Ally turns 7

 This weekend we celebrated our Alasdair turning 7.

His big thing just now is Lego Nexo Knights and he was delighted to receive the Castle for his main present, as well as a few of the other sets from other family members.

Every year since he was born, the sun has shone on his birthday, and this year was no exception.

He knew his Lego sets were going to be a little too hard for him to build on his own, but thankfully his biggest brothers were only too happy to have an excuse to build some Lego. Purely to help him out of course.

We found some free printable Nexo Knight printables on the Lego website here, and made up some name cards, straws, popcorn boxes and bunting to have with our birthday tea.

Ally had asked if he could have a cake with the Nexo Knights on top. Which makes a big change for him as the last three years he has asked for a Captain America cake! I thought it was a bit challenging to make little icing Nexo Knights, even for my chief cake decorating assistants James and Calum, so asked if he would like us to try and get a Nexo Knights picture on icing and put that on instead. He thought that was a great idea and so I searched online for a company that would do this.

I came across Eat my Face, who print edible images on both rice paper and icing sheets. Ally chose the picture that he would like on the cake, I emailed it to them, and then a couple of days later the A4 icing sheet arrived. It was so straightforward and reasonably priced that I will definitely order from them again. They also do cupcake toppers and I've been thinking about what sort of things I could get printed out to put on cupcakes! The edible images are also gluten, dairy and egg free.

The cake was just a double batch of my trusty old gluten and dairy free Victoria Sandwich Cake, recipe here, baked in a large rectangular tin, sliced through the midde and filled with jam and buttercream, covered with fondant icing and then with the image stuck on top.

Had it not been such a hot day, and had I not wanted to spend as little time as possible indoors, then I probably would have added a bit of piped icing, or rolled fondant, around the edge of the image to finish it off properly, but as it was Ally just loved it anyway. 

And that's all that matters!

For his birthday treat he asked for his cousin Matthew to come round for the afternoon and to stay over for a sleepover.

After spending some time in the paddling pool and getting thoroughly soaked, the birthday boy, his brothers and cousin were kept busy with Nexo Knight battles.

Then, in the evening they settled down with some popcorn and watched the latest Star Wars movie.

I'm a great believer that birthdays don't need to be fancy, expensive affairs.
And I think Ally agrees with me. He said it was his best birthday ever!

May

May is always a bit of a funny month, I think.
We have it in our heads that it is going to be a lovely warm month, gently getting us used to the sunny summer that is just around the corner. In reality, it is often cold and wet, but with just enough warm sunny days to keep that hope of summer alive!
This May hasn't been so bad weather-wise, but has still been nothing like the kind of weather I always imagine May will bring.
Still, although I am way behind where I would like to be with planting things in the garden, it has been great to spend a large part of this month enjoying the outdoors again after a disappointing spring.
David (10) and Ally (6) have planted their sunflower seeds and are having a competition to see who can grow the tallest one.

Champion sunflowers are still a long way off though, as the little seedlings are only just popping their heads through the soil.

I haven't managed to plant my courgette, spinach or salad seeds yet, but I have planted out some beautiful bargain plants I got at Aldi.

I especially love this purple Clematis.

My mum bought Fraser (2) his own little gardening set so that he can help out too!

We have had lovely sunny, eat ice cream in the garden days...

...and we have had play in the muddy puddles in between the torrential rain shower days.

We have enjoyed our walks in the woods beside the house, where we looked for signs of Spring.

Calum (13) has been keeping up with his wildlife photography.

He has a folder full of photos that he is trying to narrow down to just a few to enter into the local show when we go home to my parents' in the summer!

May is also the month of Monday holidays, this May there were three Monday holidays from school - as well as a Tuesday holiday and a Thursday off for the Scottish election!

On one of those Monday holidays we headed out with the boys' cousins, my sister in law and my mum, to enjoy a walk and a picnic in a country park nearby.

Fraser and his little cousin managed to play around in the middle of their big brothers playing a game of football, without getting stood on or tripped over!

May saw us enjoying outdoor drinks at the garden centre. Outdoors, and warm too!

Finally, May is also the month of exams, and this year James (16) has been sitting his first major ones. He is sitting his National 5s, which are the new name for Standard Grades, and the equivalent to GCSEs in England and Wales.

He has been off on study leave for the whole month while he prepares for his 8 subjects. 5 are done, 3 to go.

Fraser has loved having his biggest brother at home throughout the day.

He enjoyed having him come along to do the food shopping with us on one of his breaks, and the wee trip to the coffee shop there.

But one of the best things about having his biggest brother home, is the amazing train tracks he can build for him!

He has one more week of study leave left and then it's back to school again. After that it's only around 4 more weeks and the summer holidays are here!

How has everyone else's May been? Are you counting down the days to the summer holidays yet? We haven't started counting down the days yet, but I can't believe they are just around the corner. Roll on those lazy days!

Recipe of the Week - Pear, Raspberry & Orange Cake {Wheat & Dairy Free}

Back in the autumn my mum was asked to take part in filming a few recipes for a Gaelic Cookery programme that is shown on BBC Alba.

The first couple of recipes were shown a couple of weeks ago, and you can watch the episode here if you want to see them.

Her two chosen recipes were: something with duck - I'm really not that keen on duck so I didn't pay that much attention to that one! - and this Pear & Raspberry cake.

I've adapted it to make it safe for our free from boys and also think that there needs to be mention of orange in the title as the orange flavour comes through quite strongly too.

The first week I made this we had it for pudding after dinner one evening, and it was so popular that I was asked to make another one for pudding a few nights later. Which was fine, as the recipe only uses half a tin of pears and it meant I could use up the rest of the pears!

Since it proved so popular in our house, and it is always popular whenever my mum makes it too, I thought it only fair to share a written down version of the cake.

It can be eaten warm as pudding with ice cream or cold with a cup of tea or coffee.

You will need:

2 eggs

6oz sugar + an extra 2 tsp

3oz dairy free margarine

75ml oat milk (or your own choice of suitable dairy free milk)

5oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

1 orange, zested

1 tsp baking powder

1 tin pear halves, you will need about three pear halves, sliced

about 100g raspberries, fresh or frozen

-Preheat the oven to 180C and line a square baking tin.

-Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

-Meanwhile, melt the margarine and milk in a pan.

-Cool just a little bit before pouring onto the eggs & sugar mix, still whisking.

-Add the flour, orange zest and baking powder and then fold in gently so that you don't knock out all the air you have whisked into the eggs. It is more like a batter mixture than a cake mixture so don't be alarmed if you think it looks thinner than a usual cake mix!

-Pour into your cake tin and then arrange the sliced pears in rows on top of the mixture. They will sink in! Then dot the raspberries around the mixture too.

-Sprinkle the extra 2tsp of sugar over the top and bake for around 20-25 minutes.

Makings - Scheepjes CAL Weeks 1 & 2

The Scheepjes Crochet Along (CAL) began two weeks ago. For the next 14 weeks there will be a pattern released each week - the first 12 weeks or so the patterns will be for squares and the final couple of weeks will be all about the joining and border.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have chosen the 'Dance in the Sea' colourway for the blanket as it reminds me of the beaches back home.

I also mentioned that I didn't have any illusions about managing to keep up with the weekly releases, as there are four squares to be made each week. I did, however, promise myself that I will try not to fall more than 1 or 2 weeks behind.

So, since the last couple of weeks have been quite busy - with me working making my Gaelic cards for a craft table at our local Mod a couple of Saturdays ago, and then my poor husband going down with Pneumonia around the same time, although he didn't get the official diagnosis until last week - it wasn't really until this past weekend that I was really able to get started on my CAL.

This is where I'm at now.

Week 1 squares are completed and I'm now on the second of the week 2 squares.

The first square was quite straightforward, and includes a popcorn stitch motif in the middle.

Week 2 is a solid square of star stitch, a really fast working and hypnotic stitch!

I do love the shade of this green. It reminds me of sea glass.

This is my first time using Scheepjes Colour Crafter yarn, their equivalent and competitor to my usual DK yarn Stylecraft Special DK. I've seen many crocheters who are taking part in this CAL saying how much they love the Scheepjes yarn and prefer it to the Stylecraft. It is really lovely and soft, but I'm not sure if I prefer it to the Stylecraft yet. I'm going to reserve my judgement until I've made quite a few more squares, and maybe even until I see how the finished blanket feels.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I am on a mission to finish at least one more of my week 2 squares before the Week 3 one is released tomorrow!

Free From Favourites

This week is Allergy Awareness Week here in the UK. I've been meaning to share a post about some of our favourite free from buys for a while now and so this seemed like a perfect week to finally do so!
Since we first started buying Free From foods, around 13 years ago when we first found out what Calum's allergies were, I have noticed a huge improvement in the range of free from products around. The gluten free market is continually growing, and the taste of the products has come a long way too. If you are catering for more than one allergy though, the choice is quite a bit smaller. I'm just glad that the boys can eat eggs in baked products otherwise their choices would be tiny!
As a quick recap, we have one boy with a nut, lentil, and egg allergy, which seems a breeze to manage compared to the three boys with dairy, wheat, egg and nut allergies. We also have one boy who can, and does, eat anything and everything that he wants! All four egg allergies are the type that allow them to eat a cake or biscuit containing egg, but they can't eat a mainly egg product - scrambled egg, meringue, quiche etc - or touch raw eggs.
They all have allergies as opposed to intolerances.
They don't just avoid these foods to improve the condition of their eczema, if only it were that simple!
And it's not OK for them to have something containing just a little bit of an allergen, as some people seem to think. The tiniest amount of anything they are allergic to will cause them to complain that their throat feels funny, their mouths start to puff up and they break out in hives anywhere on their body.
It's far from a health fad, and I seriously object to the perceived opinion of allergy parents as slightly paranoid and over protective. If you have seen your child wheezing, swelling up and becoming distressed after eating something that you were assured was safe then you certainly wouldn't think so!
Anyway, onto the foods.
A long time favourite of the dairy free boys is this Swedish Glace Dairy Free Ice Cream. Our local supermarket only sells the vanilla flavour, but it is also available in chocolate or raspberry flavours too. The boys have tried the other favours but Vanilla remains their favourite, thankfully! It tastes really nice, with a real vanilla flavour, and is a perfectly good substitute for 'normal' ice cream.

 A few months ago we also found that Swedish Glace had started making an ice lolly, similar to a Magnum, with Strawberry Ice Cream surrounded by a layer of chocolate. The boys absolutely LOVE these. The only trouble is that they are sold in packs of 5, and 5 into 3 does not divide very evenly!

Sticking with the sweet theme, one of Ally's favourite treats is a slice of Lazy Day Foods Millionaire's Shortbread. These are not only dairy and gluten free but also egg free too. I bake most of the cakes and biscuits for the allergy boys but it's great to have something that tastes as good as this as an option to have in the cupboard.

He and Fraser are also rather partial to the Lazy Days Rocky Road and Tiffin, and I rather like their chocolate orange slice.

Calum, however, has more particular tastes and doesn't like any sort of shortbread based product. He also despises raisins and so that rules out Millionaires Shortbread, Rocky Road and Tiffin!

He does like these Angelic Cookies though, as do the other two boys. We first discovered Angelic Gluten Free at the Royal Highland Show a few years ago. They had a stall with samples of their cookies, which we tried and loved. Everyone in our house, including the non allergy boys, who are only allowed to have one very rarely, loves the Orange Chocolate ones the most. But the Cranberry ones come a close second. I haven't been able to find these in a shop near us and so have to buy them online instead, or stock up when we visit my parents!

Moving away from the sweet stuff now, and I should say that I make no apology for starting with it. I'm sure that most people who have to avoid allergens will tell you that it's the sweet things that are harder to replace.

That and bread.

Gluten free bread is one thing that has really come a long way since we had to first start buying it. Mostly I tend to buy Sainsbury's own brand free from bread. Ally and Fraser both enjoy eating it, either as a sandwich or as toast. And it's not as expensive as other brands either! Calum, however, much prefers to eat the Newburn Bakehouse bread. I have to agree that it does have a much better texture, and more 'normal' feel to it than the supermarket bread, even if it is more expensive.

Calum doesn't like to eat sandwiches though, and instead prefers to take one of the Newburn Bakehouse sandwich thins in his packed lunch instead. Every single day he has one of these with tuna on it for lunch. He's very much a creature of habit that boy.

Newburn Bakehouse also do a lovely gluten & dairy free wrap that the boys have when we are having Fajitas for dinner. Before these were available I used to have to make my own wraps for fajitas!

We have also found that Newburn Bakehouse do a very good Artisan loaf, which the boys love to have with soup. It really does taste and look as much like a 'real' loaf as any I have ever seen.

The two holy grails of free from baking, that I have either never tried making, or had any success with are bread and puff pastry. So I was delighted a couple of years ago when Genius brought out their frozen puff pastry. If you've read my blog for any length of time you will have seen how Steak Pie is one of the non- gluten free boys' favourite dinners. Whenever I made it in the past I would cook all the meat in the slow cooker and then separate it into two portions. On one of these I would add my own rough puff pastry. The other portion I would serve just as a stew for the gluten free boys. Since we discovered Genius pastry I can now make the gluten free portion into a steak pie too.

Genius also do a shortcrust pastry.

                     

            

When I make our steak pie I use Beef Bisto Best to thicken and help flavour the gravy. I also use it to make gravy for roast beef, flavour our mince and tatties/cottage pie and use the Chicken Flavour for gravy for our roast chicken.

It's not an official free from food, but the beef and chicken flavours are both wheat and dairy free. Other flavours are not though, so do check the ingredients, and definitely do not use ordinary Bisto instead of Bisto Best as it is not wheat free.

For those Saturday nights when I really want a night off in the kitchen, Genius have a perfect solution in their ready made steak or chicken pies. While hubby and I enjoy something ready made, my current favourite being a Sainsburys boxed Thai meal, the two boys who can have it enjoy some pizza, and the three gluten & dairy free boys will always choose these Genius pies. Ally and Fraser like the chicken pies, and Calum loves the steak pies.

Finally, and still with Genius, Calum's current Saturday morning breakfast favourite is a warmed Genius Pain au Chocolate. They are lovely and flaky, with plenty gooey warm chocolate inside them. These are all products that we have discovered over the last few years and that are regulars in our cupboards at home. We weren't asked to review any of them and their popularity in our house is purely down to the choices of the free from boys.
I hope our wee selection will be helpful to someone, either starting out on a free from diet, or who may have a free from friend and have no idea what to feed them!
Like I mentioned at the start, it's great that free from foods have come such a long way in recent years. Now if only they could find a way to reduce their costs and make them a bit less expensive then that would be perfect!