Eating like your ancestors Part 2

I must be hungry for foods I can’t get easily. The Swedish make a rye bread that can be hard to get around here. It’s called Limpa and I know of only one bakery anywhere near us that makes it. It’s in Montrose and we live in Valley Village so it’s a good 20 miles away and it’s not easy to get there from here since it’s on the other side of the mountains from  here and you have to remember to call ahead to reserve a loaf. They only make it  a few days a week except in the holidays, then they make it more often. http://www.berolinabakery.com/breads.html.

They also make traditional and seasonal Princess cakes which used to be the traditional Swedish wedding cake. It’s a cake with raspberry or lingonberry jam and covered in green marzipan. Since I’m allergic to almonds, that isn’t on my diet plan but they also make broodjes and I love those. Those are Belgian small sandwiches with turkey or ham.

Somehow my body played a cruel joke on me. I’m allergic to some of the basic ingredients of my native cultures. I’m allergic to oats and the kind of allergic where I should be carrying an epi pen, I still have blood in my right eye from hurling the last time I got infinitesimal amounts in my breakfast when I ordered at Burger King 3 years ago. I couldn’t eat anything but soup for about 6 weeks. Oats are a staple of Scottish food. They are in everything. And they will literally kill me, Toes up, time for cremation. So not funny, genes

I’m also allergic to almonds and by extension peaches and all their stone fruit friends. It’s really not pretty when you can connect the dots on hives. Almonds are prominent in all kinds of Swedish things. Another cruel joke. It’s making me itch just thinking about it. The only way you can tell the difference between a peach tree and the almond tree is to look for the tiny stoma on the bottom of the leaves. One has two and one has one but it doesn’t matter because both will make me really sick and walk like Frankenstein to keep my joints from rubbing together.

I’m also allergic to tomatoes but I’ve just learned easily to avoid them. If it’s red and I can’t tell what it is, I ain’t going to eat it. Oats are sneaky. Anything labeled multigrain has oats and people don’t get that. I got served a multigrain roll in my sub at camp sack lunch and they were quite proud they had gotten around the oat barrier, NOT! And dessert was a peach fruit cup and a granola bar. I had cheese puffs and lemonade that sack lunch.

I have learned that almost all other nuts are my friends. So I have them everywhere. And I can’t think of a thing to eat that would be closer to our hunter gather ancestors. It wasn’t that long ago everyone went to the nut trees in forest and orchard every fall. I even love the ones that aren’t truly nuts like cashews (drupes), peanuts, (legumes) and sunflowers & pumpkins (seeds). Dry roast pecans are just yummy. I love pistachios, when I was little and Grandma would take me on expeditions to Farmer’s Market before it got attached to the g**d*** Grove. (http://www.farmersmarketla.com/) We would do shopping for all kinds of things that weren’t available in supermarkets in the 50’s and 60’s. I always came home with treats like pistachios that in those days came from Iran, nut butters from Magees and maple sugar candy, magic rocks that grew crystals (http://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-2928-Magic-Rocks-Shark/dp/B000H6HBEK/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1444943069&sr=1-3&keywords=magic+rocks) and if I was really good, a drinking bird like this: http://www.amazon.com/Drinking-Bird-The-Original/dp/B00494GXUY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444942838&sr=8-1&keywords=the+original+drinking+bird. That outing always got me fresh made rootbeer and a big plate of fish and chips and those still are the booths I hit for food, unless I really want a crepe.

About the only fruits I can tolerate are boysenberries, raspberries and citrus. I’m allergic to strawberries even though I adore them. By the way strawberries aren’t berries, they are achenes.

Anyway broodjes sound really good right now.

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