Developing new recipes: Tears and laughter
A carrier bag preceded Danny’s return from the post run this evening. “I’ve got two East Anglian pork chops and a Finest sirloin steak. Both were on the CFC for a third of the normal price. So we could have steak and chips this evening.” His smile was upbeat and encouraging. I wavered. Hunched over a saucepan of puy lentils I was trying to pull round a new dish that I had started last night. Recently I’ve twigged that loads of our recipes use similar ingredients and although they work well I really needed to hack a different...
read moreScented geraniums are a must for every summer garden
Seraphina’s pelargoniums have survived the winter in window boxes in Cambridge. I was stunned when I spotted this the other day when I arrived to decorate her dining room. She chose the grey shade (Pacific Breeze) in the Dulux Light and Space collection. The room looked stunning, soft and bright. Like walking inside a shell. Knowing Seraphina, I think that she had forgotten the pelargoniums. We have sadly lost all of ours. A collection that we’d kept going for years. Carefully potted up each autumn to over winter in the greenhouse. Even...
read moreBest budget recipes for 50% or less: Roast spatchcock poussin marinated with fresh lime juice, olive oil and fresh herbs
Poussin – a baby chicken weighing about 500g – has been one of my standbys for years. Easy to cook, great if you are living alone as one can easily stretch to two or even three meals as long as you’re not keen on meat heavy meals. The main drawback to a poussin is that they are not naturally packed with flavour. They are baby chickens after all. They are tender birds waiting to be imbued with your herbs and spices. One of the best poussin that I’ve ever tasted was a spatchcock with Provencal herbs sold by Waitrose. The herbs infuse...
read moreRanunculus
This afternoon I fell in love. I was in Waitrose with my mother. Standing beside the flower stand. I don’t buy flowers for the cottage anymore but my mum often buys me flowers when we go shopping. “Why, these are beautiful.” She picked up some soft yet elegant flowers that we’d never seen before. We examined the label – Ranunculus. Such a clumsy name for an exquisite flower. Apparently it comes from the Latin and means little frog. As both the amphibian and plant enjoy a little damp. I’ve spent the evening getting acquainted with...
read moreBest Brunch: Herby mushrooms and tomatoes on toast recipe
Danny likes a few sautéed mushrooms and a grilled tomato with his Saturday midday brunch. Although they sound tempting they never really appeal to me – I prefer the more conventional home smoked bacon, organic eggs and buttered toast from a homemade loaf. A couple of weeks ago I found some mushrooms and a tomato knocking about in the fridge and decided to experiment. If I simmered them together with a little olive oil, butter and herbs would they transform into something that I would like to eat alongside my bacon and eggs? They smelt...
read moreFriday the 13th
My stepfather had an uncle who always stayed in bed on Friday the 13th . “The whole day?” Aged nine, I was amazed. “Yes, all day. He also used evaporated milk in his tea. To avoid too many trips to the shops, I expect.” My stepfather never revealed the name of this uncle but I had a clear picture of him. Firstly the bed. An single iron bedstead with stretchy mattress (no wife would put up with the evaporated milk). The carpet slippers nestling on the lino under the bed ready for shuffling trips to the kitchen. The chipped teapot, its...
read moreHave you heard of Argos Clearance Bargains?
We bought a state of the art digital camera about six years ago – a Nikon Coolpix 4300. A nice chunky model that has worked very hard, taking photographs for this blog and a few websites that we’ve designed. It was expensive at just under £500 including the memory card. It suddenly started to play up recently when I tried to take photographs in the garden. It was flooding the photos with too much light. The garden looked like a desert lit by flares and burnt by napalm. Possibly introducing us to a future global warming nightmare. I...
read moreDelicious budget meals for frugal entertaining: Chicken, pak choi and chorizo risotto recipe
Danny and I love pak choi (also known as bok choi and Horses Ear). This Chinese vegetable is a member of the cabbage family and cooks in two minutes when it’s sliced and simmered fast. It’s a great side vegetable with a richer dish as it tastes very clean – a cross between spinach and cabbage. The white stalks have a satisfying crunch. Tonight I decided to add it to a chicken and chorizo risotto. It needed to be added right at the end, just before the cooked chicken so as to retain some of its crispness and texture. It worked really...
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