When food is a passion

Wednesday night.

72 hours after the and allergies are under control .

She is fine, she looks good . 

She had twice a meal today and she got her healthy appetite back

Her passion for food and how she needs to satisfy her appitete immediately. 

If she has an empty stomach she needs food right away! there is no escape what so ever. To avoid tension and anger on this level I prefer to have the basic ingredients in my cup board. She just wishes she can always eat pasta and add something if her choice like tomatoes, basil, garlic, onion, olive oil, Parmesan or mozzarella . Quit simple and this list of ingredients are premordial to obtain a certain level of happiness and satisfaction. She becomesvery extreme when she can't still her empty stomach , this is really the most obvious consequence of her allergies in our daily life. Even my husband has an issue with the way our daughter might act when she wants food, but I think if this is what makes her angry and irritated then let's just take care of it and it makes life for all of us much better.

Tonight I made the girls lamb mince meat balls with oregano and garlic, with a melange of sautéed opinions , garlic, cumin, cinnamon and small chopped tomatoes  in olive oil. I add 250 gr of pasta al dente.

You need:

The make the small meat balls mix and kneed into balls.

500 gr. lamb mince meat

1 egg

Tomatoes /onion melange

3 tomatoes

1 onion

Oregano, dried

Garlic

Cumin

Cinnamon

Olive oil 

250 gr. cooked pasta / al dente.

Chop onions and tomatoes. Heat olive oil in large sUce pan add onions and glaze, add oregano and garlic, when opinion is sifted then add the chopped tomatoes and season with cumin and cinnamon. 

Take care all is sift and smooth and prepare on low heat. Take sthe melange out and let stand on the side.

Use same sauce pan and add the prepared small meat balls, 2 cm diameter.

Get both sides brown and turn the balls with two spoons. When nicely colored and the tomatoes/ onion melange . Keep the heat quit low and take cafe the flavours of the tomatoes and the onions will nicely infuse the meat balls. Add the pasta and turn the heat into low.

Keep in the stove until all ingredients are nicely cooked.

I sat in the drawing room and listen my daughter playing the violin. 

Had a glass of nice Viognier.

The dish is enough for three plus one, or safe for a lunchbox.

The girls were delight with the food, and the nice combination of lamb, oregano, comin and cinnamon evolves far away places and memories.

Why is it so easy to prepare a lovely meal with few ingredients...

It is the experience that when I cook food I am at my best and the flavours and the tasting at the table make that we share food and every body is relaxed .

I am grateful today that my allergy girl is feeling well, enjoying food, one of her favorite passions.

I love it.

Anaphylactic shock, a premiere

It is Wednesday morning and my allergy girl is feeling well. At home though and taking a good rest after all what happened earlier on Tuesday . My voice is completely gone and this must be a consequence or a kind of an emotional break down after prior events. I was struggling with a cold before she felt so sick and I believe that all my daughter experienced, has left me with some scarves.

What I do experience is that I feel I need to create, construct a new equilibrium . For so long now Solange's allergies seemed to be more or less under control. They're always there, part of life, her life from the wake up call in the morning until the very last moment of the evening , night . It might even create the image for a lot of people that things are pretty cool and that allergies in the end finish all in the notes of history and get eliminated from the headlines. 

I don't think so. 

However some laid back attitude, expired epi-pen .. 

Until November according to the label...

When you are once diagnosed with deadly allergies which means for my allergy girl , allergies for peanuts and nuts there is simply no way to hide from them and the precautions you need to take and the diet you have to implement in your life are rigorous and ongoing.

Dealing with serious diagnosed allergies is kind of like an eternal education, active learning, it is life long process. It stands for a negative physical condition which you should take serious and never under estimate.

I have so many lines to add to this diary.

I switched the content a bit over the recent years, and the focus became more and more our life, the style of life we adjust while traveling and living around the globe. The lines I learned during the last 72 hours will come eventually in bits and pieces. 

All we experiences sounded familiar and yet everything in during the whole traject was unexpected , uncommon and yes again, we were slapped in the face by the allergies - monster. 

The unpredictability of a reaction is at the same time fascinating and very frightening.

Allergies for peanut and nuts, a long life condition for Solange which she thought she could manage last week  by not using the Epipen. She felt she could handle her allergic reaction with her medication and failed. There was no possible way that the reaction she had, and which developed into an anaphylactic shock was any longer fightable or resistable. 

The reaction she experienced last Monday showed all the physical signs building up to the anaphylactic shock. My allergy girl thought she was still not feeling too bad and ignored her epi-pen and simply sticked  to her antihistamine and cortisone.  

She walked herself to the hospital, myself half running next to her, following her.

She wanted space around her. No physical contact.

O my god she looked so terrible. And she was so strong and just wanted to walk and get there. 

The hospital.

ER.

Good old spinach pie

Home is where the heart is and without good friends and genuine advise on my well being there is no rescue. And then there is cooking and that seems most of the time the best cure.

Working the dough, having a daughter around with all her stories and  spiritual and jolly mindset the kitchen us again the centre. This pie traveled with me all  along  my journey. I am pretty sure I prepared this since Groningen in all  cities I lived. Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Beijing , Cassis, Lausanne and Rabat.

Since I stopped eating red meat because of my arthritis I still prepare meat for my family . And it happens we only eat this  pie one's a year. 

You need:

For 1 dough brisé, 250 gr. flour , 100 gr. butter, some water / ice cold .

1 kg. spinach , fresh or frozen 

300 gr. organic beef

1 fresh buffalo mozzarella 

Garlic fresh pressed , cinnamon .

1 cake mould rectangular of round.

Oven 35 minutes at 210 Celsius 

Flight announcement

In the plane high up in the skies west from Lyon . There was an announcement , 'there are allergy sufferers on board, please keep your peanuts and related peanut products in your bag'. Just before, still in the terminal, my daughters had m & m, their allergic sis is not here, she travels to another destination , Lausanne . One's in a while there is the ultimate occasion that these two siblings can have what they never have, peanuts. I myself feel hesitation to taste those colourful shelved peanuts, I had so many while I lived in the late nineties in Beijing ,  they gave me headache and a rather guilty conscious after we found out that our first off-spring was peanut allergic.  Her affiliation is a treat, being on this flight today smelling peanuts, alcohol (coming from London) , and many other flavours I feel her pain. Her consciousness is fed by her smell , her nose is her advisor , her body the alarm system . It is only by her explanations, how she does feel while aware of any danger in her environment. Alarm bells start  ticking. Today is the first time I actually hear such an announcement. I like it , it is so easy to respect if you know what it means .