you can't eat anything

I just had the most interesting short conversation with my daughter. We were discussing an ingredient she need for lemon chicken with sate sauce, dark sesame oil. She couldn't find it at the two stores she'd tried. I have a bottle or two and suggested she come by and get mine. Nothing too odd about that, even though she does live 20 or so miles away. Okay, I guess that is a bit weird, but I digress. What was really odd was the conversation that followed, and it reminded me of many I've had at work or with friends.

I can't eat several major food groups and avoid pain and suffering. This I readily admit. But somehow it gets translated into "you can't eat anything." I do hear that a lot, and I'm sure you do too, if you have dietary restrictions.  True, I can't eat processed food; Kraft does not market to me. Of course, in years past when I didn't know what was causing the pain, I didn't eat that anyway.

The truth is that the scope of what I can and do eat is tremendous. I don't eat dairy products, or gluten, or soy, or corn, or those weird gums in so much gluten-free stuff. I also don't eat artificial anything, GMOs, trans-fats, oh! and foods I don't like. But I do and can eat SO much that is wonderfully tasty and satisfying.

Like that lemon chicken with sate sauce Kristen is making for her friends and rare steaks, lobster, shrimp, salmon, halibut, mushrooms, caviar, and even French fries when I'm feeling decadent. Wine, as well as most distilled liqour, has no gluten, and the gluten-free beer is darned good. And yes, I can eat mayonnaise and eggs, olive oil, coconut anything (I am seriously in love with coconut oil and milk), chiles, cherries, berries---now, I'm making myself hungry.

Wheat, barley, rye, and their cohorts are also not the only grains on the block. I love quinoa, buckwheat, teff, even garbanzo flour. If you haven't given it a shot, you've got to try sweet white rice flour as a thickener. Lots of the gluten-free flours will work, but this is in a class by itself.

So, I'm starting on a three-day weekend today, and I will try to get some beautiful recipes, pics, and favorite foods up, starting with that chicken appetizer.