Category: Christmas
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Healthy banana oat pancakes with pink peppercorn plums
Banana oat pancakes were my fanfare for 2023. I lined up all the ingredients on my parents’ glittery red countertop (it’s not the only part of the new house that will be evicted but it will potentially be the most satisfying) and methodically measured everything into a jug then whizzed it all into a gloopy […]
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The Ultimate Pigs in Blankets
France is big on the potted meats, as you are probably aware, and never more so than at Christmas. This time a year ago, I was complaining about the sheer amount of meat I’d been guzzling. I can’t say the same for this year though, and that is because I’ve been trying out an anti-inflammatory […]
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Christmas prawn cocktail
I try to remain cliché-free when it comes to my blog posts and recipes – ideally, I’d like turn up each week with something unexpected, much like that batty aunt who appears in a kaftan and a new boyfriend every other visit. However, at certain times of year predictability is inevitable. The most predictable of […]
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Gingerbread marshmallows
I appear to have travelled through time. I blinked and somehow it’s advent. Time travel is clearly the only logical answer – although the time machine would have to be invisible and is probably parked in one of the few unused parking spaces outside. Oh and all users would have to have their memories magically […]
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How to make crumpets
Gaylord will be the first to tell you that I am a messy cook. According to him, when he’s faced with the washing up which I always insist ‘really isn’t that much!’, I have somehow managed to use every pan that we own to make breakfast. In my defence, Turkish eggs – poached eggs served […]
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Apple and custard cinnamon rolls
Unlike babka, whose introduction started with ‘the babka incident’, cinnamon rolls have always had a ubiquitous presence in my life. I don’t recall my first cinnamon roll, although while at university in Manchester, my friend Anthony and I once visited Rollers thanks to the intoxicating scent of cinnamon hitting us like a brick as we […]
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How to make the best charcuterie board
It was during my first visit to see Gaylord in France that I realised how seriously the French take charcuterie. While it took me another year to eat snails, then a whole year after that I finally encountered frogs legs, charcuterie has been a weekly snack since my plane touched down in 2020. As you […]
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French cooking: Tartiflette
I’ve eaten an eye-watering amount of processed meat recently. They say a diet of processed meat is bad for you, but when push comes to shove, I bet whoever ‘they’ are would submit to that meat coma with the rest of us. I emerged from this pork-induced fog after eating four-days’ worth of rillettes, saucisson, […]
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Orange and ginger sticky toffee pudding
Who knew a sticky toffee pudding could save the day? About week ago, I excitedly planned a list of recipes to write and test. I was probably lying in bed at the time and frustrated that it was night, hence the cooking could not commence immediately. Over the following days, I eagerly made rhubarb ketchup, […]
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Winter spice marinated goat’s cheese
Much like this year in general, this Christmas has been an excuse for my family to bake. My dad provided the Christmas pud in all its nutty, fruity glory, warm from his slow cooker. My sister made the post-Christmas trifle with layers of homemade sherry-soaked sponge, fruit, cream and chocolate shards, and my mum spontaneously […]