September is no longer synonymous with back to school fever alone. It’s become the month for the UK to go mad hosting local food festivals and events. Whereas years ago we’d have had summer county fairs with farmers showing off their prize cattle and competitions for best veg, nowadays a local food festival mostly comprising […]
Bitesize Bits September snippets
A round up of lovely stuff we’ve been trying recently… Higgidy are a small company based in Suffolk who sell pies, tarts and quiches. I think you’ll agree they’ve still got that handmade quality, I served them warm for lunch for my vegetarian mother in law but they’d be just as good cold at picnics. […]
Summer Holiday Memories (with Walkers)
Summer holiday memories are precious. I’ve always spent my son’s childhood “in the moment” never like Abba “Slipping Through My Fingers”. [This post was originally sponsored by Walkers Mighty Lights in 2013.] Last year I blogged a list of everything we’d done during the summer holidays and purely for family reference I’ve decided to make […]
Quick Quiche with Boursin and Ready-Made Pastry
This is a short-cut Quick Quiche With Boursin cream cheese, using up a leftover scrap of ready-made shortcrust pastry. Updated 2026 · Now with printable recipe, the original post is preserved underneath. Quickie Quiche and How I Embarrassed My Grandmother My grandmother was red faced and embarrassed. She’d just had her diction corrected by an […]
Elephant Cookies
On taking Ted to London Zoo back in 2010, I asked him before we went in which animal he was most excited to see. “Elephants!” he replied. The animal he was most looking forward to see was elephants. Imagine our disappointment when we realised there were no longer any elephants living at London Zoo. They’ve […]
When I burnt the cigarette biscuits
Trying and failing to make cigarette biscuits
Lemon Courgette Pesto Tart
I’m trying hard to only put DSLR photos on this site whilst blogging family meals that were instagrammed over at my family food site Dinner With Crayons. But actually it was this shot above that did this recipe more justice (plus I didn’t scorch the pastry second time I made it!!) With a conveyor belt […]
Tapas Revolution with Omar Allibhoy
There’s too much Italian food on the high street. Spanish cuisine has long been overlooked in the mass market (I won’t mention one certain Spanish chain restaurant as no one I’ve spoken to admits to liking it). But that could be about to change. Chances are you’ve not yet come across Tapas Revolution yet – […]
Cherry Meringue Pie
You can use either canned cherries or pitted fresh cherries in this Cherry Meringue Pie, or as you see here, a mix of the two! On this occasion I used pre-rolled ready-made shortcrust pastry as another baking short-cut but you can make your own pastry case if you prefer. Updated 2026 Why is it always […]
Mini bakers clean up with Mr Muscle
I’d be lying if I said we were a messy household. My husband has inherited a cleaning gene from his mother and it looks like it’s been passed on to Ted too. We keep an old Mr Muscle squirter full of water (and marked as such) for Ted to play at “cleaning”. Which he does […]
Hampton Court Experience Days REVIEW
Treating someone to a special day out can solve the problem, what to give someone rather than material “stuff”.Dare devil stuff like rally driving and paragliding is often associated with experience gifts however more every day activities such as beauty treatments and cookery classes are often offered too. We were invited to try out using […]
7 Classic French eclairs challenge round up
A couple of days late and it’s the Classic French eclairs round up! Nazima at Franglais Kitchen was quick off the mark with these raspberry eclairs. Caroline Makes joined in with lovely sounding mini apple and chocolate eclairs – I would love to try these as they’ve reminded me of my beloved apple doughnuts that […]
