No Egg on My Face

I decided to try this cake that is egg free with a salted caramel glaze. My mom and I really enjoy salted caramels so I thought this would be a great dessert. Particularly because the whole family could eat it. I found the recipe from Twitter here is the link to the cake recipe. You first mix all the dry ingredients then add the wet ingredients. Whisk together till smooth. Sadly the time to bake the cake was to long. My cake came out a little crispier then I would have liked around the edges. Next you make the glaze and may I please give a hug piece of advice. Make sure to sift the powder sugar. I ended up with small white balls of sugar through out the entire glaze. It was most frustrating but I was able to fix it by straining the glaze before using it on the final masterpiece. Below are some pictures of the finished product.

After I was done and people where able to try it. The cake itself was ok but overcooked. However the salted caramel glaze was not caramely at all and was super salty. I would say that this cake will not be making anymore family appearance at my house. Now it is just special request from my sister.

We Shell Overcome

So I was thinking about what to make this week for the blog and all I could think of is what I could not make. See my sister is allergic to more than egg and sometimes it is hard to think of something that sounds good for everyone. But as I was feeling frustrated I remembered something my mom had us do as kids. Anytime we had been whining a lot about life she would tell us to come up with three good things about what we were whining about. It always seemed to work and as an adult it still seems to turn situations in my life a little less blue. I decide this week to write down a few positive things about our famiy food allergies.

1) We as a family have plenty of allergy free food choices
2) The internet is an amazing endless resource of recipes and support
3) There are worse things than a food allergy
4) I am blessed and highly favored

By socialmedia | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

What things do you need to find a little thankfulness about?

Flavorful No Yolk

Link to Recipe

Scrambled at the Grocery Store

There are 18 different names that do not contain the word egg when it comes to food labels. The worst part is that these words do not even sound like they are egg. The 18 different names are:

1)Albumen                     

2) Trailblazer

3)Apovitellin                    

4) Ovomucin

5) Conalbumin                 

6) Ovomucoid

7) Globulin                      

8) Ovotransferrin

9) Livetin                        

10) Ovovitellin

11) Lysozyme                   

12) Silico-albuminate

13)Simplesse®         

14)Ovoglobulin                

15)Vitellin                

16)Ovolactohydrolyze      

17) Ovomacroglobulin       18)Ovalbumin

The FDA regulates all food labels however the FDA does not regulate cosmetics, personal care products,prescriptions, or over the counter medication or supplements. So it is super important to read labels when you are grocery shopping. In fact this website has a pocket size list just for you.  One last tip it is important to check labels everytime you buy something labels change without notice.

Girls Night In

A couple of my cousins and my sister and I decide to have a girls night in. Life is full of too much stress and deadlines and it seems that there is never much time to have fun as you get older. You have to make time to enjoy life. A night of no children and no stress just the new Big Bang Theory board game and some appetizers was just what we needed. We made the menu virtually eggless and set a date.  I brought cake balls, fruit sushi and the fix ins for chocolate sundaes.  The cake balls are super easy to make you just take a box cake and substitute the eggs for ¼ cup of sour cream per egg. You can bake the cake in any pan you have. Once the cake cools a little you smash it all together into a ball that looks something like this.

 Then you pinch of a part of the cake, roll it to a ball the size is up to you and place it on a freezer or refrigerator safe plate. Repeat until you have the amount you want or the cake is gone. Place the balls in the fridge overnight if not needed to the next day or in the freezer for about 5 minutes to use the same day. Melt your favorite chocolate in a deep bowl and set up your work area. Use wax paper to set the finished product on to dry and a spoon to help you fish out the chocolate covered balls.Take the cake balls out of the fridge or freezer just before you start to dip them. Add glitz and glam to taste and store in the fridge.

 They taste wonderful and are super easy. The other thing I made was fruit sushi. I used a recipe I saw on the Food Network the only thing I did different was I glazed the top with fruit glaze to add a pretty shine to the product. We ate and had a great time together snd are already planning our next night in. :)

Please Don't Kill Me!! ( Eating Out Eggless)

One of the biggest issues with an allergy is learning to eat again, especially eating out. I recently read an article Americans' 15 Favorite Restaurant Chains: Cheesecake Factory Tops List So I decide to look into these top 15 to see which ones where allergen friendly and which were not.
 Out of the 15 restaurants 6 of the restaurants have online allergen menus. However 4 out of the 15 are willing to work with the patrons on such allergies. This leaves us with 5 restaurants that would have to be worked out case by case. I know that working out with the restaurant makes people with allergies very nervous.

Online Allergen Menu’s

1)      Olive Garden

2)      Ruby Tuesday’s

3)      Red Lobster

4)      Golden Corral

5)      Applebees

6)      Chili’s

Willing to work with Allergies

1)      Red Robin Gourmet Restaurant

2)      P.F. Changs China Bistro

3)      Texas Roadhouse

4)      Long Horn Steakhouse

No Allergen Mentions Online

1)      The Cheesecake Factory

2)      Outback Steakhouse

3)      Cracker Barrel

4)      TGI Fridays 

5)      IHop

One of the best pieces of the advice I have recently heard in regards to an egg allergy is eat whole foods. Like a whole steak, chicken, baked potato things they probably did not alter or add to. My question to you all is where is your favorite place to dine out that is allergy friendly?

Guiltless Goodness

Being that this past Christmas was the first one my sister knew of her allergy cooking bake goods was a definite challenge. In fact when my mom made her traditional chocolate chip cookies my sister said it was the first time she almost snatched up something and did not think of the egg.  Can you imagine me ripping the cookie from her hands screaming no!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It definitely would be better in a slow motion shot. So, I decide to search for a chocolate chip cookie that did not contain egg. Being that Christmas was not the time to experiment I decide to try it today. I found a recipe that sounded pretty good here is the link for recipe.

The recipe was pretty similar to my mom’s recipe so I thought it was worth a try. However being the over achiever that I am I also decided to make my mom’s cookies using a ¼ C of sour cream for each egg that was called for. Below are the two recipes.

Internet

Ingredients

■3/4 C. sugar

■1/2 C. butter, softened

■1/2 C. oil

■3 Tbs. water

■2 tsp. vanilla

■2 1/4 C. flour

■1 tsp. baking soda

■1 tsp. salt

■1-1 1/2 C. chocolate chips

Direction

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir sugar, softened butter, oil, water and vanilla together. Mix well. Add flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Place in balls on tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are brown along the edges.

Internet Cookies

Mom's

Ingredients

■1/2 C. margarine, softened   

■1/2 C. butter, softened

■3/4 C. gran. sugar

■3/4 C. brown sugar

■1 tsp. vanilla

■1/2 C. sour cream

■2 ¼ C. flour

■1 tsp. salt

■1 tsp. soda

■2 C. chocolate chips

Direction

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir sugar, brown sugar, softened butter and margarine, sour cream and vanilla together. Mix well. Add flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Place in balls on tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are brown along the edges.

Mom's Cookies

Neither cookie was too difficult to make and held no real surprise. Overall will count this cooking experience a success. The first cookie from the Internet was drier and cakier. I desperately need a cup of coffee for this one. My mom’s cookie did not taste much different from the ones she makes with egg. Mom’s was chewy and soft and wonderful J !!!!! My sister liked both but I think she favored Mom’s more. Livin eggless did not affect this family’s traditions today after all.