Caramel!

Caramel loving Feingolders such as myself will surely have noticed the dearth of caramel sauces in the Foodlist. I found exactly one listed, by Monin, which is a brand I have never seen for sale locally.

I seriously considered trying some off-list brands of caramel, but once I looked at the ingredients, I couldn't. I saw some with better ingredients, but they were pricy, and I want to dump a jar caramel on everything, so I couldn't justify it. I know you can make it, but all of the stirring and temperature taking intimidated me, and I never tried. So for a very long, very sad time, I went without caramel on my ice cream.

But no longer. Did you know you can simmer a can of sweetened condensed milk for four to five hours, and at the end you have caramel? I'm not kidding. It's like magic. I used Eagle brand (because it was cheapest, not because it's "most trusted").

I'd read about doing this, but it seemed too good to be true, and I was wary. Until friends brought some over one night. Clouds parted, angels sang. I was hooked.

This stuff has two ingredients: milk and sugar. It's practically health food.

First, remove the labels.

Then, put the cans in a deep pan, and add enough water to generously cover the cans. A stock pot is ideal, really, but let's not talk about the one I bought at a garage sale to use for canning, and how it sat unused in my basement for two years, until I brought it upstairs to make caramel. And let's definitely not talk about the horrible "what did they cook in this thing?" smell that lingered in my kitchen for two days, even though the pan appeared clean, and I washed it before I used it.

Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.

Check every so often, and add water if you need to, to keep the cans submerged. If the water gets too low and the cans are uncovered, they can explode.

I've read all kinds of variations on how long to let it cook. I found 4 hours and 45 minutes (give or take, it's not an exact science) perfect. I think that the longer you go, the thicker it gets, but my understanding is that it will never get as thick as caramel candy.

Once it's done, you do have to wait for it to cool to open it. I usually let mine cool in the pan until the water is lukewarm, then I pour out the water and add cold water. Once the cans are cool enough to handle, they are safe to open.

See? Magic!

Once the can is open, dump the caramel into a bowl, and give it a good stir. I also recommend adding  a half a teaspoon or so of sea salt at this time. If you like that sort of thing (I do).

Also, because the milk is canned, unopened cans can be stored in your cupboard for up to a year. So make extra.

Enjoy!

The Feingold Diet: Two Years Later

I'm a little late on this one! I realize Feingold is an understaffed volunteer organization, but I do wish they had a better notification system for the end of your subscription than "you know, I haven't gotten the newsletter in a while. I wonder..." Still, it has been such a blessing for us, that I really can't complain. 

I have noticed that I get a lot of visits to my site from people searching for Feingold information, but if you're unfamiliar with the Feingold diet (this also assumes you are curious about it!) here is a good place to start. If you're interested in reading more about our experiences with Feingold, I have talked about them here and here.

It has been a little over two years now, and we are all still following the Feingold diet. We've branched out a bit, and although we are fairly diligent, we have started experimenting with "unapproved" items here and there. We are still primarily eating stage one foods, because Lissie seems very sensitive to most salicylate containing foods in large quantities. She does seem to tolerate most, aside from tomatoes and apples, in small quantities, so we are happy about that.

If you are here because you are new to Feingold, I want you to know that as overwhelming as it was when we started, it is so easy now that I rarely give it a second thought. Please don't stress, you'll get there too! 

One thing that helps is that the Foodlists really don't seem to vary all that much from year to year. That makes it easy to keep track of acceptable brands. I wasn't much of a brand loyalist before Feingold, but still, I tended to buy the same products over and over. Now with fewer options, I just buy the same brands (of the same products) all of the time--which is actually easier in some ways! Of course, I do most of my own cooking. If you use a lot of processed products, then I can see where that could get boring after a while. 

Restaurants are a little trickier. You definitely have more options if you eat meat, so that's nice. Keep your restaurant guide handy when you travel! At home, I recommend finding a great local restaurant that actually makes the food. Go when they're not busy, and ask questions (you can always call ahead too). Get to know the people who work there. It might take a few tries to find "the one," but it's worth it. Seriously, we spent the first two years only eating at Panera or Culver's, but now we have three real restaurants we feel comfortable eating at, and it's so nice not having to suggest Panera for dinner with an out of town guest! Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against these places (though they obviously aren't the healthiest options), I just like variety. I am grateful for all of the companies that have gone through the effort of getting their products in the books, and I am happy to support them whenever I can.

Now that we have eating at home and eating in restaurants figured out, the part I hate most about doing Feingold is eating at other peoples' houses--but I love eating at other peoples' houses, so you can see my dilemma! Unfortunately, most people don't get it, or even if do they get it, they still don't quite get it. So that's an area where we tend to be a little more relaxed. I ask a lot of questions, and if something seems like it's probably okay, we eat it. It's generally fine, though not always for Lissie. Sometimes you do have to be assertive (and annoying). It sucks, but for us, the alternative is just not worth it. Maybe your reactions are less severe, and it is worth it. Lucky you! If you're not that lucky, I recommend, especially at first, that if you're going somewhere where you suspect that the food won't be okay, bring food. Pack a meal for the kids, or better yet, bring a dish to share. If that's not an option, feed them before you go. If neither of those will work, let them eat only the things you are pretty sure are okay, and stop for a burger on the way home (just don't tell anybody this is what you are doing!). Most people will understand. Even if they don't really understand. 

Now, onto our off-list experimenting. This is NOT something I recommend doing until you are comfortable with Feingold, your child has been on it for a while, and you know what reactions look like (don't worry if you don't know, you'll learn). Years ago, I read guidelines on how to test a wild food to find out if it is safe to eat (you know, in case I am ever stranded in the wilderness somewhere!), and I remember that it said that you should only test foods that are available in sufficient quantities to make it worth your time, because it is a process that takes several days and has the potential to cause severe discomfort. Are you seeing the similarities here? I try to keep those things in mind when we are thinking about trying something new.

When we try something that is not approved, it is generally something that is not listed in the Foodlist, or if it is, the approved brands are not readily available in our area. Occasionally there are things that are listed and available, but would be prohibitively expensive to buy in the quantities we'd like. If it's something I would only use a couple of times per year, we do without, but if it's something we'd like to use often, then it might be worth trying. Once we have identified a need, we look at the ingredients of the products that are available. Some foods are easier than others. Low or non-fat dairy products, for example, are things I wouldn't risk unless I was desperate. In a lot foods though, if you can find a product that "reads" clean, that's worth something. Of course, we Feingolders know to be wary of those tricky hidden ingredients. You might try contacting the manufacturer and asking about that type of thing (this isn't anything I have tried, but you could do it). If you do find an item you'd like to try, I recommend following the Feingold guidelines for reintroducing salycilate containing foods in stage two. My husband and I tend to eat more items like this, and only rarely allow the kids to try things. 

It's also helpful to remember that not everybody is sensitive in the same way. Just like some of us are more (or less) sensitive to certain salicylates or food dyes, some of us might be more sensitive to other risky additives. I have noticed that Lissie and I tend to share a lot of the same sensitivities (except, fortunately, I don't hit or bite people when I am reacting), so if we're considering testing something I can try it first. If I feel off after eating it, we've avoided a potential reaction in Lissie. This isn't one hundred percent effective, however. We've had a couple of bad experiences with products that look okay, and that I can eat without any problems, but that caused reactions for Lissie. I do wonder if Lissie might be less sensitive to preservatives than some other people seem to be, but maybe we've just gotten lucky in that area so far. "Natural" flavors, on the other hand, have been a big issue for us, so we're pretty cautious about those.

Photo licensed under Creative Commons

Photo credits:
Candy hearts: jamz196
Panera interior: ReneS'

Guest Post: Homespun Waldorf

I know I have been away from my blog for a long time. Things have been very hectic around here (holidays, out of town guests, launching a website, an out of town guest, Brad losing his job, more out of town guests, and then another out of town guest), and I have had to slow down a bit and focus on other things for a while.

I'm sure things will be back to normal soon, and I will be back to blogging regularly. In the meantime, check out my guest post over at Homespun Waldorf. I'm excited that I got to be a part of their Winter Carnival. Be sure to check out the other great posts too. There are quite a few recipes and crafts I am looking forward to trying out, and who knows--maybe one day I'll even find time to do a little pondering.

Vegan Ginger Snaps

Vegan Ginger Snaps

(recipe adapted from here)

2/3 cup olive oil
1 cup sugar
1 T flax seed, ground
3 T water
4 T molasses
2 cups flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/3 cup coarsely granulated sugar, for dipping

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix ground flax seeds with water, and set aside.
3. Combine 1 cup of sugar, oil, and molasses, then add the flax mixture and stir until combined.
4. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.
5. Add the flour to the wet mixture, about a 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.
6. Dip tops of rounded spoonfuls of dough in sugar and set on baking sheet, about two inches apart. Use the back of a fork to flatten slightly.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes, and let cookies cool slightly before removing from the pan.

Makes about 24 cookies.

I find that 8-9 minutes makes a chewier cookie, while 9-10 minutes makes a crispier cookie. I prefer mine crispy, but Brad and Ariana like them chewy.

If you're not vegan, you can find the original recipe here: Olive Oil Cookies.

The Feingold Diet: One Year Later, part 1

Two years ago, Lissie started preschool at age four. A month later, I gave birth to my third child, Maxine. Four months after that, we moved to our new house. It was a joyful time, but also an incredibly stressful time.

It was no surprise when Lissie started acting out. That was a lot for any four year old to handle, let alone one as excitable as Lissie. Lissie has always been a spirited child. When she was born, she came out screaming. Not the sweet mewling cry of a newborn, but screaming. She was incredibly sensitive to everything. She barely slept, even the first few days in the hospital. For the first year of her life she took 20 minute naps. I can't say exactly when she first started sleeping through the night regularly, but it was around the time she turned four. Now, at six, she still wakes up more nights than not.

As an infant, she'd wet her diaper, and immediately cry. She was easily overstimulated and would scream in stores and other unfamiliar places. I got a sling when she was a few months old, and that helped. A little bit. Sometimes. I held her constantly, we co-slept, I nursed on demand. I was exhausted.

As she got older, things got a little better, but she was still very excitable. We used to compare her to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, except that we never knew what would set her off. She was incredibly sweet and funny. She'd charm everybody at family functions, but by the time we were at the car she'd be wild and disobedient, we'd be picking her up screaming and fighting off the ground and forcing her into her car seat.

It wasn't a discipline issue. She has always listened very well sometimes, and other times, not at all. It was very confusing. It was also stressful and isolating, because nobody understood. We tried everything we could think of, everything people suggested, but nothing helped. It was heartbreaking.

Two years ago, I dropped her off for her first day of preschool. Sweet, excited, happy. Normal. I have a video of it. Three hours later, I picked her up and she was different. I braced myself, because I knew what was coming. You could always tell. I was actually hoping to make it home before before it hit, but I opened the banana I'd brought for snack before handing it to her. She screamed that she had wanted to open it herself, and then she continued screaming the entire rest of the 30 minute drive home. We chalked it up to overstimulation, first day of school jitters, and not sleeping well the night before.

The meltdowns started coming more frequently, and the spring after we moved to our new house, they were really bad--almost constant. I knew this was not normal stressed out kid behavior, but I wasn't sure what it was. Then one day, while scanning a homeschooling blog, I serendipitously stumbled across a post titled "Our Year Without Artificial Colors." Can you believe that I almost skipped it? I almost didn't read it, because we generally eat pretty well. I knew all about those kids whose parents let them eat junk food all day, and soda for lunch, and we're not like that.

But I did read it. And it was eye-opening. Life changing, even. The way the woman described her daughter's behavior, going from sweet to animalistic in minutes sounded exactly like Lissie. The anger, the biting, the hitting, the violence, but not all the time, everything she wrote could have been written by me. I wish I could remember the name of the blog, but I have looked for it since and have not been able to find it again.

To be continued...

(cupcake photo - Kat Johnston)

The Hipster Dialogues

  

Brad: Look at how it's foaming out of the top, like champagne, and it's the champagne of beers. Isn't that hilarious?
Me: I don't think it's funny at all. It's embarrassing. Why can't you drink micro brews like everybody else we know?
Brad: I like High Life.
Me: No you don't. You just think it's cool and ironic to drink it.
Brad: It's not cool.
Me: It's a total hipster beer.
Brad: No!
Me: Yes it is.
Brad: No way. It's not like I'm drinking PBR.
Me: Hipsters don't drink PBR.
Brad: Then how come every time I go to a bar if they have a cheap beer on tap it's always PBR?
Me: Exactly. It's too mainstream now.
Brad: But I've been drinking High Life for years.
Me: No you haven't. And besides, that's what a hipster would say.
Brad: I'm not a hipster.
Me: Okaaaaay.
Brad: What? I'm not.
Me: Well, it's just that you also wear ironic t-shirts and retro sneakers.
Brad: No I don't!
Me: Are you serious? Because you have a pair of Chuck Taylors, a pair of Nike Cortez and a pair of Tiger athletic shoes.
Brad: That's different! I have always worn those.
Me: That is exactly what a hipster would say.
Brad: Anyway, I don't even like the Tiger pair.
Me: You only listen to music that nobody has heard of.
Brad: I can't help it if I like that music.
Me: Neither can hipsters.
Brad: I'm not a hipster.
Me: We don't have cable.
Brad: We've never had cable!
Me: Exactly.
Brad:  I. Am. Not. A. Hipster.