Gluten Free Gingerbread Men.

I tend to have a lot of questions about being gluten free, such as why? how? what do I eat? Well, I do it purely for health reasons and not just for the sake of it. I'm not sure if I will have to eat gluten free forever or if things will improve as I get older. If you're thinking about starting a gluten free diet then I won't lie to you, it's tough. In the end though you adapt and it gets easier. I feel a lot better in myself! The worst part about being gluten free is eating at restaurants because there is usually nothing on the menu apart from salad, steak or gammon, which get boring after a while! However quite a few restaurants, such as Pizza Express, Yo Sushi!, Wagamama's etc have many items on their menu's which I can eat. 

I keep experimenting and trying new gluten free recipes. Yesterday,  I spent the day baking and decorating some gluten free gingerbread men. They sell quite a lot of biscuits in the supermarkets these days, but they always taste better when homemade. They turned out well and tasted great. You could hardly tell that they were gluten free! The recipe I used was from www.glutenfreestudentcookbook.co.uk which is worth checking out.

Their recipe includes:

50g Butter [soft]

75g Brown Sugar

1 Medium Egg

250g Plain Flour [gluten free] (easy to buy at supermarkets)

1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum (again, supermarkets)

1 teaspoon Baking Powder (make sure it's gluten free!)

1 teaspoon Ground Ginger

3 tablespoons of Golden Syrup

Full instructions are on their website. They were easy to make and my family loved them.

Book review. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.

This book could give you nightmares, it certainly made me want to sleep with the light on. However, it isn't your typical ghost story. There are no "Casper" looking ghosts, yet there is something odd and unexplainable happening at Hundreds Hall. The novel leaves the reader in confusion. Is there a supernatural force or are the characters suffering from madness and hysteria?

Sarah Waters writes the book well. It made me want to keep reading, I couldn't put it down. She creates suspense beautifully. I found myself wanting something to happen, as the build up throughout the story was fluent but slow. As the reader, I could tell that there was something mysterious happening in the hall. It isn't  proven that there is a supernatural force causing trouble, yet the strange occurrences add to the mystery.

We witness the events through the eyes of Dr Faraday, our first person narrator. Faraday's reliability as a narrator is questionable. For instance, he doesn't witness many of the events which happen. Instead, they are reported to him by the characters who live in the hall. Perhaps Faraday is suffering from madness, and the characters are trying to provoke him? Or, maybe there is a poltergeist? Faraday being a doctor means that he is a man of science. He persists that the supernatural doesn't exist, and everything that happens is just a coincidence. At the end of the novel, he seems to change his mind and doesn't know what to think. Can we therefore trust what we have been told, since he goes back on his word? Faraday is also in love with a female who lives in the Hall. Could he have pursued the events because of a broken heart, or is he seeing everything through love tainted eyes?

An unreliable narrator is just one of the gothic techniques which Waters uses. Hundreds Hall is a decayed manor which is beyond repair. Typically, it is isolated from the town, only surrounded by land. A classic gothic technique. It seems more likely that a ghost would haunt an old, isolated place with lots of history. At times, the reader grows frustrated with Faraday, as from the outside we can clearly see that the characters who live at the hall are in trouble, yet he often fails to do anything until after the incident has happened. Waters clearly knows how to leave the reader frustrated, with many questions unanswered at the end of the novel.

If you like gothic fiction, or just fancy a change from your normal taste, I'd recommend reading this book. See if you can come to a conclusion, Waters leaves the book so open to interpretation, that I think each reader will take away something different.

An update in pictures

Afternoon tea at Henry's in Lincoln is amazing. You get so much food for a little price! They also do a gluten free range. It's one of my favourites. Their cakes and scones are to die for.









My family celebrated and treated me to chocolate, flowers and a Pandora ring for getting a 2:1 degree. I have had many ups and downs at University, but I'm so happy with my final grade. I'm very excited to graduate in September!





My gluten-free chocolate cupcakes with Peanut butter frosting. They tasted amazing and sold out at a Vintage show I helped to cater. I've been experimenting with a lot of gluten-free cooking and these have been one of the best.







For my 21st birthday I went to London with my family and Tom. The best part of that trip was visiting the Harry Potter Studios. Being a huge Potter fan, it was an amazing experience. I was photographing everything. This life size Hogwarts model at the end of the tour was brilliant. You can see how big it is because we look so small!

It's been a year and counting...

...since I last wrote a post on my blog, and what a year it's been! I have now left my university at Lincoln and have moved back home. I'm incredibly happy to say that I will be graduating at Lincoln Cathedral in September with a 2:1 degree. It took a lot of hard work and effort but it has all paid off.
                      Aside from this, I have been to New York, Spain, Majorca and London. I have also turned 21 and celebrated it with my boyfriend, friends and family. You can probably tell that it has been a busy year! I am now on the job hunt and trying to decide what to do as a career. At the moment, I have no idea. I'm trying to keep busy as I'm not sure what to do with myself. I have been to the cinema, Meadowhall and have been bowling a lot over the last few weeks! Well, now I have the time I'm hoping to start writing some posts again. I have also started a gluten free diet (for health reasons, not just to follow the trend) so will be posting some recipes and reviews of gluten free products. For now, here's a few pictures to show what I've been up to. I will be posting more blog posts soon. :)