Oh dear, Zizzi
“Not the best” – this is how my very good friend would describe this day. This is fairly ‘hot off the press’ and I’m writing it frustrated. Frustrated with the experience but also frustrated with myself for not knowing better after years of dealing with allergies. But before I can tell this story, I need…
In Dorset? I’d recommend it to anyone…
Well that was quite a week… I think it’s fair to say that 2023 has been quite the year so far. The arrival of a third child and all of the madness that ensues; the highs and lows of thinking we’ve found a new house, loosing it, and then trying to sell our house again…
Podcast madness! It’s back.
Free From Humour is back for season 2. I would love to say that it’s finally become the professional, mature consumer peer review that its content deserves. But if anything this episode is more chaotic and bonkers than usual. The brief (I feel that’s a better word than excuse) was to try a select a…
Chocolate Easter Egg Review
I do realise that this is all in the wrong order in the sense that it’s now too late for you to stock up on Easter eggs for this year but I still think it’s worth letting you know what we thought of them in general, in terms of ‘free from’ chocolate. As discussed in…
Absence makes the heart grow fonder (for chocolate!)
Hello! Remember me: the dad of one who over-shares about allergic reactions and claims to blog about the challenges of feeding someone with multiple allergies but mostly just ponders on the beautiful futility of self-guided parenthood? It’s been a while! I kinda missed 2020. Not to be confused with the phrase “I miss 2020”, that…
Oh Ella…
Ella Woodward has been a (virtual) part of our lives for a couple of years now. She might not be a name you’ve heard of before but you may well have seen her blog, heard her podcast, or (most likely) seen her products in your supermarket. She is more commonly known as “Deliciously Ella” and…
A little light humour
In a week when it feels like the world as we know it is starting to fall apart, I appreciate that it can be difficult to get the tone right while persevering with some level of normality. This blog has never aimed to be a purely fact-based information share; the aim has always been to…
Vegan Cheese
I make no apologies for this but I’ve only gone and done another one… Free From Humour now has its second episode! Alan and I made the (frankly foolish) decision to review vegan cheeses. Lets be straight here: I can’t stand cheese and Alan hasn’t had real cheese for 15-odd years! We are the least…
Beautiful Italy
Piglet has been invited to a pizza making birthday party. Yep, that’s right… Little Piglet who only yesterday was a baby I used to rock to sleep in my arms is now getting invited to birthday parties. And not any old birthday parties; ones that involve making pizza! The location of this party is Beautiful…
Allergy Disclaimers
A bit of new experience for me: We spent much of Saturday in Guildford and planned to have dinner out before driving home to put Piglet to bed. We hadn’t planned to eat anywhere in particular but knew there were a few of our reliable regulars to fall back on. That said I didn’t really…
Flora spread
Just a point of interest rather than an entire blog post… Unless I can link in some tenuous back-story before I get to the main part. Or at least a pun… perhaps not. I fear I’ve spread myself too thinly on this story. (Groan…) Anyway, the point is that Flora have decided to only use…
Whipsnade Zoo and River Cottage
I’ve taken some time off over the Easter holidays to do some family stuff. A combination of basic life-admin to try and get some of the inexcusable must-do tasks completed but also some down time and quality family time. I’ll be honest, I struggled to ease myself into it. Wednesday I think I drove my…
Easter
Easter eggs are always a disappointment, historically. While dairy-free, soya-free chocolate bars are reasonably easy to find – limited items like Easter eggs are much less prevalent. Well, usually anyway… This year there seem to be a sudden surge in suitable options. I’ve managed to get my hands on a few different eggs already and…
Birdworld and Roast Dinners
Apologies for the delay in blog posts. Life in its usual time-consuming habit seems to have just got in the way. It’s funny, some weeks seem really productive while others seem to be just firefighting to get from one day to the next. I’m not complaining at anything other than my own lack of efficiency.…
The boy with the chilli sauce
On the back of one of the comments by Alex on my last blog post (link here, if you’re interested), I realise that I’ve turned a bit of a blind eye to the benefits of Asian food in being milk-free. In the interests of shameless self promotion, here is the guest blog about aforementioned Alex…
Coffee in Bath – The forum
This blog is in danger of becoming a tour of the UK’s independent coffee shops that sell Almond Milk lattes! But again, just after Christmas, we found ourselves in a city centre frantically searching Google for places to get a suitable hot drink. The city, this time, Bath. Our home for about 4 years when…
Pho Pho Pho! A Christmas Treat!
Well this is an interesting one. I’m hardly a diplomatic journalist but for the first time, blogging about allergy management has thrown up a potential conflict of interest! Let me explain… You may have seen my previous post about eating at Pho in Oxford. I really enjoyed the food but we had a slightly mixed…
Surprisingly Suitable – 16th Nov 2018
Custard. That famously thick, sweet, milk and cream based pudding. Obviously the most famous brand of custard powder would contain copious amounts of dairy. Right? Wrong! Welcome to my second list of everyday(ish) items that are, possibly surprisingly, suitable for those who need to avoid cow’s milk and soya from their diet. Bird’s Custard Powder…
Cote Brasserie – Westbourne Grove
Just a normal Wednesday evening: a pre-curling, French restaurant, work night out… I’m lucky that I work for a company that understands the benefits of team-bonding exercises as a boost to team morale. Not to the extent of ‘all expenses paid’ benders at ‘conferences’ in far flung corners of the world but occasional evenings out…
The Hive, Stow on the Wold
The need for coffee on a sore head was the driver of our trip to The Hive in Stow on the Wold last Sunday. The sore head a result of the wedding of my dear friend to his fiancee before he ups sticks and moves to live with her in Singapore. If there was an…