Easy creamed potatoes
One of our first culinary clashes was over mashed potatoes. “To be good, they need to be hugely unhealthy with lashings of cream and butter,” Danny announced as he searched the fridge shelves for double cream. “I like them made with a dash of milk and a large knob of butter.” “Milk?” His eyes rolled. We did agree on one point. White pepper is essential. I had always used black pepper but Danny introduced me to the subtleties of white on eggs, swede and potatoes. So we have a small oak peppermill filled with white peppercorns that...
read moreFreddie – a dog with personality
I knew on the recce visit that Freddie could be a good companion. His beautiful deep brown eyes sized me up carefully. “Do you think that Freddie will be a problem?” “Of course not. He’s lovely.” Somewhere deep down inside I reckoned that there might be glitches. I could tell from his glance that he agreed. Generally when I’m decorating houses I have learnt to be firm and cool with the resident dogs. Otherwise I’m suddenly having to deal with paint tinged disasters. Like the time that Buster, the Norfolk Terrier, took a short cut...
read moreBest quick sandwich recipe
One of the great things about winter is that Jalopy becomes a sort of mobile fridge. Most of the door seals have deteriorated to slivers. This is great for keeping sandwiches chilled. Yesterday’s unfinished sandwich can fill a ‘no time for breakfast’ gap if I am running late the next morning. If you drive a ‘normal’ car, you need a letter from your parents to try this trick as the interior of most modern cars are well insulated against the cold. If you drive a Jalopy, this post may be of interest to you. I’d bought a...
read moreAdvent Calendars
When I was a small child someone sent us three Advent Calendars from Germany. One for each child. I can still remember the anticipation as we opened the windows each day and looked at the pictures behind the doors on all three. These Advent Calendars were deluxe, with a really good image behind each door and loads of detail in the scenes. One has stuck in my mind forever. The door was a window shutter and when I opened it there was a lady smiling down at someone below. I followed her gaze to the man and the little dog standing on the snowy...
read moreTransform leftover pastry scraps into deluxe cheese Christmas snacks
If Danny loads the dishwasher when I get back from work and the cycle finishes before supper has reached the table, I know that I’m running a bit late. The cycle is 108 minutes. This morning I discovered some chicken and ham pie filling in the freezer – all that I had to do was make the pastry. Anne Mary’s recipe for Magimix pastry works perfectly each time. Danny was amazed that I had made pastry in five minutes in the food processor. It normally needs to rest and chill in the fridge for an hour but I decided to speed up the process....
read moreBest Pheasant recipes: two winning recipes for pheasant
We are well into the pheasant shooting season in the UK. It runs from October to February. As we don’t shoot ourselves, we are either given game or swap plucking and dressing game in exchange for a brace. This gives us a reasonable supply for the last three months of the season. The first month is a bit of a desert for us – I hear the bang of guns and know that no one will knock at our door. Having waited eight months to bag the first brace this game is solely for the family tables of the guns. However there is only so much pheasant...
read moreASBO fridge freezer
Danny has secretly slapped an Anti Social Behaviour Order on our fridge freezer. Last weekend we had a bit of a fright with the vociferous beast. It was suddenly struck quite dumb. “I think that the fridge is very sick, Danny. The light goes on when I open the door but the motor does not hum.” This fridge has been an adolescent for as far back as we can remember. Moody and prone to dramatic outbursts of weeping into the space that used to hold the crisper drawers. Over the past couple of years it has been insisting that it’s a freezer...
read morePresents from Fuerteventura
The Chicken Lady, S and Rollo returned on Wednesday night from a long holiday in Fuerteventura . They dropped by this evening, deeply tanned and soaked with sun and long break laziness. I’d returned late from work so the cottage was freezing. We’ve got used to the no central heating chill but they were still adjusting thermostats. After an hour of strong cocktails, dabbling with extremely hot chilli infused Indian snacks and cranking up the wood burning stove to full power, things eventually heated up to a temperature where jackets could...
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