The last of this week’s review posts – see also Wednesday’s December Book Reviews and yesterday’s December Kitchen Additions (homeware). Today it’s December food reviews although some things are not strictly for Christmas. First up, Tesco finest Christmas range – Tesco truly spoiled several food bloggers this month with a bumper hamper of Christmas products as […]
Jamie Oliver Comfort Food Book Launch
Jamie Oliver knows how to throw a party, I’ll give him that. When you get an invite to a Jamie Oliver book launch, you go. Held at Recipease, his cookery school in Notting Hill. It was a party for bloggers, vloggers and social media mavens to talk about food. Quite how I ended up in […]
December kitchen additions
Continuing my sweep of products tried out recently – today it’s a homeware themed December Kitchen Additions. See also yesterday’s December book reviews and come back tomorrow’s food product round up. Pinny Girls is a new brand selling aprons and oven gloves that are beautiful enough to make you consider keeping them in a wardrobe. […]
December book reviews
Can it really be mid December already? I’m not sure where this year has gone but suffice to say I’ve been so busy with freelance projects and finally launching my redesigned site that it’s as good a time as any for a sweep up of the various books, products and homewares that have crept into […]
Beetroot and Edamame Bean Salad
This colourful Beetroot and Edamame Bean Salad combines chopped fresh vegetables with pickled beetroot and has a delicious crunch. Updated 2026 · Originally commissioned by Haywards The coal fire is blazing and opening bars of Howard’s Way are playing when we’re called to fetch our Sunday evening supper from the room next door. The old […]
Christmas Bread Sauce Tips and Turkey Talk VIDEO
Christmas Bread sauce is my favourite component of Christmas Dinner. This post and video were originally commissioned by Bernard Matthews in 2014 to cook a frozen turkey and do a recipe for one of the side dishes. They say Christmas comes earlier each year in our house this year that meant a full dress rehearsal […]
Mini Tropical Christmas Cakes
My mini tropical Christmas cakes are a fast Christmas cake recipe for when you forgot to spend two months making one. I’m of a mind that life is complicated enough without feeding a booze soaked cake from October 1st every year. These mini models only require fruit to be soaked overnight and the traditional marzipan […]
5 Soya Yogurt Breakfast Ideas
Soya was originally served to me in the form of “Bean Feast”, a dried soya mince product available in the 1980s. My mother seeking to reduce her cholesterol had honed in on this product and served it up a hell of a lot. What’s for dinner? Bean Feast. Again? Yes. It was a good job […]
Slow Cooker Beef Bone Stew (Rich Beef Bone Soup Option)
Slow cooker beef bone stew is a low effort family dinner; satisfying enough for a Sunday lunch but without the faff of a roast, easy enough for midweek dinner. It also makes a deeply nourishing beef bone soup, thanks to long, slow cooking of oxtail and marrow-rich bones. Updated 2026 · Recipe originally commissioned by […]
Pumpkin Mug Cakes with Chocolate Sauce
These pumpkin mug cakes are ready so fast but you may need to order pumpkin puree. I don’t know if I ever would want to write another book but it strikes me that one full of mug cakes would be a good wheeze if I did. Making Mug Cakes in the Microwave A microwave is […]
Chooks Chicken Restaurant
Did I ever tell you about my time in EastEnders? For twelve months during the mid nineties, supposedly as a hand to mouth living student, I lived in north London’s leafy affluent suburb Muswell Hill. I could relate numerous things that happened that year but will focus on the Albert Square connection for today. I […]
Chocolate Semolina Pudding – My Grandma’s Greatest Dessert Ever!
Chocolate semolina pudding was always my favourite dessert. Whenever my grandmother telephoned me, and asked what I’d like most for pudding that Sunday, I always asked for this. My grandmother had an old style GPO red telephone with a dial long after everyone else had switched to push buttons. She persisted in keeping it right […]
