Easy 15 minute lunch for one: crispy sage and pine nut pasta
I am alone at home today. My husband has gone to visit his family, providing me with the rare treat of having the house to myself to veg out in as I see fit. I am using this time to clean up this blog and am creating new tabs so it’s easier for people to … Continue reading
East meets West: A Japanese cheesecake and sponge layered celebration cake
Japanese cheesecake If you’re a fan of cheesecake but have never tried Japanese cheesecake (chiizu keeki) before, all I can say is that you really don’t know what you’re missing. Japanese cheesecake is pure unadulterated pleasure – it’s soft, pillowy, creamy goodness – and what gives it its unique, velvety, gently cheesy creaminess is that it’s … Continue reading
Time for a change – my big 4-0
Hi everyone I have been offline for some weeks now and I’m sorry if I haven’t responded to your comments or been to visit your blogs. It’s been a turbulent April/May which has sadly included a family funeral. My husband’s Nanny passed away after a few tough months of poor health. She is in a … Continue reading
A four cheese cauliflower cheese
Sticking to the tried and tested Heston Blumenthal made a TV programme all about cheese recently and one of the dishes he ‘re’-made was the humble but utterly delicious cauliflower cheese. I went online to look at his recipe but in all honesty, I don’t have 5 hours spare to make all the component parts … Continue reading
A hint of chocolate in prep for Easter: Mary Berry’s Chocolate Loaf Cake
The legend that is Mary Berry I only have one recipe to post this week as I spent last weekend with friends and so I only made it into the kitchen late on Sunday night after everyone had left. I was however determined to herald my husband’s return from his ski trip by making him … Continue reading
Meals for many: Lemongrass and curry-flavoured chicken on roasted fennel, onions, shallots and garlic
Friend-friendly suppers If there’s one thing I love more than spending my weekends cooking, it’s spending my weekends cooking for friends. I get an obscene, almost indecent, amount of pleasure from it, and nothing pleases me more than having my closest friends around the table laughing, talking, drinking and eating together. Naturally, I use them … Continue reading
Butter-free banana, apple and walnut bread (no ‘fun’ doesn’t mean no taste…)
A healthier way is possible Banana bread has to be the most versatile and universally well-loved recipe ever. Every week, I’ll come across someone posting their take on a banana bread recipe. When I got back from Spain recently, my husband asked me if I could make another banana bread because we had 4 sad … Continue reading
Cooking with cherries: Lamb, cherry and feta burgers
Cooking with cherries Many moons ago, I tried the Atkins diet. I did lose weight but as with all fad diets, the weight definitely crept back within a few months. One take-away from that episode in my life was certainly never to try fad diets again, but some of the recipes and techniques I researched … Continue reading
Simple pleasures: a red cabbage, stilton and walnut salad (with caramelised red onions)
Simple pleasures = happiness It has been way too long since I posted a salad recipe and I’m doubly happy about this one because it was a fluke and a surprise. It was also a joint creation with my husband (making it that much more memorable) and something that we threw together in haste … Continue reading
A warming winter vegetable soup for when Jack Frost visited
Getting colder Winter’s drawing ever closer: we had the first hard frost of the year a few days ago, which was the perfect occasion to test a new vegetable soup recipe I’d thought about. In the past I made a Dhal, a lentil based thick curry stew to accompany curries. But I had never used … Continue reading
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