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Salad days - not my thing
"I must acknowledge my true nature. I am a winter cook currently forced to endure the summer months." Jay Rayner - The Guardian I...
Jan 31, 2022


I do like to be beside the seaside
Such is my lack of inspiration at the moment I am today combining two of my writer's block stimuli - a moment in time and a lucky dip. I...
Jan 30, 2022


So simple but so delicious - potted fish
"There are restaurateurs and cookery journalists who like to call confections such as haddock and kipper paste by the name of pâté. I...
Jan 29, 2022


Did consommé die?
"Consommé shows skill and panache without shouting, like a Savile Row shirt: crisp, understated, but oozing style and class. Consommé is...
Jan 28, 2022


Onions et al.(liums)
"the onion acts as an architectural underpinning or seasoning to make other vegetables more flavoursome." Bert Greene I'm not about to...
Jan 27, 2022


A chicken breast on a hot day
"don’t subscribe to the fatalistic notion that people simply “run out of ideas.” There are infinitely more ideas than you could ever use...
Jan 26, 2022


Japanese (sansai udon) from Madhur Jaffrey
"Most of the vegetables Keiko used grew wild in the hills around her. Each had been cooked separately and then arranged over the noodles...
Jan 25, 2022


On magic, perfection, mystery, Elizabeth David and Mère Poulard's omelette
"one of life's simplest, quickest and most pleasant dishes." Delia Smith "Once upon a time" begins Elizabeth David's classic essay An...
Jan 24, 2022


16 Rue Marie-Stuart, Paris 2e ar
random musings on a hot afternoon This is my new notebook for jotting down ideas, websites and various things that might be of interest...
Jan 23, 2022


Is your freezer your friend or enemy?
"much insight can be gained when having a rummage through a person's freezer." Shelf Love Which is a bit of a worry if you rummaged...
Jan 22, 2022


An unlikely mild disappointment
"These impressive looking peppers are deceptively easy to put together" Shelf Love On the left Ottolenghi, on the right mine. It was a...
Jan 21, 2022


From the sublime to the slightly ridiculous - lamingtons
"essentially, plain cakes with frills". Felicity Cloake It seems almost insulting to turn to Lamingtons - a supremely ordinary if...
Jan 20, 2022


Another sad goodbye
"The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude." Thornton Wilder I sit here in my beautiful garden on this sunny day...
Jan 19, 2022


David's favourite soup
"The most silken winter squash soup I know is a delicate blending of curried butternut squash, combined with winter's best plum tomatoes,...
Jan 18, 2022


From a website to the whole cultural diversity thing
"I just started with curiosity and kept asking questions, eating out and metabolising lots of facts from articles and books – anyone can...
Jan 17, 2022


A recipe and Marsala
"my favourite alcohol in the kitchen ... whose warm, nutty notes marry blissfully with dairy." Nigel Slater Last night was my day to try...
Jan 16, 2022


Choosing somewhere to eat - a moment in time
"there comes a point when researching cool restaurants so you don’t ruin your holiday tips into, well … ruining your holiday by...
Jan 15, 2022


Veganism
"veganism is the wellness industry’s new cash cow." David Cox - The Guardian I have been meaning to do a post on veganism for some time,...
Jan 14, 2022


2021 - a shrinking world of small delights and triumphs
"People don't like change. But make the change happen fast enough and you go from one type of normal to another." Terry Pratchett 2020...
Jan 13, 2022


Strawberries - Manet, Renoir, Jane Grigson and Snow White
"When Chardin lived, wild strawberries were the only ones. His contemporary, Diderot, described them as being like 'the tip of a...
Jan 12, 2022