I am tearing up and starting to cry from joy and meaning as I write this, because if there is one thing I am proud of myself for accomplishing in my life, it is That Egg-Free Life: the adventure, our story, our food, our recipes, our lives, and the love I have developed for allergy-aware cooking that has been a necessity for not just Mark's survival, but for my own and all of our good health.
My brand IS That Egg-Free Life, and That Egg-Free Life is all four of us: Mark, Ben, Arlene, and Alison, from the tiniest of apartment kitchens to the most gorgeous, custom-designed dream kitchen we could ever have wished for from our fairy godmother.
I would like to take a few moments to recognize not only the incredible kindness and love of Arlene, not only the joy and brilliance of Mark and Ben, but also the compassion and generosity of Ed:
Arlene once introduced me to Mark's doctor as "This is Alison, our savior" -- but if I saved Mark's ability to eat and brought him on the path to excellent health through nutrition, then it is truly Ed who was Mark's fairy godmother, Ben's fairy godmother, Arlene's best friend and fairy godmother.
Ed was family to Mark and Ben, not by relation, but by choice, and when Ed passed away, he left Arlene an opportunity: the opportunity to own her own very nice home with the custom kitchen of all of our dreams, with the physical space for Mark and Ben as they grow up and grow onward.
Ed also gifted to ME: two children that had learned the virtues of kindness, compassion, generosity, and love not only from their own wonderful and loving mother, but from their friend Ed as well. As he grew too elderly to provide childcare for Mark and Ben, I was able to step it up as their nanny for several years -- but the children that he passed on to me already had absorbed so much kindness from Ed, so much spirit and joy. I only met Ed himself a few times, but his incredible kindness lives on -- in the lives and in the home of Mark and Ben and Arlene.
And in my life. For that egg-free kitchen is my kitchen too. Arlene's beautiful kitchen belongs to all four of us, and to her other dinner helpers as well. But most importantly, it belongs to Mark and Ben. Mark and Ben have been the heart of our egg-free lives, and in many ways they have also been the heart and soul of my career and my own journey.
And so as I contemplate my own teaching career, and moving forward in my life as an infant teacher -- but still frequently visiting with "the boys" to eat and cook our favorite foods and enjoy each other's company and laughter, it is with joy and meaning that I realize that not only OUR BRAND, but MY BRAND is and will forever be: That Egg-Free Life.
I will be soon purchasing my own website domain name, and I bet you can't guess what it will be ;)
Yes, my dear readers, I will keep you in the loop about when you can find ALL of us at That Egg-Free Life dot com. Let's share that egg-free love one more time, and once more, and again and again, until our recipes and my writing can touch the lives of as many kids who need to eat, as many people who need recipes, as many people with allergies and other food challenges, as many ways as possible for our egg-free lives to change the world.
What you can look forward to in the coming months:
Organized links to ALL of our recipes, in a way where you can actually FIND the exact recipe you are looking for.
Links to this very original site with new commentary and new tips.
Egg-free, nut-free, low in lactose, low in nickel, soy-free, shellfish-free, all of the allergy-aware love.
BUT with an egg every now and then, with some lactose every now and then, with some nickel every now and then, for tips on the way each of us really does eat and has eaten over the years.
JOY and CELEBRATION of eating not in spite of having food allergies, but eating better and cooking better BECAUSE of our living with multiple food allergies.
:) :) :)
I myself do not have an egg allergy. I love eggs in baked goods. But the more time I have spent eating with Mark, the more dinners I gravitate towards choosing to cook without eggs, for the recipes I have made for dinner with Mark are simply better than anything else I've ever cooked or eaten in my life. Sure, a quiche is beautiful, but it's nothing compared to our fried rice with chicken, our multitude of burger recipes, our Italian food, our imaginary Asian food, our Jewish food, our comfort food --
our egg-free lives.
To Arlene, Ben, and Mark, I love you all, and I love the way we cook when we are together.
Y'all better believe that once I get That Egg-Free Life: The Website set up, that as they say in the musical Newsies, "And the world will know!"
Love,
Alison
<3 <3 <3