This is exactly what it is. Per person, one sausage, one tomato, 100 grams of pasta, parsley, parmesan, salt and pepper. Sounds too easy to be true? Walk this way. The pasta may not look like it’s coated in sauce,…
Easy Spice Lamb Backstrap Dinner
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The vast majority of dinners cooked by home cooks like me day in, day out, aren’t Instagrammable. They’re nutritious, simple, practical, and hopefully quick. But not the stuff of reels and pins….
The Sweet Potato Salad Spot
Hands up who knew that the sweet potato was cultivated before the white potato? That Columbus pretty much introduced them to Europe? That sweet potato was considered an aphrodisiac, hence why extremely popular with serial philanderer Henry VIII?? Well, I…
Oranges and Sunsets Poems
Posting these purely for the love of oranges and sunsets. Brought to you by the colour orange. Oranges Come buy my fine oranges, sauce for your veal,And charming, when squeezed in a pot of brown ale;Well roasted, with sugar and…
The Tomato Tart You Can Take Anywhere
I come from a generation that inhaled the sweet-basil promises of the book Under The Tuscan Sun which ensured that, for rest of our lives, we’d indulge in the fantasy of starting afresh in Italy, renovating villas, pressing olives, and…
Jelly Shots and A Poem
I’ve only made these once, and every time I see this photo, I’m reminded of Covid lockdowns. These red, white and blue jelly shots were a novelty treat, enjoyed in September, 2021, to mark a football match. Our city was…
Celebrating Citrus Haiku in the 1600s
Food and poetry go together. Like emotion and metaphor. Like appetisers and champagne. Like boogity-boogity-boogity-shooby-shoowop-shabop (name that tune!). I so much enjoyed celebrating melons in the 1600s, I’m doing it again, celebrating citrus haiku with Japanese poet, Basho. lemon flowersrecalling…
Jammy Fruit Puff Pastry Tarts
These fruit puff pastry tarts are my absolute everyday go-to, when I have no time, but my brain is “Oooh, perhaps we might like some dessert?” Very much like Homer Simpson’s: “Mmmmm, pie????” Don’t judge me – yes, another puff…
Stolen Green Vegetable Tortellini Salad
When I was a kid, the only tortellini I ate were floating in a bowl of barszcz (beetroot soup). They were a chewy-slurpy dumpling in a wonderfully sweet and sour concoction, and with a dollop of sour cream … even…
Cheeky Tinned Fruit Pineapple Salsa
Fresh pineapple is summer holidays, and lazy days, and cocktails, and moonlit nights, and pina colada, and getting caught in the rain. Not to mention, there’s something saucy about salsa. But I’m not even pretending I used fresh pineapple! 😂…
Blast From the Past Shepherd’s Pie
This blast for the past kitchen is the type I associate with shepherd’s pie, also a blast from the past! Is it the same for you? Or do you think of a different era? The kitchen/dining room I grew up…
A Sweetener Chocolate Caramel Slice
You could bribe the Pope with this chocolate caramel slice. Rich, gooey, satisfying. Completely balanced between the shortbread biscuit base (dessicated coconut👩🍳 😘!), caramel, and dark chocolate. I’ve seen some skinny caramel slices, and they look forlorn and wanting, but…
