The Executive Mom

I had worked a very long day and there I was at midnight, just before the latest holiday, wondering how I was going to include my son in our food traditions. My husband found me sitting at the kitchen table rummaging through every cookbook we owned. He understood what I was trying to accomplish, yet felt compelled to have me get some rest. This Executive Mom was not to be interrupted as I searched for something my son could eat.

As you know, every holiday has at least one special food associated with it’s celebration. What makes our situation unique in our family is that our son is highly allergic to many foods including wheat, milk and eggs. Think about any celebration you have attended and you will start to see that almost all of the foods served contain at least one of the above ingredients. So, my dilemma was how to find a way to bake something traditional without wheat, milk and eggs.

I had climbed the corporate ladder many times so I was not going to give up on this herculean task. I wound up searching the web for recipes and came up short as most recipes called for substitutes of only one of the items I needed. I was hard pressed to find a substitute that would eliminate all three ingredients. Then it hit me. Why not create a whole new recipe and hope for the best? Afterall, I had work assignments where nobody gave me instructions; why not use my creative skills in the culinary world. I was not trying to impress the great chefs of the world – merely allow a child to participate in a traditional meal with the rest of the family.

After several hours I came up with what looked like it might work. I was attempting to make potato pancakes and a sweet noodle kugel without milk, wheat and eggs. I finally came up with the concept of substituting applesauce for the eggs in the pancakes and a mixture of cornstarch and water in the kugel. Both items came out great and the extended family actually liked the new creations. I am now in the process of creating more combinations that my son might enjoy.

The moral to the story is that where there is a will, there is a way. We have the power to do anything we want to do even though we may not have the proper road map. We have the power to create a new road map each and every day. We simply must actively participate in the creation instead of waiting for someone to hand us the perfect solution.

My challenge to you this week is to be bold and supportive of yourself as you enter new and unchartered territory and perhaps find a new way to do something. Whether it is for yourself or your family, you will find tremendous satisfaction in knowing that you can do something extraordinary simply by being willing to do something new.

Until next week,

Cheryl

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 9:58 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.