Happy Easter

Hi Everyone,
 
"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." 
 
Rosie and I had great intentions of adding a section for making candy for Easter and had three more recipes in the works that we hoped to have tested and on the site.  Molly had the nerve to ruin our plans by getting sick.  I figure if anyone can understand what that means it is all of you.  The past two weeks I have been in the kitchen non-stop just trying to get as many calories, with as little phe as possible in her.  She had strep throat and had a hard time swallowing, and then the antibiotics caused awful stomach pains.  The fever (even on the antibiotic) lasted a week, so who knows where her levels were.  All I know was it was very difficult to get her to eat and drink.  She is on the mend now, and as a result of trying to get something into her, I was turned in a different direction and have some amazing recipes coming soon.  I made wonderful homemade puddings and a delicious broccoli soup.  I also think that I might have discovered something pretty awesome about the bread (but I am just going to leave you with that tease so you keep coming back to the site).  I need to type up the recipes and get them tested.
 
The Easter Bunny is VERY far behind schedule and I have a feeling she is going to be up very late on Friday night making chocolate treats. My new favorite is to make a s'more.  Using a chocolate easter egg mold, paint the almond bark.  When it sets add fluff and a small graham cracker shaped like the egg, then cover the bottom with chocolate.  Most delicious.  The Easter Bunny will also be making low protein Twix, kit-kats and chocolate covered pretzles (see halloween blog for more info).
 
The kids are back in school on Easter Monday since we had so many snow days.  This changed our plans from a dinner to a brunch at granny's house this year.  We are making mini quiches (high and low protein), mini potato latkes, apple pancakes (high and low), scones, Irish Whisky cake, roll-out sugar cookies and fruit salad.   (For those of you wondering our dinner menu had been Roasted Portabellas with sherry gravy, potatoes au gratin, roasted asparagus, broccoli and biscuits.)
 
Our google grant was finally approved and now you can find us through search engines when you enter in "low protein recipes" - woo-hoo.  Up to that point you needed to know the name Cook for Love, so you guys did an amazing job spreading the word to the community.  Thank you!  We are now over 3,000 members.  
 
Thanks so much to everyone who donated to our Valentine's Day fund drive!  We raised a little over $1,000.  That money will go directly toward the nutritional analysis of our recipes.  Hunter has started plugging away at the recipes and hopefully some of the information will be up by the summer.
 
We started a local support group here in Westchester  - the Metabolic Mamas  - and are now looking to start one for the adults with PKU in our area.  We are having a dinner at a local restaurant in May.  The chef has been wonderful and with Cook for Love's help we are going to be able to have a four course low protein menu with choices!    BioMarin is sponsoring the dinner and having an expert on insurance issues coming to give a talk. 
 
We are asking that you please fill out our survey.  We only heard back from a small number of you. Without your input, it is hard to know what direction we should go in.  For example, quite a few people that completed the survey do not find the videos helpful.  If that is really the case, then we will stop doing them (they are our biggest ongoing expense but we felt seeing what was happening was useful).  Most people found the phe amount in our recipes to be "just right", but others found them too high or too low (equal numbers).  Again, without your input it is hard to know if we are meeting your needs.  This will also be the only chance to put in your requests for what recipes you would like to see us work on in the next year. No pleading allowed after that ;o)
 
Happy Cooking,
Brenda