Gluten-free Cooking for Kids

Ok so Lains Barns in rural Oxfordshire have opened up a mini ice rink for people to enjoy over the festive season, and what a great idea it is! Ruthie has been twice so far and really loved it. They have this great invention, effectively a penguin chaperone which keeps you upright and on your skates.

Well it's getting to feel like Christmas.  This afternoon the tempratures plummeted and we are expecting a 'significant" amount of snow overnight.    Unlike those of you in countries where this could mean more more than 5 inches, for us here in the UK it will mean a light dusting that will lead to road chaos and calls from the met office not to travel unless absolutely necessary.  With Christmas a mere 5 days away and apart from all t

I will be teaching a GF Baking Course at the Bertinet Kitchen in Bath on Friday 19th March. This course will look at breadmaking, pastry, cakes and biscuits. For more information please look at The Bertinet Kitchen web site www.thebertinetkitchen.com. This would make a great present for the gf person in your life. Bath is a fantastic place for shopping, tourism and leisure. Why not make a full weekend of it and book in to the full spa experience.

The lights are up and it's starting to feel like Christmas. The kids are getting really excited and have been running down the stairs every morning, gobbling down their breakfast and opening their little advent calendar gifts. With Hannukah and Christmas fast approaching, this is definately a month where it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. It seems that the madness and excess just gets madder every year. Yet, seeing the excitement in their eyes and the absolute joy they experience in opening a little gift makes it all worthwhile.

Lately I've been hearing lots of comments about the free from foods available in supermarkets.  Coeliac UK has recently done some research and found that many of these "free from" products are very high in salt.  I would imagine they are also very high in sugar and choc full of preservatives. This was recently confirmed by a lady who wrote in to say that most of these gluten free products are unsuitable for diabetics due to the high sugar content.

I wanted to tell you about this very unusual book, written by the delightful Lemony Snickett. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Latke-Who-Couldnt-Stop-Screaming/dp/1932416870

Here's a topic I hear discussed a lot and wanted to pose the question. Is gluten free the new vegetariain?  Being a vegetarian 15 years ago was something of an oddity.  I remember being a vegetarian whilst living in Paris and being treated like an alien just landing from Mars. My choice of food was very limited, so limited in fact that I caved in after a few weeks.

Yesterday we found ourselves on a mystery trail, looking for pumpkins.  We found 7 of the 10 required pumpkins in Waterperry Gardens, near Oxford whilst doing the Great pumpkin hunt in their beautiful gardens.  What we weren't expecting was to find some delicious gluten free brownies in the tea room.  I can tell a good brownie when I see one, and this one was pretty good.  Best of all it was gluten free!  Further on down in the same direction w

This weekend I was lucky enough to sit in on a course at Leith's School of Food and Wine, in London.  Much to my surprise, the tutor was  the lovely Max, who was my tutor when I did the diploma course at Leith's almost 14 years ago.  We had a delicious menu to work through and Max was fantastic.  She was so inspirational and her knowledge of food is truly awesome.  Nevertheless, she made the 4 hour course so enjoyable and we all came away feelin

I've just returned from having another wonderful day at The Bertinet Kitchen in Bath.  Richard took a class of 14 through some great gluten free recipes including focaccia, a loaf bread, maize wraps, far breton ( a kind of clafoutis with rum soaked prunes) and yummy blinis. It was a great challenge to work through quite a number of dietary restrictions including lactose and dairy intolerance, a fish allergy,  an intolerance to solanacious vegetables (this includes potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes and chili peppers) and a few others which I can't  even rememb