Going Gluten Free

For 3 weeks I had been feeling terrible. A very painful abdomen, waves of nausea and general discomfort for the majority of the day. It came on gradually, but after three weeks I was leaving work early because I just didn't feel well enough to be there.

I had seen 3 doctors about the pain and one said it was nothing to worry about, the second mentioned the word 'mass' and scared me quite a lot, and the third told me to go and see another doctor at my surgery - a doctor who takes the time to listen and does her best to diagnose.

After an appointment that lasted well over half an hour, and once I had answered a lot of questions she pointed out that my digestive system didn't feel too good, and the fact that my Dad is Coeliac made her think. "Very interesting" she said, and recommended that I go gluten free for a while and see if it helps.

It's been just over a week since that appointment, and I have cut gluten out of my diet. And how do I feel?... Good. Ach, I hate to say it, but I do. I feel much, much better. Damn my father!

There are two killers for me here. Killer number 1 is that gluten free food can be horribly expensive. Killer number 2 is... cake! Oh cake, and biscuits, how I love you! What am I going to do without you in my life?!

But I have ways around this. Having lived with my Dad's diet for nearly 20 years I have learnt a thing or two and the best tip I learnt is to eat naturally gluten free foods. Such as cornflakes and snack-a-jacks. These are eaten by everyone, regardless of a gluten free diet and so are much cheaper. The only thing I should really have to substitute is pasta and the pasta isn't that awful so I'm sure I'll be fine with that.

But I will also have to learn to bake from scratch again. I shall not be defeated! I will need to learn the science behind baking so I know what I need to do to ensure I can fix any mishaps that may pop up along the way. I will use this to make me a stronger and ignite the passion to bake within me...

... and if I do fail I'll just concentrate more on cratfs. See? Not all bad.

In all honesty, though, I have caught this respectively early and so my reactions won't be half as bad as my dads, who is incredibly poorly after having just a sip of ale. I shan't be so bad that I need to stress out the poor hostess who has invited me to a dinner party, or kindly decline going out for a meal because I can't be sure what has been put in the sauce. No, it won't be that bad. If I am good for 99% of the time, the other 1% won't kill me.

Maybe every now and again indulge in a Krispy Kreme?

As for what I'll be posting on here - I am determined to eat like a normal person and so will be posting cheap recipes that maybe just happen to be gluten free, or if I have substituted anything I shall mark where you normal people don't have to!

I'll be looking forward to finding new blogs to read and I think I have already stumbled across a little gem. Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried runs an event called "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free!" (from which I have taken the image at the top of this post!) so I plan to spend a lot of time reading it.

I would love any recommendations. Have a good weekend!

Show Home Inspiration

I have somewhat of a massive fascination with looking around houses. To be more precise, I have somewhat of a massive fascination with looking around show homes.

I'm visiting my parents at the moment and a new development is being built at the top of their road and to satisfy my curiosity, Matthew and I wandered up there to have a bit of a nosey. I do like to go dressed nicely and look as though I am intending to buy and look around the house believing that I am, in fact, going to buy it. We sat on the sofas (very comfy!) and admired the layout of the bedroom before going up to the attic floor and fantasising about how Matt could turn it into a studio for himself.

The best thing about looking around show homes, though, is the use of design. It's hard to not get enticed by the cleverly missing wardrobes and lack of television in the front room, but occasionally you get to see something that sends ideas whizzing about in your head. That something was some wall art in a bedroom.

The wallpaper was patterned with large images and above the bed a mismatched array of empty frames were hung to display the pictures on the wall. Topped with a ribbon or two, these frames looked absolutely stunning and made me dig into my bag to get out the camera and take a picture. It was a fantastic way to create a feature on an already busy wall, without making it look as though too much was going on.

It's a shame, really, that rented accommodation doesn't allow me to do something like this myself but it is definitely going into the memory bank to be brought out again when I am able to decorate a bedroom as beautifully as this.

Ah, one can only dream...

Banoffee Pie

When guests are coming over, I always like to have a little something ready for them to eat. Sometimes this means I'm up early on a Sunday morning, baking banana bread so it's fresh out of the oven by the time they arrive. Other times it means creating a buffet-style lunch, and in Winter I like to make soups.

But sometimes I don't have the time to get busy in the kitchen. Either because I have too much to do, or it's an almost unexpected arrival and I've not been able to get to the shops to get the ingredients I need. In these cases, I have a very quick and easy Banoffee Pie to make.

Melt 100g butter in a pan. While the butter is melting, put 250g digestive biscuits into a food processor and and blend until finely crushed (note: you can also do this by putting the biscuits into a plastic food bag and crushing them with a rolling pin).

Add the biscuits to the butter and stir until evenly mixed. Put the mixture into a (greased) loose bottomed cake tin and with the back of a spoon, evenly spread out the mixture and create a crust along the sides. Sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes while the mixture firms up, and get started on your whipped cream!

Whip double (or whipping) cream with an electric whisk and fold in some chopped bananas. Once the base is set, remove from the tin, add a 397g tin of carnation caramel (this is for super time saving - for super penny-saving, get a tin of condensed milk and turn to caramel by boiling for 2 hours or so - follow instructions on tin) and top with the whipped cream and banana mixture.

Dust with cocoa powder and leave in the fridge until guests are ready to be treated!

While not the best Banoffee Pie to have ever been made in the history of Banoffee Pies, it's pretty damn tasty! And credit where credit's due, Matthew's friend regularly goes to the restaurant where the Banoffee Pie was created, The Hungry Monk, here in East Sussex, and he said that my pie was very good!

The best thing about this recipe is that it can be made from things already in the house. Biscuits? In the cupboard. Cream? Generally always in the fridge to be used in some form of pasta dish or with cake. Bananas? Yep, nearly always have those, too! And who doesn't have butter?? Just keep some Condensed Milk or Caramel in your store cupboard and you'll be ready to go whenever you hear that guests are popping around to visit.

Who needs to know it barely cost a thing and took you no time at all? Don't let them in on the secret!

The Lavender Hearts

I always said I'd have Lavender Hearts by the end of summer.. and I do! I've been drying lavender throughout the summer and have quite a nice collection. This is the first batch I've made and although they're not the greatest things I've ever made, I'm still quite proud of them - if only because I have done something I said I would do.

I'm still learning when it comes to sewing-based crafts and I'm looking forward to teaching myself more.

Making these was still super easy, though. I just cut out a heart shape out of an old cereal box, drew around it twice, roughly cut it out 5mm away from the edge to leave room to sew and tightly stitched around the pencil marks. I left a gap at the top to stuff it, turned it inside out, filled with lavender and stitched it from the outside, trying to create the top of the heart, but not really doing it successfully. I tried to give it a bit more detail by adding a button (an idea I stole from other stuffed hearts I've seen in shops) and I liked that result... I will do it more often.

I'm going to make a few more today and tomorrow to give to friends and family. Two hearts are more than enough as Matt already complained when I made the second one. Ah, well! At least it gives me something to do!

Why I Love Saturday Mornings

Tea, warm croissants, decor magazines and Saturday Kitchen Live. The ultimate relaxing way to start the weekend and put you in a perfectly good mood for the rest of the day.

It's the simple things that make life good.