Eat Your Parritch

I've become a big fan of Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series of historical novel/time travel stories featuring Jamie and Claire Fraser. Their adventures begin in Jamie's native Scotland in the mid 1700s. Gabaldon describes, in some detail, what daily life was like in that time, including what people ate.
It appears that much of the Scottish diet at that time was made up of meat or fish. So when I first encountered a character in one of the books talking about "parritch," I thought he meant "partridge." As it happens, though, he was talking about porridge, or what we Americans call oatmeal.

OATMEAL - on the left, steel cut oats; regular rolled oats are on the right.

I don't know how oats were harvested and prepared for cooking in those days. But I do know that there weren't microwaves or or little packets of pre-sweetened cereal available back then. So when Jamie's sister, Jenny Murray, fixed breakfast for the family at Lallybroch, I imagine she made up a big pot of what we'd now call "steel cut oats." (Also known as Irish or Scottish oats.)

If you've never made this version of oatmeal at home, dinna fash yourself, as Jamie would say. It's very easy. And verra, verra tasty.

Before you go to bed at night, pour 4 cups of water into a medium-sized saucepan. Add a dash of sea salt. Bring to a boil. Add one cup of steel cut oats. Give them a quick stir.  Put a lid on the pot and turn off the heat. Let stand overnight on the stove top.

When you get up the next morning, the oats will be cooked through. All you have to do is heat the oatmeal, dish it up in a bowl, pour on a wee bit of milk and you have breakfast. Some people like to sweeten their "parritch" with brown sugar or maple syrup. I prefer to add fruit - dried in the winter and fresh in the summer. A sprinkle of almonds or walnuts is verra nice. And ye'll ken that a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg would be lovely, too.

For more about food inspired by the Outlander stories, visit Theresa's clever blog, The Outlander Kitchen. She begins each post with a food-related excerpt from one of the books and follows it with a recipe. Examples include: "Fiona's Ginger-Nut Biscuits from Drums of Autumn," "Honey-Buttermilk Oat Bread at Madame Jeanne's from Voyager," and "Dougal's Poached Peach Sundae." Great storytelling and great food - what could be better, aye?

Can't get enough OUTLANDER? Visit my Outlander Plant Guide for a wee bit more information about the plants featured in the series.

Is It Possible To Get Over A Food Allergy?

If you asked me that question 10 years ago, or even 3 months ago, I would have said, "No." Emphatically.

I was diagnosed with an egg allergy nearly 20 years ago. Back then the antibody levels in my blood for both egg whites and yolks were off the charts. When I stopped eating eggs, the symptoms - buzzing in my head, difficulty swallowing, bloating, cramps, diarrhea, etc. - went away. Because the severity of the allergy developed gradually, I didn't realize how rotten I felt all the time. Until I didn't anymore. Sweet relief!

Since then, I've had to be diligent in order to maintain my health. As anyone with an allergy to common foods like wheat, eggs, dairy and soy can tell you, it is a challenge to avoid these things. There are traces of them in prepared foods everywhere you look. You learn to read labels, ask a lot of questions at restaurants and rely mostly on your own cooking to stay out of harm's way. But as far as I was concerned, that was all a small price to pay for feeling good. I was absolutely fine living my egg-free life.

So it came as a big surprise to me when, about a month ago, I started craving scrambled eggs! That's just crazy, I thought. That's self-destructive! I can't eat eggs - I haven't even wanted to eat an egg in years. But the craving wouldn't go away. So one day while I was shopping, I decided to buy a half dozen eggs. I figured I'd listen to my body and give them a try.

I knew that after two or three bites of scrambled egg, I would know where things stood. There have been enough slip-ups over the years that I am very familiar with how I react when I'm exposed to eggs. I fully expected to feel an electrical sensation in my head and that my throat would start to constrict. When that happened, I was going to stop eating. Simple as that. I'd feel a little sick, but not terribly so if I ate only a couple of bites. And then I would know whether this craving was simply crazy or whether, by some miracle, I can eat eggs now.

I scrambled my egg and started to eat. One bite, two bites - no problem. I kept eating. Still everything was normal. I finished the egg. I felt fine. I waited for a delayed reaction. It never came. In fact, I felt really good. And that egg tasted great! I wanted more, but decided not to push it. I waited a couple of days and had two eggs for breakfast. Again, no problem.

In fact, I've eaten close to two dozen eggs in the past three weeks without any sign of allergy!

I have no idea how this could have happened. The only thing different in my life lately is that I have been doing T-Tapp exercises for the past three months. It seemed to me to be a stretch to think there could be any correlation, until I read this post on the Chicago Eats Allergy-Free site. All I can say is that I am grateful for whatever it is that has healed my immune system.

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