August 5, 2010

Home Made Feta & Greek Vegetable Stew

My Family & Other Cheeses If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time. Marcel Proust When Aoife posted a recipe on her fantastic blog for feta cheese my mind was immediately transported back to holidaying in Corfu. Image Courtessy [...]

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August 4, 2010

A Brief History of the Picnic [Article]

Summer is fully upon us, and, as the sun begins to shine, nothing can quite compare to unfurling a blanket and lolling around in some dappled shade, fork in hand, enjoying the lush countryside, or sitting on golden sands hearing the waves lap against the shore. I’ve written for Dine and Cook about the history [...]

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August 3, 2010

Nutty Meringue Blackcurrant Biscuit

Deep Purple The other evening I had a huge desire to bake something, no surprises there then, with the lovely punnet of blackcurrants I had sitting in the fruit bowl. Blackcurrants (ribes nigrum) have grown in the British Isles for over five hundred years and this year they have been grown in my garden! Now, [...]

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July 30, 2010

Connemara Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey

Water of Life Whisky is a shortened form of usquebaugh, which the English borrowed from Gaelic (Irish uisce beatha and Scottish uisge beatha). This compound descends from Old Irish uisce, “water”, and bethad, “of life” and meaning literally “water of life”. I recently received a lovely gift box of award winning Irish Whiskey. Although difficult, [...]

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July 29, 2010

Irish Wheaten Bread

The Water Mirrors A Still Sky Quite a while back I acquired a signed copy of Richard Corrigan’s excellent first cookery book: The Richard Corrigan Cookbook – from the waters and the wild. I’m incredibly ashamed to say, that despite the having a delightful collection of recipes, from the traditional Irish (Irish spiced beef) albeit [...]

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July 28, 2010

Eccles Cakes

Hot Cakes It is Salford’s sachertorte, Bury’s brioche, Bolton’s baklava and Chorlton’s croissant. It is the Eccles cake, a deceptively simple Manchester-made confection that ranks with the world’s best baked goods. In 1793 James Birch’s shop on the corner of Vicarage Road in Eccles began selling small, flat, raisin-filled cakes. They sold, quite literally, like [...]

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July 27, 2010

Irish Potato Cakes & Clonakilty Puddings

Slim? Fat Chance Sometimes Sundays should just be about big old fry-ups and mugs of tea. With a fresh supply of both Clonakilty black and Clonakilty white pudding in my fridge, a large box of Bewley’s tea and some fresh from the farm eggs, what more of an excuse did I need? Clonakilty’s famous black [...]

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July 23, 2010

Abel & Cole Organic Box Delivery [Review]

I recently set up a weekly order with Abel & Cole (I wasn’t very happy with my old delivery scheme and had previously tested some of Abel & Cole’s produce with fabulous results). I plumed for the Deluxe Organic Fruit Box and Seasonal Salad Box. Abel & Cole also, very kindly, sent me a Mixed [...]

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July 22, 2010

Mma Ramotswe’s Banana Cake

Bush Tea Beginnings Cake, of course, goes so terribly well with tea and has a universality that straddles the bush/China divide. Mma Ramotswe’s Cookbook (Stuart Brown) With a couple of overripe bananas sitting in my fruit bowl, what could I do but bake banana bread? I was about to trawl through my vast collection of [...]

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July 14, 2010

Jumbleberry Pie [Article]

I’ve written a guest post, inclusive of Jumbleberry Pie recipe for Abel & Cole’s blog. Check it out here.

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July 13, 2010

Interflora Picnic Hamper [Review]

Hazy Days On Saturday I invited a few friends round for a back garden picnic, – you know the sort that were common in childhood – to assist me in reviewing a Picnic Hamper from Interflora (RRP £60.00). There first response was one of shock – Interflora? Really? Aren’t they all about flowers? Interflora actually [...]

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