The second happened through a fantastic Facebook group of the most supportive, humble, self-deprecating, other-cheering, hilarious, and generous community of women. For the last couple of months, I have been talking to some women about breastfeeding and our little ones’ reactions to food we eat. Finley seems to have had mild reactions to dairy and soy in my diet, so I’ve cut those out for the time being. One of the other women, however, has had to eliminate practically everything delicious and convenient. Boo! But hurray to her for soldiering on! She had a particularly tough week, so I offered to bake a treat that she could actually eat. No easy task, but fun for this food nerd. No eggs or dairy – not a big deal, since there’s a lot of info out there on modifying existing recipes for vegans. The biggest issue was avoiding corn. “Whatever, just don’t make corn bread,” you say. Ha! Did you know there’s corn in baking powder?? I didn’t. Luckily, the internet exists. Baking soda + cream of tartar = corn-free baking powder.

We had a lovely chat when I dropped off the bread and agreed to get together for a walking date later on. Yay for new friends!

I didn’t have any of the bread (which is based on another Joy the Baker recipe), because wheat and I aren’t getting along at the moment, but my mommy friend says it was delicious. It makes two loaves, so wrap one well and freeze it or give it away and make a new friend yourself.

Allergy-Sensitive Butternut Squash Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare two loaf pans (8 x 4 x 3 inches) by lining with parchment paper – cut two strips of parchment paper about 8 inches wide and long enough to hang over the edges of the pans; crease into the corners of each pan to create a sling to lift out the baked bread. If you’re not concerned about allergens, you could grease and flour the pans instead (making sure to knock out the extra flour).
3. Whisk together the dry ingredients (including sugar, which is usually considered wet).
4. Whisk together the wet ingredients (add about 1/4 cup of water if you use commercial canned pumpkin).
5. Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry and mix just until combined. If you mix like crazy, you’ll develop the gluten in the flour and end up with tough bread.
6. Divide the batter equally between the prepared loaf pans and bake for about 1 hour (until a toothpick inserted in the center of each loaf comes out clean).
7. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes (20 if you didn’t use parchment paper). Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

It’s been a quiet week in our kitchen. Lindsay and I were both sick, Lindsay has been travelling again for work, and we had out-of-town guests staying with us this past weekend. Meals at home were quick, and we mostly forgot to take photos. But, there is one exception: quick local grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup.


Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Lindsay is experimenting with sourdough, but our first attempt at a starter fell kind of flat. Literally.

   The bread was still very tasty, just very dense. We cut and quartered it, and it worked well for what became grilled cheese paninis.

   

2. The cheese was a great swiss-style cheese from Cato Corner Farm. We used the better part of the 1/4 pound that we bought, cutting four generous slices.

   

3. We heated our stove top griddle on medium-low (no need for a griddle, it can just be a pan), and brushed the sandwiches with the melted butter.
4. We used two cast iron pans to weigh the sandwiches down and press them as we grilled. I had the heat up a bit too high at this point and the sandwiches got a bit blackened.

   

5. Lindsay heated a jar of canned whole tomatoes, mixed in a little cream, and attacked it with a stick blender. And in just one minute we had fresh, local, (nearly) sodium-free tomato soup!