Lotion Bars

I am so super-sensitive to fragrances and additives that I make most of my products, like laundry soap.  I started experimenting with hand lotions and found this recipe:

Melt together equal parts by weight-beeswax, olive oil and coconut oil.  Pour into silicone molds and cool. 

Super super simple but it works really well-I kept away the split cuticle monster all winter.

But the bars wear down, just like soap bars, so I waited until I had a bunch of nubbins and put them together in a silicone cup and melted them.  Just set the cup in simmering water in a saucepan.

Now I have a little bar to carry in my purse-I just put it in an Altoids tin.

Sorry I've been MIA, but I continue to get sick.  I finally took my chest infection to Urgent Care on Saturday and got antibiotics.  They told me my case was typical of the virus going around this year:  You get sick, you get well-and you actually feel pretty good, then you get sick again, then well.  Lather, rinse and repeat, LOL!  Hopefully I've broken the cycle with the strong horse pills they gave me.  I do feel more energetic and have most of my speaking voice back so I'm hoping.

Knitting along, I really have to share what I'm doing soon-got a baby sweater almost done, a pair of baby socks in the works and that shawl project I took to Mazatlan.  So I do have things to show you.

Think We Have Summer Again!

Montana summers are so unpredictable, but if the weather people are correct, the whole week is going to be nice-in the 70's and not much rain.  Maybe my garden will get a good start!

We did have a bit of big hail one day, but it was pretty sparse, thank goodness!

Just had to show you the two dogs-Chloe was 5 and Merlin was almost 4 when he came to live with us-they're now 7and 6.  They love each other so much, and have gone from being two completely different dogs to doing everything the same, including how they sit!

I've just gone for my third acupuncture treatment and things are progressing nicely.  The first visit, my improvement was pretty profound, so I was kind of giddy!  (Poor Stan!) The subsequent ones resulted in smaller improvements, but improvements just the same.  I am much less stiff, and the sciatic pain is slowly fading.  He wants to work on my allergies, too-yay!

I updated my cooking blog too, but I kind of whined so if you aren't in the mood for a pity party I suggest not going there.  If you don't mind, go ahead, I talk about quinoa for breakfast, too.

Baking and Birds

Made some wheat-free Samoas (the Girl Scout type cookie).  They were kind of fussy to make-lots of steps-but pretty darn good.

And the goldfinches have their summer colors now.  Here are two of them on our finch feeder, along with a sparrow.  The sparrow is the one with the wings flapping.  You can only see the wings.

 Here's our bachelor sparrow.  He set up housekeeping in our finch house and has been tirelessly singing and calling for an eligible young sparrow lady to come join him and start a family.  Poor guy, he's been out there for a couple of weeks!

All Mine!

Had Gracie's birthday party tonight at a local gourmet pizza place.  She had a great time and I had this:

Gluten free pizza-had it with pesto, pepperoni, sausage and cheese.  Haven't had real pizza in four years!

 No, I didn't eat it all, but I tried!  I have enough left for two lunches this week.  Stan had one with jalapeno peppers and loved it, too!  One more good restaurant that is safe for me.

Miss Boo blowing out the candles on her My Little Pony cake.

Seat Covers and Pizza Crust

My patio set is showing some wear.  Not the table, it's glass topped and is holding up nicely, but the plastic on the seats is disintegrating. 

So a couple of months ago I picked up some nice heavy outside fabric from Jo-Ann's.  I was going to just recover the seat, but I like the curvy metal work on the front of the seat so instead, I just made a Velcro-on cover.  I lined it and wrapped the cover all the way around the seat and it Velcros on the underside.

It's cut on a slant since the chair seat is tapered.  It worked out better than I hoped.  I'll take them off and bring them inside after use.  I have quite a bit of fabric left-I'm going to see if there's enough to cover the pew cushions.  I can cheat and use something else on the underside.

The other day, I found a recipe on Pinterest that I wanted to check out.  I like to explore the blogs that have the pinned item, and while doing that I found a recipe for cauliflower pizza crust.  I can't believe how well it turned out.  I haven't had pizza in years and this recipe just gave me back a beloved food!

The recipe called for almond flour, but being allergic, I substituted equal amounts of tapioca flour, potato starch and coconut flour.  It wouldn't roll into a ball, so I patted it into the pan, using lots of potato starch.  Be sure you use parchment.  I've been a tightwad for so many years, but this year I broke down and bought some.  Why did I do without it for so long?!!

Looks very nice and you can pick it up in your hands and eat it just like wheat crust.

I have lots of leftovers, yummy!!

Got Me Some Peaches!

As I was leaving town yesterday, I noticed a fruit stand at the gas station.  I called Stan and told him.  He went right up and bought a case of Washington peaches.  When he got home with them, he promptly devoured two.  When I got home from work, I made peach cobbler, and today sometime I will probably do some freezer jam.  I used this recipe from my cooking blog.  I pretty much made it the same way, except I used less water since peaches have enough juice, and I used a mixture of sorghum, tapioca and potato starch for the flour.  After he gets the applesauce (from our own tree) going, Stan will process 7 quarts of peaches just for eating this winter.  The cobbler was so good, I had to have some for breakfast!

Just look at that ice cream melting into the sweet peaches!

Just looking at the pictures makes me want to go back for more!

My New Blog

I'm so excited! I finally started my cooking blog. I've been wanting to have a place to chronicle my quest to eat allergy-free, so here it is:

http://mrsclauscooks.blogspot.com/

Pop on over and take a look. I'll be thrilled to compare notes, share recipes, and hear your allergy stories.

Finally Did It!

Our local food co-op has been around, in one form or another, since the early 70's. Finally yesterday I joined. Nothing slow about me! I really am looking forward to finding a few more foods that I can eat, just by the fact that fewer ingredients means lower odds of having an allergen in the product.

They serve meals there and have a divine salad bar. I can eat the honey-mustard dressing they make because they stay away from high fructose corn syrup. This will be great for when I need lunch on errand days. I have eaten the chicken they prepare and haven't tasted anything that good since the "olden days" when I was a kid and nobody added hormones or antibiotics to their poultry.

They were so gracious, too, making sure I had all my questions answered and telling me how pleased they are that I belong. The price was right, too.

Yes, I see a long, happy relationship.

Cheesecake-Oh My!

I made this gluten/wheat/rice/corn/etc. free cheesecake tonight. Dang, it was good! Sorry I didn't take pictures but we've already cut into it.

My Allergy Free Cheesecake

3 8oz pkgs softened cream cheese
1/2 C coconut flour
1 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 inch springform pan with cooking spray. Line bottom with wax paper or parchment. Beat cream cheese, add sugar and coconut flour. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Spread in pan and bake for 50 minutes. Let cool a bit, then run a knife around edge to loosen and remove sides of pan. Cool completely. We had ours with a splash of Torani Raspberry syrup. Not too heavy, not too "fluffy."

An Explanation

I've made reference to my allergies and food issues in my blog, but I've never explained what is going on.

I have been coughing for almost 20 years. I coughed so hard people would ask me if they could be of assistance. My bladder was shot and I couldn't sing anymore-something I love more than even sewing! I've been to doctors, here and in other cities. Nobody seemed to have an answer. My lungs were clear and I didn't have any horrible disease. I did have really bad acid reflux, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, so they finally did surgery for the acid reflux. It helped about 30-40%, but I still coughed when I ate, and other times, too, which made me wonder about food allergies. I've had multiple allergies since I was a baby, but no doctor made the connection or even seemed to care enough to pursue that avenue. I was really at the end of my rope. I was totally over the medical community! I kept giving it to God, and just kept telling Him that I knew He had the answer.

About two months ago, I was doing some surfing on the Internet, looking for more craft and sewing blogs to read. I found a couple of blogs that not only talked about crafts, but about the fact that they had problems with gluten. A light came on! I decided that I didn't need a doctor's guidance to give up gluten for a while. Anything was worth a try!

To my amazement, I started coughing less! I quit having diarrhea, and my heartburn completely went away. I figured I was on to something, so after my trip I went to see my GP, a wonderful lady who had been as frustrated as I was, trying to figure this out. When I told her how much better I felt and asked for the RAST blood allergy test, she jumped right on the bandwagon and immediately ordered the test.

The results were astounding! The celiac tests came back negative, but I'm allergic to all the stuff that has gluten, plus a whole lot more. Avoiding the gluten meant I was avoiding some of my allergens! It's easier to keep track of what I'm NOT allergic to than what I am allergic to. Avoiding eating foods I'm allergic to has been a real test. There are very few grains I can have, and most of the stuff I like to eat like garlic and marinara sauce are completely off limits.

I've started losing a little weight, partly because I'm hungry about 50% of the time, and partly because I'm not feeding myself things that are bad for me.

After not being able to sing for a long time, I can finally sing in church again! My voice does not seem to have any permanent damage, and it's getting better and better.

I give all the credit to God, He was the one who led me to the clues that brought the answer. He is good and always takes care of us. I don't know why the food allergy thing didn't come up sooner, but that's God's timing. Maybe I wasn't ready to hear it before, and maybe I wouldn't have been so willing to totally revamp my diet before now. Whatever the reason, I give Him glory for taking care of me!

Sorry for such a long post, but when one has good news it needs to be told! Stay tuned for updates and some ideas I have about dealing with my immune system.

More Progress

The shawl is getting there-I have 11 rows left. They're getting longer and longer, so each one takes a bit more time. It doesn't help that I had to rip a pattern row out twice! After I get it off the needles I have to decide how I'm going to finish the edges. I hate fringe, so I'll probably crochet something.

This next sewing project is a design of my own. A hint-I hated my carry-on, it wouldn't fit anywhere, under the seat or in the overhead. This will be more than just a bag, so stay tuned.

A gripe-I mentioned to a waitress at the local cafe' that I found out I had many allergies. She scoffed at the idea that allergies are anything to worry about and declared she didn't want to know if she had any. I told her she's be happy to know if something could put her into anaphalactic shock. This is the same person that said people with peanut allergies should never be allowed to fly. If she keeps it up, I will have to really chew on her. She's lucky nobody in her family has allergies. I have told her that much. Some people don't want to ever think of anyone else. She also said if someone has allergies they shouldn't ever eat in a restaurant! Grrrrrrr!

Everything??!!!!

Just got a call from my Dr. She has the preliminary results of my allergy tests. The one test that came back OK was the gluten test. However, it seems that I'm allergic to everything else. The list includes but is not limited to:

Corn, wheat, rice, tomatoes, garlic, peas (?), peanuts, and walnuts. She said she's never seen so many positive results on an allergy test in her life!

I'm going to stop by her office and pick up a complete copy of the results. She is going to request a more in-depth test as well-things that might not normally be on an allergy test. She said the reason, of course, that I felt better without gluten was because I was avoiding the allergenic foods. Yup!!

Now just what the heck am I supposed to eat?

Update: Here's the full list of positives: Corn, garlic, peas, orange, peanut, rice, soybean, tomato (my worst allergy), walnuts, and wheat. In addition, she has called and requested that they test the sample for rye and oats,

This is going to take some creativity!

The good news? I am NOT, I repeat NOT allergic to chocolate!!