I'm Back!

...but not in quite the same way as before. Instead of this blog, I'll be coming to you monthly via a newsletter called Yesterday's Eyeliner. If you want to come along for the ride, just complete the form below. I'll be bringing you gluten free recipes, sharing my experiences of motherhood, showing you pretty things that I need want for my kitchen and generally talking about life with Coeliac Disease, Crohn's and a son who wants to feed me doughnuts.

I hope to see you there <3

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Mothballs

You've probably noticed that Gluten Free[k] has been dormant for the past six months. I'm afraid to say, I've been so busy recently that I simply haven't been able to update the blog for some time. Life is getting in the way. And active toddler (he's growing so quickly!), freelance writing and two days a week at the day job are enough to wear me out most of the time. I want to be able to dedicate time to recipe testing, researching and crafting a free from blog to be proud of, but I'm not able to do so at the moment. I've decided to mothball Gluten Free[k] for now. I plan to keep it in working order so that I can come back to it when I have more time to invest in it. I hope you'll come back a visit when the time comes to relaunch.

Gluten free blogging has changed, too. The next generation of GF bloggers are crusaders and innovators; I just like to cook. They have to keep up to date on legislation, be vigilant for new developments and be wary of the media. In addition to a medical imperative for Coeliacs, the gluten free diet is a trend and that attracts negativity. Some journalists seem determined to prove that people who avoid gluten are gormless followers of fashion. I don't have the heart for that fight anymore. There are many who do, however, and I continue to read their blogs with interest.


In the meantime, I'm still writing for The High Tea Cast and Up All Hours. I've also started a lifestyle blog, Daydreams & Butter Beans, come and see me there.

Salted Caramel Blondies

I have three words for you. Salted. Caramel. Blondies. Yes, really. This is the sort of treat you bake for someone else then wish you'd doubled the recipe so you'd have some yourself. Sweet, salty and deliciously fudgy, you will bake them again and again. 

I bake a lot of brownies and blondies. They're virtually foolproof, use only one pan and they're brilliantly transportable - what's not to love?! It's also easily to convert a recipe to gluten free, as I've done here with Smitten Kitchen's recipe (she's right, they are infinitely adaptable!) Seriously, what's stopping you? Bake some of these, today!

Salted Caramel Blondies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

225g butter
300g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
50ml bourbon (optional, but it does add a lovely flavour)
2 eggs
265g rice flour (I use Dove's Farm)
1 tsp flaked sea salt
100g dark chocolate chips
150g butterscotch chips or caramel pieces (if not, add 100g more chocolate chips instead)

• Melt the butter in a saucepan then add the sugars. Stir until dissolved.
• Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla and bourbon. Stir to combine and cool the mixture slightly.
• Add the eggs, one at a time and mix well.
• Fold in the flour and salt.
• Add the chocolate and butterscotch chips and gently stir in.
• Pour into a traybake pan and bake at 180°C for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out the middle sticky, but not covered in batter.
• Leave to cool before cutting into squares.

Get Your Belly Out!

When Bethany Townsend shared her story on the Crohn's and Colitis UK Facebook page, along with some holiday photos, I'm sure she didn't expect this response. The photos have been seen by more than 12 million people worldwide and her story has been picked up by news outlets everywhere. She shared her story in response to the brilliant Get Your Belly Out. 

Sahara, Victoria, Gem and Lorna launched the #GetYourBellyOut Facebook and Twitter campaign in March to raise awareness of IBD (that's Inflammatory Bowel Disease, if you didn't know) and have raised over £8500 for Crohn's and Colitis UK in the process. Their aim was simple, but #GetYourBellyOut has become so much more that. Through their Twitter account and Facebook page, they are supporting IBD sufferers across the world and inspiring them to feel confident about their body in the face of an illness that so often saps all self-esteem. They're raising awareness about IBD through social media and encouraging others to share their stories to further the cause. From such humble beginnings to worldwide recognition in just four months is something rather special!

Anything that helps unite the IBD community is awesome in my book (see also Crohn's Zone) and I was delighted to see how many people shared their own belly pictures in time for World IBD Day on 19th May. The four girls behind Get Your Belly Out are an inspiration.

Before The Get Your Belly Out girls started their campaign, there was a limited number of people willing to share their stomachs with the world. A quick scroll through the photos shared with Crohn's and Colitis UK shows that pre-March 2014, only a few brave souls were willing to bare their scars, ostomies and bags. Now, both CCUK and Get Your Belly Out can hardly keep up with the volume of photos! Bethany was one of those people who shared.

The Daily Mail's headline yesterday suggested that "score of Crohn's sufferers ... post(ed) bikini selfies inspired by" Bethany. This is not the case. In fact, the photos of other people used in this article (in some cases, without permission) came from the CCUK and Get Your Belly Out Facebook pages and some were shared well before Bethany Townsend shared hers. It's also worth noting that some of those sharing have Ulcerative Colitis, not Crohn's.

If I'm completely honest, I'm a little saddened (but not surprised) that in spite of thousands of IBD sufferers sharing their photos and stories, the media didn't pick up the story until an aspiring model shared hers. Don't get me wrong, the publicity is brilliant (when it's factually correct) and if it raises awareness of IBD, great! It's just that Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis wreak havoc on your body and your confidence, and I'm not sure that promoting only those people with model-good-looks in the press is helpful. People with IBD come in all shapes and sizes, like the rest of the population, and it's just as brave and equally inspirational when they share their photos with the world. Extreme weight loss during a flare or puffy Prednisolone moon-face can make it a challenge to simply get in front of a camera and allow your image to be captured - that's why I prefer to stay behind the lens.

In honour of #WorldIBDday I'm sharing #GetYourBellyOut to raise awareness of Crohn's and Colitis, will you join me? pic.twitter.com/xnVzc4vD1o
— Caleigh (@GlutenFreek) May 19, 2014

I did share my own belly photo for World IBD Day. Ok, I was wearing my Muppets pyjamas and not a bikini, the perspective is off and you can't even see my face, but even so, it was one of the hardest photographs to take and share. As I clicked the 'Tweet' button, my palms were sweating and I wanted to delete it as soon as it appeared on my timeline. I needn't have worried, though. The response was wonderful; people were supportive and encouraging and I realised that I'd been worried about nothing. Actually, now I'll show my scars or my bag to anyone who asks. I'm not ashamed of my ileostomy and I know that the more I talk about it, the more normal it becomes. The reactions aren't always positive and I do get the odd hurtful comment, but some people will always fear what's different.

Is Bethany Townsend brave, beautiful and inspirational? Yes! And so are all the others who make the effort to raise awareness about Crohn's and Colitis.

To join in the campaign and help raise awareness of IBD, all you have to do is upload a picture of your belly to your chosen social media accounts using the hashtag #GetYourBellyOut. If you're sharing on Facebook, remember to change that post's visibility to 'Public" so Get Your Belly Out Can find you! If you'd like to make a donation when you share your belly picture, text IBDA99 and your donation amount (e.g. - IBDA99 £3) to 70070 (UK mobiles only) or go to the JustGiving page. All donations go to Crohn's and Colitis UK.

Costa Coffee Gluten Free Wrap

As Coeliac Awareness Week draws to a close, I've been thinking about the theme for this year. 'Gluten Free Guarantee' calls for better availability of gluten free food in stores. While all larger supermarkets have a free from section in some form, most smaller stores (especially metro/express/local branches in small towns and suburbs) have a tiny amount of gluten free products, if any. I'm fortunate enough to live within 5 miles of all of the Big 4 supermarkets, all with small but well-stocked free from aisles. I know from past experience, though, how frustrating it can be to want to pop out for bread, pasta or flour and instead having to get in the car and drive to the next town to a supermarket large enough to stock the gluten free items I need.

Since the birth of my son, 14 weeks ago, I've never needed quick and easy gluten free food more! I applaud Coelic UK's effort to get core items stocked in every supermarket, but I want lunch, too! If you're lucky enough to be in one of the selected M&S or Waitrose store that stock gluten free sandwiches, then you're sorted, but I'm, rather inevitably, not near one when I need lunch! Of course, there are always coffee shops. Starbucks, Nero and Costa all offer a gluten free option.

Here's the thing, *whispers* I don't really like sandwiches. I know, that's odd. Not all sandwiches, I should add, just ones made a few hours in advance of eating them. It's a texture thing. That's why I was so excited to learn that Costa Coffee were launching a gluten free wrap!

The wrap, using Newburn Bakehouse's seeded wraps, is a lovely combination of chicken and basil salad. The wrap holds up well with the filling without becoming soggy or falling apart. The filling itself is gently pesto-esque with a good crunch from the salad. My only criticism (and this is a personal thing, really) is that the filling is a little dry, I'd have liked a little more mayonnaise. I expect, however that more mayo would lead to the aforementioned soggy bread issue! When it comes to lunch on the go, I'll be heading to Costa in the future.

At £3.75 each, the wraps are comparable to the rest of Costa's sandwiches and paninis. The size is comparable, too - the gluten free wraps sat next to some (non gluten free) pulled pork wraps on the shelf and they weren't dwarfed by their wheat-y equivalent.


(I sampled Costa's new gluten free wrap at their branch in Bluewater. I was invited to do so by Costa and my wrap was complimentary. All opinions in this post are my own.)

2013. The Best Bits

Happy new year! I do hope you're all getting used to writing 2014, instead of 2013. I'll still be getting it wrong in April, but that's nothing new! Before I rush, head first, into the brand new year ahead, I thought I'd take a moment to look back at the highlights of 2013. Predictably, my favourite bits are all food related.

The absolute best bit of 2013, for me, was my trip to River Cottage for their gluten free cookery course. As well as completely changing the way I approach my baking, it showed me how removing the gluten from something doesn't automatically require me to add loads of rubbish in its place. I've embraced many more grains and different gluten free flours than before, and I've even made my own sourdough starter! I'm dropping serious hints to my family about the advanced course that's running in August (coincidentally, just after my birthday)!

The most moreish cake of the year was Honeyrose Bakery's Banana Cake. They sent me a sample back in April and I'd eaten the entire thing before I had a chance to photograph it! In fact, I've bought many more banana cakes since then, and they all seem to magically disappear in a matter of minutes. The Husband doesn't even like banana, so I can't blame him - this cake really is good! Actually, all of the free from products I've tried from Honeyrose Bakery are excellent. I particularly love their individually wrapped brownies and macaroons, I can pop a couple in my bag for peckish moments when I'm out and about!

Back in Spring, I started to notice that Asda's distinctive yellow and black free from packaging was being used for non-gluten-free products, and wondered what was going on. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I work for Asda, but until 2013 I had very little in the way of praise for their gluten free offerings.) I was delighted to discover, however, that they were phasing out the old packaging to make way for an extended range of free from products, in new purple packaging! As well as their own-brand products (of which, the cheese sauce mix and cous cous are my personal favourites) they have introduced an increased range of products from other producers, like Isabel's and The Good Little Sausage Company. Well done, Asda! Now when people ask me what I think about my employers' own gluten free effort, I don't have to change the subject.

Eating pizza has never been better for us gluten free types, has it? Pizza Express and Pizza Hut showed the rest how it should be done, and Dominos did all they could to encourage us to eat our pizza at home! I don't know what 2014 holds for Coeliacs eating out, but the brand new Free From Eating Out Awards are sure to reveal a few gems.

Speaking of the Free From Food Awards (at least, indirectly), one of the highlights of last year's awards ceremony was the opportunity to try the Indian Coeliac's fabulous parathas. They are available to order, and I really do recommend you try them too. As the judging starts soon for this year's awards, I'm excited about what brilliant products I'm going to discover this time!

So, what were your free from highlights of 2013? Was it the chance to eat a decent bagel again? Maybe it was gluten free pasta turning up in the fresh food aisle of the supermarket? Could it have been the much discussed quarter final of The Great British Bake Off and its free from elements? Or, was it something else altogether? Let me know in the comments section!

Coeliacs! Should We Lighten Up?

Ok, I realise that I might get an angry backlash from some about this post, but bear with me. Quite recently, I came to the conclusion that we Coeliacs take ourselves a bit too seriously.

Before you jump straight to the comments section, let me explain.

I'm all for getting mad when Coeliac Disease is misrepresented in the media. A recent Telegraph article called the GF diet a "scam", while The Daily Mail prefered the term "con" (because it doesn't help you lose weight). Caught up in pedantry, Today.com tell us that "nobody is actually "allergic" to gluten". Actually, we take a bit of a beating in the press, mostly because ill-informed journalists like to lump people with diagnosed Coeliac Disease and NCGI and faddy gluten free toe-dippers (and everyone in between) together and mock our dietary choices (or not-a-choices, in the case of CD).

What with the bashing we take in the press, you'd think that celebrity chefs might at least have a better understanding of our condition thanks to their training in food. Alas, no. When Coeliac chef Anthony Demetre admitted to gorging on gluten every few months the BBC refused to issue any kind of correction because, "in discussing his eating habits Anthony was expressing his own personal way of coping with the condition and at no point did he advocate it is a diet that others should try." (I'm still not convinced by that brush-off.) When Food Glorious Food judge, Stacie Stewart, described Coeliac Disease as a "lifestyle choice", at least ITV issued an apology. (Although, you might say that since it was pre-recorded the show's makers could have edited the comment out before it caused offense!) Even the usually lovely (tax evasion notwithstanding) Martha Stewart thinks that our dietary restrictions are due to us being fussy.

If that's not enough, we have to deal with poorly researched articles that only cause confusion. Then there's the free from food producers who perpetuate the myth that a gluten free diet somehow helps increase fitness and weight loss in the pursuit of better sales. Oh, and there's the constant need to remind all and sundry that spelt is NOT gluten free!

I think we should stand up for ourselves when the media attacks. We should pull journalists and editors up on nonsense reports and overly personal pieces on gluten free diets, and we should demand that bad advice be corrected. But (and it's a big but) we need to know when to fight and when to back off.

Recently, Paul Hollywood was asked (in a live radio interview) about gluten and wheat free baking. From his comments, some people got upset that he was suggesting that Coeliac Disease was often misdiagnosed. He suggested that people try sourdough and artisanal breads before cutting wheat from their diets completely. I listened to the broadcast and really felt for him, he was clearly "sceptical" about self-diagnosed wheat intolerant people (who, incidentally, really should speak to a GP or dietitian before cutting any food from their diet) and not about medically diagnosed Coeliacs.Angry blog posts, Facebook statuses and tweets ensued. He did take to Twitter that same day to defend himself and admitted that Coeliac Disease, NCGI and gluten free baking was something he needed to do more research on. All credit to him.

And, so, to my point...

I think the biggest reason why Coeliacs take offense to apparent slurs against the gluten free diet is because we're parcelled up with everyone on the GF bandwagon, diagnosed, self-diagnosed, not ever diagnosed and trying-it-because-Miley-Cyrus-does-it. We can't let an opportunity pass without reminding people that we have a MEDICAL CONDITION, it's not a choice (lifestyle or otherwise) and that eating gluten free is the only treatment for that condition.

The problem is, we end up coming across as over-sensitive, touchy and devoid of sense of humour.

When Marcus Brigstocke's 'The Brig Society' aired and episode on food, he was barraged with complaints from Coeliacs and NCGIs who missed the point, that he was mocking those half-hearted trend-driven wheat avoiders. Likewise, Sean Lock's jokes in the video at the top of the page. Where did our sense of humour go?

Should we be so quick to pick up on obvious jokes and genuine errors about Coeliac Disease and NCGI? Perhaps if we gave them a chance to retract, explain or generally apologise for misspeaking we'd be a little less stressed out? 

I roared with laughter at The Brig Society's portrayal of someone who can't eat gluten - unless it's really nice bread. We've all met someone like that, and agree that it degrades the seriousness of our own gluten free needs, so why can't we laugh when someone else points it out? The cartoons of Howard the Celeriac show us a funny side of our gluten intolerance that most of the GF community enjoy. So, can we only laugh at ourselves when 'one of us' cracks the joke?

Yes, sense of humour is a deeply personal thing and what's funny to one person isn't to another. I love that Sean Lock clip, but other Coeliacs said it was ignorant and that it shrinks a real issue into merely an inconvenience. Others thought it was a bit too close to the line between funny and offensive (but then, all of Lock's jokes are).

I read one comment about Sean Lock's jokes saying that, "making jokes about Coeliac Disease is as unfunny as making jokes about cancer or MS." Erm, no. I think that's offensive to people with diseases that require aggressive treatment. We're jolly lucky that we can treat our condition with diet! Having lived under various drug regimens (some with horrible side effects) for nearly 20 years thanks to Crohn's Disease, I found going gluten free empowering. We have the power to effect our own well-being with what we eat, it's great! Let's celebrate that instead of getting upset by harmless jokes.

So yes, pre-diagnosis Coeliac Disease is no joke. It's painful, exhausting and filled with many other health risks. Once we start our gluten free diets, though, life gets better. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's an inconvenience at most. Eating out is tricky, but not impossible. Some people make insensitive comments, but they're usually insensitive people. It's nothing personal. The gluten free community is a wonderfully supportive bunch of people who are always willing to offer encouragement. Things just aren't that bad.

Isn't it time we learned to laugh at ourselves?

Constant Cravings

I should warn you, this is a post about pregnancy. I tell you now so that you can move on to a different site, should this kind of thing not interest you. I promise that normal, gluten free food-y, service will be resumed very soon. In fact, scroll to the end of the post for a rather lovely stuffed onion recipe!

You might have noticed that I've not been blogging much over the past four months. June and July passed in a haze of long naps, spicy pickled onions, and Nutella, and before I knew it, it was August! September was unfortunately dominated by a Crohn's related infection that resulted in a trip to hospital, but all is well now. Our family and friends know our news and I thought I'd share it with you, too. After all, many of you have been on the journey to good health with me.

I'm 22 weeks pregnant. After three major surgeries, the removal of my large intestine and a decent chunk of small intestine, and nearly two decades of inflammation and ulceration in my abdomen, I wasn't even sure that was a possibility. Before I was diagnosed Coeliac, I lost so much weight that my periods stopped and didn't return for four years. One surgeon told me that Crohn's would have reduced my chances of conceiving, I saw gynaecologists who said, "maybe, maybe not" while all around me friend after friend popped out babies of their own. Advice ranged from, "just relax and it'll happen" to "I can give you the details of a good fertility clinic," but nothing helped.

I was starting to feel an affinity with Tian Tian, the panda at Edinburgh Zoo as certain family members became increasingly impatient over when (and if) a baby would ever arrive.

The funny thing is, that in spite of really quite wanting a baby, I was more concerned about being healthy enough to cope with a pregnancy and to look after myself and the resulting sprog afterwards. Fortunately, my Crohn's is in remission and, apart from various vitamin supplements and injections, I'm medication free. In fact, the timing couldn't be better, I've been off Humira for a year (it takes six months to clear your system and isn't recommended for pregnancy), my colectomy scars have had eighteen months to heal and I have the most energy I've had in a decade. Of course, that's not to say that I believe pregnancy will be easy, there are always risks. As scar tissue stretches and internal adhesions tear with this growing wee one, I've had all kinds of pain. I know that bowel obstructions and problems with the stoma are common for women like me, plus, there's the issue of not necessarily absorbing as many nutrients and water as people with entire, and fully functioning, digestive systems. 

I used to feel deep disappointment when pregnant friends confessed to not really having any interesting cravings, often demanding, "go home and eat a box of crayons for me!" One friend had cravings for tomato juice, while another confessed to eating bucketloads of daal. I've had rather unexpected cravings for onions. It doesn't matter what kind of onion, be it raw, pickled, roasted, fried or in soup, I'll eat it in vast quantities! This explains why, when the waitress at a restaurant told me that their soup of the day - French onion soup - wasn't gluten free, I got a bit tearful at the thought of missing out on onions. It turns out that onions are high in vitamin C, Folate, and Potassium so perhaps cravings aren't as strange as I first imagined.

Stuffed Onions
The memory of onion-soup-gate has me craving onions once again so here's an inside-out sage and onion stuffing recipe that's a brilliant side dish for your roast.

2 tsp rapeseed oil
50g stale gluten free bread (a slightly past-it Udi's bagel is particularly good here)
25g pancetta, cut into lardons
a few sage leaves, chopped
4 large-ish onions

• Peel the onions and slice off the top and the root end off, leaving enough to hold the onion layers together. Drizzle with oil, season and pop into the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes.
• Cut the stale bread into ½ cm cubes and put in a bowl.
• Add the pancetta into lardons to the bowl with the chopped sage, salt and pepper. Stir together.
• When the onions are soft, but still holding their shape, remove from the oven and scoop the middles out, leaving just the outer 2-3 layers.
• Chop half of the inner parts of the onion and stir into the rest of the stuffing mix.
• Fill the onion shells with stuffing, pack it quite tightly, and return to the oven for a further 30-40 minutes.

Gluten Free for 99p

Well, £1 or less per portion, actually!

That was my challenge to a bunch of gluten free bloggers a few weeks ago, and the reaction was, "let's do it!" Eating gluten free on a budget isn't easy, free from food is far from cheap, so it seemed like an appropriate challenge to come up with some thrifty recipes to share. The task was simple (in theory); come up with a recipe that's gluten free, but costs less than £1 each. In reality, it turned out to be a much trickier thing to do than the initial enthusiasm suggested! Two brave souls finally joined me in creating cheap-but-delicious dishes, and here they are.

Carly: over on Gluten Free B, is annoyed that most budget recipes are a bit insubstantial, dull and take forever to make. To deal with this, she has a brilliant frugal frittata that's perfect for using up any vegetables you've got in the fridge. She rather cunningly uses leftover rice in her frittata, something I had never thought of before! This is the sort of recipe that you can make time and again, varying the ingredients so you'll never get bored.

Alex: has come up with a great leek and tomato quinoa dish that's both filling and nutritious, over on Food Allergy and Intolerance Ink. It's good to know that even those gluten free grains that we perceive to be a bit pricier can actually be used in budget dishes. Let's stop discounting ingredients because we think they're too expensive (or too posh)!

Me: I wanted to come up with a dish that you could serve for Sunday lunch, or as a dinner party meal with friends. Just because cash is tight, it doesn't mean you can't still be sociable. Get your friends to bring the booze, or a dessert and you can entertain with change from a fiver! This dish was inspired by a recipe on Domestic Sluttery last year. The rolled herby lamb breast, by Hazel (my food guru), made me give lamb breast another go after a disastrous first try. It also showed me that tasty stuffing needn't be full of breadcrumbs.

Cheap cuts of meat are often regarded with suspicion, but they're often some of the tastiest cuts, if you know how to cook them. Oxtail makes the most unctuous stews, pork shoulder is perfect for barbecue-style pulled pork and chicken wings make the greatest stock ever! If you can, chat to your butcher, they have so much knowledge to share and will tell you the very best ways to cook your meat, and how to get the most from each cut. (Same goes for your greengrocer, they'll know what seasonal fruit and vegetables are best, cheapest and tastiest.)

Lamb Breast with Boulangerie Potatoes
(Inspired by Hazel Paterson's Rolled Herby Lamb Breast)
You can buy boned lamb breast from most supermarkets, but if you chat to your butcher you'll be able to get him to prepare it and even throw in the ribs for you. Use the bones as a trivet to roast the lamb, then simmer it with some vegetables to make a fantastic stock for soup. This recipe serves four for just under £4.

a large lamb breast (£2.99)
1/2 pack of mint, chopped (35p)
3 cloves garlic, chopped (10p-ish)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vinegar (red wine vinegar if you've got it, otherwise white wine or cider vinegar works too)
400g-ish white potatoes, thinly sliced (the supermarket value/smart price/economy ranges of potatoes are great in this dish) (34p)
1 onion, finely sliced (21p)
salt and pepper

• Preheat your oven to 230°C (or as hot as it'll go).
• Spread your lamb breast on a chopping board and trim any bits of sinew and thick pieces of fat. If you ask your butcher, he'll do that for you.
• Mix the chopped mint, garlic, vegetable oil and vinegar in a bowl. Season well with salt and pepper - it's seaoning the meat too.
• Spread the mint stuffing over one side of the lamb and roll it up. Tie securely with string. If you don't have string, I've used cocktail sticks with some sucsess before!
• Put the lamb in a roasting tin and pop in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, layer the potatoes and onion slices in an ovenproof dish, seasoning as you go. Pour water over the potatoes until it just reaches the top layer.
• After 30 minutes are up, turn the oven down to 160°C and put the potatoes in too. Cook for a further 2 hours.
• When the 2 hours are up, remove the lamb from the oven and let it rest for about 15 minutes before slicing. If the potaoes need to crisp up a little, leave them in the oven for a bit longer.

You can vary the herbs in the stuffing to suit whatever herbs you happen to have, parsley and rosemary work well too. Likewise, if you'd rather use leeks instead of onions in the boulangerie potatoes, they'd be great!

What are your go-to thrifty foods? Share your hints and tips below.

Gluten Free Cookery at River Cottage

When I was invited to River Cottage HQ to review their gluten free cookery course I didn't need to be asked twice! As a bit of a River Cottage groupie, I was thrilled with the idea of visiting the iconic farm and delighted that they were offering something for the Coeliacs.

The course, Gluten Free Cookery, is run by Naomi Devlin, a nutritionist and fellow free from-er, whose passion for great food permeates the day. Each of us on the course were there for different reasons, and we represented the whole range of the gluten free spectrum. The established Coeliacs (diagnosed for 20+ years) learned as much as the new-to-gluten-free people. There were even non-gluten-free people, learning how to cook for loved ones, or customers, with various gluten intolerances. We all left with our heads full of new information and skills we couldn't wait to get home to practise.

The day starts, like all cookery courses at River Cottage HQ, with a tractor ride from the car park to the farmhouse. By the time we disembarked at the bottom of the hill, we were already friends – it's a bumpy, but pleasant, bonding experience! 

The (newly refurbished) cookery classroom came complete with tea and coffee, delicious tortilla breakfast snacks, and inspiring views of the Devon countryside from the floor-to-ceiling windows!

Naomi demonstrated every item clearly, and with enthusiasm, peppering each demo with information about gluten free flour and their properties, avoiding cross contamination, nutritional tips, and more. Starting with a yeasted pastry for kleicha (a sweet Iraqi treat) and the sponge for our sourdough bread, Naomi began to address the fact that to bake gluten free we first had to throw out all everything we'd learned about baking with wheat flour. She showed us the consistency to expect when mixing a GF dough and explained that gluten free flours absorb more liquid than wheat flours, so a wet-looking lump would transform given time. 

Chocolate chip cookies came next. As someone who "accidentally" licked her fingers after mixing the dough, I'm not sure if much of this mix would actually make it to the oven at home. Ours were rather bigger than the rest of the room's so took a little longer to bake, a few minutes that seemed like hours just before lunchtime! These cookies are set to become a common occurrence in my kitchen, they were absolutely delicious.

Our expectations of how to bake were challenged again when we made pastry. The dough was much wetter than any of us felt comfortable with, and I could tell that a few of us were sceptical that it would ever become pastry. We were proven wrong later that day.

We also finished mixing our bread dough before lunch. Adding a variety of wholesome ingredients to the bubbling sponge, I could tell that this bread felt distinctly different to any gluten free bread I'd made before. The dough was sticky and lighter than other doughs, whilst being less liquid than a lot of packet mixes I've tried. The way the dough rose over lunch was proof enough that this was going to be a thoroughly successful bread.

Lunch was everything you'd expect from River Cottage. Pork, from one of the pigs on the farm, with grilled vegetables so fresh they were probably still attached to their respective plants mere hours before landing on my plate and a gently spicy sauce that I could quite happily have bathed in. Dessert was a fresh combination of apple sorbet and blackberry compote that finished the meal perfectly. It was, of course, gluten free and vegetarians and dairy free diets were equally well catered for. Lunch was a great opportunity to chat to some of my coursemates who I had yet to meet. They were such a friendly bunch, and everyone was as excited as me to be on such an informative course.

Suitably sated and refreshed, we returned to the kitchen to bake our bread and roll out pastry. Rolling out between two sheets of baking paper for ease of transport from worktop to baking tray (and to avoid cross contamination from wooden rolling pins), we noticed how soft and workable – pastrylike – the dough was. The lesson was starting to sink in! We used the pastry to make pissaladiere, a quick and easy dinner, while Naomi suggested ways we could prepare the pastry in advance.  As our pissaladiere cooked, Naomi showed us how to turn the yeasted dough from that morning into kleicha, giving us an opportunity to try for ourselves. Once baked, we all tucked in to the two varieties of these stuffed cookies to a chorus of "yum"s.

Finally, muffins. Again, as we filled our muffin cases right to the top, we realised how much we had to re-learn after our wheat baking days (even those of us who've been baking gluten free for years). It was interesting to watch them bake, through the oven door, and see how this seemingly odd practice of filling the muffin cases worked to produced perfectly golden, domed muffins.

This course completely shattered every expectation I had about what a gluten free cookery course might entail. Apart from the obvious benefit of a mountain of baked goods to take home, I found the information Naomi shared to be the best thing about the day. Her natural style and self-confessed geekiness about nutrition meant that I couldn't help but be enthused about the possibilities of gluten free baking.  I'm a keen GF baker and now I feel like my own passion has been renewed and I'm approaching my own baking with a refreshed vigour, thanks to Naomi.

Would I recommend this course? Undoubtedly. Is it worth the £180 course fee? Yes, I think so; it runs from 9am to 5pm and the day is packed full of activity. No, it's not cheap, especially if you're traveling to, and staying in, Devon just for the course, but the fees are comparable to other courses around the country, and Devon is a lovely place to visit. Are there any negatives? Erm, not really, no – if the reactions in the tractor on the way back up the hill are anything to go by. 

Gluten Free Cookery at River Cottage HQ offers passionate and knowledgable instruction in making  good wholesome food in a beautiful setting. I'd heartily recommend it to everyone.

The next course is on 25th January 2014, check out the River Cottage website for more details

Gluten Free on a Budget

Cooking on a tight budget is something I've been wanting to write about for a while, ever since I received an email from a reader who was struggling to eat a gluten free diet and feed her children. It's been on my mind, and now that celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver have waded into the debate, I've decided it's time to broach the topic, too.

Falafel (about 89p per person)

In the past, I lived on a very tight budget. I was working, but the cost of rent, bills and travel expenses meant that I was left with under £5 a week for food. I was lucky, my church stepped in to help me out, and I found a second job to pay the bills a bit more easily. I didn't have any hungry mouths to feed, apart from mine. At that stage, I wasn't Coeliac, so could buy cheap bread and pasta to fill me up. Eventually, I moved into cheaper accommodation and things worked themselves out, but it was tough to eat (full stop, let alone eat well) for such a small amount of money.

Squash Stuffed Turkey (about £1.50 per person)

We all know that gluten free food is expensive, so buying bread, pasta and flour isn't cheap when you're Coeliac. Jamie Oliver might know a Sicilian street cleaner who can but mussels, tomatoes and pasta for 60p, but a pack of gluten free spaghetti is closer to £2 before you even add the molluscs and veggies! Mockney Mr Oliver thinks we should use stale bread to give our cheap meat "great texture". It's something that processed food manufacturers do to bulk out products, and as a consequence make them a no-go for us Coeliac folk. On a budget, it makes sense to avoid it (unless you can get it on prescription) and focus instead on naturally gluten free foods like potatoes and rice. If you've got time to shop and cook, you can eat well for not-very-much, but when you're working two jobs it's not so easy.

Eggs in Tomato Sauce (about £1.10 per person)

In my experience, a well stocked store cupboard is the difference between eating the same sad meal every day for a week and eating a varied diet. It has made me a bit of a hoarder as a result, I feel like I'm saving up in case I find myself struggling for money again. Jacket potatoes with cheese and beans, spicy lentil daal, eggs in tomato sauce, or poached chicken (if a whole chicken is too costly, try chicken wings - they make a delicious stock, although it takes more effort to strip the meat off the bones later) with rice cooked in the resulting stock, are all possible, if you have a ready supply of spices, dried lentils and rice. None of the dishes pictured in this post were designed to be 'budget' meals, but they give you an idea of how naturally gluten free food can be inexpensive.

No, this doesn't really help if you have a tight budget right now and your cupboards are bare, and I don't have a solution if that's you. It's one of the reasons why this is such a contentious issue, no-one actually has the right answer to the problem of food poverty. If you're in the happy situation of knowing exactly where your next meal is coming from, why not get in touch with The Trussell Trust and donate to your nearest food bank? I've been in contact with my local food bank so that, if someone with gluten intolerance comes to them, I can supply them with GF pasta, cereal and tinned goods when they need it. 

Chicken Rice (about £1.30 per person)

Save with Jamie: Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less has an RRP of £26, just over two months of my old food budget, and I think that's why the man himself has come under so much criticism for his comments. (Although, let's not be so naive to forget that this publicity will do Jamie's book sales and TV ratings a real favour.) It's hard to take budgeting advice from a man whose name itself is a franchise. I'd rather read A Girl Called Jack's blog, or invest in a copy of her book, due out next year. I also rate the advice given by Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merrit in Economy Gastronomy, and was an avid follower of their 2009 TV series. (I wonder if the BBC would bring it back?) Whilst not really written for people in dire straits, the principles behind River Cottage Every Day will help you make the most of every scrap of food in your kitchen and avoid waste.

So, sorry Jamie. I know you mean well, and I'm sure your new TV series and accompanying book will be full of useful hints and tips for eating on a budget, but until you get your foot out of your mouth we can't hear any wisdom that might be in there.

Bourbon Biscuits and Lime Pie

Last week, I decided to rectify the fact that I hadn't eaten a chocolate Bourbon for six years by baking some myself. The resulting Bourbon biscuits were so good that I ate most of the first batch before they'd even cooled down! As wonderful as the biscuits were, I couldn't eat all of them. (When you're testing a recipe, you end up making at least two, sometimes many more, batches in order to perfect the recipe.) The lime meringue pie was born from a need to use the rest of the Bourbons before they went stale.

The biscuits form the base of what is basically a Key lime pie – except that you shouldn't really call it 'Key lime' unless you use limes from the Florida Keys - with meringue on top. I have a habit of separating eggs to use just the yolks or whites in a recipe and leaving the other part in the fridge to be rediscovered when it's too late to use them. That's why there's meringue on my lime pie – I could use the whole egg this way (and it looks great, too).

Chocolate and lime work so well together that it's a shame more desserts don't use them. The smoothness of the chocolate mellows the sharpness of the lime, while the slight bitter edge to both add a sophisticated touch. I've made a lot of lime meringue pies in my time, from now on, I'll always use a chocolate base.

If you fancy making your own lime meringue pie this weekend, head over to Domestic Sluttery for the full recipe.

Gluten Free at Pizza Express

When it comes to introducing gluten free items to your menu, Pizza Express have really gone the extra mile. Instead of simply adding a GF pizza base and feeling smug, they spent 18 months trying hundreds of bases to find the very best one, worked with Coeliac UK to make sure they were doing everything right, introduced measures to prevent the risk of cross contamination and invited a group of gluten free bloggers to give the seal of approval to the menu. Not content to just introduce a gluten free pizza base, Pizza Express are also launching a delicious risotto starter, Green's GF Pilsner and a rich gluten free brownie for dessert! The children's menu is getting the same treatment, with a gluten free piccolo pizza base and brownie.

A gluten free pizza you can order with confidence!

Last Monday, I went along to meet the team behind the new gluten free menu items and taste the results of their hard work. To say that Pizza Express listen to their customers would be an understatement!  Head of Marketing, Emma has been carrying a print out of a guest post, written by @DavidJ_GF, voicing his concerns about the trials of the gluten free menu at selected restaurants. The whole team have been using the (very eloquently written) post as the basis for addressing the commonly held issues most Coeliacs have with GF items in chain restaurants. Pizza Express really care about how we (customers and Coeliacs) feel about eating at their restaurants and have been working with Coeliac UK to get NGCI accreditation so that anyone ordering a gluten free meal can to so with confidence. 

Instead of being apologetic about their efforts at gluten free dining, the team at Pizza Express decided to work toward something they'd be proud to shout about and I think they should boast about the new menu!

To deal with the risk of contamination from airborne flour, Pizza Express have replaced all flour with a gluten free flour mix for dusting surfaces and stretching dough. All gluten free pizza bases are individually wrapped and as soon as the first GF pizza is ordered in a restaurant, the kitchen will open a new passata and mozzarella, use separate ladles and pizza screens and serve the pizza on special boards to distinguish the gluten free ones from the wheaty ones.

If that's not enough to fill your heart with cheer, then you'll be pleased to know that Food and Drink Manager, Holly and Development Chef, Anton's mammoth global effort (they actually sampled bases from as far away as Australia!) to source a really great pizza base has paid off. The pizzas are outstanding and all the more delicious for the peace of mind that comes from all the measures Pizza Express have put in place to ensure that cross contamination is not an issue in their kitchens. 

A delicious Risotto d'Oro for starter.

Every member of Pizza Express staff have undergone thorough training, ready for the launch of the new menu tomorrow (30th April) and all new-starts will receive exactly the same training as part of their induction, so you can always be confident that your order is treated the same in every branch, every time you visit. 

I'll definitely be heading to Pizza Express for the new menu launch on 30th April, find your nearest restaurant and try it, too!

The Great North Gluten Free Fair

This Saturday, 27^th April, the North's first gluten free fair will take place at the CastleGate in Newcastle city centre.

The Fair’s organiser is TASTECLUB (formerly Taste North East), the Club for everyone who makes, serves, sells and loves great north food and drink. There will be around 40 stands at the event, made up of some of the best local and national producers, shops and restaurants that make or sell gluten-free food and drink. 

Spopnsered by Newburn Bakehouse, you will be able to sample their range of free-from products, including brown, white, seeded and fruit loaves, baguettes, wraps, teacakes and muffins.

Entry to the inaugural event, which will run from 10am to 4pm, costs £2 for adults and is free for children. All attendees will receive a Newburn Bakehouse muffin. To book tickets in advance, go to the TASTECLUB website.

If you can't attend the fair, you can still take part by entering the competition on The Great North Gluten Free Fair's Facebook page by liking and sharing their competition post to win a hamper of Newburn Bakehouse Goodies!

Fruit is Not a Pudding!

Have you checked out the brilliant Fruit is Not a Pudding blog yet? Carly (the wonderful Gluten Free B) started this blog to celebrate great naturally gluten free puddings and to name and shame those restaurants and caterers who think that fruit salad is an appropriate gluten free dessert.

We've all been there, haven't we? At a function or dinner and everyone else is enjoying a plate of profiteroles, summer pudding or cheesecake and you're brought a fruit salad. (What's that? Yes, there is melon in there! Isn''t that from the starter?) It's maddening, especially since there are so many delicious desserts out there than are naturally gluten free.

I recently shared my panna cotta recipe with FINAP and it's in great company with fantastic pudding recipes like Hokey Pokey Knicker Bocker Glory and Black Cherry Meringue Parfait. It's a great resource, especially for friends and family of Coeliacs, who want to make them something that's gluten free, but doesn't involve shelling out on specialist ingredients. Go check it out yourself, then send everyone you know!

If you have a Pudding Hero to recommend to others or a rubbish dessert to nominate for a Sad Banana Award, visit the Fruit is Not a Pudding Facebook page, or email FINAP.