• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

Michelle's blog

Food allergy and food intolerance, freefrom foods, electrosensitivity, this and that...

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • FreeFrom Food Awards
  • Foods Matter
  • Walks & Gardens
  • Salon Music
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • FreeFrom Food Awards
  • Foods Matter
  • Walks & Gardens
  • Salon Music

Advance Christmas….

25/11/2010 //  by Michelle Berridale Johnson//  Leave a Comment

Hectic week, this week – so apologies for lack of posts! Christmas has come upon foodsmatter somewhat early!

First there was the launch of our new Christmas Special last week. This is the first of what we hope will be regular ‘specials’ on the site focusing on specific areas of freefrom food, personal/skin care or freefrom events. Planned for next year are  a ‘Focus on the Awards’, FreeFrom Italian food and ‘superfoods’. However, because Christmas was the first one, it took up a good deal more time to put together than, I trust, will be the case for future ones!!

Anyhow, I hope that you will find it useful – lots of freefrom gifts and hamper ideas, a great selection of freefrom personal and skin care gifts put together by skinsmatter.com’s deputy editor, Alex Gazzola, ideas on how to keep safe and reaction free from Micky Rose, some great Christmas recipes – and a Christmas Classified for all the other bits that you had forgotten!!

Then, on Tuesday, we had the first judging for the 2011 FreeFrom Food Awards – the Christmas category  – because we were concerned that by the time of the main judging in February, we would not be able to find any mince pies!  Very exciting this year as, instead of just having cakes, mince pies and Christmas puds, we also had stuffing mixes and Advent calendars!!

Traditionally, we have combined the Christmas category judging with an advance Christmas party for our judges – so we did again this year – and a very jolly affair it was too!  Turkey and all – so that we could try the stuffings in a proper bird as, slightly bizarrely  we thought, the stuffing instructions were all for stuffing balls rather than for stuffing into a bird.  We could only think that it must have something to do with health and safety (again…) and a concern over ensuring that the bird would be cooked through if it was filled with stuffing….

For what it is worth, we tried the stuffing both as balls and inside the bird – and they tasted much better inside the bird!  If you are concerned about your bird being cooked – go for the slow cook method. Overnight and most of the day in a low oven (100–120C) covered in rashers of bacon and  foil and sitting on a rack over a baking tray  half filled with water or stock to keep the bird moist. You can increase the heat for the last hour or so and remove the foil so that the skin gets lovely and golden.

Since we had around 25 people we served the turkey as a buffet so although gravy was in evidence we did not do the full range of veg. However, I did make a Puy lentil warm salad with fresh coriander which looked slightly like a ploughed field but which everyone raved about so much that I will be writing the recipe up for this weekend’s newsletter.  Make sure you sign up if you don’t already get it!!

Category: UncategorizedTag: Eczema/skin care, FreeFrom Food Awards, Freefrom food/recipes, Uncategorized

Previous Post: « Fear or being gluten-ed, or nut-ed or milk-ed…
Next Post: The SAD Season is Here »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Colliding with a new reality – the hazards of low vision
  • Call for adult allergy sufferers
  • The vegan/allergy labelling issue
  • A gluten free Christmas just could be delicious – not a penance!
  • A food fad won’t kill you – an allergy will

Search this blog

ARCHIVES

Blogroll

  • Allergy Insight
  • Better brains, naturally
  • For Ever FreeFrom
  • Free From (gluten)
  • Freefrom Food Awards
  • Gluten-free Mrs D
  • Natural Health Worldwide
  • Pure Health Clinic
  • Skins Matter
  • The Helminthic Therapy Wiki
  • Truly Gluten Free
  • What Allergy?

TOPICS

A food fad won’t kill you – an allergy will

There has been a predictable outcry in the allergy world this week’s in response to Rachel Johnson’s piece in Thursday’s Evening Standard on ‘dietary requirements’ and food fads. Being charitable, I am assuming that she has never suffered from or lived with someone with a food allergy. However, I do have some sympathy with her …

Bioplastics – a solution or part of the problem?

Everyday Plastic is a social enterprise group using accessible learning and publicity campaigns to reduce the amount of plastics used daily in our society. It was founded by its current director Daniel Webb who, having moved to Margate in Kent in 2016, was horrified to discover that there were no plastic recycling options on offer.  …

FreeFrom Christmas Awards – the Winners

Since they were launched two years ago the FreeFrom Christmas Awards have been a great success. And how lucky are ‘freefrom-ers’ these days!  From Advent calendars to gifts, party food to Christmas dinner, there is no longer any need for them to miss out. Indeed, the whole family can happily eat freefrom and never know …

Do not extradite Julian Assange to the US

Julian Assange is being sought by the current US administration for publishing US government documents which exposed war crimes and human rights abuses. The politically motivated charges represent an unprecedented attack on press freedom and the public’s right to know – seeking to criminalise basic journalistic activity. Assange is facing a 175-year sentence for publishing …

What to believe – applying critical thought

For the average citizen evaluating the claims made for cure all – or even improve all – health products and procedures has always been difficult. Not only is it an area in which we have minimal expertise but most of us have a vested interest in finding a miracle intervention that will solve our health …

Could wireless monitoring devices be killing racehorses?

Regular readers may remember that back in August last year I alerted you to a posting on Arthur Firstenberg’s Cellphone Task Force site about phone masts and bird flu. Could there be a connection between the fact that the two wildlife sites in Holland and Northern France which had suffered catastrophic bird flu deaths were …

Site Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Michelle's Blog · Michelle Berridale Johnson · Site design by DigitalJen·