Category Archives: Uncategorized

For our first Christmas living in Italy there would be eleven of us, including two excited nephews who had never flown before. Finding a turkey became quite a challenge until an ex-pat resident volunteered to order one for us, but it would have to be two smaller ones as Italians prefer salmon so don’t breedContinue reading “Panettone?”

This week we watched the final of The Great British Bakeoff. I’m always amazed that anyone should apply for the competition – working at great speed on recipes that are often unknown, under the gaze of Paul Hollywood – why? Personal satisfaction of course and a huge sense of achievement . Keeping the results aContinue reading “GBBO.”

Our family have always enjoyed pasta – not least because of our time spent living in Italy. With great admiration I watched “balcony Bill’s” wife making it freshly each day for his lunch. We enjoyed taglioline al salmone and linguine alle scampi at La Scogliera, our favourite local restaurant, and I had lessons with GiovannaContinue reading “La Pasta!”

When the departmental computer was wheeled into my FT room in Hemel Hempstead, my heart sank. It was on a trolley and was parked in front of the washing machine and tumble drier – most inconveniently. I was less than impressed as this heralded the introduction of a new curriculum where practical cookery took secondContinue reading “Tech problems…”

It’s been quite a week! In amongst all our normal commitments we had a lovely day in Norwich, doing a bit of Christmas shopping and having lunch with our daughter. “Bread Source” make delicious focaccias and I chose a quinoa salad to go with mine and to share with Helen. I’d forgotten how tasty itContinue reading “Where did that week go?”

Earlier this week I read an excellent article by Tom Parker-Bowles about casseroles. He described the satisfaction of preparing all the ingredients, coating the meat before frying each piece to create a toasty crust and the long, slow cooking with wonderful smells permeating the house. I’d planned to tell you about my tagine, but theContinue reading “Change of plan.”

October half term is the perfect time to make mincemeat for Christmas as it needs several weeks to develop its flavour. I’m surprised so few people make their own, preferring to buy commercial jars. Recently I had a chat with a lady, whilst shopping in a local supermarket – she’d never made it and dislikesContinue reading “Get ahead!”

The last practical cookery room I worked in was tiny, so every inch of available space had to be utilised. It was designed to accommodate ten pupils and they worked happily cheek-by-jowl creating dishes to take home. Often the window sill became a useful storage area for their food to cool off before wrapping, soContinue reading “QI.”

Here in the east of England we’ve experienced an “Indian Summer” which I think might have now come to an end, but has really helped our growing efforts. The tomato plants went into the new greenhouse a little later than planned during a chilly spell so they were slow to get started. French beans tookContinue reading “Harvest Time.”

Keeping secrets is always a challenge. The most difficult one for me was a long time ago, when a pupil aged 14 asked me if I could keep hers. When she told me her situation I had to explain that this was too big for the two of us to deal with and I’d haveContinue reading “Pork pies?”