It's slightly late to be posting about thankfulness, since in the true American tradition we're supposed to forget Thanksgiving the instant the meal is over and jump right into Christmas, but what the hey. Thanksgiving is the big "food" holiday, and today I am thankful not to have food allergies.
Every year around Thanksgiving, my boss takes the department out to lunch, which is a very nice tradition if you ask me. I had a good bit of sirloin steak, with mashed potatoes and green beans, and when I didn't eat the carrot, my end of the table had a brief discussion about some of our food quirks, such as that I don't like cooked carrots, so if I'm making something like chili or stew, I'll chop them up very small so I don't get that soggy-bite sensation (carrots are supposed to crunch! maybe I watched too much Bugs Bunny as a child).
At the other end of the table, one of my coworkers had to wait until the rest of us were almost done before her meal came out, because when they brought the plate out originally, they had put dressing on the salad, and the steak was marinated. She has no food quirks: she has potentially life-threatening food allergies. I can't even remember everything she can't eat, but what I do remember is no wheat (which is in everything, including soy sauce and most salad dressing, if you know anyone who has to eat gluten-free you know what they go through), and no iodized salt, which is in just about everything else. She virtually never eats out because it's too much work to get the restaurant to do what she needs, even if they're willing (she had called ahead to today's restaurant, but obviously that didn't help).
Through it all, she has The Best Attitude. I would be the world's worst whiny brat in her situation, and she handles it with grace and humor. She loves to cook, has workarounds that taste amazing, is interested in what others have and never seems jealous that it's something she can't have: it's humbling and impressive. (It does make me think that perhaps there is something in the concept that you're only given as much as you can handle.)
I am very grateful that I have no food allergies. Nothing even makes my throat itchy: none of the can't eat ground nuts and what kind of fruit is in that. I have food quirks aplenty, but that's just my own silliness, and I'm thankful.
I mostly knit, sometimes crochet or cross-stitch. I read, a lot. I love cats. I love hockey, especially my no-longer-local team, the Boston Bruins. Want more? Read on.
I am grateful my kids don't have food allergies. What on earth would I feed them if PB&J was out? It's a staple. My older son has dairy sensitivity, but it's not life or death. It makes him congested and stuffy, but it's not going to kill him, which is a very real possibility for some people.
ReplyDeleteI'm allergic to coconut, but I don't like it anyway, so I'm okay with that. :)
Cooked carrots are just wrong. Wrong I tell you. My Mom still puts a little bowl of raw carrots at my spot when we are there for supper, and I'm 36.
ReplyDeleteI love cooked carrots. Slap on some butter, honey and ginger. But then, I am the opposite of a picky eater, and since I developed a taste for sloppy joes and sauteed green peppers, there is no longer any food that I do not like.
ReplyDeleteThe point of this post is to second your admiration for your friend with food allergies. She really is something.
Food allergies are funny things. I was free of 'em until my late 20's when I developed crab allergy. I found out that one's gone away but I don't dare test myself with the kiwi fruit allergy. Kiwi makes my esophogus swell up - not a happy sensation.
ReplyDeleteWe have to admire that co-worker of yours for making the best of her situation. But that's what grown ups do I'm told :)