by AJ Lumsdaine | Nov 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
This is my husband’s (and probably Better Homes New Cookbook at some early point in the process) contribution to humanity for Thanksgiving. Stuffing that is gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, sesame-free, soy-free, and nut-free! And vegetarian. 
We made this to accommodate all of the allergies at last year’s Thanksgiving dinner, and guess what?! All of the non-allergic people loved it so much better than the award-winning Sunset stuffing (I mean, the one they said they get more requests than any other recipe for), there were lots of leftovers of the Sunset stuffing and not a crumb left of this! (Sorry Sunset!) People asked for the recipe, so here it is:
Stuffing:
1 C. chopped celery (4-5 stalks?)
1 C. chopped onion (~1 medium onion – red)
1 tsp dried sage
2 bell peppers chopped (we probably used the sweet ones from Borba Farms; this year we used 1 red bell pepper and 1 poblano, it was even more delicious)
2 batches corn bread croutons (see recipe below)
2-3 C. vegetable broth (we used the low-sodium veggie broth from Trader Joe’s)
1/4 C. chopped flat leaf parsley
Saute chopped vegetables in olive oil until soft. Mix vegetables, sage, parsley, and cornbread croutons in large bowl. Stir in veggie broth until wet but not soaking. Bake at 325 degrees for ~40 minutes until browned lightly on top.
Options: Could add sausage, apples, or — if not allergic — nuts.
Cornbread Croutons for Stuffing:
3/4 C. brown rice flour
1/4 C. amaranth flour
1 C. corn flour (not corn meal)
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg-equivalent egg replacer (we used Ener G), mixed
1 C. water (could use milk if not allergic to dairy, but we used water)
1/4 C. oil (olive oil tasted good)
Mix dry ingredients. Mix egg replacer separately and add to wet ingredients, then add wet ingredients to dry. Mix well and pour into 9X9X2 or 8X8X2 pan (greased). Bake at 425 for ~25minutes. Won’t make very good corn bread but is great for stuffing or croutons. Split the loaf horizontally and cut bread into 1/2″ to 1″ cubes. Dry cubes on cookie sheet at ~250 degress, turning occasionally until dry and crispy.
If you like the recipe, please consider buying my husband a cup of coffee (he is an unwilling chef!) or support of my efforts with SolveEczema.org. (Hardly anyone donates — if you do donate for the recipe, please leave a note for my husband, he’ll be thrilled!)
by AJ Lumsdaine | Nov 7, 2011 | Uncategorized
This is an experiment — like everything else I do, it seems — in crowdfunding, through Indiegogo.com, to see if I can find funding to focus full-time on making a medical study of the solution on SolveEczema.org a reality, write a book and start a related social business.
I tried a mini-blog-pledge drive awhile back, but I find unless people can see where the funds go, most people vastly overestimate the funds that come through blog donation links and figure someone else is donating. And…
Maybe it’s my somewhat ascetic upbringing, but I have real problems asking for … money. There. I said it! It’s why I haven’t gone the non-profit organization route, because once you go non-profit, most of what you do is keep asking people for money.
Over the years, many people have offered to help, and mostly, I haven’t taken them up on it. I’ve put up a small donation button, I’ve recently experimented a little with monetizing the blog to try to generate some passive income from recommendations I already make, but I haven’t had the time to really make much (literally) of it yet. So far, my minimal monetization efforts have made little more than change.
A medical professional once told me that my reticence to ask for or make money related to this endeavor was depriving people I could be helping of that help. He had a point. Earlier this year I spent some time deciding whether to go the social business or non-profit route, and for the above reasons, decided on social business.
Still, the first and most important goal is the medical study. And doctors are much better than I am of asking for money for their professional services. It’s hard to get money for a medical study without a doctor, and hard to get a doctor without money.
And while I am working on that, I have to find a way to make this my job. I don’t need a lot, but so long as I can only afford to do this as a hobby, that’s all I’ve been able to do.
Since putting up Solveeczema.org and this blog, parents have told me they couldn’t parent normally before they implemented the solution on Solveeczema.org, or that their children never lived a day without pain or slept through a single night because of the intense itching, or that they suffered life-threatening infections, or were ostracized by other children and adults. And they tell me what a difference it makes to really, truly see and understand where the previously random-seeming outbreaks come from and how to prevent or eliminate them, to have control over what had once controlled them. Many parents have described how asthma was ameliorated or eliminated along with the eczema, as the underlying basis would predict, and which also deserves further study.
It hasn’t been all one-sided. This endeavor has been extraordinarily meaningful for me. I never would have predicted wanting to do anything health related professionally. But now I would consider it an immense privilege to be able to do something that helps far more people. Please make a pledge if you can:
Feb 2017 – The crowdfunding is long concluded, but I am still working on the book. If you would like to support this work, please consider a donation. Not many people do – every bit makes a difference. If you are in a position to truly make a difference: the one thing that would make the biggest difference right now is funding to allow me to hire one or two people and research-grade equipment for skin testing. I have a fiscal sponsor now, so while regular gifts are not tax deductible, when I get that set up, it will be possible to make tax deductible donations to this work.
For gifts, please take the link in the right sidebar to the SolveEczema Donations Page.
by AJ Lumsdaine | Nov 2, 2011 | Uncategorized
When I first began this blog, I posted a wonderful letter of feedback by Katrina Featherston, who gave me permission to post it on my blog, which is copyrighted.
https://solveeczema.org/eczemablog/?p=363
For some reason, this post has been copied by many others on the Web without permission.
I have not authorized any of these uses, especially one particularly bad one on a web site called m e d e c i n e d o c t o r s [dot] i n f o. PLEASE DO NOT GO THERE. I would ask my readers to please not look for that site, because just your linking to it or viewing it will give them a higher ranking with Google. However, if you are using Google to look into Solveeczema.org, please be aware of it and don’t use it!
They not only borrowed the letter, they used my web site name, Solveeczema.org, then added a rant to Katrina Featherston’s letter — an anti-doctor anti-medicine rant that is neither from me nor Ms. Featherston, but the site so makes it seem so, I consider it libelous.
My husband and I couldn’t have done what we did without the wisdom our healthcare practitioners imparted and the help and support they gave along the way. I think everyone should have that kind of medical support.
People who use my site are sometimes discouraged by their experiences with the advice available for treating eczema, but I make very clear how important it is for people to have a good relationship with a doctor before embarking on any changes as outlined on the site. If people do have an antagonistic relationship, I usually ask if there is any way to switch to a doctor they could work with. There are many, many doctors out there who will work with patients, and who are wise, helpful and (necessary for working with the site) able to keep close tabs on people’s safety and personal medical situations through the changes I advocate on the site.
Although I am working on trying to see a medical study of the Solveeczema.org solution, there is currently nothing like it in the medical literature and doctors cannot be held responsible for not knowing what has not been published in peer-reviewed literature. I have even heard from doctors who used my web site to help their own families.
I don’t know what the motivation of the abovementioned web site is to steal my material and misrepresent it and me, but there is no name associated with it and no contact information for me to ask them to stop. Please realize that the site is in no way associated with me or my site, and that the rant they attached to the letter they stole from my site has nothing to do with me.
