Venison Meatballs with Mushroom & Madeira Sauce

I rarely buy ready-made anything but my son introduced me to Waitrose’s venison burgers, which are great for a quick and tasty supper. So when I saw some venison meatballs on special offer in Waitrose a couple of days ago, I couldn’t resist trying them. They’re pretty much pure venison – 90% – and although […]

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Travel Gourmet’s 5 Quick Fixes in the Kitchen

My attitude to preparing meals is very ‘pure’ in the sense that I never buy ready-made meals, I buy good quality – mostly organic – ingredients and keep things simple; an emphasis on cooking Italian style with just a very few ingredients. When I was a young thing with a young family, I used to […]

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San Marzano Tomato Sauce for Pasta

It was while I was wandering around Waitrose today that I saw packs of San Marzano tomatoes. I’d no particular plans for supper and thus couldn’t resist buying these famous Italian tomatoes to make a pasta sauce. Although actually when I got home, I saw these came from Spain! To be honest, it is a […]

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Grilled Salmon, Asparagus & Homemade Hollandaise

I was so excited to see a bunch of fresh organic asparagus on Waitrose’s shelves yesterday that I didn’t stop to think that it wasn’t yet asparagus season in UK. That doesn’t start until St George’s Day, 23 April, and lasts only a couple of months. It’s some time since Waitrose went into partnership with […]

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Waitrose Christmas Press Show 2016

The food industry have their Christmas Press Shows in the middle of summer so there’s plenty of time for journalists to write their pieces for magazines and papers. I’ve been to them in blazing sunshine. Today, however, the weather was more more wintery and so perhaps more appropriate as I struggled against rain and a strong wind […]

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Panettone Three Ways – A Family Christmas Tradition

The 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 […]

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Last-Minute Light Christmas Cake

There 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 […]

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Mulled Wine for the Festive Season

When Waitrose Cellar got in touch with me last month telling me about their promotion of ‘Mulled Wines Around the World’ and asking if I’d like to write something for it on my blog, my mind immediately turned to winter snow scenes and apres ski (apres ski because you would never catch me on a ski […]

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Summer Sorbet

It was Olympic madness in Twickenham/Richmond yesterday – and today too. The cycle races are coming through so roads are closed, buses not running. The only solution if I wanted my usual favourite cup of coffee at Taylor St Baristas was to walk. Such is my dedication to drinking only wonderful coffee – and most […]

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