Representing a Growing Group

My blog is a modest one.  There are no web programmers, no ads with which to contend, no frou frou food stylists.  It's just me, my gaggle of kids, our various special food needs, a camera, and some ideas.

Honestly, this site began as a way for me to keep track of my own cooking explorations.  Occasionally a kid will chime in and say, "Remember when you made..." Often I don't remember. That's why it's on here!

When we were first married, I got a cookbook with blank pages.  In it, I began to scrawl every recipe pass down from newspaper clippings, magazines, and family members.  Sixteen years later, I still turn to it every time I want to make my Grandma's pie crust.  It's jammed with scrawled papers stained with food splatter and smudged fingerprints.  The blog helped me to streamline these things.

With the advent of a handy little website called Pinterest, my blog has gained in readership.  Every month, I'm blown away by how many of you are out there reading.  (In September, this blog had almost 8,000 hits!)  While some may say thank you, because it increases their revenue or impacts their advertising, I'm just sitting here slack jawed.

Above all else, my readers tell me that I'm not alone in this crazy exploration of molecular gastronomy. Or food allergies.  Or veganism.  Whatever it is that brings you here, I thank you... for understanding.  For knowing what it's like to be at a party and having to tell your kids no to an unsafe food.  For wanting to provide them something typical, something you remember from your own childhood, at holidays and celebrations.  For replacing something we miss, like a gooey mall cinnamon roll.

Every bag of $15 flour that I've thrown away.  Every egg replacer that was trash.  Every abysmal failure in the kitchen is all worthwhile when I know that the end result puts a smile on your, or your child's, face.

There is a life after a food allergy diagnosis.  You don't have to miss anything!  And I'll keep experimenting until I answer all the requests and pleas for help!

That, Deen Team, is why I'd like to be a part of your bloggers extraordinaire.  I believe I represent a growing group of people, both adults and children, who are gluten intolerant or have food sensitivities.  We've lived with, traveled with, and created recipes for these needs for six years. I've tested products, thrown them away, and found new alternatives.  After my husband was diagnosed with hypertension, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides, we cut out all meat and dairy in an effort to heal ourselves.  I've lost 70 pounds and dropped my cholesterol over 20 points in a year.  And I'm just going to keep on going!  Like Paula's diagnosis with Type II Diabetes, it was a life-changing, diet-altering exploration into what really matters... being here for our five kids (and eventually grandkids).  Perspective.  It's a beautiful thing.