Mayo for Easter

As you may have noticed, I talk about food. A lot. My life revolves around what I can and cannot eat. I am constantly comparing the nutritional advantages and disadvantages of ingredients and coming up with new recipes because, lets face it, when you have as many restrictions as I do food can be boring.
It should not be boring! Before I got sick I was very passionate about food. I loved to cook. I had a library full of recipe books, and absorbed everything I could about cooking from Food Network and magazine articles. My holidays also gravitated around food. I would spend hours in the kitchen, preparing traditional foods for each holiday celebration. I often invited my friends and family over to feast. Valentine’s was for chocolate desserts and anything Italian. St. Patrick’s involved Irish cheese, Guinness, and corned beef with red potatoes. Easter was ham and egg salad. Maybe an angel food cake topped with whipped cream for dessert, or perhaps a strawberry shortcake. Carrot cake for Mother’s day. Gourmet hamburgers for Memorial day. A massive outdoor BBQ with all the trimmings for the Fourth of July, and baby back ribs with homemade barbecue sauce for Labor day.
When my liver began to fail, I didn’t have the energy to eat, nonetheless cook. When I was diagnosed with chronic candida, I was heartbroken, knowing how limited I would become in the kitchen. I had aspired to become a chef, and was planning on taking culinary classes at the local college before I became ill. It was apparent to me at the time that this dream was not to be. There was no way I could prepare foods, without being able to taste the ingredients.
So I suffered in silence. I prepared food, but only for myself as it was so mundane. Eventually I began to find more and more items that I could eat, and overtime, my inspiration and passion for cooking returned. I remembered the joy of being in the kitchen. The serenity and enticement of creating something…amazing.
I am not able to experiment with as many foods as I once was, and this is still hard for me. But getting back into the kitchen has been very beneficial, and my diet is no longer mundane. There will be no more ham for Easter, but I have replaced it with garlic and rosemary organic chicken. And this year, we will still have egg salad but it will be with homemade mayonnaise, free from vinegar or high fructose corn syrup, with fresh dill and spicy paprika. I may even try a new shallot mayonnaise recipe I found at cookthink.com. Of course, I will have to substitute the vinegar for lemon juice…but I can’t wait:)

Simple Mayo
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

Combine the egg yolks and lemon juice in a food processor. Process slowly, adding the oil in a thin stream through the top spout.
Add salt and pepper to taste. The mayonnaise will keep for about 1 week refrigerated.

Shallot Mayonnaise (cookthink.com)
1 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil
prep: 15 minutes
total: 15 minutes
food processor (or blender)

Put the shallot, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper in a food processor (or blender). Let them sit 10 minutes to mellow the shallot's flavor. Add the egg yolk, water and red pepper flakes, and run the processor for 10 seconds. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while blending, until the mayonnaise becomes thick, white and creamy, 15-30 seconds. Add more salt and pepper to taste.