Reflections in, on and round about…with a lot of cooking on the side
It was with a bit of a start that I discovered I've been making these hamburgers for just short of twenty years. The original recipe came in the Good Taste magazine published by the Wine of the Month Club which I'd joined in about 1998. The publication is now defunct - gone the same way as many … Continue reading Burger Blues
This is a favourite summer supper, based on a Thai beef salad. The Husband who, as regular readers know, is a dedicated, salad-eating carnivore, responded to my first suggestion of an ostrich meal with, "Why would I want to eat 'big chicken'?"
This is a warm pasta salad with roasted peppers, cilantro and ginger - another of my "made-up" dishes. I had not made it for a while when I saw Jamie's recipe for roasted red pepper and walnut spread. This prompted me to make it again. Ingredients: Sweet bell peppers. I generally use robot peppers as that gives great colour variation, … Continue reading Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Next to the pea patch, we had a bed of broad beans. Broad (or fava) beans are another childhood memory: picking them during a sunny winter afternoon and then shelling them in front of the fire for supper. We had another bumper crop this year, I am delighted to say, so some are safely stored in … Continue reading Bountiful broad beans
Here today, gone tomorrow just about epitomises last week. Summer arrived with a vengeance on Monday and the thermometer hit 38 degrees Celsius (just over 100 Fahrenheit). Overnight, a little swarm of bees took residence in our Cotoneaster.
I have flirted with vegetarianism on and off for about thirty years, particularly when I lived alone - which I have done, not unhappily, on and off, until I finally settled down with Tom. One of the first, if not the first, recipe book I bought, was the A - Z of Vegetarian Cooking in … Continue reading Veg-ing out
We have a bumper beetroot crop at the moment and although it's easy to bottle, it's also great doing new things with it. Freshly pulled, beetroot cooks more quickly than when shop bought, and is beautifully tender and sweet - another reason not to just pickle it. Besides being delicious roasted or simply added to a leafy green salad, … Continue reading Beetroot: it’s beautiful – and delicious
I'm not a morning person. This is mostly why, over the years, Tom does the breakfast. There are, however, times when I get in on the act. Usually it's because I have a bee in my bonnet about something - and it's over a weekend or a holiday, so I'm a bit more capable of engaging … Continue reading Turn a simple breakfast into a stunning one
Although the grape harvest in our valley seems to be later this year, autumn seems to have arrived early. Along with this, we have had a wonderful experience: a pair of swallows building a nest in preparation for the spring. Jack and Jill are Greater Striped Swallows, indigenous to Africa, and they summer south of Namibia, … Continue reading Autumn – preparing for spring (and winter!)
For the last year or so, I have been making and selling seasonal soups at our local pop-up market. A soup that I made on a whim, and which we enjoyed, didn't take off, so I didn't make it again. In my recollection, there had been no sales. Then, imagine my surprise, two Saturdays' ago, … Continue reading A twisted Vicheysoisse, among other things…