Take me back to January!! What has happened to the world since then?! I hope everyone is safe and well during this crazy time.
Finally, we have written our blog posts about our fabulous experience of judging for the FreeFrom Food Awards (FFFA). My kiddywinks have also done one this year, so you can look forward to reading that too.
Firstly, let me tell you a little bit about the awards… The FFFAs run every year which is all thanks to Michelle Berriedale-Thompson, Cressida Langlands and the rest of the FFFA team.
I feel really honoured to be a judge. I’ve done it for the last three years and always love it (although my stomach sometimes doesn’t agree. Lol). It’s so enjoyable because you meet so many amazing people and it’s really good fun. It’s always fab to see the FFFA’s team too and this year Cressida was even more sparkly than normal – wearing fairy hair.
It’s always great to visit Michelle’s fabulous house too and this year we sadly had to say goodbye. She has moved on to pastures new. I will remember Lawn Road forever, as I’m sure every other judge will too – I don’t think I’ve ever been in a house with so much character. Even going to the loo was fun as there were so many interesting books, pictures and things to look at. Every part of the house had some amazingly quirky decoration.
I was extremely lucky this year and got to judge five different categories. I asked Michelle if I could have some treats, and my goodness, she did not disappoint. It was basically treat, after treat, after treat, after treat. I had sinful foods, breakfasts, gifts, confectionery and erm… meaty and fishy ready meals (I was a little dubious about this one, but it actually turned out to be… another treat).
Sinful foods
So, first up for me was sinful foods. What a category. I was with a beautiful group of judges too.
I’ve got coeliac disease and lactose intolerance, so I can’t have gluten or milk and I also react to gluten-free oats. So, despite being able to have 22/25 desserts and puddings another year, I could only eat 9/19 foods in this category. Boo! This was so little that Michelle said I hadn’t earned my keep, and I had to bargain for a cup of tea. Hee hee.
Of course, in true Karen style I caused a little bit of chaos, dropping my papers all over the floor, stroking Boris (the cat) after he had rolled in something and presenting my scores in an odd way – baffling Michelle.
Now, to the food… The pork pie got my best score. You never quite know if your opinion is a bit skewed though for the stuff you can’t often get your hands on. Anyway, it was delicious. I mean, look at it – it’s a beaut.
I also loved these vegan bon bons – absolutely beautiful presentation and I really liked the taste. They were very expensive though, it would have to be pay day and a very special occasion for me to buy them.
There were also good ol’ classics such as brownies, chocolate eclairs, cookies, rocky roads, mince pies and wafers. Luckily, I could have the chocolate eclairs (they’re an old love of mine), but most of the others had milk in. One of my fellow judges described some cream in one product as hoover fluff though which particularly tickled me – so, maybe I was the lucky one, not being able to eat everything.
There was also a surprise treacle tart. My goodness that took me back – I remember my mum making them pre-coeliac. The taste is so unique – really good though.
There was also some lovely cinder toffee (oh, how I miss Crunchies). Yum!
Scoring was quite tricky for this category, but we managed it. Then it was time to say a goodbye until the following day for another full day of eating treats. Woo hoo! Watch this space for the next judging blog post tomorrow – next up, it’s the breakfast and gifts categories.