A few updates:

• The girls’ school year started today with a big bang. And then a lot of other noise while the people across the street took down a tree.

• I have a new soup recipe and an updated donut recipe on the recipe blog
• I now have an actual signed agency agreement with a literary agent. This is real!
• I’m working with a top allergist from New York who is helping with sidebars and medical information. He’s also affiliated with FAAN, and he’s a genuinely nice guy.
• I now have a contract coming to me from Penguin books, who publishes the “Complete Idiot’s Guide” books. I am officially writing “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dairy Free Eating”!!!
• I blockaded myself in my bedroom last weekend to write

I should also be getting an advance soon – which makes it all the more real! This means that I am working my butt off reading, researching, and writing. I’m rewriting my recipes into their format, and writing about how to start a dairy free life, what to look for, etc.

I never thought 10 years ago when we first started this adventure that we would have accumulated and outgrown so many allergens, or that I would have learned so much. We’ve avoided dairy, citrus, gluten, soy, corn, egg, and berries. Plus we delay introducing peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish for the first 3 years. We are now “only” avoiding dairy, gluten, and berries.

However, because of our experiences, I’m trying to make this book friendly for people who are not only dairy free, but also gfcf, gluten-free, and/or dealing with other allergies. I’m also notating it for vegan diets.

This is a lot of work! It’s going to be 200+ recipes, and about 150 pages of writing that isn’t recipe related. I’m also going to be needing recipe testers, random people to tell me how awesome I am, and patience. I need it all finished by mid-December, so I’m going to have to miss NaNoWriMo, and possibly the idea of seeing my family on weekends.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, visited the recipe site, commented, or read this blog. You are all awesome! I’ll be catching up with email soon. Really.

A final GIANT shout out to Jennifer and the beans who sent the agent my way after they found her eating dairy free while breastfeeding page! Keep that amazon wish list up to date, Jennifer!

Please comment or email me if you’re interested in recipe testing – I would love to have people in different parts of the US.