Plans are afoot chez Troubadour.
Some are sizable -- to the point that trying to write about them here in the last week has produced three different post drafts, none of which seemed to get at what I wanted them to. And that is usually a sign for me that the ideas need more than a little fine-tuning if I can't even elaborate on them in this space, where nothing has to be complete but just somewhat organized.
So, not to keep returning to food allergies, but that's what I can write about. And with the first of our many fall and winter holidays approaching, I've been busy trying to figure out how to make traditional baked goods (because what else does one eat at this time of year more than any other?) using nontraditional ingredients.
There are resources out there. Many, many resources, posted on the web by people who have similar dietary limitations. They're impossible to search through efficiently and most still include ingredients I can't eat. It's one thing to need recipes that are strictly gluten-free. But how about gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, corn-free ...
Well, what about the professionals, I wondered. The people who sell allergen-free baked goods? Could they have advice?
A few weeks ago, I discovered the website of a bakery that is known for its friendliness to those with food sensitivities. Refined-sugar-, gluten-, wheat-, soy-, casein-, and egg-free -- yes, they do it all. And there was a cookbook, written by their founding chef, in their online store!
I had huge hopes as I waited for a copy to become available from my local library. Could hardly walk to my car once I had the book in my hands -- I was already perusing the contents: muffins, biscuits and scones, teacakes, cookies and brownies, cupcakes and frostings. Something in here had to work.
Except that nearly every recipe in the book calls for a pre-blended gluten-free flour mix that contains potato starch (or the recipe requires just potato starch itself), and potatoes are the latest GI enemy to make it onto my list.
Yes, I felt a little cheated.
But -- but! -- it's one step closer. I still don't have to reinvent baked goods; I just need to figure out how to use the research in this book to inform my substitutions. Troubadour-friendly, gluten-free flour blend, you will be mine.
Of course, if you know of other professional resources out there that might help me speed up the testing process, I'm all ears.
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To search this blog, type in the field at the top left of the page and hit enter.
Body: in sickness and in health
I won't lie; this body and I have had our issues with each other for many years. Body image -- sure. Physical and mental overextension -- comes with being a Type A kind of girl. I still struggle with these things, so they show up from time to time in my writing.
More recently, illness, pure but not simple, has added itself to the mix in a multi-system sort of way. And the challenges in figuring out exactly what's gone wrong are many. As problems have revealed themselves in the last few years, beginning with reactive hypoglycemia in late 2008, I've documented them here, partly to gain a little clarity on managing complex conditions but mostly to give voice to vulnerabilities I feel but don't normally share with anyone face to face. Better out than in, they say, right? (Oh yes, humor is one way I deal.)
The links below cover the different angles I've examined (and from which I've been examined) within that experience.
More recently, illness, pure but not simple, has added itself to the mix in a multi-system sort of way. And the challenges in figuring out exactly what's gone wrong are many. As problems have revealed themselves in the last few years, beginning with reactive hypoglycemia in late 2008, I've documented them here, partly to gain a little clarity on managing complex conditions but mostly to give voice to vulnerabilities I feel but don't normally share with anyone face to face. Better out than in, they say, right? (Oh yes, humor is one way I deal.)
The links below cover the different angles I've examined (and from which I've been examined) within that experience.
Allergic reactions
Bacterial overgrowth
Body
CT scans
Colonoscopy
Diagnoses
Dietitians
Doctor-patient relationships
Doctors
ER
Eating while traveling
Endocrine
Endoscopy
Food anxiety
GI
Hypoglycemia
Kidney stones
Lab tests
Liver function tests
Malabsorption
Medical records
Medication
Ophthalmology
Oxalates
Pancreatic function tests
Prediabetes
Pregnancy
Reproductive endocrine
Rheumatology
Traveling while sick
Ultrasound
Urology
Weight
Travel: neither here nor there
When the person you're married to lives two time zones away, you log a fair number of frequent flier miles. And if you blog about commuter relationships, you log quite a few posts en route too.
Since we're no longer in separate places, I blog less often from airports. But we do travel -- together now! -- which is much more fun to write about. So in addition to thoughts on our years of commuting, the links below cover the places we've been as a pair and, in some cases, the adventures that have happened on the way.
Since we're no longer in separate places, I blog less often from airports. But we do travel -- together now! -- which is much more fun to write about. So in addition to thoughts on our years of commuting, the links below cover the places we've been as a pair and, in some cases, the adventures that have happened on the way.
Writing: the long and short of it
Why do I do it? Good question. Maybe it's not so much that I like to write but that I have to write, even when the words refuse to stick to the page. Believe me, I've tried doing other things like majoring in biochemistry (freshman fall, many semesters ago). Within a year, I'd switched to English with a concentration in creative writing and wasn't looking back.
After graduating, I taught English for a few years and then worked as an editor, which I still do freelance. In 2007, I applied and got into an MFA program at a place I like to call Little U. on the Prairie. I finished my degree in 2011 and have been balancing tutoring and writing on my own ever since.
The following links cover the writing I've done about writing: process, content, obstacles, you name it. It's not always pretty. But some part of me loves it, even when it's hard. And this is the result.
After graduating, I taught English for a few years and then worked as an editor, which I still do freelance. In 2007, I applied and got into an MFA program at a place I like to call Little U. on the Prairie. I finished my degree in 2011 and have been balancing tutoring and writing on my own ever since.
The following links cover the writing I've done about writing: process, content, obstacles, you name it. It's not always pretty. But some part of me loves it, even when it's hard. And this is the result.
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Things Fall Apart3 years ago
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Geoffrey Chaucer5 years ago
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Thank you, and a Look Ahead5 years ago
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April Happenings6 years ago
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A New Chapter9 years ago
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Overnight Research Trip9 years ago
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Opening the Blinds10 years ago
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Farewell, for now10 years ago
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how to get through a thing11 years ago
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Heart: family and friends
I'd have a hard time explaining who I am without being able to talk about the family I grew up in as well as the people I've met beyond its bounds. But even with such context, it's not easy! In the simplest terms, I'm a first-generation Asian-American who has spent most of this life caught between cultures. That, of course, doesn't even begin to describe what I mean to, but there's my first stab at the heart of it all.
That's what this group of posts is reserved for -- heart. The essential parts of my life whose influences I carry with me, for better or worse. The links below cover what I've written as I've learned how these forces work within me, for me, against me, in spite of me. They anchor me even as they change me, and they keep life interesting.
That's what this group of posts is reserved for -- heart. The essential parts of my life whose influences I carry with me, for better or worse. The links below cover what I've written as I've learned how these forces work within me, for me, against me, in spite of me. They anchor me even as they change me, and they keep life interesting.
Recommended reading
What do I do when there's too much on my mind and my words won't stick to the page? I escape into someone else's thoughts. Below is a collection of books and articles that have been sources of information, inspiration, and occasional insight for my own work.
Monday, November 14, 2011
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Betrayal
Editing
False starts
Feedback
Journaling
Little U. on the Prairie
MFA programs
Mentorship
Motivation
Narrative
Process
Professors
Research
Revision
Rewriting
Thesis
Voice
When words won't stick
Why we write
Workshops
Writers on writing
Writing
Writing friends
Writing in odd places
Writing jobs
Thesis
- "Writing in My Father's Name: A Diary of Translated Woman's First Year" in Women Writing Culture
- Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You
- Darkroom: A Family Exposure
- Do You Remember Me?: A Father, a Daughter, and a Search for the Self
- Five Thousand Days Like This One
- Giving Up the Ghost
- Middlesex
- Simple Recipes
- The Bishop's Daughter
- The Possibility of Everything
- The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics
- Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity
On commuter relationships
- Commuter Marriages: Worth the Strain?
- Dual Career Couples: The Travails of a Commuter Marriage
- I Was in a Commuter Marriage
- Long-Distance Marriages, Better for Business?
- Love on the Road, Not on the Rocks
- Making Marriage Work from a Distance
- Survival Tips for Commuter Couples
- Ten Things Commuter Couples Need to Know
- Till Work Do Us Part
- Two Cities, Two Careers, Too Much?
Air travel
Airline food
Astoria
Baggage beefs
Bed and breakfast
Boston
British Columbia
California
Canada
Cape Spear
Clam-digging
Commuter marriage
Delays
Eating while traveling
Gate agent guff
Halifax
Iowa
Long Beach
Massachusetts
Miami
Monterey
Moving
New York
Newark
Newfoundland
Nova Scotia
Olympic Peninsula
Ontario
Oregon
Paris
Portland
San Francisco
Seattle
Skiing
St. John's
Texas
Toronto
Travel
Travel fears
Traveling while sick
Vancouver
Victoria
Washington
Washington D.C.
Whidbey Island
Yakima
Posts by label
Air travel
Airline food
Allergic reactions
Astoria
Awards
Bacteremia
Bacterial overgrowth
Baggage beefs
Bed and breakfast
Betrayal
Blues
Body
Boston
Breastfeeding
British Columbia
California
Canada
Cape Spear
Clam-digging
Colonoscopy
Commuter marriage
Cooking
CT scans
Delays
Diagnoses
Dietitians
Doctor-patient relationships
Doctors
Eating while traveling
Editing
Endocrine
Endoscopy
ER
False starts
Family dynamics
Feedback
Food anxiety
Food sensitivities
Gate agent guff
GI
Halifax
Heart
Home-making
House hunting
Hypoglycemia
In-laws
Intentional happiness
Iowa
Journaling
Kidney stones
Knitting
Lab tests
Little U. on the Prairie
Liver function tests
Long Beach
Making friends in new places
Malabsorption
Massachusetts
Medical records
Medication
Mentorship
MFA programs
Miami
Monterey
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Moving
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Newark
Newfoundland
Nova Scotia
Olympic Peninsula
Ontario
Ophthalmology
Oregon
Oxalates
Pancreatic function tests
Parenting
Parents
Paris
Pets
Photography
Portland
Prediabetes
Pregnancy
Process
Professors
Publishing
Reproductive endocrine
Research
Revision
Rewriting
Rheumatology
San Francisco
Scenes from a graduation series
Scenes from around the table series
Seattle
Sisters
Skiing
St. John's
Striped-up paisley
Teaching
Technological snafus
Texas
Thesis
Toronto
Travel
Travel fears
Traveling while sick
Ultrasound
Urology
Vancouver
Victoria
Voice
Washington
Washington D.C.
Weight
When words won't stick
Whidbey Island
Why we write
Workshops
Writers on writing
Writing
Writing friends
Writing in odd places
Writing jobs
Yakima
Monday, November 14, 2011
Testing, testing
Plans are afoot chez Troubadour.
Some are sizable -- to the point that trying to write about them here in the last week has produced three different post drafts, none of which seemed to get at what I wanted them to. And that is usually a sign for me that the ideas need more than a little fine-tuning if I can't even elaborate on them in this space, where nothing has to be complete but just somewhat organized.
So, not to keep returning to food allergies, but that's what I can write about. And with the first of our many fall and winter holidays approaching, I've been busy trying to figure out how to make traditional baked goods (because what else does one eat at this time of year more than any other?) using nontraditional ingredients.
There are resources out there. Many, many resources, posted on the web by people who have similar dietary limitations. They're impossible to search through efficiently and most still include ingredients I can't eat. It's one thing to need recipes that are strictly gluten-free. But how about gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, corn-free ...
Well, what about the professionals, I wondered. The people who sell allergen-free baked goods? Could they have advice?
A few weeks ago, I discovered the website of a bakery that is known for its friendliness to those with food sensitivities. Refined-sugar-, gluten-, wheat-, soy-, casein-, and egg-free -- yes, they do it all. And there was a cookbook, written by their founding chef, in their online store!
I had huge hopes as I waited for a copy to become available from my local library. Could hardly walk to my car once I had the book in my hands -- I was already perusing the contents: muffins, biscuits and scones, teacakes, cookies and brownies, cupcakes and frostings. Something in here had to work.
Except that nearly every recipe in the book calls for a pre-blended gluten-free flour mix that contains potato starch (or the recipe requires just potato starch itself), and potatoes are the latest GI enemy to make it onto my list.
Yes, I felt a little cheated.
But -- but! -- it's one step closer. I still don't have to reinvent baked goods; I just need to figure out how to use the research in this book to inform my substitutions. Troubadour-friendly, gluten-free flour blend, you will be mine.
Of course, if you know of other professional resources out there that might help me speed up the testing process, I'm all ears.
Some are sizable -- to the point that trying to write about them here in the last week has produced three different post drafts, none of which seemed to get at what I wanted them to. And that is usually a sign for me that the ideas need more than a little fine-tuning if I can't even elaborate on them in this space, where nothing has to be complete but just somewhat organized.
So, not to keep returning to food allergies, but that's what I can write about. And with the first of our many fall and winter holidays approaching, I've been busy trying to figure out how to make traditional baked goods (because what else does one eat at this time of year more than any other?) using nontraditional ingredients.
There are resources out there. Many, many resources, posted on the web by people who have similar dietary limitations. They're impossible to search through efficiently and most still include ingredients I can't eat. It's one thing to need recipes that are strictly gluten-free. But how about gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, corn-free ...
Well, what about the professionals, I wondered. The people who sell allergen-free baked goods? Could they have advice?
A few weeks ago, I discovered the website of a bakery that is known for its friendliness to those with food sensitivities. Refined-sugar-, gluten-, wheat-, soy-, casein-, and egg-free -- yes, they do it all. And there was a cookbook, written by their founding chef, in their online store!
I had huge hopes as I waited for a copy to become available from my local library. Could hardly walk to my car once I had the book in my hands -- I was already perusing the contents: muffins, biscuits and scones, teacakes, cookies and brownies, cupcakes and frostings. Something in here had to work.
Except that nearly every recipe in the book calls for a pre-blended gluten-free flour mix that contains potato starch (or the recipe requires just potato starch itself), and potatoes are the latest GI enemy to make it onto my list.
Yes, I felt a little cheated.
But -- but! -- it's one step closer. I still don't have to reinvent baked goods; I just need to figure out how to use the research in this book to inform my substitutions. Troubadour-friendly, gluten-free flour blend, you will be mine.
Of course, if you know of other professional resources out there that might help me speed up the testing process, I'm all ears.
Labels:
Body,
Food sensitivities,
Home-making,
When words won't stick,
Writing
2 comments:
- French Fancy... said...
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Hello CT - I'm going to try and start posting more regularly. I've missed you.
x -
November 16, 2011 at 11:54 PM
- This Ro(a)mantic Life said...
-
Hi FF! Hope you are managing across the pond. I've missed your news!
xoxo -
November 18, 2011 at 1:05 PM
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2 comments:
Hello CT - I'm going to try and start posting more regularly. I've missed you.
x
Hi FF! Hope you are managing across the pond. I've missed your news!
xoxo
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