Fried Gluten

Fried Gluten in a Can

While shopping in Ipswich I spotted a couple of tins of 'Coeliac Kryptonite' lurking on a shelf.

Vegetarian Duck-Style Dish - made with fried gluten. Mmmmmm

It comes in Chicken-style flavour too

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, oats and barley. For people with Coeliac Disease gluten is a very dangerous substance that causes all manner of health problems. Check out the Coeliac UK website for more information on Coeliac Disease.

Related blog posts:
- Gluten - my Kryptonite
- Hmm, Some Bizarre Gluten & Gluten Free Shelf Stacking!
- Funny things about being a Coeliac
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Derelict tennis courts

On our travels around the UK searching for Mini, Crazy and Adventure Golf courses to play we've visited almost 600. Some however have been in a right old state.

These derelict, abandoned and unplayable courses are always a sad sight indeed. But on a recent trip to Ipswich we noticed it's not just facilities in 'minor' sports like Minigolf that suffer from neglect.

At Murray Park recreation ground in the Suffolk county town we found a row of tennis courts in a terrible post-apocalyptic condition.

Derick may be 'sexy', but the tennis courts definitely aren't

It's unfathomable that sports facilities can be left to go to ruin

Related blog post:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

New gluten free products at Marks & Spencer

More new gluten free products in the M&S 'Made Without Wheat' range.

While shopping in Ipswich and Felixstowe we noticed that Marks and Spencer has introduced some new products to the Made Without Wheat range of gluten free items.

We're looking forward to trying them all out!

M&S sell gluten free Pork Cocktail Sausages that are very tasty. They've now introduced them in packs of ten, rather than the large tubs of 30 (and more)

Chicken Chunks and Chicken Breast Fillets are now part of the Made Without Wheat Range at Marks and Spencer

There are now Salmon Fillet Fishcakes and Cod Fillet Fishcakes in the Made Without Wheat Range at M&S

A lot of the Party Food at M&S is marked as gluten free too - as fans of Pork Cracklings and Scratchings we really liked the look and sound of the Crunchy Crackling Straws!

Check out the M&S website for details of the Made Without Wheat range and the other Gluten Free items they offer.

Links:
- Marks & Spencer website
- Marks & Spencer Made Without Wheat page
- Coeliac UK website

Related blog posts:
- New Gluten Free Beer and Cakes at M&S
- Gluten Free blog posts on The Ham & Egger Files
- Gluten Free Finds in London (and beyond) - October 2010

Jackpots Crisps are Gluten Free

Finding a new range of gluten free crisps.

While in Ipswich, Suffolk at the weekend we popped to the large Asda for supplies as I knew I'd struggle to dine out safely while in the area. Perusing the aisles we spotted a brand of crisps we hadn't seen before and had a read of the ingredients / caveats / allergy advice etc. and were very pleased to see that three of the four flavours of Jackpots Crisps on sale in the store were gluten free.

Jackpots Crisps - Sweet Thai Chilli, Mature English Cheddar & Spring Onion and Sea Salt & Cyder Vinegar flavours

We munched our way through the tasty mature English cheddar and spring onion flavour and when we were heading home from East Anglia we went back to Asda to pick up some more bags for our cupboard in our flat in West Anglia.

Jackpots Crisps are made from potatoes grown at Fairfields Farm Wormingford, Colchester, Essex. Hopefully we'll see Jackpots Crisps on our travels. It looks like they're stocked in quite a few places.

I also managed to pick up some of the great Scott's Gluten Free Raspberry Butterfly Cakes on our two trips to the Asda supermarket.

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Links:

- Jackpots Crisps
- Asda

- Coeliac UK

New Gluten Free Beer and Cakes at M&S

New gluten free products - including beer and cakes - in the Made Without Range by Marks & Spencer.

Emily and I are big fans of Marks & Spencer as in the last few years they have added more and more products to the 'Made Without Wheat' range.

In addition to the special Made Without Wheat gluten free branded line, M&S has been making a lot of other items gluten free - such as the new BBQ and Grill range - which include our particular favourites of pulled pork and the cheese & chilli 'posh dogs'.

While having a browse in the Luton branch today I spotted there are now two new gluten free beers available!

The new Marks & Spencer beers - the Belgian Golden Ale on the left and the Belgian Premium Pilsner on the right.

I'm a big fan of beer, ale and lager and after my diagnosis with Coeliac Disease in 2008 following years of illness I received the additional hammer blow of being told that I wouldn't be able to have a pint of beer again.

Since then I have found that there are a number of gluten free tipples available and details of those beers I've found and drunk are available on my compilation blog post about Gluten Free Ales, Beers and Lagers.

The Belgian Golden Ale and Belgian Premium Pilsner are brewed by Brouwerij De Brabandere in West Flanders, Belgium and have been specially brewed for Marks & Spencer.

The new M&S Ale and Pilsner both contain Barley and in the information on the bottle it says "Barley gluten is removed during the brewing process to leave a great tasting gluten free beer."

I bought a bottle of each beer. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm sure they'll get drunk over the weekend.

M&S have also recently started selling four new cakes. I spotted three of these in the Luton branch, while the Party Cake was spotted in the Ipswich store.

The Made Without Wheat Extremely Chocolatey Celebration Cake by M&S. I bought one of these for our recent wedding anniversary.

The Made Without Wheat Extremely Chocolatey Celebration Cake was nice, I liked it more than Emily, but we both agreed the base of the cake was a little too dry. Not a bad amount of chocolate cake for the £10 price tag. I'd buy it again, and at least this time I'd have it all to myself.

The M&S Made Without Wheat Carrot & Walnut Cake and Coffee and Walnut Cake. I haven't tried these. Yet.

The M&S Made Without Wheat 'Party Cake'. I hope I get one of these on my next birthday.

Check out the M&S website for details of the Made Without Wheat range and the other Gluten Free items they offer. I spotted some different cakes available there too!

Links:
- Marks & Spencer website
- Marks & Spencer Made Without Wheat page
- Brouwerij De Brabandere
- Coeliac UK website

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free blog posts on The Ham & Egger Files
- Gluten Free Ales, Beers and Lagers
- A blogger's gluten free sandwich
- Gluten Free Finds in London (and beyond) - October 2010

A Landmark On Our Travels - Photographing Our First Milestone

On a recent visit to Luton's Wardown Park Museum I picked up a leaflet about The Milestone Society and joined their Facebook group. Upon joining I was asked to keep my eye out and photograph any Milestones as they may be unknown to the society.

So, on our recent roadtrip to Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth, by way of Sudbury and Ipswich, I took the landmark first photo of a Milestone on our travels. The Milestone is on Ipswich's Albion Road (the A1071) and gives distances to London, Yarmouth, Woodbridge, St Margaret and Colchester.

Upon joining The Milsetone Society's Facebook Group my minigolf rival Anthony Pope quipped "You were their 10,000th member but sadly they were unable to think of any suitable measurement to recognise it by."

Link to The Milestone Society

216th Course Played - Ipswich - Suffolk Leisure Park - Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

On Sunday 8th May 2011 we visited and played our 216th Minigolf Course on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

The 9-hole course was at Suffolk Leisure Park in Ipswich.

It's a great little course, and quite testing on some holes, with a fair few Ace opportunities too.

We had visited the course before, back in December 2010, however the course wasn't yet completed and hadn't had the holes cut out!

In our Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match I defeated Emily 38-49.

Videos:

Playing the 5th hole


A Hole-in-One on the 6th Hole


Related blog posts:
- Ipswich Minigolf course 'finds' on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:
- Suffolk Leisure Park and Ski Centre

Ipswich Minigolf course 'finds' on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

On Saturday 11th December 2010 we headed back to Ipswich and while there we popped along to the Suffolk Leisure Park as we'd heard there was a Mini Golf Putting Course there.


When we arrived we were surprised to see there was also a brand new Minigolf/Crazy Golf course being built!






















The course is that new that the holes themselves have yet to be cut out!



The Putting Course/Green was unplayable as it was out-of-season.





We're looking forward to visiting and playing the new Minigolf course when we return to Ipswich.

We also found a couple of Putting Greens just outside of Ipswich on Sunday - at the Fynn Valley Golf Club in Witnesham (near Westerfield).

Back on the 24th July 2010 we played a portable Crazy Golf course in Ipswich's Christchurch Park.

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Playing Minigolf at Suffolk Leisure Park in Ipswich