I was in Derby the other week performing with Rock Choir, it was our last sing song before Christmas so a few of us decided to round everything off with some ice cream. I know mad eh? We had all put about fifty layers of clothes on to keep warm as it was a cold and wet December day and yet we still stopped off for ice cream. 

Well I couldn't help it really as all these lovely flavours were cast out in front of me looking all delicious so it was just too tempting not to just have a look anyway. The place was literally a step away from where we had been performing in Derby's Market Hall, Just Ice was the name of the place and there was a lovely lady beckoning us to try her ice cream. It was like the landlord of the inn showing Joseph and Mary the way to the stable to give birth to the baby Jesus.

Yes it was......come on my fellow brewsters go with me on this........imagine all those flavours of ice cream staring at you, the star of Rock Choir led us there. Alright I'll give the whole nativity thing a rest then but there were some Christmas flavours of ice cream. There was mince pie flavour, gingerbread, brandy snap, chocolate orange and even a vanilla ice cream with little nativity chocolate shape figures. 

There are dairy free options here and get this, there are also gluten free wafer cones.....how cool is that? I always get disappointed if I can't have an ice cream because of the cornet. Brilliant!! Sally Murray the co owner of this wonderland looked a bit forlorn as she had run out of mulled wine with was also on offer so we improvised. We decided to create a coffee floater, a black coffee with a lovely dollop of their Bailey's ice cream in and oh wow that was gorgeous. 

Now this tends to cool your coffee down gradually but if you like iced coffee then this starts of as a warm creamy coffee moment and finishes as an iced coffee so you get everything really but it was perfect. I love this place as it is a small family business who use natural ingredients and fair-trade vanilla, chocolate and sugar. They have 'free from' options which means we can all go and have an ice cream and if you are not sure which flavour to devour they offer little free tasters.

If you are in the Derby area then please go and support this lovely business. You can book them for an event too. You may have a wedding coming up or a charity event that would be able to offer something a little different. Everyone loves ice cream even in winter. 

You can find Just Ice at Units 7&8, Derby Market Hall, Tennant St, Derby DE1 2DB and they have a website here:
www.just-ice.org

So you can get all the information you need......go now and start your new year with ice cream.....it's the way to go!

Thank you for joining me today, please pop back again tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday but for now..........

Take care. 

I have been trying to bake a great gluten free cake and to be honest, only managed it a couple of times. I've always thought mine are never as good as teashop ones and could do with some improving.

Well during my son's catering class at college he had to bake a chocolate cake. My goodness this is the cake of all cakes and I'm so jealous that he just cracked it first time. It is gluten free, spongey, light and completely cakey. I don't go in for chocolate cake so much but this is so light and fluffy it would be a temptation for anyone.

So what did he do I hear you ask? What is the secret? Well according to his teacher it is the oil, it makes it spongey. Here is the recipe so you can give it a try. It is actually a recipe taken from the BBC Good Food website but we adapted the ingredients to make it gluten free. 

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6652/naughty-chocolate-fudge-cake

We used the Doves Farm self raising flour and instead of making the icing we whipped some cream up and used that instead. It tastes divine honestly. So a big well done to Mr T for making this gorgeous cake, I will definitely  be using this recipe from now on. In fact I like the BBC Good Food site as it has some really good recipes and they are easy to follow too. I don't like anything complicated when baking and they also have so many good gluten free treats to make. You can print the recipes off and even set up a shopping list for your ingredients, great eh?

I'm off to devour the rest of this cake. I will be back tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday but for now take care.  

It's a really popular time of the year when someone is bound to mention buffet or fuddle and how do we feel? Dread it or take a risk and suffer the consequences? Obviously the Coeliac's amongst us can't take any chances but the intolerant's may feel it's all too much trouble to insist on any gluten free at the table.

There is no excuse though as there is so much variety of party foods available now. Most supermarkets have introduced and great line of Christmas nibbles and treats for us to enjoy as well and no one needs to be left out. I bought a selection of food from Tesco's which I took along to a lovely Christmas fuddle today. A few of us Rock Choir members got together where we laughed, ate food, drank a bit of pop and yes we sang a little too. It was so nice and I have to say a big thank you to Rockie Lesley who was the hostess with the mostess, that lady knows how to make everyone feel so warmly welcome and she makes a top brew!!.

It was a 'bring something along' kind of do so I packed plenty of essentials as you can see, all the party favs. There is a lot more in stores too including puddings, mince pies so 'cinder free fromers' you may go to the ball. I always used to be a bit nervous of needing to have the gluten free food options but it is really important, as who wants to be poorly unnecessarily? I know I don't.

So forget about being beach body ready, we all attempt that later when Christmas is over. Well I'm still waiting for the beach to go with my body actually, not sure I care whether my body is ready for it I'd just like to see one.....a beach that is.  We just need to be buffet ready at this time and with a little help from the supermarket people we can. Yes it's a little more pricey than the full leaded food as I call it but you don't have to go too buffet crazy. If you are anything like us today, the chatter and laughter take over the eating so there were plenty of doggy bags going out. 

I love that expression.....the doggy bag, makes me chuckle. It's a term that was made popular in the 70's apparently and actually refers to a container or bag provided initially by a restaurant to take home left over food. The leftovers were meant to be given to a pet but I think most people end up tucking into the contents themselves at a later time. It's a good idea especially if you paid for a meal and don't want to waste anything, we've all had cold pizza in the morning for breakfast surely?

A great time was had and I feel great because I stuck to my diet, well not the Slimming World kind but the gluten free one. Although Rockie Di did bring along a Slimming World crustless quiche which I have to find the recipe for as it was blooming tasty so maybe I was a good girl after all. (yeah right).

You all have a good time and enjoy your festive buffets and meals. I will be back tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday but for now.....take care and stay warm.....there's a cold spell coming. 

Love and best wishes xx

Ok so it's not 'free from' completely, well of sugar that is or milk but 80% less sugar well I don't think that's too bad. It tastes ok as well. I'm always a bit iffy when it comes to low sugar or sugar free things as I think it's going to taste really awful but no, tastes like chocolate.

It may have sweeteners to compensate but it does state on the packaging that it contains 'naturally occurring sugars' so make of that as you will. I'm thinking if it says low sugar then is it low fat? Well it is 99 calories for two chunks and they are big chunks. The other thing is it isn't too moorish so you don't sit there and scoff the whole packet. That's what full sugar makes you do you see, it's like a drug, gets you hooked and then you've eaten it all and wave bye bye to those pounds you've lost in weight. 

If you are following Slimming World, two chunks of this will set you back 2.5 syns but like I say, I have had enough after those two chunks. If you don't fancy the milk chocolate there is a plain bar too. So where did I get this little sugarless treat?

Aldi me lovelies and for the bargain price of 79p a bar.....not bad eh? have this instead of a box of Celebrations or Roses it may be better for you. Who am I kidding giving you that sensible advice? I won't heed that advice myself. I'm off to stock up on the Christmas chocolates. Save this healthy stuff for the new year, make a resolution to diet and keep fit and then you can limit yourself to two chunks of this.

I do think it is nice so I would buy it with the rest of you in January but hey enjoy yourself for now.......IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!! 

You all take care and I will be back tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday.

Bye for now.