Having my Family Dinner and Not Eating it Too.

As a food addict I often exclude wheat and sugar as they are associated with overeating.  As I work on being good to myself and providing for my sister (I am also her legal guardian) I often look for great alternatives.  A few years ago I discovered the world of food blogs (it was not good for my eating plan, I had given up Food TV, Food magazines and bought fewer cookbooks)...and then I find more food to ogle, drool over and dream of cooking.  One of the blogs I found and grew to love was "Gluten Free Girl" then it became "Gluten Free Girl and the Chef" and then they had Lucy and I could not resist.  Honesty, stories of friends, family, life on MY Island....it was too good to be true and it still is.  Tomorrow when I return home I hope to find, this:   http://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Every-Shauna-James-Ahern/dp/111811521X I will be cooking from it. The best thing is that there will be ideas and recipes I can use on my abstinent food plan. I found a great salad dressing in her first book, wonderful Pizza ideas from the 2^nd and I am sure more from this one.

My family who is mostly just my sister and me do not have the usual dinners most families do.   I have mostly worked odd hours, so dinner time becomes a solo event for all of us.  I love the times best though when the instances of my closer family members join in, or my farther away family members come to the Island.  Food always draws us together.  We all have fond food memories and a fondness for food.  Many of my siblings are good cooks and one sister cooks professionally.

My mother cooked mostly from scatch from the 40's to late 70's.  I know my love and interest grew from those days.  Sniffing out all the wonderful smells from the kitchen and looking forward to particular favorites were a part of life.  Weekday family dinners together were unusual but I looked forward to the weekend dinners, where most of the time all of us ate together.  My mother was different though because she fed us in shifts. She said my Dad was tired from a long day of commuting and needed quiet so she fed him last and alone, just with her. I think it was because she wanted him to herself.  Aside from this quirk I learned real food was the best. Even when family members are eating solo the food is often cooked together.

I have always loved to cook.  My mother ran her kitchen and never let us in (well once she let me make muffins after I learned in Home Ec)  Since then I have cooked from scratch, baked bread, canned, made unusual dishes and am always on the lookout for new and unusual ideas around food.  I found some of these ideas in both of Shauna's books so I am looking forward to her new one.  When it arrives (after I peruse) -it will be the book on the special book holder in front of the other books.  I will be truly excited to have another one from Shauna and her Chef.  This book will have stories and ideas and recipes and be filled with Joy, because the Ahrens are that way.

To fulfill my cooking and feeding need I cook on my weekends.  I usually cook a few meals to get us through the week, so usually at least one day a week I am in a cooking frenzy.  My son and his girlfriend some by to see what I have made.  Our roommate checks in for a taste.  My son in law may be over helping with some project and has samples and takes some home to my daughter. The house is filled with a variety of foods to sample and then store away for a working woman and her family.  It may be only once or twice a week but when we cook, we cook!  And this week we will be cooking from this http://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Every-Shauna-James-Ahern/dp/111811521X

Thank you Shauna, Danny and Lucy.

Charr