Tomorrow is our seventh wedding anniversary. I’m not one to spend a lot of time getting sentimental, but for a moment today I thought about what I was doing on this day seven years ago. Care to guess? Most girls, I think, would have been getting manicures, packing bags for the next day, and hanging out with friends and family. Me? I was baking pies. Wedding pies! Because at the time, finding people who understood the nature of food allergies was much more difficult than it is now, so getting a dairy and egg-free cake was pretty much out of the question. And because we love pie.

Photos by Melody McClure

I’m not making pie today, but I did make one last weekend. And although I made peach pie for our wedding, it wasn’t this peach pie — and it’s a good thing, too. If it had been, I might have abandoned my new husband and run away with a fork and the pie, at least for the remainder of the reception. But if anything in life is certain, it’s that Keith is the luckiest man in the world (if I do say so), and I have this to prove it:

You can't see it here, but imagine there are three salivating people standing around as you try to quickly get a few good photos. Watching. Waiting.

Brown Sugar Peach Pie
(Prep: approx. 1.5 hours :: Bake: 35-45 minutes || Makes one 9-inch pie :: Serves 1-8)
Filling recipe adapted from “Mayor Ham’s Brown Sugar Peach Pie,” Sweety Pies, by Patty Pinner

Put simply, this pie is outstanding. It’s the pie that won over my pie-shy friend. It’s the pie that makes me actually look forward to summer. It’s the pie that, after the first bite, I wouldn’t even dream of adulterating with vanilla ice cream — and that IS saying something. I recommend using fresh, ripe peaches while they’re in season, if possible; if not, frozen peach slices will still turn out an impressive dessert.

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt and mix well.

2. Add margarine to flour mixture and blend using a pastry blender or two criss-crossing knives until mixture resembles course meal. (Don’t overmix! You should still have several larger blobs of margarine mixed in with the smaller pieces.)

3. Sprinkle ice water over mixture, 1 Tablespoon at a time, and toss with a fork after each addition until dough starts to come together (will still be crumbly).

4. Take half of the mixture out of the ball and gently pat into a ball (do not knead the dough). Flatten the ball out to form a 1-inch thick disc. Repeat with the remaining dough. Wrap each disc tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

6. After 1 hour, remove one disc from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 12-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick. Gently fold the circle in half. Fold the half-circle in half to make a quarter-circle. Pick up the folded dough and position it in a 9-inch pie dish so that the corner is positioned in the center of the dish. Carefully unfold the dough and lightly press into the dish, being careful not to stretch the dough (I find it helpful to gently lift the overhanging edge of the dough with one hand, while lightly pressing the dough into the dish with the other). Trim overhanging dough to about 3/4 inch from the edge of the rim. Set aside.

6. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Position oven rack in center.

7. Place peaches in a large bowl.

8. In a medium saucepan, combine brown sugar and flour. Add corn syrup, margarine, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

9. Cook brown sugar mixture over low heat, stirring frequently, until sugar is dissolved.

10. Pour the brown sugar mixture over the peaches. Gently mix the peaches and brown sugar mixture together (the brown sugar mixture may solidify into small chunks — that’s okay!).

11. Scoop filling into the prepared crust.

12. Remove the other dough disc from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll into a 12-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick.

13. With a pastry wheel, pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut the dough into strips 3/4 inch wide. Use the strips to create a lattice top. (Optional: If you have any leftover brown sugar mixture, brush a little bit on top of the crust and around the edges to get a nice, extra-golden crust.)

14. Bake pie in center of oven for 35-45 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.

What a month it’s been. So many parts of the world — local and abroad – are commanding attention, all while our calendars seem to keep filling up with reckless abandon. You absorb the impact and life goes on. Still, it sometimes gets confusing and frustrating trying to keep up with life’s complexities.

So it’s sometimes nice to lean back on life’s simplicities. Most people have a way of creating order out of chaos: taking disordered, random pieces and transforming them into a cohesive whole. Maybe for you that means reorganizing your sock drawer, washing dishes by hand, writing a story, or knitting a scarf. Maybe, if you’re like me, it’s grabbing whatever you have available in the pantry and cooking something fine.

A fruit crumble is certainly nothing groundbreaking or spectacular. But I think that’s why it’s appropriate just now. Usually we refer to dishes like this as “comfort food”: simple, familiar, reliable. Yet it’s one of a few preparations that I’d classify as comfort cooking, for all the same reasons, plus one above all: it’s cathartic. I know all the steps by heart, so I can focus instead on the simple act of making: whisking flours and spices together, working butter and flour together with my fingers, arranging fruit in a dish, sprinkling crumbs on top.

I like to think of it as the kitchen equivalent of a runner’s high, when your legs take over for your mind and seem to carry you forward on their own; only in this case, your hands are doing the taking over and you’re just along for the exhilarating ride, free to leave more practical matters in the dust.

Peach Crumble
(Makes one 8-inch crumble || Serves 4-6)

This was a good way for us to use up items we already had on hand. It’s wonderfully flexible, too: you could use fresh peaches — peeled, pitted and sliced — instead, if you prefer. Alternatively, fresh or canned pears would substitute well for peaches. Even apples would do, if you don’t mind adding a bit of extra baking time. For the crumb, you can use your flour of choice, as well; I used a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat, which delivered a bit of extra nuttiness to contrast the sweet peaches. And don’t rule out the potential of other add-ins like berries, raisins, other nuts, or sunflower seeds.

FOR FRUIT:
1 jar (20 oz.) sliced peaches, drained and rinsed (about 2 cups)
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla paste OR vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon

FOR CRUMB TOPPING:
3 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp rolled oats
2 Tbsp cold butter or margarine, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup pecan halves, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Arrange peaches in an even layer in an 8-inch baking dish.

3. Combine honey, vanilla, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Pour evenly over peaches.

4. In another small bowl, whisk together flour and rolled oats. Add butter to mixture and mash together with fingers until it forms coarse crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs on top of the peaches.

5. Sprinkle pecans evenly over crumb topping.

6. Bake 20-25 minutes until crumb is lightly browned.

Today, Keith had an allergy test done — not for food (that’s later this month) — but for the common local indoor and outdoor allergens. The result, basically, is that he’s allergic to everything, and the doctor’s suggestion was that he either (a) live in a bubble or (b) start getting allergy shots. Although the idea of being in a giant bubble might be fun in certain circumstances, he’s going to go with the shots. For a needle-fearing man whose bad dream about being told that he was allergic to air has pretty much come true, this is a very big decision. So I think we can all agree that he deserves a whole batch of cookies.

I don’t often make cookies, or rolled cookies at that — too tedious. But some occasions call for cookies that come in shapes, and with brave decisions and Valentine’s Day colliding in the same weekend, this occasion calls for two good old classics: hearts and the cookie recipe that I grew up with.

St. Nicholas cookies, as the name implies, was the Christmas cookie of choice when I was a kid and I still look forward to a plate of them from my mom at Christmastime. Of course, a good cookie recipe shouldn’t be limited by the calendar, and this version — modified with dairy-free margarine and applesauce instead of egg — is just as good as the original. This cookie is neither buttery nor sugary, but spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. I love them plain or simply adorned with sugar sprinkles. And they’re absolutely best when dipped in a morning cup of coffee or tea shared with somebody special.

St. Nicholas Cookies
(Makes approx. 36-48 (2-3″) cookies)

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups dairy-free margarine, softened
1/4 cup sugar-free applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves

1. Combine brown sugar, granulated sugar and margarine in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until sugars and margarine are combined and the mixture looks light and fluffy.

2. Add applesauce and vanilla extract to sugar mixture. Mix well.

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

4. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture one-third at a time, mixing on low after each addition until flour is well incorporated. Dough should be very soft.

5. Divide dough in half and form each half into balls. Lay out two sheets of plastic wrap and put one ball of dough on each. Pat out each ball until dough is about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap tightly with plastic, keeping dough in 1/2 inch thick sheets. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Remove one of the dough halves from the refrigerator and unwrap. Place on a floured surface and roll dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes of choice and arrange on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch between cookies. Gather dough scraps into a ball, reroll and cut. Repeat with other half of dough.

8. Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes. Immediately transfer cookies to cooling rack.

This is the weekend — THE weekend — when everyone in America is busy firing up the crock pots and frying pans, dusting off helmet-shaped serving bowls and buying football-shaped cakes, filling coolers with beer, talking smack with their neighbors and showing off their team colors.

Everyone, that is, except a small percentage of people: the kind who will walk into the grocery store on Sunday morning and go “Oh, is the Super Bowl today?” when the jersey-clad cashier comments about The Big Game. Then they’ll shrug off her disbelief of the fact that there are people who don’t watch football. Yep: that’d be us.

It’s easy to feel like misfits: once-removed from the mainstream. We’ve watched the Super Bowl in years past — after a wild search to figure out what channel it’s on — mainly to be a little in the loop with the water cooler talk on Monday. After we bought a nice widescreen TV we’d even tossed around the idea of hosting a Super Bowl party ourselves; we’d be the ideal hosts, we thought, because we don’t need to actually watch the game, so it’s no trouble to worry about the food and drinks and overall comfort of our guests who do. Then we went and canceled our cable subscription, which pretty much scrapped that idea.

So the only “Super Bowl” we’ll be enjoying this year is the only kind that we’re really interested in anyway. It’s the kind you can dig into with a spoon, the kind that makes your taste buds dance like they just made the game-winning touchdown, the kind that makes you happy to take one more helping – for the team, of course.

Chorizo Chili
(PREP: 20 mins; COOK: 60 mins || SERVES 6-8)

This simple, beanless chili gets much of its heat and flavor from Mexican chorizo, a kind of sausage that you can find in most grocery stores. It’s what you might call a “slow heat”; you don’t really feel it until you’ve swallowed it, as opposed to the bright fry-your-tongue-off heat that some chilis provide. And there’s no need for hours of simmering – a single batch will be ready in about an hour – so it makes a great weeknight meal, too. We like it best served with some sweet corn bread or corn cake, or a baked potato.

2 lbs. ground beef
1 lb. Mexican chorizo, casings removed
2 sweet onions (or yellow onions), chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped
3 cans (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
5 Tablespoons (heaping) chili powder
1 Tablespoon cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a 5-quart pot, cook the ground beef and Mexican chorizo over medium heat, using a spatula to break the meat into small pieces (roughly 1/2 inch). When the meat is fully cooked, remove the meat with a slotted spoon or spatula and place on a paper towel-lined plate. Do not drain the rendered fat from pot.

2. With the pot still over medium heat, add the chopped onion, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the onions begin to turn soft and translucent.

3. Add garlic and jalapeno, but do not stir. Allow the garlic and jalapenos to steam on top of the onions for 3-4 minutes.

4. Add diced tomatoes (with juice), tomato paste, chili powder and cumin. Mix well. When the mixture begins to simmer, add the meat and stir.

5. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and let simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

The obvious issue with chicken salad is that it’s traditionally full of mayonnaise; being allergic to mayonnaise, this doesn’t work out so well for Keith. And although I could eat an entire batch of chicken salad on my own, I’d probably feel a little guilty about it with Keith sitting across the table nibbling on crackers and peanut butter. So begins the quest for dairy-free, egg-free chicken salad. (Personally, I’m not fond of mayonnaise anyway, so finding a suitable egg-free alternative ultimately works in our collective favor.)

And then there’s the fact that chicken salad is one of those dishes that’s tough to get right. Never mind pleasing other people, who each has his or her own idea of what chicken salad should be. (However, I do have the advantage between Keith and I since he’s never had any chicken salad but mine.) Dressing-heavy chicken salads make me cringe. To me, chicken salad is about the chicken, so finding the right balance between chicken, filler ingredients, and dressing is critical — as is flavor, naturally, and combining the right ingredients to add variety and texture without jarring the senses. So what is the right balance of salad to dressing in Sarah’s kitchen, you ask? I like just enough dressing to bind everything together, but not enough to make my sandwich drippy.

Some people like grapes and walnuts in their chicken salad; I don’t. Grapes can add a nice bit of sweetness, but are just too big and wet — if you can manage to get them into your mouth without having them pop out of your sandwich and onto your lap — and walnuts? Bitter, oily, and disturbingly soft. Instead, dried cranberries pack a sweet-tart punch without causing a watery explosion in your mouth (or on your shirt) and slivered almonds add a subtle crunch.

As far as dressing goes, Vegenaise or any other vegan mayonnaise substitute is a fine option and would certainly work in this recipe. It’s just that we don’t use it enough and always end up throwing most of it away. Instead, I grabbed some sour cream substitute that I had on hand from my holiday baking, and mixed it up with a bit of stone ground mustard and balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing for a very nice if-I-do-say-so-myself tangy-sweet blend that wraps everything up together with a neat little bow.

Chicken Salad
serves 6

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked*
1/4 c chopped sweet or yellow onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
1/4 c chopped celery (about 1 stalk)
1/4 c dried cranberries
1/4 c slivered almonds
1/4 c sour cream substitute (I used Tofutti Sour Supreme)
2 Tbsp stone ground or coarse grain mustard
2 Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut or shred the cooked chicken into small, bite-sized pieces and add to a medium bowl.

2. To the chicken, add onions, celery, dried cranberries and almonds. Mix gently to distribute ingredients evenly.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream substitute, mustard, balsamic vinaigrette and garlic powder.

4. Add half of the sour cream mixture to the chicken mixture and combine, mixing gently until the dressing is evenly distributed. Continue to add dressing, a little at a time, just until the mixture will hold together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to one week, although it disappears from our house long before that.

* Note: For chicken that’s moist and easy to cut, I boil the chicken in a pot of water, seasoned with salt, for about 30 minutes (or until the chicken is cooked through).

I joined them in the living room and we chatted for a while.  During our conversation, I found out that Keith had a double major—computer science and math.  I made a face because I couldn’t imagine who would willingly major in math.

As I got over my amazement that some people really do major in math on purpose, I found out something even more shocking about Keith.  I found out he had NEVER tasted pumpkin pie, couldn’t have treats with chocolate in them and in general was not able to have most desserts.

“You have never tasted pumpkin pie???!!!!” I asked.  What kind of parents did he have that they never allowed their son to have pumpkin pie?  How cruel they must be to not give their son chocolate.   There had to be a law or something against that.

Well, it turns out, they actually were not cruel people.  They were very good people. They were extremely nice people. They never let him have pumpkin pie and all the other treats because Keith was allergic to eggs and dairy.  And since most desserts have eggs and milk in them or some form of dairy, there were very few desserts he could eat.  And, chocolate was out because it was milk chocolate.

Well, I just thought that was awful.  There had to be a way to substitute eggs and milk so the child could eat dessert.

Through further conversation with Keith, I found out that soy milk can replace milk, so that problem was solved.  And, then I found out that he could have Hershey’s baking cocoa since there wasn’t milk in it.  With a little more research, I found out that depending on what the egg’s role was in the recipe, depended on what you could use to substitute the eggs.  (Keith can’t have Eggbeaters because he is actually more allergic to the egg whites than the yolk.)  For many cookie recipes I was able to use 1/4 cup of applesauce per egg.

Fast forward a few months to our annual Christmas party.  I carefully prepared the main dishes without butter or milk and egg products so Keith could eat those.  And, with my new discovery of applesauce for eggs, I happily made a few batches of cookies so that Keith could eat some of the desserts.

With the fresh fruit and veggie trays, I knew Keith would be able to eat a full meal and have some dessert, too.

But, with a couple batches of cookies I wasn’t sure how to substitute the milk–condensed milk–and so I had to find a way to mark them so he knew not to eat those items.

Then I got an idea!  With a pen and Post-it Notes, I created very simple signs to mark the food Keith couldn’t eat.



It was plain and simple and Keith liked it.  It confused everyone else.  One of my friends saw the sign and said, “Why don’t you like Keith?”

“No, no,” I said, “I do like Keith.”

At the puzzled expressions on their faces, I explained why I marked the cookies like that.

And, so it began.  My continuous quest to find foods Keith can eat and to find recipes and substitutes for the eggs and milk in all foods, not just desserts.  I was determined that when Keith came to my house, he would be able to eat!

I’m proud to say Keith has been my son-in-law for more than 6 years now.  And, cooking for Keith is not
the “pain” or “challenge” that most people think it is.  I am thrilled when I discover yet another substitute that I can use in my cooking and baking.   And, I am thrilled to find new ways to fix my favorite recipes so that Keith can enjoy them and so that they don’t lose any flavor or taste just because they aren’t fixed with the original ingredients.  There is a bonus for all of us–without the eggs we have less cholesterol in our food! (and we can safely taste cake batter and cookie dough)

And, I’m also happy to say that Keith eventually was able to taste pumpkin pie and chocolate chip cookies.  My daughter discovered a Vegan recipe for the pie and dairy-free chocolate chips.  Both are delicious.

Around my house I often mark the foods Keith can eat as “Keith friendly,” and they usually include another Post-it Note with a Smiley Face.  For several years, I have been trying to think of a way to help others with food allergies.  My plan for this blog is to reach out and find other people with food allergies and hopefully, I can help them, too.

I hope you will check back often for recipes and tips on how to fix foods for folks with food allergies.