Meet The Tender Foodie: Allergen-free & Foodie-worthy
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 3:05PM 
I am officially a blogger. Not just any blogger, but one of those double bloggers.
Having had food allergies for the better part of a decade, and having met an enormous number of people in the last five years who also have food allergies (and their sisters, brothers, cousins, and aunts-twice-removed... ), I've decided to write about it. The blog is called "The Tender Foodie" and we address all kinds of food allergies, related health topics - I mean, its your immune system for heaven's sake - and offer recipes that are geared toward people who love food. We go deep, too. I've been interviewing organic meat & wine producers, trying out products and am working with doctors and other experts to answer questions like, "Where do food allergies come from?", "What is the best testing?", "Why are food allergies associated with other diseases like ADHD?", and "How do we Stop this Madness?"
While slamming away at my keyboard writing stuff for The Tender Foodie I'm also working on a bigger picture called, "The Tender Palate". It will become the information marketplace for all things foodie-worthy and allergen-free. I'm very excited about it and I hope you will check it out!
In the meantime, here are a few of the topics so you can get an idea of what you might be in for!
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If Chocolate Were the Perfect Man, Would He Be Dairy-Free?
When I found out that my adult dairy allergies would limit the kinds of chocolate I would be able to eat, I went through a period of denial. Those “traces” of dairy wouldn’t really harm me, would they? My own body finally forced my illusions to hit the reality fan. I realized that this secret romance with the forbidden was over. Until I met Barry Callebaut.
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Recipe: Grown-Up Chili
The wonderful thing about chili, is that it is easy to make allergen-free. Of course, most chili recipes do not contain nuts or gluten anyway, and the dairy is usually "on top", so you can choose to leave it off. But with most chili recipes, you still miss that taste and texture of dairy - to either compliment the spice or to simply make you happy.
So, if you cannot consume dairy products, have I got a recipe for you. There is no cheese required, and these flavors will demand that you leave it off.
This recipe has a mix of French and Mexican flavors, with a sauce that compels you to lick your bowl. I call this "grown-up" chili, because this is not your kids' chili (not your normal kid, anyway). With this blend of flavors and a 1/2 bottle of red wine, it's for adults only.
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Power Chicks & Lemon Chicken
Sometimes you need a little extra IQ. A shot of cool, quick inspiration. A few of the best peops in your corner.
Since The Tender Palate is a budding business, I can use as many healthy brain cells as I can get. So I brushed off my rusty entertaining skills, dished up a light supper for a few new power chick friends and “experimented” on them with a totally gluten- and dairy-free menu. These fun and generous women agreed to help me jump-start a couple of ideas, so I made a variety of dishes that were fairly well-practiced. I use the word “experiment”, because I’m always curious to see how the palates of people without food allergies react to alternative ingredients.
Although no men were invited to this particular party (next time I'll do an ALL MEN Menu), I threw a bone to equality by serving the same number of dessert items as savory-type dishes. Because when it comes to chocolate . . . baby, there ain’t no glass ceiling.
My unsuspecting power chicks were not aware, however, that many of the yummy ingredients in each dish were also power foods. Here’s the menu plus a little of the moxie behind it.
