Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes
This year, Christmas will be a family affair at my daughter Nicola’s in Worcestershire with seven ‘grown-ups’and three little ones: my grandsons Freddie (3¾), Benjamin (1) and Rufus (3 months). Nicola is going to do the Christmas Day cooking with her brother Jonathan and the rest of us will prepare contributions ahead to take with […]
Read MoreI made these jellies for our Christmas meal because some of the family aren’t keen on Christmas pudding, and also to provide the option of a lighter dessert after so much eating! They were indeed lighter, and a great hit, but also rather alcoholic so I think I should give a warning here that these […]
Read MoreWhen I bought Jamie Oliver’s new book of Christmas cooking a couple of weeks ago, one of the recipes I thought I must try were his cantuccini, with the idea that I could package some up as little gifts. I bought the ingredients at the beginning of the week but life and Christmas shopping got […]
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 MoreI do love going to Carluccio’s events. Well for a start, how can you resist an invitation that comes in a pretty box full of Gianduiotti chocolates – a divine mix of chocolate and hazelnuts. Then, when you arrive, there’s always wonderful food to eat – like at the sharing plates launch in April and […]
Read MoreThere is a family story about Dundee cake. I took to making Scottish Whisky Dundee Cake for Christmas from Delia Smith’s Christmas book way back when it was first published in 1990 and my kids were still quite small. No one in the family – other than me – likes ‘proper’ Christmas cake: a rich, dark […]
Read MoreDo you like brandy butter or brandy sauce with your Christmas pudding and mince pies? I’ve always liked brandy sauce with the pudding but love spreading brandy butter on mince pies. But how about brandy ice cream? I went a bit all-out yesterday with Jonathan and Lyndsey coming round for a meal in the evening, […]
Read MoreThe pasta dish with chestnuts and mushrooms I cooked the other night was delicious but it left me with nearly a whole pack of ready-cooked chestnuts in my fridge, needing to be used within a week, so I had to come up with another recipe. My inspiration for the pasta dish came from Jacob Kenedy’s […]
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