21. Easter

Albino's salmone affumicato and my paltry contribution to this feast: sardines with roasted red peppers. Just to whet the appetite

Mamma's gnocchi fatti in casa

Just part of the meal. (Note to self - must get wide-angle lens).

Yorkshire pudding? Well, what else to serve with...

Prime Rib roast?

It won't all fit on one plate so this is serving #1

Save room for Raspberry Tirimisu!

20.

Recently my husband underwent an allergy test by a naturopath to see what food allergies could be responsible for some persistent skin problems he had been experiencing. The test came back showing a strong allergy to eggs and moderate allergies to gluten and cow's milk. The naturopath asked him to avoid these foods entirely for at least a month to see how his skin reacted with these irritants removed from his diet.

He came home a little subdued by the thought of everything he would be giving up but also excited that he may once and for all lick his itchy, painful, skin problem without medication. As he presented me with the list of banned foods I think I went a little numb. Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely inflexible. But telling an Italian that she has to cook without eggs, wheat or cow's milk is pretty much like telling her she'll be cooking with her hands tied behind her back.

I certainly wasn't going to cook two seperate things for each meal, so I was along for this culinary ride too. No parmigiano? No bread to sop up sauces? No pasta, for God's sake? What are we supposed to eat?

I have always found it odd that some vegetarians will buy fake bacon or Tofurkey. It just seemed counter intuitive to me. If you don't want to eat meat, then why would you want to eat something that is supposed to look, smell and taste like meat? So I didn't want to rush down the path of buying prepared foods as substitutes for what we would missing.

I also have a very vivid memory of a lovely older relative visiting from Italy that was bewildered by the obsession he witnessed in Canada for all food Italian. Rather than shipping in all of this food that is then no longer fresh and is now exorbitantly priced, he asked, why not focus on what is readily available here?

Every Italian grocery in the City lines their shelves with tiny packets of dried porcini mushrooms and mascarpone cheese flown in from Italy. But the mushrooms have no smell and and everyone knows mascarpone should be eaten fresh. By the time the plane hits the ground in Canada and the specialty items are shipped all the way across the country, they ain't fresh any longer. That I can tell you.

But he was astounded by the beauty and the taste of the salmon abundant here - a rare delicacy in Italy. And there are lots of mushrooms to be found in B.C. Sure, the porcini are different - the trees whose roots provide food and a place to grow are different. This makes all the mushrooms in the Boletos family smell and taste different than their European cousins. Still, rather than buying a packet filled with dehydraded mushrooms collected in Italy, wouldn't it be better to spend a day outside mushroom hunting and then rush home to make a beautiful risotto ai funghi misti, all the while anticipating that first bite of firm, fresh mushroom you picked yourself?

So when faced with this challenge I knew two things: I was going to have to say bye-bye to some of my old standbys like pasta and some cheese. I just wasn't willing to eat pasta made without eggs or flour. And, I was going to have to experiement with other kinds of cuisine that depended more on the ingredients Matt could eat.

As soon as I opened my eyes options were everywhere. A friend had me over to dinner and made the most wonderful dhal. Over the last several weeks I have had a lot of fun playing with her recipe and recipes for other Indian dishes. Rice is fine for Matt's system and we are enjoying exploring the many things you can make with beans and lentils to top it. In addition, the amount of fresh vegetables we have been eating has gone through the roof. We have cut out all pasta and bread and we both feel so much better. We are less bloated and feel lighter and healthier. As an unimagined but welcomed consequence - I have even lost weight!

Last weekend was Matt's birthday dinner. I invited my entire family (17 people) to celebrate with no idea of what to make. In the end, I went with jambalya made from organic, free-range chicken from Pemberton, the sausages we made ourselves last summer, frozen BC spot prawns from our favourite seafood shop and Hungarian Farmers Sausage smoked and dried on site at J N & Z Deli just down the street. The base was a broth made from chicken bones and prawns heads and shells I'd been stockpiling in the freezer. In the cornbread I used flax seed powder instead of eggs, rice milk, gluten-free flour and plenty of corn kernels. All of it turned out great.

But I was worried about the cake. Cakes are a big deal around these parts. Especially when there is a birthday involved. Luckily I found a wonderful blog with plenty of cake recipes. I decided on this wonderful egg-free and gluten-free chocolate cake and even got some tips from the blogeress and chef herself. The cakes (I made two since there were plenty of mouths to feed) rose just as well as any others I've made and smelled delicious. The recommended chocolate icing/glaze looked beautiful, as did the garnish of last summer's cherries. I sprinkled the adults' cake with rum and layered the kids' cake with chocolate pudding. Everyone really enjoyed them and the kids gobbled up their portions. The cakes were moist and chocolaty and everything you could want from a birthday cake.

Our family get togethers are different than the ones I experienced when I was visiting my family in Italy. There is always a lot more food, for one thing - I think most Italians would be shocked at the amount of food we consume in one sitting here. But on my last visit to Italy I was lucky enough to attend my nonna's 90th birthday party. The food was extraordinary, but what I remember most was the sight of her surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, her hair nicely dressed and a beautiful scarf around her neck. She beamed. Though she was barely eating anything by that point, I could see that the real joy of the meal for her was being surrounded by her family. I felt that same satisfaction last weekend when everyone jumped in to try eating in a new way. There were no complaints or refusals - even the kids didn't balk.

That's family.