The Final post for 2011

This is my final post of 2011! I would have never thought at the beginning of last year that I would start a blog and it would be as successful as it has been! I've had readers from countries all over the world reading my blog! There is such a feeling of satisfaction to know that I might be helping someone around the world, I might have inspired someone to go to the doctor to get tested and finally get a solution to there problem.

Personally my year has been filled with a rollercoaster of emotions and bad luck, hospital visits, 2 surgeries and lots of pain from my accident. I had thought about blogging, as I was enjoying reading Lori's blog from RASHM and Emma, from What's in Emma's Brain.

I remember the moment that I decided I would start my blog, it was at a child's birthday party, and a conversation with Emma, who encouraged me to write the blog. I remember sitting at my house typing the very first post, setting up my blog and pressing the publish post button, I sat watching the amount of times that the post was viewed. I was amazed as the numbers of viewers dramatically went up and the excitement was even greater when I read that people from all over the world were reading my blog! As time continued, so did my readers and I was in total amazement at the amount of countries that my readers were coming from!

Even in times when I was too sick, or in too much pain to write my blog, my readers stood by me and where still there when I was back on my blogging feet again. I even had my mum and my husband type my blog, whilst I was lying in bed, or they were sitting next to me.I couldn't believe how much blogging had become a part of my life.

I remeber my first recipe I put up, it was a recipe from someone else, a cookbook or something, as my confidence began to grow, I began to develop more confidence in my cooking, in how flavours worked together, I began to make recipes from scratch, use a recipe as a base and work from there. I now find it difficult to work out how to write down recipes, cause I use a bit of this and a bit of that, that's how I know that my skills have improved. And I love that look on peoples face when they try your food and its like their eating a piece of heaven. That's when you know you have nailed a recipe.

Some of the nicest food I made this year was the Chocolate Baileys and Choc Cream Pavola, with berries (my creation), the Cherry Ripe Cake (Delicieux's creation, I just played around with the ingredients to make it gluten free), the Orange and Chocolate Cake (once again a marvellous recipe by Deliiceux, originally Nigella's) I added orange segments around the outside for decorations, The Chocolate, Almond and Butterscotch Schnapps Christmas Balls, my favourite main meal was probably the mustard encrusted roasted beef (my creation again), and finally the very last thing is the cocktail I created for a Nuffnang competition, a White Nectarine and Butterscotch Schnapps Cocktail (delicious, light and fluffy and not too strong).

It was only recently I joined the Twitter world, and here I came across many fellow food bloggers, both gluten free and standard food blogs! I can't believe how nice some of these lovely women are, Jennifer from Delicieux and JJ from 84thand3rd, I'm also reviewing an ebook for a fellow food blogger, Kim from Simply Natural Health, and Im sorry if I have missed anyone out, but thankyou to all the people that have helped me, let me particiapte in blog hops, which I have enjoyed so much and welcomed me with warm arms into the world of food blogging. I would also like to again thank Emma fro Whats In Emma's Brain for giving me the courage to start the blog and Lori fro RASHM (in a time of emotional turmoil, she gave me the time, to help me out with some beginners questions, for that I am so grateful). Before this point I was kind of feeling like a wall flower, sitting there in the blogging world, but now I have been welcomed by these lovely people, become part of a group, not so lonesome anymore!I also have to mention Nikki From Styling You, she has also welcomed and supported me with open arms! I look forward to joining more blog hops, more competitions and whatever else comes my way. I have to also thank again Jennifer from Delicieux for selecing me along with De Bortlio to be one of the 10 people to win some of their lovely wine, as promised I gave the wine to my best friend and my darling sister, the people who have driven me around and helped so much this years in more ways then words can mention! Thankyou girls, I love you both and am honoured to have you and my other very special circle of friends and family in my life, you know who you are.

I have also enjoyed reseraching the links between autism and the gluten and caesin free diet, the more I have discovered the more apparent it seems to me, that removing gluten and caesin (a protein in milk) has massive positive affects on children on the autism spectrum. With my education background, I also believe that if could have positive affects on children with various behaviour problems like ADHD and ODD, its a simple, non medication alternative. I never claim to be a medical professional, all I put forth is the research and I encourage you to try something for just a week and see if there are any differences, the pros for this so out weigh the cons!

My goals or resolutions for the New Year are as follows;

1. A revamp of my blog, to reach a wider population of readers
2. Follow some dreams I have about gf products and spreading my wings in the gluten free world, there is deinately a hole in the market out there, I hope you will see it all next year!
3. I want to get more of my reviews etc in published print, I've had one local review, its given me a taste for more.
4. I want to write a gluten free recipe book, either published or e-book.
5. To join the blogging world on a bigger scale, perhaps attend some conferences, get to do the fun things that I see other bloggers do!
6. To loose a bit of weight (the most common new years resolution!).
6. To continue doing things that make me happy.
7. A big lesson I have learnt this past year and a bit is that its in times of trouble and hardship, you really find out who your true friends are. I will and I recommend you, to do the same, surround yourself with the people who you love and who are there for you no matter what, in bad times as well as good.

I hope that next year brings me more good luck, good health and recovery. I hope that everyone who reads my blog gets enjoyment help, advice, recipes that they like and can use. I wish everyone good health, good personal contentment and personal happiness. So until next year, drink sensibly tonight, a hangover is not a great thing to have, frock up where ever you are and have some great fun. Remember to follow my blog if you have been reading this, it means so much to me! I get excited when I get a message from a reader or someone follows me or leaves a comment!

So to all Happy New Years Eve, good riddness 2011 and bring on 2012, I have a good feeling about next year! Tonight I'm making my Chocolate Moouse with Cherries soaked in cherry liquer, I will put up photos with the recipe next year. Have a safe night from the summer of Australia, to the freezing cold of Russia and everywhere in between I wish my readers all the best for the new year!

Is what we are eating causing massive health problems?

I love to cook! All types of cooking, I even made baked goods for family and friends this Christmas! Theres something special about the joy of someone else getting pleasure and enjoyment of food you have baked! I even adapted my great grandmothers 100+ year old recipe to make a gf Christmas Pudding! The more I cook and enjoy it every day, the more im aware of the additives etc that are in store brought cakes, biscuits etc! If you make a cake or biscuits at home they only last for a few days, in a sealed container, maybe 5, but they won't last for months like the supermarket brands! I look at the rates of cancer, which are currently 1 in 2 people will end up with cancer and I have to wonder why? This is a matter very close to my heart, I've lost 2 grandparents from this horrible disease and have many family memembers who have fought this disease! Our parents and grandparents, particularly farming families like mine, were almost self sufficient! Take a step back 100 years and you made your own bread, cakes and slices, were all handmade, dinner was often rabbit (a meat killed by the men of the house, or women in some circumstances), nothing was spared, leftovers were used and re used and generally people were healthier! There was no flavour enhancers, little numbers on the back of products, it was only small stores in the city, no such thing as big supermarkets! In the city and country, there was a bread man, a milk man and a traveling salesman to buy things from! What troubles me, is there were significantly less rates of cancer and other diseases! You have to wonder if all these additives, and mysterious numbers in foods are affecting our health dramatically! I know that certain companies sell carcenogenic chemicals to large fast food operators, to go in there food! And it doesn't stop there,some wine companies use such chemicals to clean out their wine vats! All this ends up in our stomachs, processed through our bodies! To me, it has to have some impact on our health, the cancer and disease rates! I even had a gf pudding brought for me, it tasted nice, then I looked at the additives and numbers on the back and I was slightly concerned! Although even 100 years ago, coeliac disease would have existed, but it would have had a different name! I'm glad that we live in an era where diseases like coeliac are recognized and treatable! But I think I'd much rather cook the majority of my food, to remove all the additives and nasty unknown products, then buy pre made food! What's your thoughts on this? Do you agree with me or have another theory? I'd love to hear your comments! Don't forget to follow me by clicking on the follow me tag or follow by email, I'm also on Twitter @MMOAGF and Facebook on the page Mishaps and Mayhem Of A Gluten Freee Life, just click the like button. I await your comments!

Old Fashioned GF Christmas Pudding!

Once again I'm participating in a blog hop, this one is focused on festive favourites and is hosted by 84th and 3rd! I'm very excited to pass my contributions to this blog hop for the second time! My festive recipe is something that has been passed down from generation to generation in my family. My mother even has to make the famous puddings in the same bowl her mother and grandmother used, it's over 100 years old and fine china! It's like one of the bowls that people used to wash in, my grandfather who if he was alive would be nearly 92, and he as a baby was bathed in it! It's truly amazing!



I refuse to carry it and am so scared when I help mum with my sister make the pudding, to stir the pudding on the off chance that I might crack or break this precious bowl! But mum insists that that is the bowl that we have to make the pudding in, for the rest of the year it's stored carefully away, wrapped in a towel, to ensure it doesn't get broken!

Last year, my first Christmas as a coeliac I didn't have the pudding. This year, I modified my great grandmothers recipe (she was the first generation to read and write), so it's highly likely that this recipe is much older and was passed down verbally, like we are doing now, with mother and daughters helping make the pudding and learning the special little tricks! That's why this recipe is so precious! It's a piece of my family history. So I didn't want to cook a pudding from any other recipe, I adapted this wonderful original recipe to be gluten free, so I could eat it! It was just a blending of flours and almond meal and I achieved the perfect balance! But the tricky part of the pudding is not the making, even though my mum made us do everything how her mum did! We made breadcrumbs from stale bread with our fingers, no blenders or mix masters, everything had to be done how it was done 100 years ago!

The hardest part of these puddings is boiling it constantly for 4-6 hours, constantly topping it up with boiling water, it must not come off the boil! Mum has cooked it on the barbeque, but there was problems with the wind, if you are cooking inside just be careful not to burn your stove top! I think grandma had the best idea, cooking in the garage on a camping stove!

It's not an easy recipe but is so moist, delicious and a real Aussie classic. My grandma and my great grandmother, used to put thruppences in the pudding, she did it when I was a child still! It originated from when people didn't have much money, so instead of spending copious amounts of money on gifts, like we do now, Christmas in my grandparents and great grandparents generations was more about spending time with family, having a delicious dinner and finally being able to eat this marvelous pudding that had been hanging in muslin cloth for weeks, the thruppences was the former currency in Australia, and getting these in your slice of pudding was your little present! Fortunately I still have thruppences but I didn't and wont be putting them in my pudding!

So from generations of my family I pass on to you a slightly modified gluten free version of this precious pudding! It's best to cook this about a month before Christmas, to let the flavors blended in, you can also freeze this marvelous pudding!

Traditional GF Christmas Pudding:

Ingredients:
250g butter (leave out at room temperature)
 250g sugar 4 eggs (room temperature)
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup gf plain flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1/2 cup dry stale gf breadcrumbs (leave out, tear into tiny pieces and remove crusts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sultanas
 1/2 cup currants
60g mixed peel
 60g dates
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbote soda
1/2 teaspoon almond essence
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon lemon essence
1/4 cup OP or normal rum
3/4 teaspoon mixed spice (or if no mixed spice 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger)
1/4 teaspoon ginger
30cm calico cloth

Method:
Chop and soak fruit, essence, and rum for a min overnight (better for a few days). Sift flours and dry ingredients, add sugar, rub in butter (best with cold hands), until mixed through. Beat eggs well, until they are light and creamy and 3/4 of way up the bowl, mix in gradually to dry ingredients. Add fruit grudully, stirring well. Rub gf flour into cloth to cover about 8cm from sides, with more flour in the centre. Place cloth in a colander or bowl. Place mixture in centre of cloth, gather ends together and tie securely with string as close to mixture as possible, leaving a small break (1-2cm), to allow pudding to swell. Tie cloth and put in boiling water for 3-4 hours. Continue to add boiling water every 30 minutes, don't allow to boil dry. Puddings are best made a month or so before Xmas and can freeze. Wrap in glad wrap and finish off with a layer of foil. These puddings can store for months in the freezer and taste great 6 months later! Serve with ice cream and brandy custard, and you get to eat pudding just like everyone else! Im storing half in the freezer and half for Christmas day, the frozen half has actually shrunk, don't stress, thats what it is meant to do.

 Enjoy from my family a precious recipe to yours! I did notice when eating last night it was slightly crumbly, it tastes perfect tho! I'll play around with the flour combo next year and keep you all updated! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!