What's All This About, Anyway?

This site started as a way for me (hi, I'm buhfly) to babble about restaurants and food and a place for me to deconstruct recipes to fit a) my allergies, b) my pickiness, or c) both.

I am allergic to many, many things. It is not life-threatening, but it is downright annoying. Basically, ingesting or smelling certain things exacerbate chronic headaches that I deal with anyway. The main offenders are soy (it's in almost everything pre-packaged now), nuts and nut oils (including peanut), and pungent herbs/spices (including pepper). The last two are very, very unfortunate, because I love them all (except pepper; I don't like pepper). So you'll see deconstruction that works around them...and sometimes deconstruction that doesn't. It all depends on my mood that day and how much pain I'm willing to put up with.

I'm also a very picky eater. Not as picky as used to be, but still picky enough to be remarked upon. I have texture issues and visual issues. I'm a big supporter of the Presentation Is Important school. If it doesn't look good, some part of my brain assumes it's not going to taste good. And the texture thing can turn me off food quicker than even the allergies. What can I say? I'm all about me when I eat and if I don't like it...I don't like it.

And to top it all off, I have sugar/insulin problems. It's just a whirligig of fun in my kitchen!

I cook. I love to cook. But I also work 40+ hours a week at a day job. Therefore, I practice both complicated recipes and also quick fix recipes. I've even been known to use *gasp* canned straw mushrooms in a stir fry. Oh, the horror.

And...I think that's about it. Some come in, read, enjoy!