Corn Allergic Homeschooling Mom

Fabulous local foods

2008-06-16T19:24:00.004-04:00

Here are some awesome places for local, organic produce:

Swarthmore Farmer's Market http://farmtocity.org/FarmersMarkets.asp
Be sure to get chicken, eggs and goat cheese from Forrest Acres

Fair Food Farmstand at the Reading Terminal Market
http://www.whitedogcafefoundation.com/fairfood.html

Lots of local produce, even in the winter. If you get on their list they will send you a weekly email telling you what they have that week and where it's from.

Headhouse Farmers Market
http://www.thefoodtrust.org/php/headhouse/

I've only been there once but will definitely return. Lots of vendors and most are organic or chemical free.

Willow Creek Orchards.
http://www.willowcreekorchards.com/

Haven't been there yet but it sounds fabulous. All the tree fruits - grown organically! I though that wasn't supposed to be possible in PA!

Gifted Resources

2007-10-01T13:38:00.001-04:00

I've been asked to put together a list of resources about gifted kids, so here they are. Online, the best place to start is hoagiesgifted.com. It's full of tons of info. You could read there for days. I'd start with http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/identification.htm There are lots of essays and checklists to help determine if a child is gifted (as opposed to just smart.)

There's a Gifted Homeschooling email list called TAGMAX. Go to
http://www.tagfam.org/ and click on mailing lists. There is a lot of mail from this but it's a great place for finding out about homeschooling resources. It's also a great place to openly discuss your child's abilities and challenges. If you tell most people that your 9 year old is reading Harry Potter 7 and making his own illuminated manuscript of a medieval bestiary they think you've lost your mind. On TAGMAX no one would blink an eye.

Some books I've found useful are:

Creative Homeschooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families by Lisa Rivero

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Home-Schooling-Resource-Families/dp/0910707480/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1319639-7392860?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190988783&sr=1-1

This talks about all the different approaches to homeschooling and how each might be used for gifted children.

Some of My Best Friends Are Books by Judith Wynn Halsted

http://www.amazon.com/Some-Best-Friends-Are-Books/dp/0910707510/ref=sr_1_1/002-1319639-7392860?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190988894&sr=1-1

This book lists many books for different ages and different subjects. But I found it most useful for the discussion of the emotional needs of gifted kids.

Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent and Energetic by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka

http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Your-Spirited-Child-Rev/dp/0060739665/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1319639-7392860?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190989043&sr=1-1

This is a parenting book which doesn't claim to be about gifted kids but many gifted kids fit the "spirited child" profile. This is by far the most helpful parenting book I've ever read.

Also, here's a "gifted selftest" for adults.

http://www.rocamora.org/gift_selftest.html

There's lots more but these are good places to start.

Well look at that, I actually posted something else that wasn't about food!

Book Selling Online

2007-09-28T12:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, so this isn't food or homeschooling related but I've been asked several times about selling books on Amazon so I figured I'd post the info here.

For those of you who were interested in selling books on Amazon, here are a few thoughts. One place to start is http://www.booksalefinder.com/ You can find out where and when there are used book sales near you. Library book sales and thrift stores such as Goodwill are a great source for cheap used books. Some sellers use a handheld scanner and their cell phone to scan a book, see how much it's worth on Amazon and then decide whether to buy it or not. We haven't gone that route yet.

Another resource we found helpful when we were starting out is here:

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y201/m06/abu0039/s05

It discusses selling on eBay, which is another option. But it's got lots of useful advice, be sure to read the subsequent chapters as well (there's a spot to click at the end of each article to take you to the next one.)

We started out selling our books from college and graduate school and then went on to selling nonfiction. Fiction doesn't sell for very much usually, unless it's something very rare or a very new bestseller. Nonfiction tends to sell for more. Academic books can sell quite well but be careful of textbooks, they're only good if they're very recent. I'd say, find a niche and get to know what sells well in that area. Then you can expand to other subjects. Obscure is usually better than popular. An obscure book may not sell as quickly but it will likely sell for more. For example, I know my husband got a bunch of old quilting books really cheap once. They weren't much to look at but they were worth a decent amount. Some shiny new book might only go for 50 cents. It's not necessarily about looks... although you generally don't want to buy something that's in really bad shape.

We have chosen to only sell books that list for more than $5. We found that anything worth less than that wasn't worth the space to store them and the time to wrap and mail them. Anything we bring home that's worth less than that we just donate. It seems counterintuitive but when you've only paid a dollar or less for a book it's ok to take some losses. All you need is one that lists for a good price to more than make up for any others you bought that were only worth 50 cents. Say you buy 30 books for $30. If you list half of them for an average of $10 each, then you've easily made $120 (once they all sell.) As you get better at choosing (or when you get lucky and one of those books goes for $100) you can make much, much more.

We started out wrapping books in brown paper bags and tape which is practically free. Once our inventory increased this wasn't feasible anymore and now we buy mailers in bulk at:

http://www.cornellrobbins.com/2.htm

And now back to our regularly scheduled posting on food and homeschooling. Well, I guess it's only been food so far. And I haven't been posting at all regularly either. Maybe my next post should be a list of the materials we're using for our unit on medieval times...

Cheesy fish crackers

2007-09-12T08:57:00.001-04:00

More yummy food discoveries, thank you Nigella Lawson again. In our pursuit of food for "regular" kids we discovered an awesome snack. They are cheese crackers which she calls "cheese stars." We dutifully used a star cookie cutter but as soon as we tasted them it was clear we had to get a fish cookie cutter, because they taste just like Goldfish. They were delicious and it was hard to believe they're homemade. Nigella really knows food for kids.

Cheesy Fish (from How to Eat by Nigella Lawson)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch salt

2 Tablespoons butter (softened)

2/3 cup grated cheddar (we used KerryGold Blarney)

1/4 cup grated parmesan (KerryGold Dubliner)

Mix well, it's crumbly at first but will come together when you knead it. Roll out to 1/8 to 1/4 inches (depending on if you want them more moist or more crunchy.) Once again Nigella's estimate is way off, it says to roll out to 1/2 inch but if you do that it only makes a few crackers. My sister pointed out this may be a problem or mistakes with the translation from metric.

Anyway, cut out with cookie cutter and bake at 400 degrees for 6-9 minutes (depending on thickness.)

I imagine the flavor will vary considerably with the cheese you use. But I think they'd be good regardless. They were definitely a hit at my son's birthday party.

My new best friend ...

2007-09-02T21:22:00.001-04:00

My new best friend is a 40something Amish farmer. Well, ok, not really but he is an exciting new person in my life. Why? Because he went way above and beyond to find out which of the products he makes and sells are corn free. After several weeks of checking he was able to sell me ground beef, ground pork (for making my own sausage because his sausage processor wouldn't make any for me because he was afraid of getting sued), chicken, eggs and cheese. Woohoo! I ought to have introduced them slowly to make sure they were all safe but I was so excited to have all these new foods that we had some of each today. So far, so good (although the organic pluot from across the country that I tried didn't go over very well... itch, itch, sigh.) Local is good. But that's another post.

Oh, and then there's the wonderful beekeeper who sold me two pounds of honey from bees which are never fed corn (oh yes, they do feed corn syrup to bees. Just one more on the list of animals who are given corn but were never meant to eat it.) He assured me there was absolutely no corn in this honey. I had some of that too. Let's hope all these corn free claims are correct or I'm going to wake up feeling pretty awful tomorrow. But I was starting to feel deprived and in desperate need of something new to eat!

Sounds a little silly, you say? Getting so excited about the basics of life, like honey and cheese? Well, walking around a world full of food I can not eat has been wearing on me a bit lately. So safe foods, that I didn't have to drive to another state to acquire, make me happy!

Mmm - Dessert

2007-08-30T17:47:00.001-04:00

We had some really good cookies today. Actually, my son took one look at them and said "that's not a cookie" but he had no objection to eating them anyway. The recipe (courtesy of the Queen of Butter and Cream, Nigella Lawson) called them Snickerdoodles but the cookies are ball shaped and look just like donut holes - taste like them too. Since I have yet to find a safe donut, and am totally unwilling to fry my own, these make a nice substitute.

Donut Hole Cookies

1 cup flour
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour (my addition, Nigella calls for all white flour)
3/4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Mix and set aside while you cream 1/2 cup butter (at room temp) with 1/3 cup sugar.

Then beat in 1 egg and 1 t vanilla (homemade from potato vodka, of course).

Add wet to dry and mix well (I used my hands.)

Roll into balls - Nigella says the size of a walnut. Now, if you make them the size of a walnut with its shell, they are way too big and only make about 10 cookies (the recipe says it'll make 32.) So I wound up making them about 3/4 of an inch in diameter and that seemed about right. I still don't know exactly what sort of walnut Nigella meant. Maybe using whole wheat made the dough more compact?

Roll balls in cinnamon sugar and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

This is way more butter than I'd usually use (maybe I'll substitute some apple butter next time) but I needed something to feed kids who are used to "normal" food. I literally didn't have one thing in the house that I thought a "regular kid" would put in their mouth. Plus it needed to be pretty fast since it was almost snack time. This recipe fit the criteria and everyone who tried them has really liked them.

Hmmm, writing about them makes me want some more. Excuse me...

Corn Free Foods

2007-08-28T13:56:00.001-04:00

It would be easy to start with a rant about all the things we can't eat, but instead how about a list of what we can eat? You can eat "normal" foods when you're allergic to corn and soy, you just have to find the right sources for "safe" ingredients. Well, and you also have to make the time to prepare everything from scratch... I'm trying very hard to resist ranting about how long I spend cooking every day. Women used to do this all the time, right? Before McDonalds and frozen foods? My husband says I've gone back about a century or so. He'll really know I've left this century when I make my own butter. Thankfully I have a safe source of butter (Organic Valley) so I haven't had to go down that road (tortillas, bread, cheese, pickles, ketchup, and ice cream, yes. But not butter... yet.)

So here are some of ds8's dinner favorites:

homemade chicken nuggets
Aaron's chicken (from Trader Joe's)
breaded with matzo meal (any brand that's only wheat and water) and spices
fried in a little bit of canola oil (Spectrum is safe)

fish and chips
flounder filets from Costco (apparently they don't use corn in their packaging of fish)
breaded in matzo meal and spices
sprayed with canola oil (with a pump sprayer you fill yourself, not a storebought spray)
baked at 450 for 5-10 minutes
potatoes lightly coated with oil and roasted also at 450
homemade tarter sauce with Delois mayo (from Whole Foods), yogurt lemon juice

pasta with meat sauce
Laura's ground beef (in original packaging-from Acme)
**Amy's organic pasta sauce (used to be at WF but they stopped carrying it. I have seen it other places)
Bionaturae pasta (WF)

tacos
ground beef
**365 brand tomato paste (WF)
spices
safe lettuce, safe cheese, homemade flour tortillas

salmon cakes
canned salmon from WFs (unsalted, since salt often contains corn)
safe onion, celery, parsley, spices, an egg and some bread crumbs

**Just a note to add that we've since removed the tomato paste and Amy's sauce from our diet. I haven't yet determined whether there is corn in those items or if we are allergic to tomatoes. So try them at your own risk!

It all sounds very normal, doesn't it? And yummy, and did I mention healthy? My son tells me that's the silver lining to all this difficulty with food - we'll live longer since we eat so healthily! I admire his ability to remain positive, despite the fact that he can't eat any food not made by his parents.