Gluten-free Cooking for Kids

It's been a week since you last heard from me and I suppose you are wondering what's happening?  Well it's been an eventful  week on lots of fronts. Here's a little run down on the highlights. 

Ruthie attended a very grown up birthday party this week, having been invited  to the theatre in Oxford with 10 of her friends, followed by a meal out at a Pizza restaurant in Oxford called Fire and Stone.  You can probably sense my feeling of unease at the thought of my six year old daughter going to a restaurant, without me, where the menu is for the most part, not gluten free.  I will spare you all the details and cut to the chase.  After several attempts to get through to the restaurant I finally got to speak to the manager who was a complete love.  He was very sympathetic and extremely helpful, looking up the ingredients for their ice creams and assuring me that my daughter would be looked after.  I sent Ruthie off with a homemade pizza base in her bag.  I put it in a disposable aluminum container and cellotaped a note to the staff about the dangers of cross contamination, etc.  etc etc.  I then proceeded to go through a series of scenarios with Ruthie about what to do in case the ice cream arrived at the table with a biscuit on top and what she would be able to eat  or order at the restaurant.  I tried to make it funny as well as serious and she took it all on board.  The point of this was to give her some ideas of the type of words she could use to explain to the staff about her dietary requirements.  Ruthie is not one for details or indeed much information of any sort, but from what I gather it all went well.  My only mistake according to Ruthie was to send a rectangular pizza instead of a round one as the round ones always taste better.  Point taken!

Next on the list of highlights this week is the parish announcement that we can now add truly delectable flaky pastry and a crisp, light and chewy (in the good sense) foccacia to our gluten free repertoire.  So you see the reason you haven't heard from me is that I've been busy busy busy experimenting in my kitchen in preparation for some baking courses I will be teaching. There are still a few spaces available at the Leith's course and at Newlyns Farm Shop in Hampshire if any of you want to see me in action and want to brush up on your gluten free baking skills. 

Anyway, I am digressing.  I need to iron out a few little details and take some pictures before I post these recipes, but hopefully you won't have to wait too long.  I tried the pastry out on a group of friends who came to supper on Saturday night and they are still raving about it.  I made a pecan pie which was polished off in a matter of minutes and some little anchovy and cheese tartlets which Lucia, along with the other guests, really enjoyed.  Julia took some gluten free bread for her mum to try and apparently that went down very well.  I tell you, if Julia's mum likes something it's gotta be good.  She's not one to mince her words as she is a pretty exacting cook. High praise indeed.  So watch this space. Oh and by the way,just in case you're wondering, that's not me in the picture!