Aug 8
There are few things as welcoming as the smell of freshly baked bread when you walk into a home. It’s so effective at putting people at ease and making them feel at home that estate agents actually recommend you bake bread when showing your home to potential buyers. Throw a pinch of cinnamon into the mix and you have a smell so warming and soothing it’s almost like a hug when you walk in the door. Read more
I get frustrated when I see simple things made complicated, especially when the complication is added in order to sell gadgets. Overpriced, unnecessary gadgets. Sprouting lentils, and indeed most legumes, is really easy and requires nothing more than an empty jar and a bit of patience. Read more
Ground elder is growing profusely in our garden at the moment. It is quite an invasive plant and can be very hard to get rid of once it takes hold. I only recently discovered that the leaves are edible. They taste a little like parsley but with the bite and consistency of spinach. Rather than bemoan the fact that my garden was full of weeds I decided to get inventive and use this natural bounty to make some tasty meals. Read more
Mayonnaise is my favourite condiment. It seems to go with just about everything. A thick, creamy dollop on a hard-boiled egg. Spread thickly on sourdough toast and topped with a slice of ripe tomato for a quick and tasty lunch. Combined with gherkin and pungent capers for a piquant tartare sauce. Mixed with your favourite ketchup for a perfect seafood dressing. The possibilities are endless. Read more
When trying to live self-sufficiently it is important to make good use of ingredients and not let anything go to waste. I make a jar of mayonnaise about once a fortnight. It takes 5 egg yolks to make the full jar, which leaves me with 5 egg whites. During the summer I use these egg whites to make my no-churn chocolate chip ice cream, but in the winter (when I also have no milk for cream), I make this easy chocolate mousse. Read more
When I first heard about curd cheese doughnuts I thought they sounded very strange. I had a vision of a chunk of cheddar sandwiched between two sides of a sugary ring doughnut, similar to a filled bagel. I’d been making cheesecake with cream cheese (which is really just curd cheese blended with cream) for years, so I don’t know how it was so difficult for me to get my head around. It wasn’t until I tasted one of the little fluffy delights freshly made at a farmers’ market here in Lithuania that I was sold on the idea. Read more
The first time I made cepelinai I failed miserably. And the second time. And probably the third time. After that, I called it quits and resolved only to eat cepelinai that had been prepared for me by someone who knew what they were talking about – either at a restaurant or by one of our Lithuanian friends. Read more
I think the week between Christmas and New Year is probably my favourite week of the year. The stress of Christmas is behind us, tummies are full, hearts are happy and the fridge is full of leftovers. The weather is just cold enough that I don’t feel guilty curling up with a good book and a hot whiskey but not so cold that I can’t get out for a long walk with the dog to work off some of that stuffing. Read more
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yet most of us are in a flap. There are presents to be bought, cakes to be baked and a sense of impending dread at the thought of having to cook a fabulous Christmas dinner. TV chefs are wooing us with mini tartlets and smoked salmon blini that can be prepared “in minutes” and add “a touch of sophistication” to your festive cooking. Every supermarket has their own glossy magazine full of cooking and decorating ideas and can provide mini tartlets and blini pre-prepared (but with a hefty price tag) that you only need to “pop in the oven”. The options are endless and dizzying. Somewhere along the way, the concept of a tasty home cooked meal shared with the people you love gets lost and is replaced by panic and over-complication. If this all sounds familiar, then maybe my 10 Tips for a Stress-free Christmas Dinner can help get you back on track. Read more
Christmas is a time for tradition. What’s fascinating to me is how much those traditions vary from country to country and even from family to family. Some children post their letter to Santa up the chimney, some through the regular mail. Some leave out milk and cookies for Santa, but in our house it was a bottle of Guinness and a few mince pies. (Clever ole Dad!) Some traditions don’t believe in Santa at all. Read more
Now that Halloween is over many shops and farmers’ markets have pumpkins available at reduced cost. Despite our penchant for turning them into jack-o’-lanterns, pumpkins actually make for very good eating. This simple soup, ready in about 30 minutes, uses peanut butter to enhance the flavour and texture of the soup. Pumpkins are a little sweet and contain very little protein. The addition of the peanut butter, rich in protein and good fats, makes this a well-balanced and hearty winter meal. Read more
I longed for a taste of home. Something simple, wholesome, comforting – something my mother used to make. Halloween was coming and I longed for a bowl of colcannon, that dreamy combination of creamy mashed potato and deep green curly kale. Mam always made colcannon for Halloween and always took the trouble to hide a coin, a ring and a rag for us to find. We always knew what was coming but there was something safe and soothing about the familiarity. I longed for that feeling.* Read more
It’s feast or famine with this self-sufficiency malarkey. For months on end you produce hardly any food at all, then come the end of August you have fruit and veg coming at you from all angles. There are wild mushrooms to be foraged, apples and damsons to be picked and vegetables to be harvested. Read more
There is something incredibly autumnal about the smell of cooking apples. The sweet, caramel smell is as comforting as the blanket you might throw over your knees now that the evenings are getting a little chilly. It is a smell that immediately transports me back to my youth, when stealing apples from an orchard near our house was an autumn tradition. We had plenty of apple trees at home, but somehow the stolen apples were far more enticing. Read more
There may have been a row or two in the house this week. Or possibly even three. I know there was one about skirting board. And one about banisters. And a real humdinger about the cock (who is still alive, but on his absolute final warning). I can’t think of any others right now but I get the feeling I’m leaving something out. Read more
My Food Odyssey 