For the past few years I have been suffering from eczema on my hands. After eliminating chemical and environmental sources, I have been looking at the possibility of a food allergy. Our seven-month-old has had some issues with milk sensitivities and we thought perhaps I was experiencing a similar issue.

I visited the doctor in early summer and had some blood testing done. As we waited for the results we have discussed how much more challenging it would be to avoid other common elements like corn, eggs, gluten, wheat, yeast, etc (or even worse a combination of more than one). As my wife is still breastfeeding, we have seen how difficult it is to eliminate just one staple like milk from the diet. Because we eat mostly food that is prepared from scratch, the idea of avoiding several ingredients seemed quite daunting.

As it turns out I am allergic to all of these and more. It seems that I am at least “sensitive” to everything from the everyday ingredients listed above to more unusual foods like asparagus, lobster, and litchi fruit. In fact, the only items that I remember having absolutely no sensitivities to were cheddar cheese, horseradish, and grapefruit.

While I will admit that each is tasty in their own way, I can’t think of many tasty recipes that combine all three…