Apple Crumble

With my big bag of local orchard apples I decided to stew them myself and make apple crumbles with them. Stewing them was easier then I thought and they tasted really good. I then got a recipe out of my 4 ingredients cook book so therefore the crumble was really easy to make and cook. I put them in individual pots and made sure they had plenty of crumble (got to have lots!). So good to be able to have some sweet treats and they be enjoyed by other (non gluten free) friends.

Apple Tea Cake

Before Christmas I went to an orchard and bought a bag of golden delicious apples, unfortunately I am not able to eat a whole bag of apples to myself in a week so I decided I wanted to stew them and make an apple tea cake. I found a recipe in one of my gluten free cookbooks and finally stocked my pantry up with some cooking ingredients etc.
It was rather easy to make with the help from Morgan being my cookbook reader-outer, the recipe didn't seem like it had enough stewed apple in it so I added some more. For my first attempt at apple tea cake and first time baking from scratch in sometime I don't think I did too bad!? (tasted a little gooey and for sure gluten free!) Check it out.

Birdseed

I found out about this new bakery called Birdseed thats all gluten free also soy and corn free. The lady used to run it from home now runs it in a shop off Westbury road, Prospect (where the city mission and takeaway shop is). Anyways I follow the shop on Facebook and entered a competition to win a hamper just in time for Christmas and guess what? I WON! How exciting to win something and especially something that is all gluten free and new to me. In it is a christmas cake, cake mix, shortbread, crackers, gingerbread and some muesli. I went up their to collect it today and had a hot chocolate while there. They have rice milk and almond milk available for drinks which is great and all the sweet/savoury products for sale. I love it at Birdseed and the ladies there are lovely.
They are only open Monday - Friday but its a must visit place for anyone coeliac or if you want to get your coeliac friend something nice. I will certainly be returning to Birdseed for some wicked gluten free goodies!
https://www.facebook.com/BirdseedTweet

Work lunch at Stillwater

Work were nice enough to take us admin ladies for lunch as a thank you and merry Christmas. The head of school decided on Stillwater which is always a great idea! We sat in the cellar and drank wine and cider (pagen, the best!). Looking at the menu nothing was gluten free so I asked the waitress and got a few options to choose from, I went with warm smoked trout salad with whole egg also a side of fries and aioli. It was really nice and a perfect sized lunch. For dessert I wanted/needed something gluten free and dairy free. Nothing on the lunch menu was but there was an item on the dinner menu. The waitress mentioed something different and unusual so I went with it. It came out looking quiet interesting, it was some frozen herb served with almond icecream. Let's just say I wasn't much of a fan but the icecream was nice. I ended up eating the remainder of a creme brûlée. Great meal but I did feel a bit yuck the next day, hopefully it wasn't from Stillwater!? 

http://www.stillwater.com.au/ 

Thai chicken noodle salad

Tonight for dinner I wanted something light and fresh instead of stiryfry or curry. My Grandma lent me a cook book by Sue Sheppard who is a brilliant dietician. I found this Thai chicken salad and luckily enough I had most of the ingredients in the pantry/fridge. The only thing I changed was the mint (I used basil), the chillis (I used dried ones) and I added cucumber to the dish. It didn't take very long to make and tasted great on this warm summers evening! I have added the reciepe and the book I got it from.

If you come across any books by Sue I reccommend checking them out. 

Cafe Culture

Cafe Culture is located in Trevallyn in the small shopping complex that's there. It's a modern cafe with indoor and outdoor seating with plenty of parking. We had lunch there one warm summers day and the menu had plenty of gluten free options to choose from. I went with the salt and pepper calamari, wow it was good. It came with a real nice Asian salad and the calamari was devine. I also had some chips with a tasty aioli. I trust eating there for sure as I know the owner and know that they would be good in their food preparation. 

Caramel slice

We went out for lunch at Relish to celebrate Aaron getting a new job. My cousin works there and it's a wicked cafe. She talked me into getting the caramel slice but luckily I didn't regret it (well except for the calories). It was yuummmmy! 

They have a few sweets there and gluten free meal options too, but don't have the bread as they toast it with the normal bread!