Learner Baker; watch out!

Lush, chewy, nutty brownies with a crispy shell

I’ve got to confess, I’m not much of a baker. In fact I think I’ve told you that before, but 2013 has begun with an immense project on the horizon and I’m going to have to learn, and learn fast. So I’m seizing the opportunity of being snow-bound, to practice. In the oven, as we speak, is a tray of hazelnut brownies made using nutella and I can’t wait for them to be ready. But my first attempt last week using a different recipe ended in catastrophe. It doesn’t matter who’s instructions you follow, everyone says the same thing. You HAVE to wait

Haw he haw he haw, Soupe a l’oignon!

French onion soup with melted cheese toasts

It must be at least four years now during which my sister has been nagging me to write her a cook book or at least give her menu plans for the daily slog of feeding her family. It’s not that she’s an unenthusiastic eater, or cook for that matter, in fact as long as she’s not had too much wine Sarah can be very excitable in the kitchen! After that though things can go downhill and usually at a dinner party at their house someone will have to take over the cooking, because following a lovely starter of (if you’re lucky) her delicious crab tart, she’ll have forgotten all about the sautéed potatoes blackening on the aga, and you can kiss goodbye to any hope of the toffee sauce for the sticky pudding – unless a gallant guest steps in you may as well just thank your lucky stars you cleverly had seconds of that tart, give up hope of any further solid sustenance, and join her in dancing round the table as a backing singer, screeching ‘Bat out of Hell’ into a wine bottle microphone.

What to do with the pumpkin?

My 1-week-to-go pumpkin carving – room for improvement!

Right. It seems my personal Halloween circumstances have changed in very recent years. Having spent almost all of them since 2000 with my best mate, in either of our London flats, decked out in pyjamas, rooms lit only by flickering tea lights and scary pumpkins, Caribbean Chicken Stew bubbling away on the hob, red wine flowing, and horror movie at the ready, I now find myself living in the middle of the countryside far away from Kate. And to make matters worse this year, it seems I will be alone on Halloween

Quick Sweetcorn Fritters

Sweetcorn fritters, bacon and maple syrup

When I was about 17 I got a job in a sandwich shop in Slough. I know, not very glamorous I hear you say, but this was not just any sandwich shop; it was a yuppy sandwich shop! In the era of ‘The Sloane’ we offered masses of different sandwiches,

Smoky Chipotle Beef

Smoky Chipotle Beef

Due to the arctic conditions of the last few days I’ve already accidentally moved on to a new way of cooking. Not that there’s been much of the summery sort this year; when I wasn’t working or away it was either freezing, piddling down, or for some inexplicable reason, dark already. It’s been an amazing summer I know, but let’s face it, if it’s remembered for its weather it won’t be in a good way!

So without realising what was happening I found myself drawn to a recipe for a beef chilli in a recent edition of Donna Hay Magazine and before I knew it sticky meat was slow-braising in my oven.

Spring Lamb

Aw de cute liddle lammykins. Yum yum come to mummy!

Spring Lamb!

Obviously with all my dieting shenanigans of late, lamb is off the menu for me for a little longer at least. Instead I am getting my fix by taking my 20 minute daily ‘dukan dawdle’ (as I have fondly named it) through the fields next to my house, currently home to one of the scruffiest herds of sheep you’ve ever seen. They’re black and white, covered in mud and always completely bedraggled, but still so cute.

Winter Combo: Roast Gratin and Barbecued Lamb

How irresistible is that cheesy crust?!

I can still taste the utter lushness of last Friday’s meal, though I say so myself.

(“Self appraisal is the best way forward” I hear sarcastically mumbled from the other side of the room!)

Lunch at Petersham Nurseries

Petersham Nurseries Cafe

I am probably one of the least green-fingered people on the planet (despite my school nickname of ‘Greenie’ which I hated). I don’t know why I’m such a disaster in the garden; well it might be something to do with the fact that I usually go away frequently during the main watering season but apart from that I’m really not doing anything wrong!

Hanging on to Summer (whilst Dangling over Autumn!)

It’s no good, I am in denial. Apart from a recent spicy dal, it’s still salads and barbies all the way; thank god the Indian summer heat wave is about to begin! Last week I made our friends suffer by not only cooking outside, but also pretty much insisting we ate outside too. Although it was a sort-of-balmy-ish-considering-this-is-England-not-to-mention-a-September-evening, it was already dark before they even arrived. Still we cracked on and started with a beautiful carpaccio of beef…