Halo baking

Ok, it's not really anything to do with angels, but I'm trying to be good and cook/bake without any gluten and dairy as we've been having problems (between us) with them.

As with anything you can't have..I am suddenly finding that I'm having cravings for things I shouldn't have. Things like a gooey pizza with lots of stringy cheese and meaty toppings (oh and wouldn't that cause me a world of pain), BREAD, pasta cabonara and more. Bah humbug.

So, I've been doing my research to try and find alternatives and substitutions we can use. I'm fed up of having no snacks, and, as one thing I've always wanted to try making is bread..this is my mission: to bake the perfect gluten and dairy free bread. I shall call this Project Loaf.

Today, I attempted Irish soda bread. I adapted from a "normal" recipe and came up with this:



I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the crust is very hard and crunchy while the inner bit is quite damp looking. It's also quite solid. A friend advised me to reduce the temperature and bake it for five more minutes and as this supported my suspicions, I'm going to try this next time. Stay tuned for the next installment of Project Loaf!

Oh yes, and I've also been reading this blog () and am hoping to try making sourdough bread, pizzas and stuff. I'm going to make a starter today..if I remember. I quite fancy trying her pizza recipe, if I can get my mitts on a good non-dairy cheese substitute.

I miss the good old days of eating whatever I liked and thinking I had no problems with food. Mind you, I don't miss the side effects..so I'll soldier on.

Before I forget, I'm also typing all this accompanied by the warm scent of fresh rock cakes. Yep, dairy and gluten free. I haven't tried them yet as I'd like to not have a scorched tongue..but here's a sneaky peek.

Autumn Cleaning?

*Slinks in quietly* Eek, I have been rather lax with the blog lately. It's been a combination of either being horrifically busy with trying to finally sort out the house. We moved here two and a half years ago and are trying to achieve a state of "everything has a place and everything in its place" (or whatever it is). However, while I have planned out each stage and each major area in the house to sort, I've fallen behind thanks to various lurgs.

I'm not going to go into detail because that's just nasty. But suffice to say I've possessed less than the concentration and energy required to clear, clean and rid ourselves of clutter and mess. Before I/we succumbed, however, I have managed the kitchen, the laundry room and the bathroom. Not sound like much? Maybe not. However, there are lots of cupboards in the kitchen and the laundry room has more cupboards, some overhead shelves and the dreaded Understairs Cupboard of Doom. I have so far got rid of probably two whole bin bags of rubbish, one huge bin bag full of packing materials (on Freecycle), several bags of stuff to the charity shop, a bag full of soapmaking stuff on Freecycle, several more bags of stuff into the compost...oh and a bag of shoes and boots to sell/charity shop. So a lot of stuff out of the door just in those three rooms! Plus I've liberated a lot of stuff to use (I now know it's there, where it is etc).

There is lots more to do, but I'm pacing myself. We're still not well, it's the school hols so my daughter doesn't have pre-school...but I'm determined to get it done by..well I was hoping for the end of August. Fingers crossed.

If I didn't know better, I'd say I was nesting. But maybe it's just Autumn cleaning? Oh yes, it's not JUST de-cluttering I've been doing. I've been cleaning and scrubbing every surface too. It feels good.

Anyone else feeling the urge to purge (and clean)?