So I'm not the only one...

Being a foodie, I'm on a number of email lists for recipes. Imagine my surprise when I got this from Epicurious today. It is nice to see mainstream recipe sites look at food allergies. Maybe, Cooks Illustrated could do a recipe or two, too. Oh, and Alton Brown does have a fantastic chocolate chip cookie recipe. They are best if you let the dough sit in the fridge for a day or two before baking them.

Wheat-free in a wheat eating world

My entire life I have been an allergy kid, not as bad as some, but I was rushed to the emergency room on more than one occasion. I have hay fever and am allergic to almost all of the outdoors. The only good thing about allergies is that I have never once mowed a lawn. Some might say I'm missing out, but I'm OK with that.

The fall of 2001 M and I moved to Atlanta. Little did I realize that Atlanta is the allergy capital of the world. Did you know people without allergies will actually develop them after moving here!?!? Needless to say, I was miserable. So, after a year of countless sinus infections, I went to see a new Doc, or the quack, as my Dad calls him.

The MD also specialized in acupressure, which is similar to acupuncture. Using this technique he was able to determine allergies that I knew I had and some that I was unaware of. For instance, I knew I had trouble with pollen, but it turns out I am most allergic to loblolly pines, a little ironic I have to say. One of the most prevalent trees in Atlanta, they line 400, they leave the awful yellow covering everywhere in Atlanta, no wonder I was sick! He also said I was allergic to wheat. Wheat!?!?! The stuff I and most of America eats all day everyday. Want a sandwich (wheat), a donut (wheat), pasta, cake, cookies, bagels, all wheat. Anything with flour in it. He said wheat could be the cause of my headaches.

So, fast forward six years, after taking wheat out of my diet, eating it in moderation, or just saying screw it, I'll eat whatever I want, I have successfully removed wheat from my diet since Christmas. Now, I'll admit I've cheated once or twice, but the vast majority of what I put in my mouth is wheat-free. The results have been pretty cool. I've lost about 8 pounds, I think I have more energy, and I know my headaches have become less frequent. All-in-all, I have to say this experiment has been pretty successful and I plan to keep it up as long as I can.

This could mean a life of no bread, no cake, no dessert, no more baking for my friends and family. Watching M cry in the corner as I no longer make any of his favorite baked goods. But, I'm not going to let that happen, I hate it when M cries. Instead, I have started reading up on alternative flours and experimenting even more in the kitchen. With some good results and some pretty bad.

I have two goals with these kitchen adventures:

1. make stuff that tastes good to me
2. make stuff that M will eat too, after all he is the picky one.

Wish me luck!

Hmmm....

So, the Mothership has an edgy new campaign in Australia.

Someday, I'll figure out how to upload a video.

Midweek update

Weather:
Atlanta is still recovering from the tornado. There are some pretty scary pictures on line and some pretty crazy stories. I'm glad everyone was ok through the whole ordeal.

M & I went downtown for church on Sunday. Our beautiful church, which survived the burning of Atlanta, weathered the storms just fine. On the drive in we passed by Cabbagetown and the Fulton cotton mill lofts, which didn't fair as well.

A friend's apartment suffered extensive damage, she is currently looking for a place that will take animals and has a short term lease. Does anybody have any ideas?

The House:
Still standing.

Supposedly the demo was supposed to start today, but the rain delayed it, again. With all the storms, not even a branch was out of place on the site.

Odd Trivia:
The Runaway bride's ex-fiance has gotten married to another woman. Good for him!

Speaking of trivia, the world's largest trivia contest, now in it's 39th year, starts in a few weeks. For those of you not in 'sconi, they now allow teams to play by streaming the broadcast online. Those crazy Wisconsinites sure have fun with this contest, if you are in Stevens Point the parade is worth checking out. Oh, and there is actually a movie about the contest, I wonder if it is as good as Wordplay?

M & I hope our friends and family have a safe travels this Easter weekend. And L be sure to save me some borscht, I'll be up next week to get it.

Tornado or not??

So, last night a tornado or something came ripping through downtown Atlanta.

We were out for dinner with friends at the Depot on Memorial and had just finished our meal when the power started flashing on and off and debris started raining from the ceiling. People started running in from outside, but there was no sense of panic in the restaurant, just confusion. M thought that it might be an earthquake, W had seen the tornado warning flash on the TV 5 minutes earlier, and I frankly was just annoyed by all the dirt falling on me! (that might have been because of the lack of sleep, but that is another story) A was the one with her head on and started telling us to get under the table. Pretty soon it was like an elementary school drill, with everyone in the restaurant crouched under the tables.

In a few minutes the storm had passed, but the power was gone. Looking out the windows, we could see debris everywhere, awnings askew on the condo porches next door, and pieces of siding and roofing everywhere. Worried about our pets and homes, we found our waiter and scrounged around to find enough cash to pay for our meal. We then ventured outside.

In order to get outside, M had to jimmy the revolving door open. As we were walking to A's car, M & W moved a piece of corrugated metal siding from the middle of the parking lot. Looking ahead, we saw the tree that we had backed around to park, uprooted and flat on the ground. We climbed around the branches of the tree to get to the car and see if there was any damage. Surprisingly, the tree had landed perfectly in the middle of the lot, not damaging a single car. A's car was fine, the only sign of the storm being her front license plate which had bent in half and was sticking out perpendicular to the front of her car. We were able to drive around the tree and out of the lot. Driving through Cabbagetown and Inman Park was like a ghost town, the power was out everywhere and only a few cars were on the road. As we approached L5P, we saw that the power was still on in the area and around our loft there was minimal damage. A & W dropped us off and we went up to our place to find two startled, but otherwise ok kitties.

A & W called us when they arrived home, they said there were a number of trees down, but their place was ok.

While, as of right now, there have been only minor injuries and no deaths, other places did not fair so well. The bulk of the storm struck downtown Atlanta, blowing out windows in the CNN Center, the OMNI Hotel and freaking out the thousands of people that were in the GA Dome watching the SEC Tourney. The Fulton Cotton Mill lofts also have had significant damage. As far as I know, our old place (a block from the GA Dome) is fine.

For more info check out the AJC or go to youtube where there are a number of videos. M & I decided that we will not be heading over to gawk this morning, we just don't need to get into the mess. Sitting in our place the only damage I can see is a random tree limb stuck in the top of another tree and two still rather flighty kitties. We'll be headed over to the lot today to see if by some miracle the house has come tumbling down.

Starting out

I've been thinking for a while about starting a blog. So, here goes...