An additional food allergy land mine has appeared among our friends. The youngest member of the Friday night crew has been diagnosed with gluten intolerance and egg allergy. This is indeed problematic, since many gluten-free bread recipes rely on egg protein to provide a semblance of structure. And meringue cookies are now verboten for the youngster. However, we can roll with just about anything around here.
Last week was our annual Latkepalooza Hanukkah party. Since I didn’t want to confuse things by having separate gluten- and egg-free latke batters, I just made glorified hash browns. The following night was my department’s holiday party. I knew one of my coworkers had a gluten issue, so I made a brown rice salad with dried cranberries, pecans, and a maple-balsamic vinaigrette. It was well received by everyone. (The glutenphobe was not in attendance.)
Tonight is the annual Candy Cane Lane party that my former next door neighbor has hosted for at least 20 years. The “known teenagers” from our early days in Seattle are now known twenty-somethings and scattered all over, but many of them still show up for this party. I made the traditional eggnog bread with dried tart cherries, dried apricots, and raisins. (No nuts.) I’m reprising the brown rice salad, but added a little bit of sage to amp up the Christmas feel. I haven’t decided whether to add any pecans to this batch. I can’t use walnuts since at least two of our crew are allergic to them; in addition, Julian has dropped a not-so-subtle hint that he’d like to have pecan pie over the holidays.
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