The Cottage Smallholder

When I sat down to savour the superb third day of creamy Greek yoghurt and organic blackberries and blueberries bottled last October from our own garden, I just had to take a photo. This is now pasted on the kitchen wall to  remind me how good bottled fruit is when I’m caught up in the Read More »

Danny loves fudge. A few weeks ago he bought some fudge in Newmarket. It was inedible, chewy, tasteless stuff. Danny has a sweet tooth and a passion for cheap sweets and even he couldn’t get beyond the first mouthful and threw the rest away. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered making fudge Read More »

Somehow I missed the elderflowers last year. One moment they were nodding down at me but when I went out with a basket the next weekend the flowers had turned brown. Elderflowers need to be white and fresh for cordial, wine or anything else. Once the brown tinge appears on the flowers they have gone Read More »

Debonair and charming, Sam serves organic food to the tradesmen of East Anglia. His van is parked in the car park of Ridgeons, Newmarket. A lot of people that I know visit Ridgeons just for Sam’s food. I also have driven in, ordered my food and shimmied out without even buying  a one inch brush.  Read More »

The success of Orangette’s Apricot Tart fired up my baking enthusiasm and I planned to make the same again when my mum came to lunch on Sunday. I decided to follow Orangette’s pastry recipe exactly – using all butter this time. Fresh apricots were on the shopping list until I spotted some plump juicy blackberries Read More »

A couple of years ago I found a wonderful blog – Orangette. I read her post on bananas and was totally hooked. In fact, I often think about that post. Her writing is superb, it nips you gently and you remember it forever. A week or so ago a new friend emailed me. She had Read More »

Sometimes we both cook when friends come for supper. If Danny is doing the main course he’s not keen on sharing a stove ever since the time I cooked my starters in the top oven and the kitchen filled with black noxious smoke. We’d only used this part of the oven as a grill before. Read More »

Tiny hands clap with glee when I make jellies. “Why do we only have jellies when we are entertaining? Let’s make far more than we need or invite less people next time.” Danny was scraping a small stolen tumbler clean. Good fresh fruit jellies are a delight. Wonderful as a little something if you are Read More »

Shortly before Christmas, Mildred sent me this recipe for these “little light muffins which were so easy to do . . .the recipe was from my friend, Sylvia. You don’t need a mixer, thinking about it I expect they would be fun for children to make! They are yummy, and look so nice!” Baking with Read More »

My sister has just come back from France. She was visiting friends who have retired and moved there. She came back bursting with sun and stories and this recipe. I halved the amount. It filled three 100ml glasses. I used two small limes as I reckoned that the limes in France would be bigger than Read More »