Cooking for Karina: A Blogging Festival and a Cooking Challenge

Dear readers,

One of our own, the much adored Karina of Gluten-Free Goddess, just found out that she isn't just a gluten-free goddess, she is in fact a veritable Food Allergy Goddess. She recently discovered that she has a whole wagonload of other food allergies.

To thank Karina, who has given so much to so many of us, and in honor of all people with multiple food allergies and intolerances, I am announcing Cooking for Karina, a food blogging event. Here's how it works:

• Create and post an original recipe (or adaptation of someone else's recipe, with appropriate credit given) that is free of the following ingredients: Cow's milk, cheese, whey, casein, goat's milk, eggs (including whites and yolks), chicken, turkey, gluten (that includes wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut - and oats, to play on the safe side), peanuts, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, soybeans, lemon, avocado, pineapple, papaya, green beans and kidney beans. Check your ingredients to make sure they don't contain derivatives of these ingredients- For example, almond oil or tofu. These aren't the only foods that people can be allergic to, but they are the foods Karina can no longer eat so by sticking to this list all our recipes will be ones she can use.
  
  
• E-mail me at glutenfreebay@ gmail.com (remove the space) with your name or online handle, the name and URL of your blog, and the URL of your post by Tuesday, July 10. Please write "Cooking for Karina" in the subject line. Photographs in posts are encouraged. All bloggers are welcome to participate, not just food bloggers! Food blogs that do not usually focus on food allergies are highly encouraged to join in and help us raise awareness of food allergies and intolerances.
  
  
• After receiving all of the entries, I will write them up into one grand summary with links to each of your individual recipe posts, and some photos, too.
  

The idea behind this project is to focus on what someone with multiple allergies can eat. It is so easy for people to get overwhelmed when we find out something we eat is making us sick. We often start focusing on what we can't eat, rather than all the possibilities for what foods we can eat safely and deliciously. To make things harder, people in our lives who do not have multiple food allergies often see or hear a list of foods a friend or family member or stranger can't eat and think "Oh, there's no way I could cook for that person!" or "How deprived they must be!" So let's flip the script and focus on all the fabulous and delicious culinary options that exist. I hope this will be a nice way for participants to give themselves an enjoyable cooking challenge (limiting one's ingredient choices can inspire great discoveries in the kitchen) while doing something kind for Karina and other folks who have multiple food allergies.

Please help me spread the word!