Crazy Days of Summer

This summer has been a little crazy.  Thanks in part to T'dawg.  It has been an adjustment to have him back at home for the summer.  He is used to dorm life.  So he thinks nothing of piles of clothes, trash etc.  Not to mention dorm life hours: sleep until noon, stay up until 4am watching television. 

However, the rest of the fam participates in the world of typical human hours.  Buddy and I have gotten accustomed to going to bed by 10p.  And I'm up without an alarm about 7a.  And Cletus is a morning person.  So he goes into work really early, and thus goes to bed first. And I like my tidy home.

The other challenge has been that T'dawg's skin is breaking out.  After consulting the dermatologist, we were referred to an allergist.  T'dawg's skin was too bad to do the normal patch skin testing, so they did blood tests.  We just got the results in the mail.  On the scale of one to five, with five being the worst.  He scored 3-5 for molds. 4's for cow milk, cheddar cheese and beef.  3 for pork, wheat, gluten and egg whites.  Wow!  Well, that eliminates quite a bit!  We have an appointment to discuss these results.  But my guess is avoidance is the only course of action.  That or treating the symptoms with creams, Zyrtec, Benadryl, etc.

So, looks like the whole family will be eating a lot of chicken and turkey for the remainder of the summer. I would appreciate cooking tips.  I understand that turkey is quite lean and thus doesn't cook well without lots of help (herbs and onions).  So far I have modified my chicken recipes to eliminate the cheese and wheat.  And we have had seafood.  I'm trying to look at this as a good thing.  Maybe even save money since the beef prices have skyrocketed.  And summer is the perfect time to be more of a vegetarian with all of the tasty home grown selections.  The beef that I have will just have to wait in the freezer until fall.

Here's to hoping the rest of the summer is less stressful!