ALLERGIES and TEARS

Many of you that know me and my family know that we have not had egg in this house for 12+ years. When our daughter was about a year old we found out that she is HIGHLY allergic to eggs and egg byproducts. This was a major shock to us and a huge hit to my baking. I LOVE TO BAKE. It is a passion that I have always had. When we found out about her allergy we had to purge egg from our house. No cookies, no cakes, no brownies, no pies, no store bought breads, no store bought pastas, the list goes on and on and on. 

From that day on 12 years ago she has never eaten eggs. She has not come into contact with them. She has not even touched an egg to decorate it at Easter. It has been an adjustment that we happily made for her safety and wellbeing. 

I taught myself how to make everything egg free. I can make a mean egg free cake, egg free cookies (chocolate chip, sugar and gingerbread), I make an awesome loaf of bread. Waffles, not perfect, not fluffy, but pretty darn good. There are not many things that she has missed out on, because if she wanted it I would figure out how to make it egg free.

We had been told as long as she NEVER came into contact, cross contact or accidental contact with any egg or anything that had come into contact with egg we could test her again at around 12 to see how her allergy has progressed. 

Today is that day. We could take her in to the Dr. with a crappy store bought cookie and let her eat it, but as a woman who LOVES to bake, I did not want her first REAL baked item to be store bought. SO off to school I sent her this morning, and off I went to the store to buy everything I needed for some good old fashion chewy, gooey, chocolately brownies!

MAN it was amazing to mix that batter, break an egg, watch as the batter took form and was shiny and creamy. Pouring it into the pan and watching it raise the way only egg products can almost brought tears to my eyes. 45 minutes in the oven and out they came, perfect candied top. Carmalized edging and chewy center. They are perfect. I still have it. I have to admit I ate quite a few pieces before the kids even got home from school.

After a moment of panic because I have a substance in my house that has been deadly to my daughter for so long, I scrubbed everything down, counters, pan, pots, bowls, oven, stove, floors and cabinets, just in case. Then I sat back and enjoyed the smell of baked brownies.

My daughter came home, we took her and tested her. EVERYTHING WENT PERFECT! No reaction. Nothing! No breathing issues, no rash, no snot, no coughs, no hives, NOTHING! At this point I have to admit I cried. Unless you have had a child that has been on a medical plan since birth, you will have no idea how liberating and frightening it is. I am not tossing the medical bracelet just yet. The Epi Pen will still be following me around and she will not be eating eggs for breakfast tomorrow, but heres to the beginning of a new life for us!

My cooking will be taking a very different form from now on. 

Christmas vacation 2014

This Christmas Vacation went by WAY to fast for my liking. The kids in all fairness had 3 weeks off but it did not feel like that long at all. 

This first picture is from Benjamin's LAST Christmas Performance with his Elementary School. I admit I cried. Jasmine is in Middle School now and they do not have a Christmas Program. This was kind of the end of a tradition. It is sad and happy to see these two wonderful kids growing into two wonderful teens.

The kids LOVE Magic Mountain, so what better thing to do than to take them for a day. It is only a 2 hour drive from our home, so not bad at all. As I was explaining to Benjamin, if we lived in LA it would still take us 2 hours to get home at 5pm LA rush hour traffic.

My two boys cannot take a picture without making silly faces. No idea who Benjamin gets it from. This was not planned they just both made similar faces

It was a good day if on the way home she was sleeping before we even made it over the Grapevine. She was too cute not to take a picture of.

Here we all all dressed up for Christmas service at church. The kids love to get all "fancy". Benjamin and Rougeh matched for the night, all black suit and shirts with red ties. Benjamin wants to be like daddy so much. Jasmine is growing each day. She is such a beautiful young lady.

On that topic, for Christmas we got her a blow drier and flat iron. She wants to start doing her own hair and I love that she is! It was over a 2 hour process to show her how to dry the roots, dry and curl the ends, then finish it off with the flat iron to smooth it out. I have to say she did an amazing job. Beautiful little girl

Benjamin got his video game time in. Some days he decided he did not even need to get dressed. Or sit on anything but the ground.

We started a new tradition this year. I bought 24 different Christmas based books. I got everything from "How the Grinch stole Christmas", to Frosty the Snowman, a few versions of the Birth of Jesus, Rudolf the red nose reindeer, and so many more. On the last night we read, Twas the night before Christmas. Not sure how it happened but Rougeh ended up in his Batman mask with Rudolf's nose, blinking and all. We all sat there in footed pi's, Yes, even Rougeh has footed pi's, as Rougeh read to the kids in Batman's voice. We all laughed until there were tears. Kids begged for it again. It was a moment in time where I sat back and felt very blessed for this family that I have.

It really was a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!