Just a quick note: apparently Genius brown bread is now available from the GFF Direct website. Here’s the link direct to the GFF Direct Genius Brown Bread page.

Because it is a fresh product with a short shelf life, they’ll only be sending it out once a week. That seems sensible…

Fancy 10% off gluten free food on Saturday?

Sally from Gluten Free Foods Direct contacted me to let me know that they are holding their 3rd Midsummer Madness event on Saturday 11 July 09. There will be lots of gluten free products to sample, including Gluten Out, Beiker and Brumby’s, and a gluten free BBQ from 11 am.

Even better, Sally is offering 10% off your purchases on that day – just print off this page, and take it with you to show a member of the team.

Regulars may remember that I’ve talked about GFF Direct before; they are one of the companies that regularly supply us with gluten free products via their online shop. I’ve never visited, but there is something rather wonderful about going somewhere where everything is gluten free…

GFF Direct are “Yorkshire’s Supermarket for Coeliacs” and can be found at Unit 5, Blackwood Hall Business Park, North Duffield, Selby, North Yorkshire, YO8 5DD (tel. no: 01757 289200).

Wait for a long time… then you get two at once.

Not only do we have the new gluten free fish fingers from a ‘normal’ fish finger provider – a break from tradition in itself – we now have two new products from a dedicated gluten free provider.

Dietary Specials have announced the arrival of their new wheat-free and gluten-free frozen pastry and sausage rolls. These should be available from Sainsbury stores across the country (UK, I’m afraid) and some people are already reporting that they’ve found them.

The press release overstates it a little bit, announcing that this gives coeliacs the chance to enjoy readymade pastry for the first time… this isn’t strictly true, as it has been possible to buy readymade frozen gluten free pastry from a range of different suppliers for a while now (online, from G-Free and Sussex Larder at Johnson’s Provisions or Gluten Free Foods Direct,for example, or on the high street from local providers such as our local shop Just For You) and we’ve been buying readymade gluten free sausage rolls from Lifestyle for years.

But it is true that this is the first time that readymade gluten free pastry and sausage rolls have been available in a national supermarket.

For some people – perhaps those who prefer to buy from supermarkets, those who don’t want to buy in the bulk quantities sometimes required by online providers, or those who don’t usually buy gluten-free, but need to cater for a visitor – this is a big step forward. Hurrah for Sainsbury and Dietary Specials!

My shopping list is getting ever longer – I need to put the keyboard down, stop working and go out to the shops…

… could you just make it dairy-free and vegan as well?

We’re going out on Saturday 4 July – no, not to celebrate the loss of the colonies! – and I’d agreed to provide a vegetarian dish (for me, and for any other vegetarians there) and a gluten free dish for my daughter.

Then the call: could you just make it dairy-free as well? Er… and vegan?

Luckily, being a resourceful blogger, I knew just what to do. Deciding to leave the vegetarian, gluten free lasagne in the freezer for another time, because the cheese sauce made it a no-no to serve to those free from dairy, never mind that the egg lasagne also made it a bad dish to serve to the vegan, I nipped straight across to Karina’s Kitchen, an amazing source of inspiration and delicious food.

This is the dish I’ve chosen for that select group of party people who are one or more of: dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian, vegan: a Butternut Chilli with Yeasted Quinoa Cornbread.

Do I have all the ingredients? No, not quite. Missing egg-replacer and a non-dairy milk, I then hopped over to Goodness Direct, who usually deliver very quickly.

Then I spotted this on the Goodness Direct blog: a recipe for gluten free, vegan doughnuts. Being vegan, they are acceptable for dairy free diets too.

Hurrah! Now I just need to pick up the non-speciality ingredients, and we can all go to the party!

I’ve just discovered this email lurking in the swamps of my inbox… Many apologies to Nicole, who sent me the information ages ago.

I’ll post her email in full, in an attempt to make up for my failure to spot it earlier, and to tell you about it. She says:

Hi,

I’m working on the Gluten Free camp at Manitou-Lin in Middleville Michigan. Our campers have their own kitchen that will be contamination safe and will have a food specialist overlooking the menu and meal preparations. Here is the information:
August 16 (Sunday) – 21 (Friday)

$450 is our grand camp fee for 2009, and $75 deposit is required to hold a spot. Checks made out to Camp Manitou-Lin sent to
Nicole VanZwoll
3614 Ridgefield Rd.
Lansing, MI 48906

The full amount (and paperwork) is due two weeks before camp, on August 2, 2009

Ages 7 – 14 (Co-ed) Each to their own cabins.

If you have questions about this, do e mail me at glutenfreemichigankidscamp[at]yahoo.com

GLUTEN FREE CAMP ROCKS at Camp Manitou-Lin!!
www.campmanitou-lin.org

This does look like fun. If you’re interested, please contact Nicole direct – I do hope it’s not too late to apply!