Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes
It’s a very long time since I’ve made scones; so long I even wondered if I ever had. But I’m pretty sure I made them reasonably often years ago but of late I’ve left the scone making to my daughter Nicola who gets the most amazing results in her Aga and I always refer to […]
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I’m not a great waster in the kitchen but I have to confess I usually just throw leftover pastry away; the small amount of pastry such as was left over after making the Rhubarb Tart yesterday. Sometimes, I’ll leave the little clump of leftovers in the fridge, promising myself I’ll do something with it in […]
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I love rhubarb. And so does my son. And since I was going to his for Sunday lunch, I offered to make a Rhubarb Tart for dessert. Last week, after I’d found some rhubarb in Whole Foods, I made a crumble. But this week my son was barbecuing some steak and making a salsa verde […]
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It’s Shrove Tuesday and if you ever needed an excuse to make pancakes – this is your day! Mix a pancake, Stir a pancake, Pop it in the pan; Fry the pancake, Toss the pancake – Catch it if you can. Christina Rossetti’s fun poem says it all. Though I have to confess I’ve never […]
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This is a recipe I used to make regularly many years ago. More precisely, when my daughter was a baby, back in the early 1980s. It comes from Delia Smith’s Book of Cakes, published in 1977, where it’s named Wholewheat Guinness Cake. The page where the recipe is printed in the book is so stained […]
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It’s Burns’ Night tonight, 25 January, and the celebration of the great Scottish poet’s birth in 1759. Remarkably, this popular event has been going since 1801 when it was held by a group of Burns’ friends to mark the fifth anniversary of his death in July 1796. The first Burns’ Night was held in July, […]
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I hadn’t planned to do any serious cooking today but when I received a message from my Italian friend Antonio this morning wishing me a ‘Buona Befana’ I couldn’t resist finding out more. I had heard of La Befana but have always celebrated Epiphany before French style with a Galette des Rois. But clearly it […]
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I was cooking for the family again. Ingredients for a big pot of bolognese ragù were coming in the morning with my Waitrose delivery so I suggested making a lasagna for us all. There’d be plenty for the lasagna and enough spare to freeze a few portions of the ragù. I always like to make […]
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I love making a meal for the family on Sunday. Sometimes they come to my house; sometimes I take everything to theirs. It’s more of the latter the moment. With two little boys having school and pre-school the next morning and needing early nights, it’s easier to be based at their home. We don’t ‘do’ […]
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I like apple-based desserts more than any other kind, from a homely apple crumble or pie (which always has to be served with Bird’s custard in my house or there are complaints!) to fancier tarts and cakes. I’ve made little tartlets on flaky pastry, deep-filled tartlets. I’ve made tarts with apple purée on the bottom […]
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