Miffy - memories in the making

Hello, nice of you to stop by, if you're looking to enter the Miffy giveaway competition, feel free to scroll to the bottom of this post and leave your details - good luck! 

I'm chuffed to bits to be able to offer someone else the chance to win their own "sensory Miffy". Our youngest has always been fond of bunnies. When she was a teeny baby, Beatrice Potter's Peter Rabbit was on her wall. Her next favourite rabbit was Boo from Belle and Boo fame, such beautiful illustrations.

http://belleandboo.com Then when she was a little tot, I bought her first Miffy and there's been no going back ever since! She has her absolute favourite Miffy, the same one goes to bed with her every night and gets a bit grubby every now and again! 

Her Miffy family seems to be constantly growing, she has six now! They regularly make an appearance at the breakfast table, in fact Miffy pretty much goes wherever she's needed!

She would probably say that the highlight of her year was attending the Miffy charity film premiere in London as she got to meet "real" Miffy. In fact, she was so enamoured after her meet and greet, that we had to return to the back of the queue and wait in line all over again for a second cuddle! 

 

It was lovely to see cartoon Miffy up on the big screen. 

The great news is Miffy’s Adventures: Big and Small launches on Tiny Pop on 2 October 2015, at 7pm and will consist of seven minute long episodes which see Miffy and her friends exploring the exciting world around her.  I know one little lady who will definitely be watching! Will you?

She turned 5 this summer and I planned a mini bedroom makeover - Miffy style of course! 

Her face was a picture when she saw her new room. 

I used some leftover scraps of fabric for little cushions. Luckily I found some a Miffy prints at a London market and popped them into IKEA frames. I spotted a run of bunting at a bargain price due to a little tear but once it's up in the wall you can't tell. We already had the little IKEA cots and had placed an order for Miffy cot blankets with Jane Foster last year. 

Once it was all put together I think it looked fab, and it made the birthday girl very happy indeed! Lucky little one 

Vintage books upcycled into bunting available here

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/130492382/snuffy-buntingbanner?ref=hp_mod_rf

From time to time, jane foster creates Miffy cushions and blankets, her Etsy shop is here 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Janefoster?ref=s2-header-shopname

Similar clip it panels by IXXI are available here 

http://www.dotmaison.com/abcwithmiffy_p_76991.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products&gclid=CjwKEAjwp56wBRDThOSZ3vqGzmESJABjNaj9_7XjVK3nw7zE43j-thpGtA7pmAP_nsTNir0LdER97RoCwXLw_wcB

If you'd like to win a sensory Miffy, simply add a comment below and let me know who it's for, hope you win & enjoy the new TV programme!  

Paris with my poppet

I have a massive soft spot for Paris. Well who doesn't, surely? My first ever visit was when I was about 15. I was staying with family friends in Holland, and we took the train. Actually, we *didn't* take the train that we were booked onto because - naive, inexperienced traveller that I was at that time - my teenage self didn't realise that I needed to bring my passport along - oops. Anyway I had the perfect introduction to Paris including the Eiffel Tower from lovely Lyliane. Aged eighteen I went to work as a teaching assistant and as the group travelled to various destinations, we passed through Paris. I was too love-sick to join them as they went out clubbing, preferring instead to go to bed and pine after my boyfriend! I also lived in Paris for six months whilst studying. I was meant to join a videoconferencing firm as a French/English salesperson but the technological descriptions were too much in English, let alone in French. So I joined the super efficient Nicole on the administration front. They were brave leaving me on phone duty, the first few messages that I tried to relay were far from clear! 

I've returned for little city breaks several times, one of the most memorable being for my 40th birthday with my sisters, we had a super busy itinerary & now that kids and jobs are in our lives, it was so special to have 3 full days together. They made the trip so special for me. 

So two years on & I decided to take our eldest daughter. I think I was more excited than her to be honest, but the moment she saw the Eiffel Tower from our bedroom window was fantastic! 

Anyway, the point of this blog is to bring you news about gluten free finds isn't it, so down to business...

http://www.helmutnewcake.com/

First stop was a Friday afternoon pick me up. This new addition to Helmut Newcake is more like a patisserie shop with a small counter for a couple of guests. We chose an amazing chocolate eclair & warm chocolate fondant, both were really good. I found out later that the chocolate cream in the eclair was also dairy free 

http://chambelland.com

Our next Glutenfree stop was across the other side of town. Chambelland has seats inside and a couple outside if you want to eat in & serves sandwiches, soups, along with hot drinks and fresh lemonade. They sell a few Glutenfree products such as a flour blend, cookbooks, jams. Their sandwich bread was novel. It seemed to be cooked in a very wide and relatively flat tin so they cut the bread horizontally across rather than vertically down. Avoids the issue of bread that doesn't rise too much, and no crumbly slices. I thought the bread in my sandwich was really tasty, it was covered with poppy seeds. My daughter took one bite and refused to eat any more. Luckily she loved her brownie & my raspberry tart was quite nice too. 

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=169897883041047

Unfortunately the place we had chosen for dinner was still closed for summer holidays but it's worth mentioning here as Broceliande is one of the best “creperie” in Paris, located in the village of Montmartre. So a perfect place for a casual dinner and walk afterwards by the artist area and the Sacré-Coeur.

 

On our last day, we were booked in for brunch at Helmut Newcake, rue bichat. However, my travel companion was so exhausted that she slept in so late that the timings didn't work out. I thought we'd pop there before catching Eurostar back, as I'd need a bit of caffeine & cake by then. When we arrived, the coffee machine was broken, zut! I was peckish as I'd not scoffed *another* crêpe Nutella, unlike a certain little person. From her perspective the trip was very much fuelled by crêpes, chocolat et orangina! 

(Above: not Glutenfree, but you're not missing out on anything, I watched someone pay 5euro for cold churros that had been sat there for who knows how long!) 

Back to brunch; by the time we arrived, their set brunch was finished and on a Sunday that is all they offer - apart from all their lovely cakes. The host was very lovely and offered us a bread basket - all of which were absolutely delicious and gluten eating child ate them happily. They also made a special plate of ham and salad for me - which wasn't an option on any menu but it was perfect. This branch of Helmut Newcake has plenty of quirky seating, the staff are really friendly and they had lots of patisserie to choose from. I took a slice of cheesecake for the train journey. 

Since I returned home, I've discovered (via Twitter) http://because-gustave.com 

They've shared a bunch of other places that I hadn't heard of. 

http://www.maisonbon.com/

Paris seems to have more dedicated glutenfree places than London now, so I'm going to have to do a return trip, now...who's up for that? Xx

Marsh Green Farm Shop Ashover nr Chesterfield

On our way to Hardwick Hall, we made an impromptu stop at Marsh Green Farm Shop. I've driven past a handful of times and as we share our surname, it's always caught my eye, but ive never had time to investigate previously. 

Well, what a find. There is a gluten free section & many other gluten free items dotted around the shop. 

New products of interest were sweet nothings which are in fact by Jacksons Bakery of Chesterfield. I seem to remember meeting the owner of Jacksons at a Food & Drink Awards ceremony & telling him about my new gluten free cake venture. We compared his cost to make one gluten cupcake with my costs to hand make one gluten free cupcake & I figured I wouldn't be in business too long! Their concept is gluten free and lower sugar. I look forward to tasting one later.

Great selection of crisps & gluten free sausages at the weekend (we just missed those) 

The menu has masses of options for gluten free diners and they use a brand of gf bread that ive seen for sale at other farm shops, which is a tasty one. 

Even spotted Glutenfree pizza bases too 

I ordered an omelette as I failed to satisfy my addiction to eggs this morning, looks great  doesn't it? 

So if, like me, you were wondering whether to pop in or not, I definitely recommend you do! 

Sugar free fiasco

Hello there! It's been while hasn't it? So lovely of you to pop by again afterI've  abandoned the blog for so long - thanks 😀
It's the good old "sugar free" debacle that has dragged me back here. A couple of weeks ago, I got my knickers in quite a twist about it, after I saw a tweet from Red Magazine.

I've been trying out a few flapjack recipes for the family, trying to get one that tastes like our old version of a flapjack but has the nutritional value of a far healthier version - which all of us thought was closer to rabbit food! The tweet links to a list of recipes from Davina's latest book. The name of the flapjack recipe being specifically "sugar free flapjack"

Sugar free? Ooh this could be interesting - I thought so j clicked on the link...only to find the following recipe come up:

Now, whilst none of these ingredients are called "sugar" my limited food knowledge told me that combining the dates and honey, I figured there were 400g of sugary ingredients in this bowl of so called "curb your sugar cravings goodness" - right! 

My original family flapjack recipe looked like this 

I think it came out of a Sainsburys magazine, so this "healthier" version had more sugary stuff than my original treat! 

Now I took issue with this for two reasons

1) the recipe is NOT sugar free, it is refined sugar free & that should be clarified 

2) I spend a lot of my time trying to learn about food, nutrition, diets, additives, goodness, brain food etc etc. So I consider myself an interested party and to an extent somewhat informed. However, there are times when I am totally baffled by opposing advice, conflicting opinions, the complexity of trying to do the right thing for your family. I therefore feel passionately that this specific kind of misinformation is very irresponsible and confusing for people who are trying to do the right thing. I tweeted to this effect (although only in 140 characters!) and received the following repsonse from Davina herself 

I'm afraid to say that this made me even more mad! I have not purchased the book. I have no intention of going entirely sugar free - rightly or wrongly - who bloody knows?! 

But I cannot see the sense in choosing an exceptionally high in sugar recipe if you are starting a path to reduce your sugar intake! I am led to believe that she may not have actually written a large part of this book herself. Yet her tweet sounded as though she was emphatically behind the concept. I wish she or Red magazine would have admitted that the title of the recipe was misleading at least.

In case it's of interest to anyone, this is my latest flapjack recipe, having reduced the fat and sugar considerably. Made in the usual method, with Glutenfree oats. We all love these flapjacks, maybe you will too...

Well hello there, it's been a while hasn't it? Really nice of you to stop by, considering the total lack of blog posts recently

It's the good old sugar free debacle that has dragged me back here. About two weeks ago, I got my knickers in quite a twist about it, after I saw a tweet by Red Magazine, offering a sugar free flapjack recipe.

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