Really!

Overheard at a local cafe' this morning: One of the waitresses was complaining about having to accommodate peoples' food allergies. "Why don't they just stay home?" was her comment. I didn't know having allergies qualified you as a social outcast. Don't people with allergies have the right to as normal a life as we can get? I had walked to the restaurant for a coffee and was upset by what this gal said. I shed a few tears on my walk home. She's also the one that said mental illness is bogus.

Some day that "goes around" thing will get her. Sounds unchristian, but I hope I'm there to see it.

Chip Problem

Up until now I have been able to eat Lay's Kettle Cooked plain potato chips because they weren't cooked in corn oil. They have reformulated their product and now "corn oil may be used." I e-mailed the company and this is the reply I got,

"Martha, the corn oil we use to cook our chips has gone through a heated cleaning process that removes the protein residues. When an individual has an allergy, they are allergic to the protein in the offending food. With the protein removed, most corn allergic people can eat snacks made with this oil.

We also make Lay's Natural Thick Cut potato chips cooked in expeller pressed sunflower oil. You'll find this in the natural food section of most grocery stores.

We consider you a valued consumer and hope you will continue to enjoy snacks from Frito-Lay."

The thing is, the jury is still out on the heated cleaning process actually removing all the allergy causing proteins. I KNOW I've had a reaction to corn-oil cooked chips. The key word is "most corn-allergic people."

I'll look for the natural thick cut chips, but in our rural area some products aren't available. In the meantime I'm eating another brand of kettle chips but I don't like them as well as the Lay's.

Not worth my well-being to take them at face value.

Sorry It's Been so Long!

Things are nuts in my life right now, so my blogs are being neglected. Our son, his wife and their 5 year old boy have been living with us for almost three months now, and all my routines have gone out the window!

I have been cooking but nothing original. I did, however, figure out that Jell-o is safe for me to eat, so the other day I picked up a big box of strawberry flavor.

This is what I did with it:

Dissolve in 2 cups boiling water, stir in 8 ounces softened cream cheese. In a food processor, chop 3 cups frozen whole strawberries. (I used what we grew last summer-yum!) Stir into Jell-o mixture and chill.

That's it! It was almost like a dessert, so I ate some with dinner, then had a bit more for dessert just to cover my bases!

Next project-I bought a bag of quinoa flour and I'm going to use it in my cookie recipe to see if I can get better results that what I've been using.

The kids are applying for an apartment this week, so hopefully I'll get my house back and also my routine!