Creature From The Black Lagoon

Hello my lovelies! Tis I, back from the depths of blogging hiatus! Thank-you to those who have stuck around to see me blog another day and hello to any new readers!

Of course my absence, as always, can be blamed on none other than the No.1 culprit The Other Bowel Problems.
The weekend before last I was back in A&E again, clutching my poor tummy and babbling incoherently in my state of dehydrated delirium. Not how I'd usually like to spend my weekends, no matter how much morphine is involved. A nice nurse tried to conjure up a vein from the abyss of my arm and I was finally rehydrated and medicated up to the eyeballs.
It always seems that whenever I'm in hospital I'm only ever designated the young, good looking male doctors. Which on the face of it wouldn't be too bad, if my ailments were of the non embarrassing variety.
After reeling of every intimate detail of my bowels to a dishy A&E doctor I was then wheeled round to the Emergency Assessment Unit (EAU) where I then had to repeat the same conversation again with another handsome specimen, who I could hear outside at the nurses station snapping on a pair of sterile gloves while I lay on a sweat box of a hospital bed imagining what fresh hell could be about to occur that entailed the wearing of sterile gloves.
However I managed to side step the bum exam he intended for me by protesting I'd already been violated in A&E. Which I hadn't, but there was a flying bacon's chance I was got to let dishy doc numero deux anywhere near the junk on my trunk.
Anyone who has been in hospital will tell you its not the restful place it proclaims to be. When your not having your veins sized up, your being x-rayed, having your Ob's taken or being interrogated by all and sundry. Besides all this there is always plenty to keep you  awake, which was especially true of  my ward that night.
The lady in the bay next to mine, although perfectly able to walk seemed to enjoy punishing the nursing staff by being completely unco-operative and unhelpful every time she needed the commode 'I need a tinkle, NURRRRSEEE!', thus forcing the tiny Filipino staff nurse and equally dinky HCA to awkwardly maneuver her onto the bog on wheels.
Even after all this palaver she still manage to tiddle on the floor, which escaped the nurses notice up until the moment when putting the lady back in bed she waded through the puddle, booming in a voice that was surprisingly loud for someone the size of a Polly Pocket 'Oh darling, look! LOOK! You peed on the floor! Bed pan for you next time!'. 
I then forced myself to stay awake during ward rounds,which is my favourite part of the hospital day (after painkiller time) as you get to eavesdrop and find out whats wrong with everyone else on the ward. Not as if its hard really, since a peice of material pulled round a hospital bed hardly keeps people from being unable to hear whats going on behind it.
I was also pleased that I was awake to witness the effeminate cleaner mopping the floor with one hand on his hip humming 'I Want To Break Free' by Queen.

You couldn't make this stuff up.

Despite all this hospital high jinx, I managed to escape and have been moaning and bitching in the comfort of my own home ever since.
I've got to be honest and say that I've been finding my illness very hard to cope with recently, but I've devised a battle plan for my blog which will hopefully mean that I will be posting much more regularly and thus help to distract myself from feeling cruddy.
The Other Bowel Problems have dominated my life far too much recently and I've had to cancel some dates which have been really important to me, including one of my oldest friends Liz's wedding, which I was heartbroken to miss.
It annoys the crap out of me that my illness dictates so much of my life, and its all very well for people on the outside looking in to say 'well you shouldn't let it dictate your life' but with all the will in the world I cannot make my body behave just because I want it too.

Anyway. I have tonnes of recipes and interviews and all sorts of nice things in the the pipeline for you lovely lot.
Just starting uni? Head on over to Saara's blog The Gluten Free Student Cookbook for tips, advice and recipes on being a Coeliac student. Saara's lovely, and I've had a chance to get to know her a bit better through Twitter and she's a diamond so go check out her blog.
Skye posted an absolutely yummy looking cake recipe on her blog at the weekend, which I cannot wait to try. Skye has been an amazing friend to me over the past year and now that shes moved to Brighton I can't wait to spend some time with her.

Buckets of peppermint tea in my favourite mug have been keeping me going.

Filling in my pretty recipe file that Steve's mum bought me for my birthday this year.

My Dad and I are in love with Delicious mag at the moment

The super cute cupcake cross stitch that Skye sent me

Cosy new winter jammies.

You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth

Afternoon my lovers!
And what a lovely sunny afternoon it is, not that I'd know since I don't leave the house for anything less than an emergency.
Yet again The Other Bowel Problems and related ball aches have struck me down and hindered the blogging process, I won't go into it all because your probably more fed up of hearing about my ruddy  Bowel Prob's than I am about having them. I basically started on two new tablets last week and one was torture, after a phone call to my consultant and after much pleading and crying (me not him) we (I) decided that I would stop taking said medication. Which is probably best for everyone involved since I was a living breathing nightmare for the short time I was on said tablets.
Anyway.
Did anyone hear about 'Gluten-Gate' aka the 'Demetre Disaster' aka The Royal Muck Up That was Antony Demetre Appearance On Saturday Kitchen?
The general gist as I understand it is Anthony Demetre chef extraordinaire (ahem) appeared on Saturday Kitchen (cooking show here in England for any over sea's folk) and took the opportunity to say that since he became Coeliac he 'eats pizza and pasta every 3 months' because otherwise his 'body rejects it'. Now I won't go into how misleading his comments are  or how irresponsible what he said was or how he failed to issue a satisfactory statement complete with apology because theres only so many ways I can express my anger and irritation without resorting to losing my rag and throwing some unsavoury language about the place.
But.
I will say this...(waves goodbye to dream of gluten-free baking show on the BBC)
The BBC had a responsibility to issue a statement and a apology to the viewers of Saturday Kitchen and also the Coeliac community due to the sensitive nature of the comments made regarding a serious disease and the misleading comments that were made about lifestyle regarding said disease.
Gluten Free Guerrilla's emailed the BBC on three occasions only to receive wishy washy responses and NO formal apology (the BBC also failed to issue any apology on the show despite complaints and outrage)
What made the situation even more frustrating was that Demetre's comments suggested that many Coeliac's could probably get away with the odd bit of gluten here and there such as he does, as he's 'one of the lucky ones' dontcha know! That statement is maddeningly confusing for coeliacs, especially those newly diagnosed, but also totally misleading for everyone else. Imagine turning up to your friends house for dinner and discovering they'd ordered pizza with the works because 'Anthony Demetre said it would be OK to have a sneaky bit of gluten every now and then' (my words not his). It's hard enough trying to impress upon people how serious the condition is without someone totally down playing what can be a very debilitating illness.
Obviously he's a chef not a doctor but people in the public eye have a responsibility to the general public to be careful about not making misleading or false statements such as the ones made on Saturday Kitchen and the BBC should have made an immediate apology and clarified the comments as false.
Anyway. I've said my piece, and made a complaint to Ofcom and the BBC. If you want to hear more on the story visit Gluten Free Guerrillas where you can see Demetre's agents statement and also the emails from the BBC to the Guerrilla's.
Did everyone have a good Easter? My mum and I spent 40 fraught minutes in the town on Good Friday shopping for things for her and my dads trip to Rome in May. The rest of the weekend was spent sorting and tidying and trying to sleep off the after effects of the poison, sorry, tablets.

Pretty sparkly egg from my Mama

Spring flowers

Gluten-Free Cupcake from The Swallow Bakery

My super cute and super bonkers cat Poppy asleep on top of the microwave

Pretty birthday wrap in a cheapo sainsburys frame, cute no?

Easter card

I haven't done much baking or cooking lately or though I have a few bake dated recipes which I'm

popping up soon. 

Today's recipe is from Delicious. If you don't read Delicious you have to get your hands on a copy, I love it. That and Sainsbury's food magazine are my favourites and I always find lots of ideas and the recipes don't often need much tweaking to make them gluten-free. 

I know I promised a give away before Christmas and I haven't forgotten, I'm going to do it when I get to 100 followers, that will give me time to accumulate a few lovely bits and bobs for the prize. 

My dad is doing a sponsored walk on the 12th of June in aid of Children's Hospices UK and Breast Cancer Campaign, it's a bit of a trek-a good 20 miles from Teddington Lock to the London Eye . 

I'm dead proud of him because it's not been long since his heart scare thing and him then being diagnosed with Angina so he's doing really well bless him. If you would be interested in sponsoring him email me at thekatieboobaker@hotmail.co.uk.

Sass & Belle

It's no secret that I'm a bit of a slut where dotcomgiftshop is concerned, but recently my gal pal Sophie introduced me to the oh-so-cute Sass&Belle...and a new obsession has been born (god help Mr Bank Manager).
Don't believe me? Check out this too-cute-for-words bits and bobs yourself. They're perfect little pressies for Easter (or for you, just because your awesome).

'Mama's cooking up a cheery piiiee!'...so pretty pinny

For those 'I.Just.Can't.Be.Arsed.You.Do.It' days

great for pegging recipes or notes up on your noticeboard!

 For keeping your cookbooks in order.

Are you sensing a theme here?

Mushroom madness...salt and pepper shakers.

Not very baking related I know,but adorable none the less.

Hang up your utensils (y'know..your spatulas and what not)

Magnetic noticeboard, pop up your recipes,memos or family pics.

Who doesn't love a bit of bunting?

Gluten-free toast only!

Lovely Lemon Macarons (Are you on Team Macaron?)

 So here we go a lovely gluten free macaroon recipe you can get your teeth into. Make sure you make these on a day when you have no appointments/things to do/people to see/sleep to be had. The times I've had to ring up and cancel appointments because my macaron's aren't ready..
The original recipe is gluten-free anyway, but I couldn't resist twiddling with the recipe and changing the lemon curd around so I could use my own recipe for it.

  
Ingredients

• 2 Large eggs (I always use free range, chickens have feelings to y'know)
• 60g Ground almonds
• 110g Confectioners sugar  (icing sugar to you and me)
• 20g Superfine white sugar
• 1 Tbsp of lemon juice
• Yellow food colouring (optional)

For the lemon curd

• 50g Butter
• 1 Large egg
• 2 Heaped tbsp of cornflour or potato flour
• Zest and juice of a nice big chunky lemon
• 50g Caster sugar

Extras

• Saucepan
• Piping bag and nozzles
• Hand whisk

Method

• Make your lemon curd first then you can let it cool and forget about it until you need it later. Whisk the egg in a small pan, add the rest of the ingredients and whisk over a medium heat for about 3-4 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. When it reaches this stage turn the heat down to the lowest heat and simmer for about a minute. Take off the heat and let it cool and then pop in the fridge.
• Pop the oven up to gas mark 5. You need to finely grind your almonds and icing sugar together, so whack them in a blender together and whizz up until the mixture is fine enough to strain. Next strain over a baking tray lined with parchment and cook for 5-7 minutes and take it out to cool.
• Separate your eggs and plop the whites in a big bowl and whisk into peaks with your hand whisk or by hand if your Iron Man. 
• Gradually add the superfine sugar a bit at a time whilst still whisking on a fairly fast speed. At this stage you can add your lemon juice and your food colouring if you want to add it, it just makes the mixture nice and yellow and lemony looking.Obviously.
• Fold your cooled almond and sugar mixture into the egg white mix until nicely combined.
• Spoon the mixture into your icing bag (you'll need a fairly wide nozzle, big enough to make small(ish) circles). Pipe your macarons mix onto a baking sheet with fresh parchment and let it stand for an hour somewhere nice and dry away from tiny hands, nosey boyfriends and clumsy cats, until the macarons have started to form a crust on the tops.
• Pop in the oven for 10-12minutes. Once cooked let them cool and then gently (and I mean gently because after all this faffing your going to scream the house down if you break them by being a clumsy oaf) remove them from the tray and leave to cool completely on a baking tray.
• Next you can sandwich the macarons together with the lemon curd you made about 36 hours ago.  Spread the curd carefully over a macaroon and sandwich another on top. Pop them in the fridge for another hour before you dish them out to family and friends. Cupcakes not looking so bad now, huh?

Team Cupcake

So. The new kid on the block is the Macaron. This year will be the year the Macaron will trounce the Cupcake and blow the Whoopie out of the water.
Apparently.
They are defiantly what I'd call the 'posh gals cupcake'. While they're pretty and all that jazz I'm not entirely sure (OK, pretty much certain) that they will ever replace Cupcakes in my affections, plus having made them myself I can honestly say that in terms of taste they ain't got nothing on the humble Cupcake.
To me the Cupcake is like Jennifer Aniston..reliable, lovely and likeable..the girl next door of baked goods. Then theres the Macaron. The Macaron is like Angelina Jolie..an overated puff of air.
In the case of the Cupcake Vs Macaron, I would argue that not only is the cupcake an easy bake but its always a crowd pleaser, and while a Macaron looks pretty on a plate it's nothing short of a ball ache to make (oooo that rhymes!).
I know, I know, the cupcake is more overexposed that Katie Prices love life (almost) but theres something so simple, so yummy and so comforting about the beloved cupcake (I just a searched for team cupcake t-shirts and found loads..as if I'd actually wear one..I so would).
Anyway.
Obviously I would in no way want to influence your opinion in this matter one way or another (cupcake, cupcake, cupcake, cupcake, cupcake) so today's recipe is for macarons. Exciting,no?
So you can all decide for yourselves which is better. While your doing that I'll just be over here...stuffing my face with cupcakes...