Mrs. Petty Crocker

Tonight I slow roasted my first whole chicken from scratch. Some of you may be surprised at the word "first", others at the phrase "from scratch" (or perhaps the entire first sentence left your mouth agape), depending on how long you have known me :). It's true, using a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, I cleaned, prepped and roasted an entire four pound chicken. I even took some liberty with the recipe using real onions, extra chicken stock and adding potatoes. I even intend to keep the bones to make my own chicken stock for soup, oh yeah I said my own stock.Seriously, this whole "ridiculous food allergies" has really forced me to expand my culinary pursuits, my former methods shot down when I could no longer use pre-mixes or boxed foods (you really don't want to know how much unnecessary stuff they put in those things...unless you want to start cooking like I have to:). The other day I made fried rice with some left-over basmati rice. Again, I took some liberty by using chicken thighs, omitting ginger (cause I didn't have any) and using sesame oil, because I didn't have peanut and corn/soy oil were out. It too was wonderful!

I am not blogging to brag about my culinary skills but to marvel at how much better it is to accept things as they are and run with it as best you can. Do I wish I wasn't allergic to corn, wheat and soy, absolutely! I am, however, becoming more certain with each passing day (& passing up of foods I used to love) that if I ever do somehow manage to eliminate my allergies I will gain 100 pounds! Ok, maybe not 100. The truth is being forced to read labels has also forced me to pay attention to what I am putting in my body and boy is there a whole lot of junk out there. I doubt that I would go back to eating many of the foods I used to enjoy (except bread and M&Ms :) simply because now I really know what's in them. Following the discovery of my allergies and my initial "woe is me" period, followed with a few" what the heck am I going to eat?!?" months, I finally decided to "put on my big girl panties" and make the best of it. It has forced me to really cook, search for recipes, experiment with baking and I find I enjoy it. Even cooler, I am not so bad at it and it's always good to find something you're good at. I am really kinda (I said kinda, I really miss M&Ms and bread:) thankful for my allergies for these reasons.

So the next time life gives you lemons, maybe you could make yourself a yummy lemon scone or lemon cookies (cause lets face it, those are better than lemonade). Making the best of whatever your situation is will really help you to find joy in the meantime. I know that sounds very cliche', but speaking from experience (& a tummy full of roasted chicken) it really does work.

***NOTE*** for those wondering what the heck the title of this blog means, my husband used to love baking when we were first dating & his roommates called him "Petty Crocker", I adopted the name Mrs. Petty Crocker for myself in lieu of all my recent culinary achievements