David’s pheasant breasts sautéd in butter and marsala recipe
You will need a steak hammer for this recipe or a sturdy wooden rolling pin. This is the story of how I found mine. Many years ago, at the end of my first tumultuous love affair, my mother gave me a two week holiday on the island of Hero (one stop on from Gomera) in the Canary Islands. She booked me into a hotel that was starred in The Good Hotel Guide. She had loathed my boyfriend and probably hoped that I’d meet a new Adonis. I was happy to go along with the plan and arrived safely on the island in a small propeller plane. The spacious...
read moreCarnage
I woke this morning to a dead fly in my mouth. I had opened an eye, clocked a fresh gently steaming cup of tea and swigged. The hot tea had killed the fly but it hadn’t lost its crunchiness. I leapt from the bed in horror but where was I going to spit this noxious intruder? Danny was sympathetic when I bustled out of the bathroom with clean teeth and virtually anesthetised palette (someone once told me that toothpaste is great for cleaning the manky areas of a fridge). He volunteered a fresh cup of tea complete with a handy fly screen...
read moreIn the bag roast chicken recipe
My friend Carol keeps on mentioning how good game cooked in a bag is. I vaguely remember people using roasting bags in the eighties. Everybody was using them for a few months and suddenly they just fizzled out. Actually, I hate to admit it but I thought the attraction was that using roasting bag was to stop your oven getting so dirty. Until last weekend, I had no idea of their magical effect on food. Carol’s advice is sound. Everything that she recommends is good, from tiny tomato sandwiches on a hot summer’s day to her own herb...
read moreJasmine Hoop (Jasminum polyanthum)
If I haven’t had time to pot up bulbs for the house before Christmas I usually nip into Homebase around New Year to snap up some bulb sale bargains. This year I treated myself to a hoop of Jasmine polyanthum and now the kitchen is filled with its heady scent and the expectation of six weeks of flowers. There is something rather old fashioned and charming about this plant. I’m tempted to buy one most years and generally it fades away after flowering. I’m not intuitive with houseplants so I decided to do some research on caring...
read moreKumquat Liqueur (Gin or Vodka) recipe
Our old friend Gilbert introduced us to kumquat liqueur. He serves tiny glasses of this elegant tipple with an exotic fruit salad on Marjorie’s birthday. We were intrigued and clamoured for the recipe. Gilbert refused to share his secret. The resulting impasse was a challenge. If he hadn’t topped up our glasses it could have been war. We couldn’t take up this challenge for months as we had to wait until kumquats appeared in the local supermarkets. Finally the day came and I rushed home with two small packs of kumquats and a...
read moreA great site for recycling unwanted books
This Christmas, the only thing that I really wanted was a very special book. Preserving by Oded Schwartz. This classic book was published by Dorling Kindersley in 1996 for £16.99. It’s now out of print and sells for anything from £60 to £1014 via Amazon’s marketplace sellers. Eventually my super sleuth partner pulled on his deerstalker hat and tracked down a copy up for auction on eBay Australia. After a nailbiting night, he tottered from the computer, having won the book. It’s now winging its way from Victoria, £35.00...
read moreDr Quito’s Jewish Chicken Soup recipe. A cure all.
I’m always reading that someone somewhere has proved that Jewish Chicken soup is a natural cure for colds, flu, fevers and even the blues. A few years ago I decided that it had to be part of our repertoire. The best Jewish chicken soup recipes are often carefully guarded family secrets, handed down through generations. We refused to be knocked back by this. We tried a few recipes, identified what worked for us and started to experiment. Our goal was to create a soup that would appeal equally to an invalid and a super fit trapeze artist....
read moreThe Witch at the bottom of our garden
We moved to Cambridge when I was two years old. Initially to Hertford Street and later to Chesterton Road. The latter house had a much bigger garden with apple trees to climb and a camp behind a blackberry bush, just enough room for two to crawl in and sit close together. We spent a lot of time playing by the compost heap. This was the furthest point from the house and well out of my mother’s earshot. It was also the perfect spot for observing The Witch. The Witch lived in rather a grand house around the corner. Her garden backed on to...
read moreCarol’s redcurrant and horseradish relish recipe
If we are busy during the week we often have baked potatoes with salad and wafer thin slices of rare beef left over from the Sunday joint. We always buy a decent sized joint of beef as it is easier to cook and the leftovers are delicious. It also freezes well. Cold meat and salad demand a tasty chutney or a really good relish to raise them from the average traffic warden fodder to the sort of dish that would tempt a petulant Roy Keane back onto the field. My friend Carol is an energy machine and brilliant cook. She adapts and experiments with...
read moreGround Elder (Aegopodium podagraria)
The weather has been so mild that the lobelia in the pot outside the back door is still looking good. No flowers but loads of green lushness. I was quite chirpy about this until I realised that even my old enemy, the ubiquitous Ground Elder, is thriving. Generally, the green parts of this nasty intruder die down during the winter and give me a breathing space from “observing ground elder” angst. I am aware that the roots thrive, whatever the weather. Triffid-like it encroaches silently but if I can’t see it I don’t mind...
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Recent Comments
{ I was thinking the same as Magic Cochin but then like you I don't have my phone attached by an umbilical cord wherever I go.... } – Wed 8 :47 pm
{ Good point but I don't tend to take it about with me everywhere 
} – Wed 7 :25 pm
{ Doesn't your mobile phone have an alarm setting? C x } – Wed 6 :32 pm
{ I would put it towards a bbq, it's just a shame you can't purchase some sunshine from b&q } – Wed 12 :04 am- { Hi Lesley The clucking means that she is brrody also plucking her own feathers is a sign too. } – Tue 11 :58 pm
- { Hi Lesley They have to stay in the broody coop 24/7. Could you put in a garden shed or garage? } – Tue 11 :57 pm
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