kimberlyf0's Profile

I was excited to see this but then a click thru revealed corn in the ingredients list. Bummer! Food allergies are so tough.

For informal gathering we have potlucks; they are usually themed so that the various dishes go together. We've done tostadas, tacos, soups, pizza, and grill nights. I always suggest that the guests bring something that their families enjoy regardless of how others may be eating, and I also request some sort of identification for the dish.

If it is a meal I am cooking completely I will generally cook gluten free, but other than that not every dish is going to please every person. So I might make a braised meat, serve a couple of vegetarian side dishes, a couple of vegetables side dishes, and a salad. Someone following a paleo diet could have the meat, vegetables, and salad, a vegetarian could have the side dishes, vegetables, and salad, and the omnivores and gluten free could eat everything that they wished to eat. For a brunch there will most likely be a dish that has gluten, but there will still be plenty to choose from for a gluten free eater.

Really, I am willing to cook to avoid triggering food allergies and intolerances but I won't cater to food preferences. Having food allergies myself I am accustomed to not being able to eat everything served at a dinner party and I would consider it rude for a person who chooses a diet for non allergy or ethical reasons to expect me to accommodate them 100%. If someone is allergic to nuts I won't use them in anything and will be especially careful with my kitchen, but if someone eats paleo as a personal choice I expect them to understand that eating at the home of a non-paleo eater means that the meal won't be 100% paleo. Sharing meals is about community and fellowship and my home is not a restaurant.

For shredding meat in the KA I simply use either the paddle or dough hook. I only learned to do this recently, after a friend told me she did it. I think pork and beef do well with the dough hook and chicken with the paddle. Put in the meat (slightly cooled) and turn on the KA, using whatever speed you need to get the level of shredding you want. With high speeds you might want to drape a towel over the KA to prevent splatter.

We have a Thursday evening market that goes year round, 6 - 9. We also have two Saturday morning markets; not bad for a city of 70K people.

I'm screaming too. Work is work and his casually mentioning that he "pays for more" would have me reconsidering that future hubby status. Should a FT teacher do more housework because she makes less than her FT accountant partner? Should a FT social worker do all the cooking and cleaning because he earns less money that his lawyer partner? The value of our work can't be measured by income.

DH works outside the home. After a decade of marriage I stopped working outside the home and became a FT homemaker (not a FT mom ~ all parents, whether they work outside the home or not, are FT parents). His income is our income, and the state of California agrees with that. I may do more cooking, more tidying, and more of the little day-to-day homemaking, and certainly more of the childcare, but he doesn't get a free pass when he gets home just because he earns more money than I do. We clean the house together (all four of us now), and I love his attitude about it: "Housework sucks, and you shouldn't have to do it all by yourself just because society doesn't value the job you do at an at-home parent."

When we had cats, yes, because cats sleep where they want and locking them out of the room only meant that we had to hear scratching and meowing until we let them in. Plus they are small and indoor cats can't get that dirty anyway.

But dogs? No, not in my bed. The 75 pound GSD sleeps crated and the 90 pound GSD sleeps with his boy, although the growing teen is leaving less room for the dog everyday ...

I make salt dough ornaments with my boys each year; they love making them and giving them to family members for the holidays.

We cook a gluten free Thanksgiving; the stuffing is Sunset Magazine's Apple Bacon Cornbread stuffing (made with homemade gluten free cornbread) and it is better than any gluten filled stuffing I've ever had. I use potato starch for the gravy. Most of the other dishes are naturally gluten free (mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted vegetable, green salad, cranberry sauce, etc.). I make Chebe (Brazilian tapioca) cheese rolls. Gluten free apple crisp is a delicious and easy alternative to apple pie and I also make sweet potato pie in a GF gingerbread cookie crust (pumpkin would work fine, I'm just allergic to it). Depending on which family we host they either just go with it and love everything or hold fast to tradition and want certain foods such as wheat rolls and pumpkin pie in a wheat crust. I just ask them to bring those things if it is important to them, as I keep my kitchen gluten free.

Peach smoothies are easy, so is freezing the peaches and then running them through a food processor to make sorbet (or you could puree them and run them through an ice cream maker, either as sorbet or with other ingredients as peach ice cream). Fruit crisps are easy too and really fast with canned fruit. You could also add the peaches to yogurt or layer them for a parfait. I'd use the fruit cocktail in smoothies as I actually detest fruit cocktail, and I'd use the mandarin oranges in salad.

I like them for fruit crisps and puddings/parfaits; they make it easy to serve a crowd and are great for picnics and potlucks.