The last recipe I posted before November 2025 was for Carrot Beet Muffins. At the time, we were still deep in our winter CSA era, which meant I was trying to use every beet, carrot, and black radish that came home. (And I still heartily recommend Prairie Hollow Farm if you’re in the Twin Cities and have fewer produce restrictions.)
Then November 2025 happened, and our household food rules changed…dramatically.
In addition to the capsaicin and mustard seed allergies we were already navigating, we suddenly needed to navigate cooking with IBS. For the last seven months, I’ve been trying to figure out what’s still possible, what’s definitely not, and what’s new to us. For someone raised in the Midwest, this was less “minor adjustment” and more “I suddenly don’t know how to cook anymore.”
It took nearly the entire seven months, but, I’m slowly, finally getting back to being able to feed us good food that tastes good without feeling like I’ve picked up a nutrition course in my spare time.
Going forward, recipes on this site will be written for the way we cook now. That means they will generally be:
- onion-free
- garlic-free
- capsaicin-free
- mustard-free
- free of cow dairy except butter
I do want to mention that one of the few successes we’ve had with reintroduction is wheat. That makes this not, strictly speaking, low FODMAP. If you’re here because that’s what you’re looking for (also, hi! I hope this helps), please keep in mind that you might also have to do some substituting to make this safe for you. (And if you don’t react to dairy proteins, just swap the goat/sheep/vegan cheese back to whatever you like best.)
Mostly though, this is where we’re at now. They’re different than they were before, sometimes a lot different. But I’m still me, and I’m still over here trying to cook for us without it taking hours, specialty supplies (mostly), or a college-level course.
A Twist of Metaphor 