Domestic Goddess

I’m reading a lot at the moment, and it has made my commitment to being a writer even stronger. I want to walk into Waterstones and see my book on the shelf. I want people to like what I write and perhaps even think that it’s good. So I’ve been making a conscious effort to write every day, even if it’s just a paragraph that seems unrelated to any of the stories I’m currently working on. I’m having some trouble with the two short stories I’ve been working on recently, as they don’t seem to be ‘flowing’, and I don’t know whether this is because I’ve not had any time to sit and dedicate to them, as they deserve, or whether it’s because I just don’t have the talent or the stories are uninspiring. Anyway, competition deadlines are looming, so I’d better get my arse into gear and decide one way or the other what I’m going to do.

I’ve also been baking a lot recently, having discovered (yes, I know I’m slow) that you can make most things wheat-free by substituting ‘normal’ flour with wheat-free flour instead. You may laugh at that, but those who know me know that my cooking skills generally amount to opening a jar of ready-made sauce and burning the pasta. So making scones from scratch is a major achievement. And I’ve just found a recipe for carrot cake, and I’m going to try to make bagel soon (they’re a little complicated, but I think I can manage it!). Oh and I’ve found a sausage roll recipe that looks good, when I can afford wheat-free sausage again. If you’ve read this far and are wondering why I’m making such a big fuss about eating everything wheat-free, it’s not some fad diet, but because I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and my digestive system goes into spasm whenever I eat wheat. So I’ve been wheat-free for about 8 months now (not counting that Feast ice cream I ate on Sunday when I thought the biscuit on the outside was nuts). There’s a great website with loads of information and brand-testing of wheat-free food at http://www.wheat-free.org/ So maybe one day, as well as being a literary success, I will also be the wheat-free equivalent of Nigella Lawson. Well, you never know!