Author Archives: Becky

It’s a question I’ve often been asked and sometimes I can remember exactly where I found them. One of those is the Flapjack recipe. I was working at a school in Hertfordshire, job-sharing with a lovely lady called Judith. In those days we taught commodities – meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese etc and methods –Continue reading “Where do my recipes come from ?”

We were lucky enough to be living in northern Italy and found wonderful shopping opportunities – silk factories, Armani outlets and the Alessi factory , which required a car ferry across Lago d’Orta. There we had a chance to survey all the wonderful kitchenalia, mostly stainless steel but some plastic. On the bottom of eachContinue reading “Remember the lemon squeezer ?”

Over the period of the lock down it has been difficult to find supplies of flour. We know that is down to problems with packaging in small quantities for domestic use – there’s plenty of flour being produced. What has amazed me is the variation of ingredients in short supply in different parts of England.Continue reading “Shortages go on….”

In my last school, Friday afternoons were devoted to “activities” for the senior pupils – and of course one of those activities was Cooking. Over the years these mixed-age groups requested some interesting recipes and we had fun making pasta, pancakes and profiteroles to name just a few. One particular merry band was keen toContinue reading “Box Brownie….”

During this period of lockdown we have been making two videos most weeks, so we have several ready to share with you over the coming weeks. What that means though, is that there is often quite a lot of cake in our kitchen. Clearly we have to taste it, but I can assure you weContinue reading “So much cake …?”

While we were filming another video this week, my trusty Kenwood Mini hand mixer began to make the most dreadful high-pitched whine and the beaters started wobbling in their housing. Very quickly I decided it was beyond redemption and waxed lyrically about the machine. Then it dawned on me – I’ve had it since 1983Continue reading “Mixer misery”

…….is a much more glamorous way of describing all the equipment we use in our kitchens. Like most people I have favourite pieces which are used time and time again, so they need to be robust. Baking trays will need to be almost treated as disposable unless you can justify the investment of really hardContinue reading “Batterie de cuisine…..”

The early strawberries are so delicious and well worth waiting for. I look for Malling varieties or Sweet varieties, like Sweet Eve. They are picked carefully, snapped off at the stem to protect the fruit from being squeezed by the picker, then they just need to be trimmed and washed. We have a lovely oldContinue reading “Strawberry Time!”

Although I’m not going shopping at the moment, it seems that flour is still in short supply. Word has it that the packaging for domestic usage can’t yet match the demand – we’ve become a nation of bakers – excellent news ! If you need to convert Plain flour to Self raising, add 1 roundedContinue reading “Flour power !”

There isn’t a lot yet, but we’ve been cutting the asparagus for a week or so now. The flavour is wonderful – it’s taken a few years to establish but well worth the wait !