VanessaBerman

It's amazing in cold natural yoghurt - a bit of warmth and sweetness in that white cold sour.... yum yum. just wish i could eat yoghurt more often but it gives me headaches... can still eat the ginger, though, so all is well!

It's coming, it's finally coming.......... Our house is under construction at the moment! They removed the big pillar from the middle of the room - my fiance says it looks cool but really scary - there are 8 steel girders holding up the back of the house until they fit the rsj that will do the job permanently. Have taken loads of 'before' pictures, and some 'in-betweens', so once it's all done in a few weeks I'll have my pretty house to brag about. Can't wait. Just goes to show that a bit of persistence goes a long way - after our builder pulled out on us at the 11th hour in August/September we got back on the horse and started looking again and found a really great guy who could fit us in almost straight away. So exciting. Keep those fingers crossed for us. Vx

Will definitely be posting when ours eventually gets done... have already taken the 'before' pics... we had a great trip to sicily, tonnes of amazing food, and a real escape. now back to interviewing new builders!

There's a great book here in Ireland called 'what to eat when you can't eat anything' written by chupi and (i can't remember her brother's name) sweetman. you should be able to get it on amazon - .co.uk if not .com, or i can send it to you if you are stuck. there are some great recipes for spelt produce. also darina allen who is ireland's culinary queen produced a book a year or 2 ago called healthy gluten-free eating which is brilliant - i have made loads from it even though i am quite happy with gluten, but not dairy or eggs. coeliac disease is very common here in ireland, something to do with the mix of viking and celt in our genetic makeup, so people are quite aware of it here. i have to say that i don't find the egg thing a problem, and if you are eating fresh foods the dairy is fine too, just takes getting used to. like many things it's often a case of a change of mindset and that's the hardest thing in the world to change. good luck with it!

Oh my goodness that kitchen looks like absolute heaven. I am so jealous. So remember how I said that the work was due to start next Monday on our kitchen and bathroom? Yesterday (Wednesday) our builder pulled out with a 4 month job for a semi-state client, leaving us in the lurch. Yes, yesterday, 5 days before work was due to start. We have moved out all our belongings and food and furniture, we have recycled our fridge, and more importantly we had built our hopes up so high, and finally started thinking that it might actually happen after a year of planning. Back to square 1 looking for builders to quote. I give up - we're picking up and going off for a week to Sicily to forget about it all.

Thanks for all your good wishes, guys... I'll let you know the progress. vx

There's nothing like good old tea and toast, though... And I'm talking any meal here... The smell of the toast reminds me of both my mother and my grandmother, that warm, homely smell that instantly sets my stomach grumbling. Spread with bitter marmalade, honey, or best of all my mum's home-made damson jam (a perfect mixture of the best of marmalade and honey, sweet AND sour all at once!). And the tea - earl grey or lady grey, no milk, made properly with really boiling water and not stewed too long. Or if there's no 'fancy' tea, normal tea with a small teaspoonful of sugar and a slice of lemon. There's a tiny cafe here in Dublin called Maison des Gourmets - they mainly do take-away breads and tarts, but it's bliss in the mornings if you get one of their tables outside, on a quiet pedestrian street, where the waitress brings you your toasted sourdough, and calls you 'Madame' - just as though you were in Paris... ... aah, well we can all dream, can't we?!

The only problem with going for deeper/wider countertops is that often you will have to pay over the odds for a non-standard size...

Ugh... I'm just about to start the renovations on my kitchen... it's a nightmare, I hate it. One of these days I will have a kitchen I can cook in but in the meantime each decision is driving me crazy - there seem to be knock-on implications for everything we do... And our budget is stretched to its absolute max. I'll post pix when it's done, ie when the builders manage to fit in a huge, spacious, well-equipped kitchen into my tiny house. Because they can do that kind of magic. Work is scheduled to start Monday week, and should be done 4 weeks after that. Everybody cross your fingers for us!