Cooking With Allergies

I don't know what's more dangerous, eating or cooking with food allergies!

Over the last decade I have found out that I am allergic to almost every thing I love to eat.  Cheese.  Milk.  Eggs.  Peanuts.  Cranberry.  Pineapple.  Rice.  Black Pepper.  Cayenne Pepper.  Lima Beans.  Oregano.  And oh, so much more!  A banana split would kill me because I am allergic to bananas, strawberries, ice cream, the milk in the chocolate sauce, peanuts, whipped cream and pineapple.  Even the cherry on top is suspect!  I never get invited to anyone's house for a home-cooked meal because they are afraid they'll cook me the wrong thing and restaurants fear me.

About once a week my boyfriend, Tom, and I go to Johnny B's here in Dahlonega for pizza.  They have the best if you like thin crust like I do!  The bartenders know exactly what we want and know that half of it is to be without cheese.  (Yes, I said "bartenders" because we only eat at a table when there's no room at the bar.)  About 50% of the time they make a mistake in the kitchen and the pizza comes out loaded with oregano and with lots of cheese -- but that's okay.  We even encourage it.  They make us a new one and we get to take the "mistake" home with us.  It's a windfall!  Tom has pizza for later.

Whenever I eat something I shouldn't I don't always know it right away.  Many of the foods I can't eat (milk, cream, butter...) affect me a day or two later by causing pain so severe I sometimes can't walk.  Those are called "latent allergies" meaning the allergens collect in my joints and muscles and give me mock arthritis pain.  Don't ask your medical doctor about this.  They will deny it.  But I'm living proof that there is a such thing!

The foods that cause immediate reactions are the most troublesome.  Whenever I just taste some of these my neck swells, my arms and legs itch, my face itches, I break out in rashes, I double over with pain, I get blisters inside my mouth or I start sneezing.  And - sometimes I do all of the above.  I feel the symptoms come on then run for the Benadryl, dancing around like an idiot scratching whatever part of my body I can reach and cussing at myself for eating what I shouldn't have.

I love to cook but find it's downright impossible to season and salt food correctly without tasting it.  I'm not going to torture my dinner guests with only foods that I can eat so I cook myself a little something on the side.  If no one is around to test the "poisonous" food for me I'll sneak just a tiny little taste of (for example) potato salad (yikes! eggs and mayo!) or those sausage bundles (cheese!!) I recently made for the Super Bowl party.  It never fails.  The slightest little bite sends me into my allergy dance.

I don't even have to taste the food to feel the affects.  I can simply touch foods sometimes (like when I form meatballs with my hands - eggs!) and start breaking out, itching, cussing and running for the Benadryl.  If it wasn't so darned dangerous it would be entertaining!  Oh, heck.  It is entertaining to Nancy and Tom who get a kick out of watching me cook.  It was Nancy who coined the phrase "Cooking with Allergies".  She chose that name as the title of my cooking show, should I ever have one.

I'm learning to use gloves (not latex 'cause I'm allergic to it) and keep a bottle of Benadryl handy at all times.  I haven't learned to stop tasting the foods yet but I can always blame it on other people because they aren't around at the time to be my royal tasters.  Lord forbid if I should ever blame myself...