So it's been 30 days!

When I first got this diagnosis, I didn't think I could get through a single day without all these foods. Now I've more or less made it through 30 days--though not without a few accidental exposures along the way.

I'm at a point where I can start doing food challenges, because when I have a reaction it's totally obvious--I break out in a rash within an hour or two, and my under-eye circles return.

So far, I've discovered that eggs and potatoes are probably not ok, but that rice sometimes is. And that red wine is definitely ok (yay!).

I'm off zyrtec almost entirely--choosing to take it only if I'm going to be outside for an extended period of time (or if I'm spending a week in allergen mecca Northern California like I am this week). But it's cool that zyrtec is a choice now instead of a necessity.

I know more about avoiding food allergens than my (former) allergist seems to.

And I've been able to go out to meals, be social, have a life, and eat really well. Better than I ever imagined.

Thanks everyone for the support! On to the next 30 days...

Dr. Beverly Hills: My Yelp Review

I went back and forth on whether to share my experience publicly (knowing they would likely see it and be able to tie it to me), but ultimately I feel like since I went there based on the great yelp reviews, others should be able to see my experience as well.

It's here if you're interested.

Another Safe Thomas Keller Recipe: Tri-Tip

Here's another safe Thomas Keller recipe - it's more about the technique than the actual ingredients.

-one 2-3 lb tri-tip, trimmed of any silverskin

-Spice blend for a rub (see below)

-1-2 lemons, thinly sliced

-1 tablespoon unsalted butter

-1 sprig rosemary

-2-3 garlic cloves, smashed with skin left on

Step 1 takes place 24 hours before you're eating. Make yourself a rub. My man TK uses black pepper, sweet paprika, and something crazy I don't have called piment d'Espelette. I did that once (using chipotle powder instead of the piment d'Espelette). Honestly it was too paprika-heavy for me. So this time I made it up as I went along: fresh black pepper, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and chipotle.

So 24 hours before touchdown, trim any silverskin off your 2-3 lb tri-tip and rub it down with your choice of herbs and spices. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and leave it in the fridge for the flavors to meld.

The next day, about half an hour before you're ready to cook, put the tri-tip on the counter to come up to room temp, and prep your aromatics - lemon, rosemary, garlic, and butter. Pre-heat the oven to 300 and heat a heavy skillet (or cast iron pan) over high heat (use canola oil if you're not using a well-seasoned pan).

Sear your room temperature tri-tip on all sides--about 2 minutes per side. Once seared, throw your aromatics into the pan--the lemon slices will give up juice, the butter will melt, and rosemary and garlic will smell delish!. Roll that tri-tip around in that deliciousness for a minute or two. Then pull it out, place on a roasting rack, in a roasting pan, and pour all that delicious aromaticness on top.

Pop that baby in the oven for about 40-60 minutes--you're going for an internal temp of about 130 if you're me and you like medium rare. Once you get there, pull the meat, cover in foil, and let it sit for 30 minutes somewhere warm (e.g. the back of the stove). Use this time to prep your sides--I made mashed plantains and a big gorgeous salad with the first fantastic farmers market cherry tomatoes of the season :)

Easter isn't the same without Cadbury Creme Eggs

And of course, they are teeming with stuff I can't have - especially soy and egg.

But luckily I found this instructable, which walked me through the incredibly easy process of making my own, DIY creme eggs.

It's actually a tremendously simple recipe.

Step 1 is to order yourself an egg-shaped mold. The instructable walks through a process that wouldn't require the mold, but the mold makes things much simpler. I got mine on Amazon (of course).

The ingredients are very simple - chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life Allergen Free chips), light corn syrup, powdered sugar, butter, yellow food coloring, and vanilla (I used artificial, since Vanilla is on my allergen list--but if you can eat real vanilla, please do it for those of us who can't!).

Basically all you do is melt the chocolate chips and coat the molds with them. Then cream together everything but the food coloring to make the fondant filling. If you want to have fun with it, dye 1/3 of the fondant yellow to make the yolk.

I put the white and the yellow fondant in separate piping bags, and then piped it into the center of the chocolate-filled molds until they were full. Then into the freezer they went to set!



The next day you can press the halves together. Or, if you're like me and half a creme egg is the perfect serving, leave them as separate little chocolate fried eggs. I won't tell.

Yum!

Why I have to read every label

I made a lovely salad last night. Fresh greens, tomatoes, cucumber, cheddar cheese, green onions, and baked "fried" chicken soaked in buttermilk and then dipped in an oatmeal flour and herb coating. I used Marzetti's Simply Dressed Ranch Dressing, which has simple and real (and non-allergic) ingredients. Love it.

But then I got the rash. And I got it again today when I ate the leftovers.

The apparent culprit? Kraft shredded cheddar, which is apparently coated in potato starch to keep it from sticking together in the bag. I hadn't thought to read the label, because who thinks there's potato in a simple ingredient like shredded cheese?

Lesson learned. My kitchenaid food processor and shredding blade will be getting a workout going forward.

Dr. Beverly Hills: The third time's NOT a charm

My appointment with the alternate allergist I'd found got cancelled at the last minute last Friday, so I decided to keep my appointment with Dr. Beverly Hills today. I could not wait to hear his "big plan for me" - the suspense killed!

Honestly I shouldn't have bothered.

Highlights:

• Another 30-40 minute wait in the lobby


• 15 minutes with the Dr.--interrupted twice for him to go do other stuff


• He tells me his diet plan--it's basically slightly less restrictive than what I'm already doing


• And yet--the 19 days of my diet I've already done don't count because I didn't fill out his fancy diet form--which is basically a grid where you fill in the date and a score from 0-10 of how your symptoms are that day. Note that he just handed me this within a stack of other papers--did not explain it in any way.


• Other paper #1: A list of things that contain wheat such as "wheat flour, wheat grass, couscous, and seminola [sic]" which I can only assume is a mistyped "semolina". Groundbreaking.


• Other paper #2: A referral to a local allergy-friendly bakery (yay!). I am so excited about this that I look them up during one of the times he leaves the room. Turns out they bake with rice flour. Which I'm allergic to. Which we had discussed two seconds before. How helpful.
  


• I was not able to get many questions in before he booked it out of there, but I did get a chance to ask about soy lecithin and soy oil--both of which reputable sites and books I'd read say have a very small chance of causing allergic reaction because they only contain traces of protein. Soy oil is the only thing holding me back from all the Chipotle Bols I can eat, and soy lecithin is in most chocolate, so you can see how this is of the utmost importance.
  
  Dr. Beverly Hills tells me I still have to avoid those. But then in practically the next breath he says he has no problem with me eating egg yolks after I separate them from the white part I'm allergic to. Now I probably just looked like a very good egg separator to him (which I am), but even with my mad skills, I'm pretty sure those yolks still contain at least traces of egg white.

Needless to say, Dr. BeverlyHills and I are not meant to be. The only question now is whether to pick up with another allergist now, or just to go it alone for a bit and work the plan of elimination followed by challenges. Oh, and whether to write about my experience on Yelp, knowing they'd be able to connect it to me if they saw it.

On the bright side, I finally found the right streets to use to get to the westside in the morning!

Things I can eat: Kozy Shack Chocolate Pudding

I am pretty ridiculously excited about this. Eating some now with peanuts mixed in!