O-Boy(s)!: Birthday Pie

Monday, November 12, 2012

Birthday Pie

Last night we had all my brothers and Andy Landau over for a Sunday dinner. A belated birthday celebration for Peter with the whole crew. For dessert I made pies - Banana Cream and Key Lime. Making pies might be one of my most favorite activities. I love perfecting a crust, deciding on fillings and tasting the final creation. [it reminds me of my winter pie project 3 years ago with 5 year old Jacob].

I made pies because I wanted to try out a new crust recipe before Thanksgiving. After listening to Christopher Kimball on NPR this week [the genius behind Cook's Illustrated and their Test Kitchen], I was reminded how much of cooking involves understanding the science behind ingredients. His kitchen aims to test all the conventional recipes and then teach cooks how to cook each dish correctly for optimal results. And while I love the creative aspect of cooking, he reminded us that creativity in the kitchen is only successful when we understand technique. The nerdy side of me eats this up! The Test Kitchen has many pie crust recipes - but after reading many, I went for one called "Foolproof Pie Dough". The experiment was a success. Probably the best flakey and flavorful pie crust to ever come out of this kitchen. Fun!

2 comments:

ellen said...: Send recipes!; November 12, 2012
ellen said...: Me again. I have a card to send you. Can you email me your new address (patton_ellen@hotmail.com).; November 13, 2012

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What is FPIES?

I have 2 children that are recently healed from FPIES - Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. Scotty is 5 years old - and fought this disorder for about 3.5 hard years. Colin is a 20 month old baby - and had a quick recovery. He is recently cleared of all of his symptoms, calling him FPIES free!

FPIES is a severe delayed food allergy of the gut, it is understood to be a T-cell mediated response in which food is considered a foreign invader and the body “fights” it until it can violently expel it; although the exact mechanisms are still not well understood.

Symptoms include: profound vomiting (often to bile), diarrhea and/or constipation. These can lead to: lethargy, low body temp or fever, hypotension, and in severe cases, sepsis and shock. Reactions to food are often delayed - a couple hours or even days.

Many children also experience a combination of discomforting symptoms while the body "fights" this reaction and these can include: extreme stomach pains, gas, runny stools with or without mucous or blood, persistent hiccups, acid reflux, rashes, sleep disturbance, and agitation. Other atypical symptoms I see in my own children are persistent runny noses and ear infections. Sypmtoms can last a couple hours or even weeks after the initial ingestion of a trigger food.

FPIES is a clinical diagnosis (based on symptoms), there is currently no test for it.

FPIES common trigger foods as listed in the literature include, but are certainly not limited to: Dairy, Soy, Rice, Oats, Barley, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Chicken, Turkey, Corn, Eggs.

Safe foods for these children to eat are determined by food challenges either at home or the doctor's office, as directed by the child's physician.

Children diagnosed with FPIES are treated in part with a strict elimination diet - keeping all trigger foods 100% out of their bodies. It is hoped that this will give their gut time to "heal".

Read and learn more in Joy's collection of articles:
FPIES File Cabinet

Also see her great collection of articles at The FPIES Foundation:
Medical Resource Articles

Check out this new great website with tons of FPIES info:
International Association for Food Protein Enterocolitis