Chicken and Biscuits

Ever since learning about my numerous food allergies, I've had to start cooking a whole lot more. I'd always cooked some but had thus far avoided making a habit of it. Heating packaged foods up in the microwave or the oven came so easy to me. I also ate out at restaurants frequently before my discovery of allergies. Now, I just don't have as many easy to heat up meal or restaurant options available to me. Therefore, I'm cooking.

It's mid-November, and as Wisconsin Novembers are wont to be, it's cold, windy, and damp. In other words, it's the perfect kind of weather for a hot, hearty meal like chicken and biscuits. However, there are a few allergy obstacles to overcome: dairy, eggs, and wheat. I was determined to make it work, allergies notwithstanding!

For the chicken, and this was the easy part, we split a boneless, skinless chicken breast in half, butterfly style, seasoned it with some salt and pepper, and cooked it on the George Foreman grill.

The biscuits were also fairly easy thanks to Bisquick for making Gluten Free Bisquick. All of the dry ingredients contained within are safe for me to eat. However, the cooking directions asked for milk and 3 eggs, so I substituted rice milk and Ener-G Egg Replacer, respectively. For the shortening, I used a vegan vegetable shortening. Making biscuits in this manner produced tasty results. The last time I tried making them, however, I didn't have any shortening, so I used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks. I do not recommend this substitution because it made yellow-colored biscuits that took forever to bake.

The next challenge was to make a gravy that I would not be allergic to. It couldn't have any flour or dairy products in it. I used Gluten-Free Girl's Absurdly Easy Gravy recipe. I had to modify the recipe some so that it was dairy-free, as her recipe calls for unsalted butter. I turned again to my Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks as a substitution. However, I had to use more rice flour than called for in the recipe because of my substitution. I just added rice flour until the consistency was right. Before this evening, I'd never actually made gravy. Instead, I used to purchase the stuff in a jar or ask my mom or my sister to do it. However, even though it was my first try, and I had to make substitutions, the gravy turned out nicely. It was smooth and tasty.

I served my allergen-free (at least for me) chicken and biscuits for dinner tonight, and both the husband and I agreed that dinner was a success!

Food Allergies

I have food allergies, and by that I don't mean to say that I'm allergic to one or two foods. As my friend Alene put it, I'm pretty much allergic to food and all of its components. I've always known that I have *some* food allergies. I even knew for sure what one of them was. For as long as I can remember, I've known that I am allergic to red food coloring, most probably Red #40. I avoid all red food colorings, however, just to be on the safe side. Intense stomach cramps, vomiting, anaphylaxis, etc. is just not how I prefer to spend my time.

I've also known for about as long as I can remember that I am allergic to other foods too, but I just didn't know what those were. None of them had such a dramatic effect as when the dentist put the red plaque build up detecting tablet in my mouth, and I had a seizure. Ibuprofen sent me to the hospital when I was in high school for a nice shot of antihistamine in the butt following breaking out into hives and nearly passing out in the school nurse's office. I also avoid Ibuprofen.

However, there's always been some lingering thought that I was allergic to something else, but I had no idea what that something else was. I'd been also living with severe asthma. On good days, I wheezed when climbing a flight of stairs. On bad days, well let's just say, the ER was involved. Following two bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis within twelve months, I decided to do whatever it took to get to the bottom of this asthma business and get it under control. Ultimately, I wound up at Allergy Associates of LaCrosse where I was tested for *both* airborn and food allergies. Up until that day, I'd never actually been tested for food allergies.

I had to wait few weeks for my food allergy blood tests results. When I got the letter, I cried. I found out that in addition to the things I already knew (tree nuts too - anaphylaxis again) that I was allergic to, I am allergic to the following:

• Wheat
• Dairy
• Eggs
• Yeast
• Peanuts

That eliminates an awful lot of foods, but I was not about to die of starvation. Instead, I've been adapting. I can eat veggies, fruits, meat, potatoes, corn, rice, and combinations thereof. While being allergic to so many foods is awful, I am seeing clear results in my asthma improvement. In a three month period, I needed my inhaler twice. Prior to the allergy results and allergy treatments that I am taking, I would need my inhaler up to four times a day.

Cat Shows - getting everything into the show hall!

I'm showing a lovely Turkish Angora in the CFA Premiership class. While I love showing him, and he enjoys it too, there are some challenges that come along with showing a cat. One of my biggest challenges was figuring out how to get everything into the show hall in one trip without breaking my back. Some people can happily make several trips to and from their cars, but I have severe asthma, so one trip is about all I can manage. Some people show their cats with their spouses or significant others, resulting in an extra set of hands for carrying items into the show hall. While my spouse supports my endeavor to show a cat, he'd really rather be left out of the excitement, so that leaves me. I needed some sort of system that would allow me to get it all into the show hall by myself and in one trip, oh and did I mention that I drive a compact car?

I put this challenge to my friend and fellow exhibitor, Wendy, who told me that wheels were the way to go. She uses a rolling grooming cart. Basically, it's a wheeled platform. The cat carrier goes on top of the platform, a top piece goes over the top, and the two are secured together with bungee cords. Your duffel bag of cat supplies can go right on top, and you can sling your sturdi-cage (that's a security cage for giving your cat his own comfy little home in the show hall) over your shoulder and walk right in. You leave the cart set up in the show hall, and it gives you a built-in grooming station, which is of great use if you are showing a longhaired cat who needs plenty of grooming. There are several vendors online who sell this setup. PK Pet Products is one vendor.

While I've seen many exhibitors with this exact setup, it is not what I chose for my showing needs. What I did choose is more based on the fact that my cat travels in a soft-sided dog crate. I picked it up at Bed Bath and Beyond (no longer available), and I like it because it's big and lightweight at the same time. I can fit a litter box and cat bed inside of it. The cat can stay in there while we are in the car, and he can even stay in there when he's unattended in the hotel room, such as when I'm sleeping. It's a nice, secure place for him. Squishing a soft-sided dog crate between two wooden platforms was not going to work without resulting in a squished cat.

Therefore, I opted for a rolling cart like those you see at office supply stores. I pile my flat items on the bottom, such as a small folding table and Sturdi-cage. I set the cat's soft cage atop that, and I sandwich his duffel bag between the cage and cart handle. I bungee cord it all together, and we are off to the cat show! The cart folds flat and fits nicely in the trunk of my car, and I have found several other, non-cat show, uses for the cart. It helps me wheel my scrapbooking supplies into the crops I attend, and I even used it at my church's garage sale to cart items into the building.

My system for getting everything into the show hall is not yet perfected, but I'm able to get it all into the hall in one trip, as long as I remember to bring my coffee with me, not leave it in the car.