Happy New Year

The bag model :)

One of my bags

Pea pancakes

Lemon cake

The Raw Food Kitchen

 

A few bits of delicious Liberty Tana Lawn from a visit to Materialise

Hello from my little plot!  I'm back to the rhythm of my normal life after a wonderful 10 days of flying by the seat of my pants. Days spent doing things on a whim.  It was pure delicious-ness to throw routine out the window and move easily through my day.  A dear, dear friend came to visit, which was so special - we had such an amazing few days.  We did not stop talking as we explored, drove, ate, cooked, walked, swam, shopped, drank. We had so much catching up to do.  I have known Sal from the day she was born (I'm a little bit older!) so our families have a long shared history. It was incredible to have time together - it was the first time Sal had left all 3 of her children, in 13 years.  It filled up our souls, reaffirmed our friendship and sparked all our creative juices.  Sal is the most wonderful person, with an incredible ability to live a truly creative life.  I love her to pieces. Our time together is something I will treasure forever.

I sent her off with one of my bags, and forced her to model it for me in the above picture.  It looked so great with her outfit!  Much better than the table pic, don't you think?  The food pics were taken as we ate our way around Perth.  Everything pictured is gluten free - from Sayers Sister in North Perth and The Raw Kitchen in Fremantle.  All of it was a taste sensation.  Sal and I talked food and nutrition a lot and have decided to share recipes across the country. I've sent off the first one, which is roast potatoes with prunes from the Jerusalem cookbook.  I made them one night and served them alongside Jamie Oliver's lamb with a green leafy salad.  Dessert was one of my small Christmas cakes - another success!  See pictures below...I can't take credit for the potato shot - it's from the cookbook....but the Christmas cake is my pic.

Potatoes and Prunes in caramel sauce from Jerusalem by Ottolenghi

Recipe from Cake Angels by Julie Thomas.

As you can see it was a bit of a foodie-fest!

Bon appetite...until next time.....

I miss Melbourne cafes....warning ....whinge alert

Wah Wah Wah....

this weekend I went out for breakfast - my first in Perth this year and after my four days in Melbourne, where I was TOTALLY spoilt with absolutely divine and delicious gluten free toast at every café I went to for breakfast.  Let me tell you Melbourne cafes have it sussed.  BIG TIME.  They buy it from specialist bakeries, or bake it in-house and it is delicious.  Even beyond Melbourne.  In Lorne we went to the burger joint called 'Bottle of Milk". I ate burgers on gluten free buns, that were so good, the non gluten-free-ers choose them over the regular buns. Yep that's right.  I requested a burger in a bowl, because in my Western Australian experience...Grill'd, Jus Burgers, the buns are crap.  Totally disgusting - dry and crumbly, so I just get my burger hit without the bun.  But I didn't have to do that in Melbourne, so I indulged in more than one burger. Nom, nom, nom.  My mouth is watering at the thought of it now...and it's all the way across the other side of the country. ...so here I was at the John Street Café eagerly anticipating my eggs on gluten-free toast.  Soooo disappointing.  I suspect it was the Country Life supermarket loaf....very very dry-, inedible around the edges, like dried out bread for breadcrumbs......Melbourne cafes  were a distant memory.  It wasn't all bad - the eggs were perfect, but, 'this is why I just opt for no bread and go without, because it's too hard to get anything that doesn't totally depress you.  I feel like Melbourne cares...I haven't just decided to jump on some band wagon.  I am seriously, seriously, incredibly better health wise being gluten free - it is totes absolutely amazing how much better I feel.  Whereas I feel like Perth doesn't really care...it's like one of those people that roll their eyes and think...oh, here's another one of those faddish eaters, jumping on the wagon, making my life difficult.

I've never been diagnosed coeliac (because I'm not prepared to put myself back on gluten for 6 weeks and then have a test, when the outcome would be the same as I'm doing now and my body is thanking me everyday and I'm finally listening to it...lesson finally learned...susan you are such a slow learner), I have no qualms saying no to gluten as I just don't want to feel that sick and exhausted ever again. In saying that, there are times when I inadvertently have gluten and here is a the result of one of these situations...I look 7 months pregnant...it is hilarious.  It's my party trick....

I did warn you I was having  a whinge..... :)

gluten belly