Category: Easy Dinners

  • Eat the Seasons: Autumn

    Eat the Seasons: Autumn

    Without a doubt, autumn is most people’s favourite season, mine included. There is a freshness in the air after the sticky heat of summer, along with a brisk chill and lingering smell of smoke from the bonfire of dead leaves raked up in someone’s garden. You gradually add more layers to your wardrobe; thick jumpers,…

  • Soy-glazed seabass

    Soy-glazed seabass

    As far as jobs go, mine is marvellous. Becoming a chef was never a childhood dream – in another life I will be a ballet dancer – as it was far too sweaty, stressful, and you can’t paint your nails. But, contrary to my expectations, it is a role I’ve worked in for the last…

  • Bacon and chorizo macaroni cheese

    Bacon and chorizo macaroni cheese

    We all need a little r & r now and again. Life has become relentlessly active these days – work hard play hard – with little time to slow down and breathe (unless you’re nursing a hangover). The Sunday ‘Doomsday’ dread has never been more tangible when we start the five-day countdown to ‘Fri-yay!’. Play…

  • Prawn, tomato and garlic spaghetti

    Prawn, tomato and garlic spaghetti

    For once my focus hasn’t been on the food. It has remained in that area – general food and eating (what do you take me for) – but instead, it has been on how to serve it. You see, dear reader, I am without a dining table. This bothersome conundrum has meant a lot of…

  • Food from literature: Harry Potter

    Food from literature: Harry Potter

    This Christmas I received two cookbooks from my aunts. One was the Honey & Co. Baking Book thanks to the babka incident, the other was Kate Young’s ‘The Little Library Cookbook’ complete with the tagline ‘100 recipes from your favourite stories’. If you haven’t come across Kate’s blog go and explore it now; before you…

  • 5 a day

    5 a day

    At last spring is here! Hands up; who’s excited about all the fresh veg? Just me? Not that we all don’t love a muddy turnip or beetroot, but the dense, sweet, earthy flavours of winter are now too hearty for the season. So long to soups, stews and pies (unless you live in Manchester where…

  • New beginnings: Manchester

    New beginnings: Manchester

    What goes around comes around, so they say. My life has become that phrase a little too literally. Here I am back in Manchester again. Having only left it last July. And before that the previous autumn. And before that I was at university here. I am a broken record in human form, repeating the…

  • One-pot chicken tagine with quinoa

    One-pot chicken tagine with quinoa

    The end is nigh. Once again, my suitcases are packed and cardboard boxes filled, ready to be crammed haphazardly into my car and trundled off somewhere new (not really, it’s back to Manchester again. Curse you, long-distance relationships). Before that particular date arrives, however, I’m living out of my suitcases in an echoing and empty flat.…

  • #newyearnewme: Spiced carrots with couscous and preserved lemon

    #newyearnewme: Spiced carrots with couscous and preserved lemon

    Cooking vegan meals is more fulfilling than I thought. This is a statement I never thought I’d say. If you are a reader of this food-obsessed blog you will already know it’s unlikely I have partaken in this month’s Veganuary, especially as my last post described my recent meat spree in graphic and visceral detail,…

  • Roasted pepper and sweet potato soup

    Roasted pepper and sweet potato soup

    This time of year reminds me of the front cover of a Sophie Dahl cookbook. Wrapped in a cosy thick coat (in a pink print much like a rug you’d see in a vintage shop which you’d immediately notice then avoid) her elegantly crossed legs ending in some sturdy wellies, she’s sitting on the steps…