Special Request, Please

I should be packing right now. We are headed home tomorrow. Well, two of us are thanks to what is known in our family as simply Ecuador.

The following items are on my dairy-free/egg-free wish list: pancakes, pumpkin bread and Russian tea.

I checked out Kelly Rudnicki’s The Food Allergy Mama’s Baking Book: Great Dairy-, Egg-, and Nut-Free Treats for the Whole Family from the library. These recipes are my favorite and always with me since I took a picture with my phone. Although my mom pointed out last time that she planned to make the pumpkin bread, but didn’t have the recipe. I think I’ll print them for her and include them in her present.

Fortunately we are not nut-free in our family. So we like to add fresh pecans to the pumpkin bread. So yum!

And yes, Lucy is still allergic to dairy. After the tomato issue, I began to question her dairy allergy. I guess I was too tired to handle all of the variables. It became like a foreign language to me.

Monday night we picked Henry up from Union Station after a day in Philadelphia. (See above.) We went to Radius in Mt. Pleasant for dinner. I ordered a calzone with no cheese. It took a little while. Once I received the calzone, it was full of Ricotta, but no mozzarella. (Last time I checked Ricotta is a cheese.) Henry had an emergency brief to write that night, so I ate the calzone. I left the oozy white parts on the plate. I gave Lucy some crust, but nothing with a substantial amount of cheese on it.

That night at 3 am, she woke up and I put her in the bed with us. At this point that is nothing new. If I were ten years younger, I would try harder to break her of this habit. But as my eye doctor said, you are just trying to survive. Get the sleep and don’t worry about it. They will grow out of it. Since he has three kids, I trust him. And because of Ecuador, we have been sleeping in until 9:30 or 10, which is fabulous. Although bedtime is pretty late, too.

At 4, I heard a rushing liquid noise next to me. I jump up and find Lucy threw up everywhere. She was unphased and in a chipper mood, in fact. Unlike me, who would cry with the first inkling that I might throw up or even if anyone else might around me.

Henry grabbed some towels. But then just put them on top of it! (He really doesn’t like waking up during the night.) But I insisted on stripping the bed and her. He went to the couch. I covered the mattress pad with towels thankfully. Henry woke to me screaming help again at 5. This time I was trying to hold it together and not toss my cookies along with hers. Ughh…

So that answers that.

I think that when I am 62, I will not eat ricotta again. Unless you trick me into it.

But I would love some pumpkin bread and Russian tea, please. When I was pregnant with Lucy two Christmases ago, I craved my favorite snack along with clementines. I wanted them served to me on this old orange Marine Corps tray I played with in my play room as a little girl. Not sure why.

I will post my grandmother’s recipe when figure out the right balance of tea to juice. The last version left my teeth coated after one cup.