around the bottom made of silk rose petals. I tied many, many ribbons to the top for strength, then punched holes in the bottom and tied lots of ribbons on to the lower flaps to be pulled later. Next we filled it to the brim with candy and flower petals, and I hot glued it shut. (I think I may have also prayed at that point that the whole thing would actually work when the time came...and my prayers were answered!) Here are some pictures of the pinata after it had been opened and I laid the empty carcass out on my kitchen table.

We also played a home made game of "Pin The Wings On The Fairy" that looked like this.

Last, but certainly not least, we all decorated our own cupcakes...always a crowd pleaser! Emily had her cupcake which, by the way, I think I am almost ready to post the recipe for. Everyone else had Betty Crocker cupcakes. We used Duncan Hines Vanilla frosting and Dark Chocolate Fudge frosting, both of which are dairy free. Here is the birthday girl decorating her cupcake.

I want to thank everyone again for your kind words of encouragement. You were right, the party was great! HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!

Thank You :)

I got so many comments and emails on that horrible post I wrote the other day that I thought instead of responding in my comment box I would put it out here for all to see...Thank you! I was overwhelmed by the encouraging responses from all of my friends. Friends I have never met and yet now I realize that our friendships are not any less real. I am so thankful to have our online allergy community and support network. I read all of your comments and emails yesterday and then I had a good long, cleansing, therapeutic cry. It was just what I needed. I feel renewed and revived and ready to face a new day. As recipes go, however, I am still having a dry spell. I have plenty of foods for Em, but in order to feel vital I need to create NEW things. So, as usual, I am taking requests. If anyone has a dish that they want to see transformed into allergen free I'd love to hear from you! Thank you again everyone, truly!
Allergen free hugs,
Charmaine

Caution...Depressed Blogger Ahead

This is not the post I had hoped to be writing. This is supposed to be a big month for me. I started this blog one year ago and I thought I could write a whole post about my one year blogiversary. I enjoy creating allergen free recipes, I get excited about posting them, and I love hearing from my readers so much...but here it is my one year anniversary and I find myself burned out and tired. I just don't feel like celebrating.
Emily's birthday is next week too. I had planned on developing the perfect allergen free cake by now. I had given myself a whole year to figure it out. I was going to be the most amazing chef ever with my gluten free, egg free, dairy free cake that looked, tasted, and felt just like "the real thing"! The cake is getting better, I will admit, but it's still not what I want it to be. It's not ready to post. We will be having cupcakes this year...Emily with hers, and everyone else with Betty Crocker.
Then there is her party. My husband lost his job last month, then got hired by another company, only to find out that they too are closing their doors. I have been looking for work since September, but apparently staying home and taking care of allergy ridden children for 10 years doesn't look impressive on a resume. I know I should just take a deep breath and relax but I don't want a bunch of strangers in my filthy house. I don't want to feel like I should apologize for the home made pinata or the lack of toys in the goody bags, and especially not for the allergen free food! I just don't feel like celebrating.
Remember way back when I started this blog and I said I would be doing some venting? Well I've been having so much fun that I never really had anything to vent about. Now I do...thank you for listening. Gosh this feels so wrong. Everything I have said here is so opposite of what it was supposed to be. This should have been my happiest, most fun, and excitement filled month ever, and I really am sorry that I just don't feel like celebrating. Maybe next month. :)

Scalloped Potatoes- GF/DF

The simple solution to "cheesy" scalloped potatoes would have been to melt Emily's fake cheese and pour it all over them. The problem with that, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, is that Emily's fake cheese doesn't smell very good. As a matter of fact, her sisters insist that the smell of it makes them sick to their stomachs. Well, the last thing I need is for the people Emily admires most to be telling her how "disgusting" her food is! Because nutritional yeast has been described as having a cheesy/nutty flavor I thought I would give it a try. I tasted these myself (even though I am a gluten and dairy eater) and I thought they were quite delicious, and best of all they smelled good too!

4 to 6 Medium sized red skin potatoes
4 T Dairy free margarine
3 T Sweet rice flour
1 ½ c Warm chicken broth
½ c Soy milk (or other milk alternative, another 1/2 c. chicken broth works fine also)
1/8 t curry powder (optional)
1 t Onion powder
2 T Nutritional yeast
½ t Salt
Pepper to taste

Grease a medium casserole dish. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the potatoes into ¼” slices and put them into the casserole dish. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan melt the 4 T of margarine over medium heat. Sprinkle in the sweet rice flour. Stir and cook for one minute. Add about ¼ of the warm broth and stir until smooth. Continue to add broth, a little at a time, stirring until smooth after each addition. Add the Milk substitute and again stir until smooth. Stir in curry powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Boil for one minute while stirring.

Pour the sauce over the potatoes and toss until potatoes are all coated.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.