I only discovered hot crossed buns about 10 years ago. They were not part of my childhood growing up in America so it wasn’t until I met Stuart that I learned about this traditional bun served at Easter. He loved them but they are a minefield for migraine sufferers. I had to completely re-dux every recipe that I found and it’s taken me a good five years to finally perfect it. I’m delighted to share it with you.
Stuart and I were wandering through the Northside Produce Market last weekend making our mandatory stop at Black Star Pastry. Christopher Thé’s well known Sydney patisserie serves up not only the most photographed cake in the world, it’s also a mighty fine bakery. Black Star is so popular and have such loyal customers, I’m surprised that they still do the local markets. Every month I hold my breath hoping that they will still have their stall in the back corner of the market. Happy that they still come over this side of the Sydney Harbour bridge, but surprised none the less.
The most photographed cake in the world is not Migraine-friendly but my macadamia nut brownies are.
Ah, the humble lamington; stale sponge soaked in chocolate sauce then coated in coconut. Made by CWAs and Scouts for fundraisers across Australia and loved by all. This iconic treat is always served in this house on Australia Day. Since we’re a week out it’s time to make the sponge 😉
My mom, Pat, and I making Lamingtons. It isn’t often that I get to cook with her any more as this year marks 20 since I moved to Australia. I taught her how to make these so watch out Riverlanding.
This weekend we are celebrating #1 step-son’s 21st birthday. 21st’s are a very big deal here in Australia. They are a cross between a wedding, graduation celebration and a bucks/hens night. The party provides an opportunity for those who helped you reach adulthood to be acknowledged and celebrate the young person’s achievements. It then devolves into the young folks drinking far too much. It’s the way this culture celebrates. Keep on reading!
When I first met Stuart, he was prone to nocturnal leg cramps. We’ve all had them, that jolt in the night from the intense pain of the calf muscle cramping up for no apparent reason. Migraineurs can have these across many nights, so much so that it becomes just a part of their life.
I was having a bit of a look at my writings over the past few months to figure out where I should be taking us on this journey. The thing that stood out to me was the number of times I used negative verbs like stop, avoid, remove and limit, in contrast to helpful verbs like consume, eat or binge. It’s been a big blog of “don’t do this” and “don’t do that”. Well, other than the whole series on chocolate.
I’ve decided to make a change towards positivity. Not what we shouldn’t be doing, but what we can be doing to reduce the frequency and severity of migraines. They say that to change a mindset you need to do something for at least 5 weeks. So here we go, a change to positivity and things we need to do more of. Keep on reading!
I’m a bit late getting posts out this weekend. It’s been one of those weeks. Actually a couple of weeks. We’ve been suffering through a series of migraines. It’s exhausting for Stuart to have them every other day. As for me, it’s a struggle to figure out what is causing them so we can stop the migraines. It took a while, but we finally determined the offending food item and have stopped consuming it. Ta da! The migraine beast is back on its leash.
The migraines were caused by food that had been grown in contaminated soil. Food security is a complicated component of the migraine puzzle. I’ll discuss the science in future blog posts. For now let’s get back to something more enjoyable, chocolate.
One of the challenges I faced as a step-parent was creating a unique birthday tradition for the boys. It needed to be different from the bio-parent’s celebration, but familiar enough to be fun. I went for cake, chocolate of course. Keep on reading!
Hard to believe, but we are two months into our journey to tame the migraine beast. If you’ve been playing along at home we’ve covered a lot of ground over the past eight weeks. So let’s start with a recap, then we’ll treat ourselves with some chocolate. Yes, you heard me right, chocolate, because my friends, there is no scientific reason or evidence that chocolate is a migraine trigger. Keep on reading!
Stuart loves chocolate. Me, not so much. I mean, I like chocolate, but I’m more of a salty, crunchy kinda gal. But I don’t suffer from migraines, so of course I go for savoury flavours. Stuart, like most migraineurs, goes for sweet. Keep on reading!
Headache Free Foodie 
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