These tasty portobello mushroom puff pastry tarts only need five ingredients, around 30 minutes to make and are the perfect addition to your picnic or packed lunch. June 11-19 marks the UK’s optimistically scheduled National Picnic Week. The weather has been hit and miss so far this summer but as a family we’ve grabbed every […]
Salmon Puff Pastries with Pesto
Just 4 ingredients and around 20 minutes are needed to make these easy salmon pesto savoury pastries. Salmon en Croute, like chicken Kiev is one of those things I seemed to eat frequently in the 1990s but that are totally absent from my family meal plans. With my recent domestic focus being on low fat […]
10 Day Trip Ideas Near St Remy de Provence
Here are 10 day trips near St Remy de Provence in the south of France. Whilst St Remy de Provence is an easy place to sit doing little, it would be a shame not to see more of the local area. St Remy makes the perfect base to explore the Bouche du Rhône and Vaucluse departments. We […]
Visiting St Remy de Provence
St Remy de Provence is a smallish town in the Bouche du Rhone department of western Provence but has the character of somewhere much larger. Imagine if Paris was a village with more sunshine and shady plane trees and you’re not too far off the mark. Stuffed with restaurants for every budget and stylish shops, […]
Our Provence Holiday Rental Experience
Accommodation for this trip was provided by HomeAway. More details below. This post is one of a series in and around St Remy de Provence. If you want to slow down whilst away, a holiday rental is a relaxed way to visit Provence. No hotel breakfast deadlines to meet, no vacating the room for hours at […]
Easy Chocolate Ganache Dessert with Paul A Young
Just a few weeks after my previous visit to Le Cordon Bleu London making Iced Coffee Souffles, it was back again to make this easy chocolate ganache dessert with rhubarb by renowned pastry chef and chocolatier Paul A Young*. The evening, hosted by Great British Chefs featured a recipe demonstration and chocolate tasting with Paul […]
Slow Cooker Chocolate Rice Pudding with Mars Bars
Make these easy Slow Cooker Chocolate Rice Puddings with Mars Bars and Mars milk drink! Really simple dessert recipe that just needs stirring occasionally whilst you get on with your day! If these mini chocolate rice puddings didn’t exist them someone would need to invent them. We tend to think of rice pudding as a […]
Queen’s Birthday Cupcakes
Queen’s Birthday Cupcakes topped with sugar paste crowns and Great British strawberries and cream flavours. Post commissioned by Dr. Oetker to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday. You know how The Queen has two birthdays? She has her personal birthday in April and then the official one in June. This year, being her 90th birthday celebrations, […]
First Communion Cake
My nearly nine year old son Ted has been undergoing preparations for his first communion over the past six months. The big day was two weeks ago and I made a suitably ecclesiastical cake to celebrate. Not being one to keep life simple I wanted to try out the hidden surprise inside technique and aimed […]
Dairy Free Chocolate Smoothie With Pumpkin Seed Butter
A dairy free chocolate smoothie with lots of oats, coconut and a dollop of pumpkin seed butter. I was originally gifted a Vitamix by their PR company but this post was not commissioned by them and written a couple of years later. I’m pleased to report in 2025 that the Vitamix has been going strong […]
Easy Summer Menu for Six
Easy summer menu with Mediterranean flavours – with a few ready made frozen items you can feed six people in around 30 minutes. This post was commissioned by Iceland for their #PowerofFrozen campaign. Is it me or is everyone just crazy busy these days? I’ve reached the conclusion I work pretty much 7 days a week throughout […]
Mardi Michels – interview
Today’s Baker’s Dozen interview is with one of the first bloggers I “met” when joining Twitter in 2009. Mardi Michels of eat.live.travel.write is based in Toronto, Canada so we were in completely different time zones. But I knew immediately she was an early bird and online when I was because she always seemed to be tweeting about […]
