When I first discovered that I had food allergies, my world was turned upside down. How the heck was I going to eat without dairy and gluten? No birthday cake! No ice cream! No pizza! I was completely overwhelmed with thoughts of giving up all the foods I loved to eat.

Well, I recovered from my initial shock to discover that there is a whole new world out there of tasty alternatives to some of your favorite foods. Brands like Enjoy Life and Glutino opened the door to pasta and cookies and cake and bread. “Milks” like Soy Dream and Silk gave me something creamy to put in my coffee.

It’s now been years since I initially discovered my food challenges, and I can cook a lovely meal with gravy, homemade bread, and dessert while never touching a forbidden ingredient. I learned about potato flour and tapioca flour and other exotic sounding ingredients that I could turn into homey kitchen classics. But it took a lot of time to develop the skills and enthusiasm for this new project.

If you or your child has been diagnosed with food allergies, have I got a blog for you! The woman behind Karina’s Kitchen is a smart, sassy writer who’s love for food is evident in every posting. I’ve been browsing her recipes and salivating at every page! Who said that cooking for allergies had to be boring? They obviously haven’t met Karina.

Karina knows the difficulties in cooking for a restricted diet: she is a writer of cook books who discovered that she had celiac disease in the middle of kitchen-testing chocolate cake recipes. Thank heavens for those of us who are looking for new ways to cook after an allergy diagnosis, because the dishes she serves up for us and posts on her blog look like food for the gods.

My first taste test will be with her “Rancher’s Pie”, a variation on Shepherd’s Pie that looks twice as tasty. I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.