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The new improved Patricia
Working from home this afternoon so I can watch the crockpot as the chili cooks away (as a professional paranoid I won't leave the house while it's on.) Had a mini-meltdown at grocery store when I realized they were out of ground bison which is what I normally use, and there was much dithering before I finally decided the all-natural ground angus beef would be an acceptable substitute.
I still buy ingredients for one recipe at a time, so the contents of my pantry is limited to a few cans of soup, pasta, rice, saltines, and whatever I plan on cooking that night. But I do indeed cook, which makes a remarkable change from the years when dinner was invariably a frozen box with a picture on it.
I cook so I can eat well, but I don't enjoy it. What I did love was baking, but I rarely do so any more. Partly because there's no one to share it with (when you work in a building that's mostly deserted, you can't count on coworkers to devour the extras), and partly because I've changed my diet so that cookies, cake and brownies are rare exceptions, no longer every day snacks. But the holidays are coming up, and one of these days I'm sure the flour, sugar, chocolate chips and etc. will spontaneously leap into my cart and force me to take them home.
I still buy ingredients for one recipe at a time, so the contents of my pantry is limited to a few cans of soup, pasta, rice, saltines, and whatever I plan on cooking that night. But I do indeed cook, which makes a remarkable change from the years when dinner was invariably a frozen box with a picture on it.
I cook so I can eat well, but I don't enjoy it. What I did love was baking, but I rarely do so any more. Partly because there's no one to share it with (when you work in a building that's mostly deserted, you can't count on coworkers to devour the extras), and partly because I've changed my diet so that cookies, cake and brownies are rare exceptions, no longer every day snacks. But the holidays are coming up, and one of these days I'm sure the flour, sugar, chocolate chips and etc. will spontaneously leap into my cart and force me to take them home.
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I'll check my Wegman's next time I'm there and let you know.
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PB, I wish again we lived closer --we could take turns cooking healthy meals so that we both ate sometimes.
I will occasionally brave M&Ms, but I'm not entirely comfortable with them. While I believe they do a good job of cleaning the equipment between reconfigurations, clearly *they* are a bit concerned, or they wouldn't have that warning.
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http://www.mms.com/us/about/products/mmsbakingbits/
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Also, it looks like you can order them directly from the website. He could order several bags and keep them in the freezer.
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As for M&M's, if I eat more than a few of the plain ones but I quickly develop an irritated throat and begin coughing like a cat with a hairball. It must be trace contamination that sets me off--not enough for a full blown attack, but enough to be annoying.
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Must be trace amounts. I'm able to handle traces, to some extent. the Stealth Nuts that get me are the actual fragments that show up, all unadvertised, in some recipes. You'd think folks would warn you...
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The only people who really get it are people who have food allergies, or who live with (or grew up with) someone who has them.
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Though once, someone made a carrot cake without walnuts. She bakes cakes as a side business, which means she actually pays attention to keeping dishes separate, cleaning really well... It was a wonderful thing, that carrot cake. Haven't had any since, of course.
My brother used to use almond extract when he made cookies. My problems with nuts didn't develop until I was in my early 30's. Now, no almond extract in his kitchen.
Vegetarians run into the same problem. Lots of people think chicken and fish "don't count." Or they'll throw in an extract, (like the infamous almond extract) such as a non-vegetable bullion cube.
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(I know, I know, the vegetarian part is my own fault.)
Fortunately I am not as severely allergic as you all -- I have to be directly exposed to the offending substance in order to react -- and fortunately neither peanuts nor walnuts is on my list, so I can eat M&Ms and carrot cake with impunity. But my list does include (raw) carrots, apples, celery, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, and cherries (inter alia), which makes healthy snacking tricky; and it also includes hazelnuts, chestnuts, and almonds, which makes boxes of assorted chocolates a minefield and other people's home baking a somewhat fraught undertaking.
And don't even get me started on stealth chicken broth in the "vegetarian" soup :P
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