The Cottage Smallholder

We have newspapers delivered at the weekend as a treat. Years ago I used to spend Saturday and Sunday morning in bed, grazing my way through them. Now I’m just too busy. Magazines are different matter. These are kept in a pile beside the loo. We have recently discovered a great quarterly, The Bushcraft Magazine. Read More »

I love Stollen. When Mildred sent me her recipe I was delighted. This sounds so good I just had to put it on the blog. I will be making this with my mum when I have a few days off over Christmas. Mildred wrote “Have you ever made Stollen I wonder? The recipe in Andrew Read More »

Most nights I tuck the Min Pins and great aunt Daisy Beatyl into their beds. We have a lot of rugs. Mainly Barbie rugs, cut from the blanket that I bought just before we collected Inca. Sometimes I unearth one of the starter rugs – the size of a facecloth – it’s easy to forget Read More »

We have found that most fruit recipes work equally well with gin or vodka. With a few exceptions. Raspberry gin is sublime and dessert gooseberry vodka is to kill for. Their cousins, Raspberry vodka and dessert gooseberry gin are companiable and gluggable but not the super stars of the cocktail cabinet. We traditionally always make Read More »

I got home this evening feeling a bit grumpy. On the run up to Christmas I generally work a six day week. Everyone wants their work finished by Christmas. At the start of November, this is fine. Just a distant date. By now things are hotting up. I have four clients on the go and Read More »

At the age of six I almost came to blows with my best friend’s mother. This lady was elegant, French and chic. She had one of those woven basket shopping trolleys (2 wheels and a handle) and wore espadrilles. Her fridge was full of mysterious ingredients. I remember examining a jar of capers. Trying to Read More »

There are quite a few burglaries in the village. Mainly the bigger houses. There is a spate and then nothing for months. Jewellery thieves hit our village a couple of months ago. They broke into our neighbour’s house (4 bedrooms) and stole a few precious pieces that were inherited from K’s mother. She had died Read More »

I had promised Margaret a jar of our Sloe and Bramley Jelly – great for adding to casseroles, brilliant with game. The sloey edge gives it more bite than a conventional jelly. I gave her a large jar of our Apple Chilli Jelly instead. She looked flummoxed and examined the label. I explained in one Read More »

“I thought that it would be too spicy for them but I suppose that Indian dogs eat curry. And dogs in Morocco must wolf down spicy scraps” “You did feed them earlier, didn’t you?” We were watching our pack guzzling the leftovers from supper. They are fed early evening but we always give them the Read More »

Years ago I met a lady who had married a famous Hungarian film director. They ran away together and rented a flat somewhere in Europe. Neither of them could cook. She had heard about one pot cooking. Apparently this magical pot stood constantly on the stove. Every day you threw in various tasty things. Cooked Read More »