Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes (Formerly The Single Gourmet & Traveller blog)
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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When my son and daughter were young school kids, they used to tease me that they knew which day of the week it was by what I cooked for supper. I’ve always enjoyed cooking – from when I was at school myself – but can’t deny there’s a kind of drudgery to churning out a […]
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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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Given my love of Italian food and because I’ve been writing this blog for over nine years now, it’s a bit surprising that I haven’t given a recipe for a traditional Lasagna al Forno before. I’ve given a vegetable version and have talked about making – and eating! – lasagna, but have not given an […]
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My son Jonathan has been a keen cook since he was small enough to need to stand on a stool to chop and mix ingredients and his sons Freddie (5½) and Benjamin (2¾) are fast following in his footsteps. Thus they were very excited yesterday by Daddy’s new ‘toy’: a super-grade KitchenAid mixer with a […]
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This is an adaptation of a Rick Stein recipe in his Long Weekends book. I’m particularly attached to this book (and the accompanying DVD of the TV series) at the moment, not only for its great and reliable recipes, but its subject: Long Weekends. Pre-Lockdown I’d become well practised at making the most of a […]
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I like the heat, I like the sun; I was born under the sun sign of Aries and put my love of the sun down to that. I promise you would never want to be out and about with me on a wet, cold and windy day because my mood takes a nosedive. However, even […]
Read MoreSince starting the blog, many people think I’m cooking up a storm of Ottolenghi, Marcus Wareing and other great cooks in my kitchen on a regular basis. The truth is, like most people, most of the time I’m cooking old familiar favourites that I can put together pretty quickly and easily. I rarely ‘entertain’ these […]
Read MoreIt’s been a slightly strange day with changed plans, though I did get to see my lovely friends Jane and Terry this morning, which is a sunshine way to start the day. Evening plans were postponed so I dug around in the freezer, throwing away some things I deemed far too old to risk. I’m […]
Read MoreThe family were coming round for a Sunday meal and I decided to go Greek style. I say ‘meal’ rather than ‘lunch’ or ‘supper’ as we tend to eat somewhere in-between. The grown-ups don’t like eating a large lunch; the little ones (Freddie 4 and Benjamin 20 months) can’t manage late. So we compromise and […]
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