About

The true ramblings (except for the made up stuff) of a mumma on life, food and being married to a vegetarian coeliac. I love my boys (Kid 1 and Kid 2), food, old stuff, my husband (The Yak), my family and friends. Not in any particular order.

The Yak was diagnosed as a coeliac two years ago, sparking a big change in our eating habits. For him it was a bit of a nasty shock, he was a lover of sourdough bread, good pasta and my baking. So, out of necessity and pity for his sorry state, my experimentation with gluten free cooking and baking began. It has been and still is at times, a tumultuous journey, filled with success and some rather spectacular failures.

Not all of my food is gluten free and I still like to bake ‘old school’, especially for my lads.

Back in the dark ages, I left my old life to undertake a lifelong dream of retraining in the food industry. If you are ever after a plate of cold meats and vegetables presented in aspic, I am your chick. Seriously, it has provided a great basis for the culinary experiments and shenanigans that I enjoy today.

Years ago, my beautiful maternal grandmother Dorothy called me a cheergerm, and it always stuck in my mind as being a pretty cool thing to be.

I have lovely childhood memories of her in the kitchen, baking morning tea for the orchard fruit pickers. That is a photograph of her gravy boat you can see on the header of this blog. So, this is for you Nana Dorothy, the original cheergerm.

Please note, all opinions presented in this blog belong expressly to myself, except for the times that I am overtaken by an alien being. Which is so not my fault.

58 thoughts on “About

  1. Joewk

    Hey Cheergerm, what a fan moniker your grandmother Dorothy gave you – very fitting, you gorgeous lady. As for your hubby being The Yak, where did that come from? Is it an Aussie term? it reminds me of the old Chas and Dave song, “Yakkety-Yak”! 🎶🎼🎵

    • Ha ha! The boys and I just started calling him a Silly Yak a while ago as a bit of a play on the word ‘coeliac’! Funny hey? I am sure he will always be eternally grateful…. 😉

  2. Hey Lisa, great stuff!
    There is a massive awakening to healthy living dawning on those of us bothered enough to make small daily changes. Main stream medicine is failing – and if we all just educate ourselves and each other the solution is in what we choose to eat!!
    So simple its difficult.
    Keep up the blogging and see you around!
    Nigel (Chuck) Herfo,

  3. Kylie Arcan

    Great blog, I look forward to being a avid follower, but be prepared for lots of questions, like where do you buy coconut sugar, can I get it from usual supermarkets or somewhere special? I love all your nicknames, Cheergerm is very fitting :)…Kylie A….xxx

    • Thanks Kylie, you are a doll! I love questions, the more the merrier! You can buy coconut sugar from a health food shop, there are various choices. The main difference that I can tell is that the texture can vary from coarser to finer. And the price! I haven’t seen it in supermarkets yet but I imagine they will pick it up in the future. I would buy whatever brand you find that is affordable then experiment a little. x

    • Thanks for your lovely comments! I am humbled in the face of your amazing dedication to all that is shortbready and can’t wait to try some of your yummy sounding recipes. Shortbread cheesecake base,I am sure that is illegal! I loved your About page and your beautiful poem as well.

  4. What a lovely story! Although I do love French bread, I am fascinated by ways to balance out my life with healthier eating alternatives. I’ll follow your blog for new ideas. Merci!

  5. It’s nice to know I’m not the only vegetarian celiac out there!
    And good luck with your gluten-free baking, it can be tricky but it’s definitely worth it (I know The Yak would agree)!

    • Hey Naptime, big congratulations to you (your blog cracks me up) and thanks from me…I am a bit of a novice here, I headed over to your page, (btw, love your interesting facts) What do I do exactly? Do I just copy the blog award onto a post then do the facts and nominations? (Sorry, new time blogger here, likes walks on the beach….lol, sounds like I was starting to write an ad for the personal columns…not that I have EVER done that…)

      • Hi Naptime, again, I now understand what I have to do but I can’t seem to get the cute little ‘versatile blogger’ stamp onto my post. Basically, I am inept!! I tried copying and pasting and that doesn work. Sorry to be a pain, any help would be greatly appreciated.

      • I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you, I couldn’t figure out how to be notified if you wrote back. I suppose I’m not the best source for info… but I’ll help if I can.

    • Thanks for the award Naptime! You and me kid, we could start our own IT consulting company. I did work out how to transfer the Versatile blogger award but now I can’t remember now I did it! (Goldfish memory). Thanks for your tips, your help and for generally being totally ace! 🙂

      • Ace I got. Me and the fonze, we could jump that shark any day of the week. 🙂 I’m glad you figured some of it out, it gets easier. Sort of. Try keeping a note file for yourself of stuff you know you’ll never remember otherwise. That’s what I do, as I also have the memory of a goldfish.

  6. Hi! I came across your blog from Jhuls’….I mostly eat gluten free (not because I have to but because I eat low-glycemic, which means most things I eat don’t have gluten in them), so I am very interested in your blog and seeing your recipes!

    • Thanks, that is so lovely, yes, I am actually a bit behind on the award acceptance! Very sweet of you, may have to do one huge AWARDS post and combine them, lol… 🙂

  7. I love reading your blog and am grateful for the thoughtful comments you write on my posts. So I am nominating you for The Sunshine Award, the one with the pretty summery logo [quite apt for a sunny Easter weekend!].
    Please click below to read more about the award:-
    http://wp.me/p2ZHJe-WS
    Please accept this message as a gesture of gratitude. I think it’s good to pass these awards along to other bloggers whose writing you enjoy. If you don’t do awards however, I do understand.
    Many thanks,
    Sandra

    • Hi Sandra, thanks so much for the lovely comments and golden sunshiney award. 🙂 I also love reading your blog. These awards are lovely, I must admit to being a ‘tad’ (understatement) behind in my acceptance of them and now feel a wee bit overwhelmed about how to proceed. But thanks again. 🙂

  8. It’s always such a breath of fresh air coming to your blog. Your sense of humor, your stories and your wonderful recipes are inspirational and delicious. Top to bottom. I look forward to many, many more. Cheers to the lovely Cheergerm!

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