Buns in the Oven

And I mean real buns. There is a reason for my lack of food blogs at the mo. My slightly obsessive need for order has kicked in and everything I've been cooking has immediately gone into cold storage so that Gav and I can enjoy every second with 'Thumper' when he/she arrives... no cooking required.

I digress, though. Back to buns. A while ago, I found a hot cross bun recipe by Teri Gruss that worked brilliantly, so I decided to try a savoury version. They weren't half bad!

G-free Breakfast Buns

½ cup g-free bread flour

¼ cup buckwheat flour

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup arrowroot starch

1 tblsp instant yeast

1½ tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp salt

2 beaten eggs

¾ cup milk + 3 tsp (use a non dairy alternative if you need to)

2 tbsp oil

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vinegar

Warm up the oven to about 50C. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs and sugar in a jug and add the milk, oil and vinegar. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Scoop out the mixture and, using slightly damp hands, shape it into small buns (makes about 8) on a greased baking tray. Turn the oven off and leave the tray in the oven for an hour to rise. Then crank up the oven to 190C, and put a tray of water in the bottom, which helps with g-free baking, and bake the buns for about 20 minutes, till golden. Serve slightly toasted with scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and chives fresh from the garden.

Note: If pregnant, zap that smoked salmon in the microwave for a few seconds. Raw salmon is a no no.

Pregnancy pickle

No tuna, no prawns, no soft cheese, no sushi, no Caesar sauce, no pâté, no vino, and don't do deli meat... The list of food to steer clear of while you have a bun in the oven is enough to warrant an afternoon nap once you've reached the end of it. I'm sure I've put an extra frown line in my forehead examining cheddar and yoghurt labels to make sure they're good to go.

The wonderful thing, though, is that this all makes you so much more aware of what passes your lips, knowing that it's not just for you. Being inspired to whip up super-healthy snacks in between nausea and naps, however, is a different story. So I thought I may as well share some of the things I come up with in a moment of craving (it really is a good source of creativity).

The first being good old toast. Let's face it, it's one of the staple foods of anyone who's ever suffered from morning, afternoon or evening sickness. Now that I've finally got the hang of baking gluten-free bread (Dove's g-free bread flour works brilliantly), things are starting to get interesting.

One thing I've really missed is hot-buttered raisin bread, and we finally had some this weekend - with walnuts and flax seeds thrown in for good measure.

Raisin, Walnut and Flax Seed Bread

400g g-free bread flour

10g milled flax seed (one way to get those Omega-3s in)

½ tsp salt

2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tbsp sugar or date syrup

325ml warm milk (use soya or rice milk if you can't have dairy)

2 eggs

1 tsp vinegar (I use cider vinegar)

6 tblsp oil

75g chopped walnuts

70g mix of raisins and sultanas

Mix the flour, flax, salt, yeast and bicarb together. In a large bowl mix the warm milk and sugar/syrup together, then beat in the eggs, finally adding the vinegar. Pour the dry ingredients into the milk mixture and stir until combined, then add the oil, continuing to stir until you have a smooth, sticky dough. Note: It will not come together into a ball like normal bread dough does. Add the walnuts and raisins and stir these in well. Spoon the dough into a greased loaf tin and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour (I leave mine in an oven that has been warmed to 50C then turned off). Once risen, bake covered with foil (g-free bread tends to brown much quicker) at 200C for 40 minutes. Another tip when baking with g-free flour is to have a tray of water in the bottom of your oven, which stops the loaf drying out.

This loaf is perfect with cheese and any crazy pickle that takes your fancy.

Asian Chicken Wraps

I like fast food. Not fast food in the double-whopper-super-sauced-stuffed-crust-I'll-have-that-with-cheesy-fries-thanks sense, but food that's fast. Simple Asian stir-fries are brilliant in that sense... and healthy.

My Dubai housemate Andrea introduced me to these nifty wraps a few years ago, and, they're now a fave g-free light dinner. The ingredients always change slightly depending on what's in the cupboard, so they're never boring.

500g chicken mince (you could try pork mince, or do a combination of the two)

1 red chilli chopped

1 clove of garlic chopped

About 10 water chestnuts

A handful of sliced bamboo shoots

A dash of rice wine vinegar

Enough tamari soya sauce (the g-free version of soya sauce) to season

1 spring onion sliced

Sesame oil

Olive oil

1 iceberg lettuce (choose a nice round one so the leaves can be used as cups)

Heat a little olive oil and a dash of sesame oil (not too much as this has a really strong flavour) in a pan/wok. Add the garlic and chilli and sautée, then add the mince. When the mince is cooked, add the rice wine vinegar and tamari sauce to taste. Toss in the spring onions right at the end. To serve, spoon some of the mince mix into a leaf, fold it up and start eating. I'm sure they steam the lettuce leaves slightly in Asia so they're easier to fold, but I prefer the contrast between the crisp lettuce and hot, spicy filling. Soggy, warm lettuce is not really my thing.

You could also add a little chopped ginger, sprouts and coriander.

Bread Ahead

Eureka! We've had a bit of a breakthrough in the bread section, thanks to desperation brought on by a toast and jam craving.

I like to think that my grandfather, Basil, had a bit of a hand in it. He used to bake his own bread and I still remember pounding dough with him in our kitchen back home as he taught me the secrets of his Nutty-Wheat Bread. The 'Nutty-Wheat' part might be out, but the rest of his recipe has made its way into my first successful gluten-free loaf.

Every g-free bread recipe I've tried tells you to just add the instant yeast to the flour, mix in the wet stuff, leave to rise, bake and voila! They've never risen more than a centimetre and the tiny results weigh a ton. So I took the recipe on the bag of flour I had and made a few changes.

High-Fibre Gluten-Free Bread

2-3 tblsp date fibre*

Add g-free bread flour to the date fibre to make 450g (I used Dove's which already contains zanthan gum)

½ tsp salt

1 tblsp sugar

1 tblsp date syrup (use maple or treacle if you don't have this)

125ml warm dairy-free milk

200ml warm water

2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp cider vinegar

2 eggs

6 tblsp oil

1 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 200C (fan oven). Mix the flour, date fibre, salt, sugar and baking soda together. When your warm water is body temperature, stir in the syrup (the syrup is vital as this gives the yeast the sugars it needs to activate) and add the yeast, leaving it to come together on the surface of the liquid. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, oil, vinegar and milk together and stir in the dry ingredients. Add the yeast and water mixture and stir until you have a sticky dough. Pour the dough into a greased loaf pan (I used an 8 inch x 3 inch one as a small tin is better for g-free baking), and don't worry about leaving it to rise for an hour. Place foil over the tin, leaving a bit of room for rising, and a tray of water in the bottom of the oven, which, I've been told helps to stop it cooking too quickly from the outside. Put it straight in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. Leave to cool before slicing.

Tip: Gluten-free bread never gets the crisp crust of normal bread and will be quite a lot denser. It also dries out really quickly, so keep it refrigerated or frozen. If you're eating it a day or so after baking, it is best toasted or zapped quickly in the microwave.

* This looks much like coarse cinnamon powder

Laze-agne

What is it about lasagne that's so darn good!? Personally, it's the fact that - when cooking for two - one dish means dinner's in the bag for a few nights to come. And everyone deserves the occasional evening in front of the TV with a ready-meal.

For the Filling

1x 250g box of g-free lasagne sheets (I used Casalare)

550g beef mince

1 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

2 tblsp g-free tomato paste

1 small bag of frozen chopped spinach

2 carrots peeled and sliced

2 celery sticks peeled and sliced

A glug of good olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

A small bunch of fresh oregano

A small bunch of fresh basil

Sautée the onion and garlic in the olive oil until translucent, then add the mince. Once this is browned, add the tomatoes, plus one tin of water, the carrots, celery and tomato paste. Season and leave to simmer for 40 minutes, adding the oregano leaves and some of the basil right at the end. In a separate pan sautée the spinach with a little salt and pepper, making sure you get rid of any excess water.

For the Sauce

50g flour (I use Dove's all-purpose flour. You can use a mix of rice flour and corn starch instead)

2½ tblsp olive oil (use butter if you can have dairy)

500ml milk (use soya or rice milk if you need to)

A dash of nutmeg

1 bay leaf

Heat the oil and add the flour, stirring it into a roux. Once the roux is glossy and pulls away from the pan take it off the heat. Warning: if you add the milk directly to this it will quickly cook into a doughy mess. Let it cool slightly, then add the milk, whisking continuously. Add the bay leaf and nutmeg and stir over a low heat until you have a glossy sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Remove the bay leaf.

Preheat the oven to 190C. Put a third of your mince mixture in the bottom of your lasagne dish. Cover with pasta sheets. Tip: Hold your hand over each sheet for about 10 seconds, as they tend to curl when they touch the hot sauce. Spoon a layer of spinach on top, then a third of the bechamel sauce. Repeat with the mince, pasta sheets, spinach and bechamel. With your last layer you won't put spinach on top of the pasts, just the bechamel sauce. Top with tomato slices and fresh basil leaves and bake covered for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 30 minutes until the top is golden. Dig in.

Christmassy deliciousness

Yes, I've started my Christmas baking already! I don't think I've been this excited about Christmas since I was six and still believed it really was Father Christmas who was eating the mince pies we left next to the fireplace. That's probably because it's our first one as Mr and Mrs. It will also be the first one I've had with my family in five years, and Nicks (that would be Nicky, not Saint Nick) will be jetting over from SA just before Christmas to see the sights of Muscat. So we'll have a full house and I can't wait.

One of my favourite memories of this time of year is the heavy Christmas cake tin my grandparents would lug from Zimbabwe down to Durban every Christmas. We'd eat that cake every day for tea for the month of December, well into January, and getting to the last slice was heartbreaking as it meant it was all over for another year. As you can gather, I'm a fruitcake fan. But not everyone is, and you'll always have someone who picks out all the cherries or the peel. So this year, I've decided to make a fruit cake that, I think, is a little more grown up. The sort of cake you sip with an espresso while catching up - Italy's panforte.

This cake is naturally dairy- and egg-free, easily gluten-free. It's traditionally made with almonds and figs and honey, but you can use whatever nuts and fruit you want, and I thought I may as well make use of what the Middle East has in abundance... dates and date syrup. Date syrup, for those who don't know, is dark, rich and treacle-like, so is perfect if you don't want things too sweet.

Panforte from the East

1½ cups nuts (I used ½ pecan nuts, ¼ pine nuts, ¾ walnuts)

½ cup mixed peel

½ cup chopped dates

¼ cup chopped dried apricot

¼ cup currants

½ cup gluten-free flour (I used half white rice flour and half corn starch)

1½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

2 tblsp pure cocoa powder

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup date syrup (use honey if you don't have this)

170g sugar (if you're allergic to cane sugar used fruit sugar)

Preheat your over to 180C and line an 8-inch cake tin with a round of baking paper, greased and gusted with a little g-free flour. Coarsely chop the nuts and mix them with the dried fruit, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour in a large bowl. In a saucepan, heat the date syrup, sugar, salt and cocoa powder until the sugar and cocoa has dissolved and the sauce starts to get a little foamy on top. You don't want it to boil. Pour it over the fruit and nut mixture and stir it in quickly making sure everything is coated. Then pour it into the cake tin and press it down firmly. Bake for about 25 minutes. You don't want to let the sugars burn.

Wait for it to cool and slice with a sharp serrated knife. If you've never had panforte before, don't expect light fluffiness. The ones I've had before should have "do not eat it you have denture" warnings, but, made with date syrup, it isn't quite so toffee like. This is firm and chewy with a moist fruity, dark chocolatey centre. I might have to make another one.

Two Can Pecan Ice Cream

I remember the first time Gav made me dessert. It was a surprise and he vanished into the kitchen leaving me to wait for the masterpiece he was going to create. A bit of banging and crashing later, he emerged with two bowls of ice cream covered with grated dark chocolate and After Eight chocolates as garnish. We decided that that there was nothing left for him to do but open Gav's Parlour of Incredible Ice Cream Ideas.

Now that dairy is out for a while, we just have to be more creative, so having licked the last tub of mango ice cream clean, I asked him what our next concoction should be...

Coconut and cinnamon? Coconut and cinnamon and pecan nuts!! Yes, pecan nuts. And maple syrup? YES, maple syrup!!

Pecan & Maple Dairy Free Ice Cream

Note: this recipe only makes enough for two. I would imagine that you can easily double things up to make more.

1 tin coconut milk or cream (depending on how rich you want it)

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 cup pecan nuts

¼ cup 100% pure maple syrup

3 tblsp 100% pure maple syrup

3 tsp corn starch

¼ tsp xanthan gum*

Mix 2 teaspoons of the corn starch with a little coconut milk/cream and then pour this into a saucepan. Add the rest of the coconut milk/cream to the saucepan, along with the cinnamon and ¼ cup of maple syrup and stir over a medium heat to make a custard. Add a little more corn starch if you'd like to thicken it more. Once this is ready, leave it to cool and then pour into a freezer-safe container and freeze for an hour. While it's freezing, heat the 3 tablespoons of maple syrup in a small saucepan with the remaining teaspoon of corn starch, so it becomes a little thicker and put aside to cool. Remove the ice cream from the freezer and give it a whiz in the blender. Return to the freezer and keep doing this until it become firm and creamy in the blender. Then stir in the pecan nuts and smooth the mixture out in an ice cream container. Use a skewer to made a few holes in the ice cream and pour the maple syrup into these, then give it a bit of a swirl.

* xanthan gum is used in a lot of gluten-free recipes. It increases the viscosity of liquids and acts as a stabliser. Most shop-bought ice cream contains guar gum, however, a lot of people with digestive problems react to this.

When this freezes again it goes very hard, so leave it out for a few minutes before demolishing.

... for Ice Cream!

Moreish Minestrone

I have this habit of making enough soup to feed an army. Last year, it was lentil soup and I should have probably stopped to ponder the "1 bag of lentils" part of the ingredients (what size bag, I don't know), but - being the impatient cook that I am - I threw in the bag I had and the result filled our freezer for months. Since then, we've discovered Gav's allergic to those too (I promise it wasn't my fault), so mom's famous recipe is sadly off the menu.

This November, I've somehow made a maxi version of minestrone by adding rice to the recipe I had in an old book of mine by Carla Capalbo, Italian: The best of Italy in 200 Traditional Recipes. Most minestrones have pasta added, but using brown round soup rice makes a heartier, more filling version.

Ingredients

1½ litres g-free stock

Olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 leek, finely sliced

2 carrots, diced

2 potatoes, diced

1 large courgette/zucchini, diced

3 buffalo tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 bay leaf

2 tsp dried thyme

1 cup brown round soup rice

Salt and pepper to taste

Sautée the garlic, onions, leeks, carrots, potato, zucchini, thyme and bay leaf and rice in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes. I add the rice now, in the same way you would a risotto, so it starts absorbing the flavours from the start. Add the tomatoes, beans and 1 litre of the stock and bring to the boil, then leave to simmer for an hour. Keep an eye on it to see how much the rice swells up. Add more stock if it's looking too thick. It's healthiness in a pot and you can freeze some for those nights when you can't be asked to cook.

Piling on the pancakes

"Samantha: So, how were they?

Carrie: The pancakes? Delicious, exactly what I wanted. I couldn't get enough.

Samantha: No, I was referring to the moves.

Carrie: Delicious, exactly what I wanted. I couldn't get enough."

- Sex And The City -

Before you say ooh how naughty, I am talking about nothing other than pancakes here. Anyone who is living g-free will be able to identify with just how incredibly, delectably, delightfully, deliciously (okay, I'll stop) moreish a pile of syrupy pancakes is after a week of corn flakes, rice puffs and rice milk.

I'm not going to get into semantics here, but the "pancakes" I've made here are what some people call American/Canadian pancakes; what the Aussies call Pikelets (I think, although it's very confusing); and the South Africans would consider giant crumpets. Perhaps I should just call them Panklets for the sake of world peace.

Last week's attempt at g-free pancakes South African style, ie crepes, ended in a huff and a battered ego (I thought I'd throw a terrible CSI-type pun in for my sister's amusement). They say the first pancake is never perfect, but this time it was every one. My attempts at using egg alternatives (ie egg replacer and milled flax seed with water) ended up a gooey mess.

This weekend, however, there was more excitement in the kitchen than at the cinnamon sugar-encrusted pancake stall at a farm town fun fair. Success.

Perfect Panklets

2 cups gluten-free flour blend *

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ cup maple syrup (a great alternative to sugar that helps soften the flavour of tapioca flour)

1 tsp vanilla essence

½ cup milk (I used soya)

½ cup water

2 eggs beaten (I'm afraid nothing but eggs works here)

2 tblsp oil

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and add the rest of the wet ingredients in another bowl and then slowly add this to the dry ingredients, stirring constantly. If you can hold off for a bit, let the mixture stand for a while (I am no scientist, but apparently it helps). Then ladel it into a greased hot pan, wait until bubbles start to appear, flip, count to 10 and then start piling them up. Serve with maple syrup and crispy bacon. If you do, by some remote chance, happen to have leftovers, they can be refrigerated, but will need to be heated up to soften them (gluten-free flour toughens up overnight) for round two.

*I came across Bette Hagman's featherlight flour mix on The Baking Beauties and played with that, using 1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour, ½ cup rice flour, ½ cup tapioca flour, ¼ cup corn starch, 1 tsp potato flour.

Pesto... the way mamma used to make it

Okay, my mamma has never made pesto. As far as I can gather, neither has Gav's mum. What I do know, though, is that the real deal has always been made with olive oil. But, for some reason that I'm sure would have Ligurian mammas holding their hands to their heads, one can't find a bottle out here that is made with even a drop of good old olio d'oliva.

It's the simplest thing to make, so while my basil crop (which I'm proud to say is organic) is still thriving, we'll be eating it in every possible variation. This weekend, it was a basil and sundried tomato version enjoyed just the way it should be... with friends and a good bottle of red.

Sundried tomato and basil pesto

1 cup basil leaves, as fresh as you can get them

½ sundried tomatoes

½ cup pine nuts

1 clove garlic

2-3 tsp lemon juice

¼ tsp sea salt

½ cup olive oil

Put all the ingredients in a blender (or mortar and pestle if you need to give those upper arms a workout) and give them a whiz. No mess, no fuss. There's no hard and fast recipe, so add more or less of any of the ingredients if you prefer. And if you can eat dairy, go ahead and add half a cup of parmesan or pecorino. Perfect with gluten-free fusilli, hot or cold. It is also one great way to make dry rice cakes and cold meat a whole lot more interesting.

To store this pesto, refrigerate it well covered with oil so the leaves don't start to brown.

Beet this, baby!

I miss the seasons. I'm talking about a spring that pushes your jumpers into the back of the wardrobe and sends you off on a picnic; a summer that throws you in the pool and hands you a cocktail; an autumn that is worth it's weight in gold, ruby and amber; and a winter that demands a good cuddle and a cup of hot chocolate. As wonderful as year-round sunshine and washing that dries in half an hour is, the Middle East does miss these little reminders to change what you're doing, change what you're wearing, and change what you're eating.

Call me boring, but when I lived in London I could spend hours of my weekend wandering around Borough Market. If I wasn't on a freelance budget I would have had a basket piled high, but I was just there to see what was fresh and in season.

In Muscat, while we're theoretically in late autumn (if you can consider mid 20s - celsius not Fahrenheit - autumnal), the supermarket just doesn't say the same thing, so I'm going with what's fun to cook with and just plain colourful. This weekend, in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness month, I decided to attempt something bright pink before heading out on a girls' fundraising bash, so my poor better half was in for a treat... beetroot soup!

If you like your hands clean and your tea towels bleach white, then this probably isn't for you, but if you're having a "my body is a temple" day then go for it. This was actually inspired by a Sri Lankan beetroot curry recipe in a recipe book that's at the top of the pile in my kitchen, Life's A Beach Cottage - Second Helpings, by the Durban-based food editor of House and Leisure Magazine, Neil Roake. It reminded me of a trip to Galle, two years ago, where every dish was a taste bud-exploding spice trail. Delicious if you like things with a bit of bite, although I toned things down a lot for the soup so it's not quite so scary.

Beetroot Soup

1 onion

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

2 large beetroots, peeled and diced (wear gloves or plastic bags over your hands before attempting this)

Olive oil

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp chilli powder (more if you're feeling brave)

2½ cups hot water

1 g-free stock cube

1 cup coconut milk

Sautée the onions, potatoes, and beetroots for 5-10 minutes, then add the stock (mix the stock cube and water together) and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and blitz until smooth. If the beetroot is still a bit chunky, return to the heat and simmer a bit more. Stir in the coconut milk. Serve hot or cold with a swirl of coconut milk and a few vegetable crisps on the side.

Mental note: Don't spill any of this on your party frock.

Meatballs of fire

Herbs have finally taken off in my vegetable patch, and the fact that it's taken eight months for any real life to show in this desert garden is cause for celebration. Why did I bother attempting a veggie patch at all? I had one as a child and food was always more exciting - and tastier - when I picked it myself. I have so much basil right now, I'm giving it away, and pasta is the order of the day. Today's special...

Spaghetti and Meatballs Arabiatta

500g lean beef mince

1 medium onion, coarsely grated

Olive oil

1 tblsp milled flax seed

3 tblsp warm water

1 tsp potato flour

1 tsp dried oregano

Salt and black pepper

1 red chilli, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tin organic chopped tomatoes

1 tsp Heinz tomato paste (this is definitely gluten-free)

1tsp sugar

1 small handful fresh oregano leaves

1 handful fresh basil leaves

Gluten-free pasta of your choice (I used Rizopia Organic Brown Rice Spaghetti)

Sautée the grated onion in olive oil until slightly caramelised. This helps with binding the meatballs a bit. Once the onion is cool, get stuck in and mix it into the mince. Mix the flax seed with the warm water and stir it until it has the consistency of egg white. It works well as a binding agent if you can't eat egg. Mix this into the mince mixture one teaspoon at a time as you don't want the mince to get too wet. Add the teaspoon of potato flour, which I find helps things come together nicely in place of the usual flour or bread. Mix in the oregano, salt and pepper and you're ready to roll. Use about a tablespoon of the mix for each ball and then dust these lightly in potato flour before browning the outsides nicely in a hot pan. Set the meatballs aside while you make the sauce.

For the sauce, sautée the chilli and garlic quickly, then add the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste and sugar. The sugar just takes the edge off the acidity of the tomatoes. Add the meatballs to the sauce and leave to simmer while you cook the pasta. When the pasta is ready, stir the fresh oregano and some of the basil into the sauce. Serve topped with fresh basil.

Got the blues?

I had serious sorry-for-myself blues last night. The sort that required something by Muddy Waters to be playing in the background. The reality of living gluten-free is that often (while you're trying to get to grips with a whole new field of flours) you will feel like you're wading through very muddy waters. A recipe that works one day, turns on you the next and it's hard not to take it to heart when hours of research and even more hours spent trawling grocery stores checking labels have gone into it.

The reason for my blues? My blueberry muffins didn't rise. Baking gluten-free makes you feel a bit like a child again. You're not really sure what you're doing, you put the pan in the oven with nervous anticipation, and then stand and watch through the oven door for the entire 20-minute cooking time, fearing that if you look away they'll flop. So there I was, watching, willing this batch to puff up in vain. It took me back to 1989. It was my sister's birthday and we had just moved to the little town of Dundee (Dundee, South Africa, not Dundee, Scotland). My mother was whipping up batter for her fail-safe chocolate cup cakes, but as each batch went into the oven they rose and then collapsed like popped party balloons. As delicious as the chewy mess in the pans was, it was devastating for my mother. The reason for the flop... altitude.

While I can't blame altitude for last night's disappointment, I needed to repair the recipe this morning. So I pulled out the tin of Happiness Tea (hibiscus, rosemary and cardamon) my great friend, Nicks, gave me a while ago, hoping it might just live up to its promise.

The tin is enough to cheer anybody up. It reads...

Put the kettle on to boil. Warm your favourite teapot. Add one tablespoon of tea for each person. Pour in boiling water, allow to brew for 10 minutes, while you do one or more of the following: Lie on the sofa like a great big slug. Hug somebody. Dance like you danced when you were five years old. Rest. Take off your shoes. Sing like Pavarotti. Shake like Elvis. Help yourself to a huge slice of chocolate cake. Call a friend. Listen. Remember the last time you laughed out loud. Tickle somebody. Sit where you can feel the sun on your face. Smile. Be still. Be present. Just be. Stir and pour. Drink.

While the huge slice of chocolate cake would be an issue, I poured myself a cuppa... and it was blue (thanks to the hibiscus flowers)! A little ironic, I think, but perfect. And then the muffin crumbled... so to speak. Why not turn flopped muffins into crumble topping? If you ever bake a batch of g-free muffins that don't turn out quite according to plan, here's a way to turn them into a treat.

Bit of a Blunder Blueberry Apple Crumble

2 cups frozen blueberries

½ cup brown sugar

1 tblsp corn starch

1 tin unsweetened pie apples

Your own crumble topping

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Heat the blueberries, sugar and corn starch in a pot over a medium heat. As they defrost you will have a lot of liquid that slowly turns syrupy with the sugar and corn starch. Take it off the heat before it starts to gel too much. Grease a pie dish (I used mini single-portion pie dishes for fun). Place the apples at the bottom. Spoon the blueberries and syrup over the apples and then top with your crumble. Bake for about 20 minutes until the top is golden and delicious blue syrup is bubbling up the sides.