We had a very late b-day party for the boys. Between illness and lack of available dates, we were a couple months late. It was a ton of fun though. We went to the Butterfly Pavilion and got an upclose look at many invertebrates as well as a talk from one of the staff members. Goodies, sugar, balloons, sugar, piñata, sugar, bugs, sugar, dancing and vegan cupcakes from Tee & Cakes. I think the best part was sending all those hopped up kids home to their parents. ;)
5 comments:
How does a vegan cupcake differ from a regular cupcake? I've made lots of cupcakes and I never remember killing large game in order to come up with ingredients.
oacoaoow
So I was sarcastic in my last line, but my question was sincere, what's a vegan cupcake?
umtap
It's pretty much something you'll only hear in Taos, Boulder, Seattle and every Whole Foods Market. A vegan is a vegetarian who not only avoids meat, but all animal products (I think on the theory that the animals are abused in the production of them). In particular it means no meat nor eggs nor milk.
Generally its easier to just say, "I need a vegan ... whatever with no peanuts". In this way I don't have to go through the whole thing of, "My son has food allergies... do you have anything without eggs, dairy, beef or peanuts?" That always seems to be the start of an hour long conversation with a ton of medical advice. I don't mind questions, but goofy advice is ... goofy.
Also, people are far more willing to go out of their way for vegan sensibility than food allergies, since so many people misunderstand that things other than peanuts can be the cause of anaphylactic reactions. Also vegan products realize that whey, casein, and albumin are dairy and egg products whereas the general public doesn't.
So, there's more than you ever wanted to know. ;) (When the boys used the word geek, we asked them what it meant. They said, "A person who tells people more facts than they want to know.")
So no dairy... Interesting challenge. You'd have to emulsify with a mineral agent. He can do wheat?
It's in fact not more than I wanted to know, but I'm sure most people aren't that interested.
Oh, and allergic to beef? I've never even heard of such a thing. Most plain meats are about as non-allergenic as anything generally, right? Any other meats?
bpewm
Dairy is tough mainly because it's in everything and most people really don't watch it as an allergen. Same with eggs. They're nice and careful about peanuts, but Rowan's only anaphylactic response was to milk.
I *think* that most people with a beef allergy also have the milk allergy and so it is my theory that perhaps it is a common protein in both.
His allergies have gotten better, he used to be allergic to corn and soy also -- the soy may be coming back. We have to retest. He's also got the seasonal hay fever, animal dander reactions, penicillin, and nickel.
Beef is a rare one and in trying to figure out what he was reacting to we cut out wheat for two weeks. UGH! That's where we learned about all the rice substances like Quinoa. After giving up on wheat as the culprit, Rowan was eating a burger Theo make with just hamburger and salt. When he started to react we thought there must have been some cross contamination. After all, while he did have reactions at McDonalds, he ate their burgers without a problem.
Turned out he was reacting to their fries flavored with beef tallow. The burgers had been cooked and freeze dried so many times that the proteins had denatured to a state that Rowan's immune system didn't recognize it. Ewww. A blood and scratch test verified his reaction -- even the specialist thought we really must have been mistaken.
Most (many?) allergies are triggered by proteins, so while chicken isn't very allergenic, I think my dad was reactive to it. Oils generally don't; Rowan can have peanut oil since all the proteins have been clarified out. Weird, huh?
While Rowan has a ton of allergies, on the whole they really don't affect his life all that much. I hear my dad's stories growing up in the 50's with only Benadryl and Theodur (sp?) with monthly trips to the emergency room and I think it's a wonder he even survived till he was 15 and grew out of most of them.
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