9th March 2018
Mother’s Day is coming up in the UK on the 11th of March, and mothers across the UK are going to be showered with presents and flowers and attention. But mother’s day falls on a different date (May 9th) in other countries, which made me curious as to why mother’s day is celebrated on two different dates. It turns out…
13th February 2018
I’ve recently been sans oven, and it’s been a bit of a trial. My old faithful has a dodgy knob that I can no longer turn to ignite the gas. I’ve been trying to get someone to come over and have it seen to, but it’s an exercise fraught with uncertainty because one of two things typically happens: the service…
9th February 2018
Everything’s coming up hearts with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, but it’s also my birthday tomorrow, so I figured I’d just make a list of my favourite things from the interwebs over the past week or two.
9th January 2018
Cakes have not always looked the way they do today; they were originally more like bread, and were sweetened with honey. Nuts and dried fruits were added, depending on whether the baker had them (they were rather precious ingredients and were not always easily available). Although the word cake is derived from the old Norse word ‘kaka’, the first culture…
12th December 2017
I remember making a version of this apple cake back when I lived in Positano, under the guidance (and occasional eagle eye) of my late fiance’s mother. I had a notebook filled with her recipes, but what with the multiple moves over the past four years I’ve mislaid it. I can only hope it’s in storage somewhere because those recipes…
21st November 2017
Lemon curd is utterly delicious and worth making from scratch. It’s incredibly easy to make, although I confess that the first time I made it I had no idea that the curd was setting as I was stirring it over the heat, and panicked thinking that the eggs were scrambling. Don’t panic when you feel the curd thickening; it is…
19th November 2017
It’s cold. Well, it’s probably not cold for people living in temperate climes, but it’s cold for me. I’m a child of the tropics, and although I wax lyrical about the cold weather, I tend to feel cold quickly, and I layer on the layers when I’m abroad and other people are walking around in short sleeves. So yes, you’ve…
14th November 2017
I was so pleased to see new potatoes – or baby potatoes as I like to call them – in the market last week. New potatoes have “thin, wispy skins” and “a crisp waxy texture”. Although they are best suited to salads, for me new potatoes mean one thing and one thing only: this gravy. New potatoes are typically in…
7th November 2017
I grew up pre-Harry Potter; the first Harry Potter book appeared just as I finished university. It didn’t stop me from reading it, of course. Like countless adults all over the world, I have read and reread the Harry Potter books, watched the movies, and had endless enjoyable conversations with friends about the mechanics of the books, the world that…
4th November 2017
I know, I know. It’s Saturday, not Friday. I would have posted this yesterday if I could, but I have been dealing with some awful internet issues; hopefully they’ve been sorted now, so here I am! Yesterday I was enjoying a pizza lunch at Little Italy Pizzeria with my mum during our monthly catch up, and it was great. Here’s…