Tuesday, March 25, 2025

This is the seventh installment of West Wind, your daily drop of thoughts, ideas, and info for this Season.

My epic quest to find the finest ingredients and tastiest cuisines was cut rather short early on because of a very good cross that my family was tasked to bear. Right after my son was born, my wife started eating a gluten-free diet because of some health concerns. At first we continued buying and eating food without any change; breads, pasta, all the gluten for my son and I, with corn tortillas, rice, and quinoa for her. That only lasted a few years before we realized we had to have a completely gluten-free household. Then, my son started showing some adverse reactions to dairy, so we cut down on milk and cheese, but again only for him.

God called us to step that up again when our daughter was born and all four of us began to struggle with dairy, so that went out too. My daughter also couldn’t handle nuts, so peanut butter, almonds, none of that. So what could you eat, you ask? Oh, I’m not done yet. Eggs entered the picture shortly afterward: we took them out of baked goods for my daughter but still fried up omelets daily, then both my wife and I bowed out of the egg scene.

We are now proudly The Allergy Family™, makers of vegan breads and recipes, and bearers of our own food at every social gathering. No gluten, eggs, dairy, or nuts, and fortunately not severe enough to avoid going out in public at all. There are only a few restaurants that we can safely eat at, so we make pretty much everything we eat from scratch. This, I think, is the key to this whole ordeal.

Having to watch what I eat so carefully has helped me grow in temperance. People ask if I miss bread/cheese/eggs/etc and I really don’t anymore. Which is good, because when I used to work in an in-person office there were regularly donuts, bagels, or both in the breakroom. I would have one in the morning and by the end of the day I would have another two or three. It wasn’t good for my overall health, and it would be much less of a problem now. Nearly every baked good has milk, eggs, or both in it, so any possible benefit of a deep-fried sugar bomb is heavily outweighed.

That doesn’t mean that we have to go without, though. The bulk departments at several grocery stores have been very helpful in finding the specialty ingredients we need, and after discovering Azure Standard, we can get all of the special flours and starches to make breads that rival any store-bought varieties. The diversity and availability of the market is so helpful for us, but it can also be a detriment. More on that, tomorrow.

Do you have any food allergies or avoidances?