Category Archives: Uncategorized

I promise you that I am not a political person, but the recent governmental plans for the 3 tiers within England have left me so cross. The advice which followed – don’t play board games at Christmas, celebrate outdoors (in December?), delay your celebration till next year – all of this is absolutely ridiculous. Don’tContinue reading “What a muddle.”

Have you had a chance to look at this week’s recipe and video yet? It’s for slow-cooked ragu, also known as bolognese in this country and is a recipe I gleaned when cooking with Giovanna in her outdoor kitchen near Parma. Little did we know, when the video went live, that there was already anContinue reading “The Great Bolognese Debate”

One of my earliest memories is of a very large chicken being delivered by the butcher ready to cook for Christmas dinner. It came complete with giblets which sat in a bowl of water ready to be cooked and used for the gravy. I was fascinated by this bowl of weirdness and it took manyContinue reading “Chicken”

Last week a lovely friend was discussing friendship cake – do you remember it? Many years ago I was given a jar of brown sludge, which was the starter, and a sheet of instructions. We had a young baby and my head simply didn’t have the capacity for something else that needed to be nurtured.Continue reading “Friendship (+ cake)”

Go? Usually at this time of the year my preparations for Christmas are well under way. This year hasn’t been a whole lot different as I had already been buying “things” when I saw them. You know how it is, if you don’t get it when you see it, it will be gone when youContinue reading “Ready, set……”

My goodness, the Bake Off is stirring up emotions! Pastry week set a challenge with pasties – the pastry, the filling and even the correct number of crimps. It came as no surprise that the contestants all did it their way and the one sent home had, honestly, made samosas. But following the programme theContinue reading “When is a pasty not a pasty?”

It’s definitely here – the sweaters are on, so are the socks. We’ve had a mixed week with sunshine and showers. If it rains much more into the already over-flowing pond we will have escaping fish across the lawn. Speaking of which the grass is now green and a massive clump of honey fungus hasContinue reading “Autumn”

I was so looking forward to this week’s GBBO as it was bread week and that’s Paul Hollywood’s speciality and in the past he has introduced us to some inspiring new ideas. Do you remember the 8 strand plait? Or was it 10…..? Anyway, this week the contestants first had to create 2 varieties ofContinue reading “Did you watch the Bake off?”

Earlier this week a young friend asked me what was my favourite gadget. Without giving it too much thought I replied that I’m not a gadget person and that I don’t appreciate gifts with plugs on… ! We recently had a trip to Norwich where I enjoyed perusing all the kitchenalia in the Lakeland storeContinue reading “Gadgets”

Here we are, more than 6 months in, with 28 videos uploaded and we’ve decided to take a break. Not for long – just a breather so the tech team can fully recover from their dreadful colds. The sneezing and coughing need to disappear completely before we can think about recording anything else or thereContinue reading “Have a break…”