On New Beginnings...

It's the time of year for new year resolutions and fresh starts. I'm taking a bit of a different path this year so although I have lots of health and fitness related goals and other things I'd love to achieve I'm not making any of them a "New Year Resolution"... I'm simply chosing to see myself as a work in progress. The one thing I am setting myself as a goal for the year ahead is a cooking one. Way back when my husband and I were setting up our first home and had rather a lot more time on our hands I used to be quite adventurous about trying new recipes. I have a shelf full of cookbooks. To be honest I have rather more than will fit on the shelf so they are stacked wherever they will fit and still I collect more! I've decided it's time I start using them rather than leafing through them now and again and then going off and cooking sausage pasta. So here's the challenge. I have to make everything gluten free because I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease when I was 13. I also have to contend with dairy and soy intollerances (although it's looking like my 4 1/2 year old son has joined the ranks of people who can eat those at long last), low carb/sugar-free diets and the doozy- my mother, brother and sister have to avoid any mammalian protein as part of the management of auto-immune disorders. Granted I don't cook for them every day of the week but that should pretty much explain the name of my blog. My kitchen is not large, it's not particularly pretty either but it's a coping kitchen because you either experiment and substitute and make something that is safe for everyone or you decide it's all too hard and live off rice and vegetables and overpriced packaged foodstuffs. What made me decide to blog about it? These special diets are all pretty much old news to me. I've been turning out meals and baked goods for my family members for years. I'm simply trying to broaden my recipe base and (hopefully) my kids' palates along the way. There are lots of people though for whom a new diagnosis of an allergy or Coeliac Disease is a really big deal. Suddenly you can't eat anything. All your favourite foods are off the menu, you have to learn to cook all over again and shopping from the health food aisle in the supermarket is very expensive. My hope is that the recipes I share here will help someone else who is trying to cook for themselves or a loved one at what is a very difficult time. Welcome to my year of cooking.