Part-time Chef

So along with all of my other part-time jobs listed in my very first blog, I am also the part time family chef.  I should probably be honest here.  The real chef in in the house is Tall Man.  I am the part time Pastry Chef.  But when Tall Man bugs out, I am left holding the knife. 

Now, being chef is no easy task in our family restaurant.  Man Child has food allergies.  When he was four years old, he had some sniffly, snotty nose stuff and all the normal signs of regular hayfever.  But it never cleared up as the seasons changed.  I hauled the boy off to one of our favorite doctors we have met in all of our adventures, Dr. Polly.  We tried a couple of prescriptions and the snot just would not go away.  Now here I must insert what many parents face at the dinner table.  I don’t like that…..ours was peas.  I would put them on the table and Man Child snubbed them.  He would roll them around in his mouth and then …. Spi…touey…..it would fly across the kitchen.  “They taste funny!”

We started noticing the same thing at restaurants.  Man Child would order chicken strips.  First bite and the nose would wrinkle.  “Somethin’s wrong with this….thhmmmph.”  And it would be on the table. Then we got hives.

A trip to the allergist confirmed our worse fears.  Man Child was allergic to EVERYTHING! Except cockroaches.  Yep, you heard that right.  He is NOT allergic to cockroaches.

We were shocked to find out his allergy was to peas, peanut and soy.  Well that is easy…we won’t put peas on his plate, no more peanut butter sandwiches (he hated that one because he loved peanut butter!) and ……… hmmm.  Soy. 

Soy.

We started reading labels.  Soy is in everything!  The allergist told us oils should be fine because they are refined so much that the protein is refined right out of it. (Insert the music here – I’m gonna wash that soy right outta my oil….)  So we eliminated all and then tried to introduce small amounts.  Nope…he started breaking out in hives.  So we eliminated ALL soy and derivatives of soy.  No American chocolates (soy lecithin), real dairy (thank God for Daisy Sour Cream), never on the MSG and even no SPRITE!  Haven’t figured that one out yet….

So, back to the reason for this blog today.  I am chef, hear me roar.  Since I am part-time everything, I have to try to be organized.  I can’t just microwave something or throw Stouffers Lasagna in the oven.  Go out to eat?  HA! – I do love Red Robins though – they are awesomely allergy friendly!!  Real meat and all!!

I make everything from scratch.  I bake the bread.  I create the white sauce for mushroom soup to put in casseroles.  We even roll out our own tortillas!  (I hope I get that tortilla press for Christmas.) 

Santa, are you reading this??  Could I have a few more hours in the day too?