A rambling change of plan
"The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk; the unexpected visit; the unpremeditated journey; the unsought conversation or acquaintance." Fanny Fern Today I was facing the eternal problem - the dual one of what to cook for dinner, and what to do with a problem ingredient or, indeed, ingredients. Nothing new there. The starting point was romanesco, the end point after an enjoyable ramble around the net which encompassed life, the universe and
Aug 30
The joy of the galette
"flat, round and quintessentially French." Great British Chefs This not terribly prepossessing photograph is the remains of last night's dinner - cold from the fridge. I should have taken a photograph last night but didn't. Anyway it was a dish that gave me great joy and satisfaction for a number of different reasons. Perhaps the main reason, was because in complete contrast to my previous night's dinner - the very disappointing pasta and romanesco dish - this was really,
Aug 22
Small fry
small fry - "somebody or something that is not considered to be important" Cambridge English dictionary Well the entire blog is not important - it is to me I suppose - but not to the world in general. Which could of course be said of any number of things from what Prince Harry is doing now, to what anybody thinks about what you are wearing today. So on a dreary and somewhat angst ridden day I am turning to small things to make me reflect on this and that. So small fry in
Aug 21
Hummus - a problem of overcatering
"Many of us enjoy hummus as a dip but struggle to figure out what to do with it before it spoils" Tasting Table That's me. Last night it was our turn to host the monthly neighbourly get together - last night an estimated group of 14 which ended up as 11 I think. It's not a meal, but sort of is - at the same time. Anyway, as usual, not wanting to disappoint the neighbours - or more importantly my husband - we had too much food. Cold meats and cheese? No problem - they ju
Aug 13
Lees
"lees: the substance that is left at the bottom of a container of liquid, especially a container of wine or beer" Cambridge English Dictionary I think this is going to be one of those bits and pieces posts - in this case the little things that have been lurking in my various ideas list waiting to be turned into gold. However, since lees is a food - well drink related thing - maybe it will turn into a mini treatise on lees. We'll see. This is a photograph of champagne restin
Jul 27
Leftover lettuce salad omelette - so many ways
"Done and dusted. Out of this world." Foodie China 888/YouTube This picture comes from the end of one of the most captivating cooking videos I have seen on YouTube. In roughly 25 seconds you are shown - complete with instructions to use either your right hand or your left hand -how to make this Rolled lettuce omelette. The pictures are very clear, the voiceover is male - he calls himself Foodie China 888 and has a slight Chinese accent I think. Halfway through, a kitsch
Jul 24
First to clear out - a no-brainer
"Just as a turkey is not just for Christmas – why should a curry simply sleep on a bed of rice?" Saptarshi Ray/The Guardian Inspired by my post about all the jars, packets, tins, etc that lurk somewhere in my kitchen I decided to make a start with this opened jar of tikka masala paste. Its first use was in a leftovers stir-fry last night - leftover stir-fry as the base, leftover chicken and leftover slaw. In some ways a real Nigel fry up. I decided there would only be a t
Jul 2
Those gifts and impulse buys
"You shouldn't have anything in your pantry that you wouldn't want to cook with." Alison Roman I have two lovely daughters-in-law and two lovely sons, who, because of my love of food and cooking, often give me foodie gifts and hampers. This year for my birthday I was given this glorious Italian 'hamper' - which also included a Graham Swift novel in Italian that the local library had serendipitously been throwing out, and a bottle of Italian pinot grigio - but my husband go
Jun 30
"The unexpected joy of making lemon peel preserves" Wix AI
For a while, when AI was new for Wix there would always be a suggestion or two for a post title - gleaned from past posts I guess. The above is one of them and it's so AI in it's phrasing, don't you think? I guess I use words like 'joy', 'comfort' and 'fusion' often, and so they appear in these rather quaint potential post titles. 'Unexpected' seems to be a favourite Wix word too. Do I use that one a lot? I don't think so. Wix no longer does this, although if I want ins
Jun 23
Nigel's fry ups
"The fry-up has always appealed to me, in particular the bits that stay put at the bottom of the pan, the crusty scrapings that brown rather too much." Nigel Slater Uninspired as usual of late, I did my own kind of lucky dip by just picking a page from Nigel Slater's Tender volume 1 - and came up with A fry-up of pumpkin and apple to accompany a meaty supper - well why not I thought. Another enticing recipe title that sets a scene. I thought he might have some more fry-up
Jun 22
Moods and leftovers
"such a dish is always ... made more scrumptious by the knowledge of its unpromising beginnings." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall I see I have used this photograph - the frontispiece to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's most wonderful book - Love Your Leftovers - a few times. It's because, in so many ways it epitomises comfort does it not? Even the fact that it's in a cup and you can picture yourself in some comfortable chair with as many layers of clothes on as you can fashionab
Jun 2
Friday pastry fun
"There is never enough crust." Nigel Slater Somehow or other it is now almost a tradition that Friday is for pastry - usually a quiche. It is also true that by Friday I am using up leftovers, or even leftovers of leftovers. Like today. Pastry and leftovers offer an infinity of possibilities, and a fun challenge. Behold today's challenge. What absolutely has to be used is the tiny bit of leftover vegetable toad-in-the-hole in the front. Actually the vegetables only cons
May 22
Empty food containers
"For a moment you are fully present in your life, clear about the value of every last bit of it." Tamara Adler I'm still working through the pile of books on my desk and have come to another one - like David Chang and Nigel Slater - which has so many yellow stickers poking out of it that it will take me some time to deal with it. So I don't see that pile diminishing any time soon. So I decided that rather than deal with the book as a whole today I would just deal with one o
May 20
Drops
Drop: "single globule of liquid; small amount of anything" They can be fruit drops too - it doesn't have to be just a liquid. It's funny how almost any of the words I have chosen for these oddments posts have some kind of foodie connection. In this case many - a drop of any kind of liquid you might add to what you are cooking, which might be as vague as a little bit, or as in the case of something really strong like tabasco, or food colouring - literally just a drop - or tw
Apr 21
Deliciously bland?
"you need to be proper greedy to do leftovers well." Jay Rayner I know this photograph of yesterday's soup - now cold, contrived from the leftovers in my fridge, doesn't look that appetising, but David said I should write the recipe down because it was so delicious. He almost sort of went 'wow' when he took his first sip which was flattering - and honestly I'm not at all sure it was that good. Good, comforting, surprisingly tasty. But also unrepeatable, because of the way
Apr 7
Bibimbap - Korean leftovers
"The term comfort food doesn't quite suffice; therapy food is more like it, which makes sense, given that the notion of food as medicine is a fundamental one in Korean cooking." National Geographic I was flicking through my Ideas pages and came across Bibimbap, as originally mentioned in a Melbourne Food and Wine Festival review of a restaurant - Moon Mart - and decided to go ahead with this topic, because it had cropped up here and there recently. In fact it cropped up so
Mar 15
Sandbagging the David Chang way
sandbagging - "To force or coerce someone to do something." The Free Dictionary "Hiding the strength, skill or difficulty of something or someone in a sport or competition" Wikipedia I'm struggling a little today. Well I have all the past week really because of various minor troubles bubbling around, which have limited my powers of thinking coherently. So perhaps those two definitions above apply. I'm sort of forcing myself to write a post every day - except when I obvio
Mar 6
Quiet satisfaction
"Cooking at home, you don't need to hit the bull's-eye, you just need to hit the target." David Chang This is last night's dinner. We thought it looked impressive enough to photograph and also because it illustrated for me some of what I was saying in yesterday's post - and elsewhere in the past - about how important it seems to be that things look good. In every aspect of life really - beginning with ourselves, and leading to just about every choice we make in life. We a
Feb 16
Christmas done and dusted. Now you can play
"We can now all admit that the thing we really love about the festivities is the time after the day itself" Yotam Ottolenghi And the leftovers. For my son this is turkey sandwiches and - well - me too. And yesterday, that was what Christmas Day was almost all about. Well apart from being with family, the presents - not such a big deal now that there are no small children involved - the big thing was the leftovers and the opportunity to make sandwiches such as this one - m
Dec 26, 2025
Nasturtiums - a first recipe ramble
" Besides being delectable, these floral “greens” seem indulgent, whimsical, and oh-so-gourmet." Kitchen Lane The painting is by Monet. He loved them so much that one of the alleys in his garden at Giverny - the main one in fact - was lined with profuse beds of nasturtiums. Everybody says they grow like weeds - are weeds in fact - in the western world anyway - having originated in Central and South America - and then having been brought back by the conquistadores, they spr
Nov 27, 2025