Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes
When I was in Crete almost two years ago, I was always given a little ‘sweet’ – dessert – at the end of my meal with my coffee, even if I hadn’t ordered one. Usually it was some fresh fruit – grapes or melon, maybe – or perhaps a slice of halva. In the evening […]
Read MoreRock cakes are culinary symbols of both my and my children’s childhood. My mother made them most Sundays for tea. So adept was she at baking them, I don’t think she used any scales to measure ingredients and just threw everything in, judging the right consistency by look and feel. When my own children were […]
Read MoreFor a non-baker I seem to be doing a lot of baking at the moment. I often tell people that, no, I don’t bake cakes … I’m no good at things like Victoria sponges; I only ‘do’ dessert cakes. With family from north Wales to the south coast coming to London for grandson Freddie’s first […]
Read MoreFor a food blogger who says she doesn’t like to bake much, I seem to be baking up a storm with the gorgeous Rhubarb & Almond Cake a couple of days ago and now a banana bread. However, 4 bananas were quickly ripening in my fruit bowl. I eat a banana each morning with breakfast but […]
Read MoreI had a slice of delicious rhubarb & almond cake from Your Bakery in Whitton last week and thought I really must try making some myself. So when I saw an assistant carrying a tray of packs of fresh rhubarb in Waitrose yesterday, I couldn’t resist following and claiming a pack for my basket. My […]
Read MoreI like to have a special meal with Jonathan and Lyndsey soon in New Year once they’re back from spending Christmas in Wales, and New Year really isn’t New Year for us without a Galette des Rois – wonderfully buttery pastry filled with frangipane. This French speciality is traditionally eaten on Twelfth Night but as we […]
Read MoreI’ve rarely ‘done’ Christmas. When my kids were small we nearly always went to my parents’ home and they cooked; in recent years I’ve often gone to my brother Adam’s; last year I was at my daughter Nicola’s; the rare occasion I’ve hosted Christmas my son or daughter have stepped in offering to cook the […]
Read MoreI was too ill (only with a bad cold) to visit Nicola and Rachael as planned last weekend, so Nicola changed her plans for her birthday weekend a bit so they could come to my house for lunch today. And because it was her birthday yesterday, it turned into a birthday lunch. And Jonathan and […]
Read MoreThe lovely people at Waitrose got in touch again last week. Last year they asked me to take part in a project about mulled wine, this year, in the run-up to Christmas, they’re looking for bloggers to write about family foodie traditions at Christmas. As soon as I heard about the project one word came […]
Read MoreWhen I decided to make the Boeuf en Daube Provençal over the weekend, I thought it would be nice to also make a fig and almond tart for dessert, similar to the one I had in restaurant Lou Pistou in Nice after my daube main course. I remembered it had an almondy, almost cake-like filling in […]
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