Spicy Spuds

Spicy Spuds were an aromatic, over fried chunk of late-night-bad-food heaven from that grey area of my life that covers the ages after childhood but well before being any kind of a grown up. It was the late 90s in a sunny Essex town, and it was about two in the morning after a Friday […]

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Summer Garden Stew

This dinner came about after one of those weekends when we were too busy enjoying ourselves to get to the shops and thus ended up with something of a Monday night fridge famine of old veg and older halloumi cheese. I will do pretty much anything to avoid a supermarket trip after work, so with […]

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Beety Bean Burgers

I had a middle-satisfaction level harvest from the garden last week of some pretty ‘rainbow’ variety beetroot. They have done well to survive this year after late frosts, constant bird attack and the recent heatwave and were pleasingly tasty so it seemed appropriate to give them a proper send off rather than just chuck […]

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Easy Home Tortilla Chips

I had some amazing nachos out for a dirty dinner date with the girls a couple of weeks ago, made with freshly deep fried tortilla strips and far too much cheese, they were incredible! We make tortilla chips at home a lot, not necessarily because they are that much healthier than shop bought ones but […]

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Rhubarb Vodka

This rhubarb vodka is without doubt one of my most satisfying grow-my-own concoctions to date. I’ve had a great crop of rhubarb this year and I love the stuff, I love the taste and the scent of it which I would quite happily perfume my house with if I could. Although it can be pretty […]

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Easy Quinoa Salad

It’s summer. It’s hot. Hot summer life is far too fleeting to spend ages in the kitchen but also one of the worst times to resort to cruddy over-salted convenience food too. I try to counteract the burgers and ice creams is by making up a couple of substantial salads to keep in the fridge […]

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Rhubarb & Gooseberry Jam

It’s been something of a pleasure this summer to start hauling in bumper bundles from the garden, especially when it seemed with the late frosts and recently ridiculous dry spell in the UK that a lot of my fruit and veg is either very behind or given up the ghost entirely. Not so with the […]

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Killer Gooseberry Chutney

A year or so ago I tried my luck with a couple of Hinnonmaki Red Gooseberry plants to fill in a space recently vacated by a big ugly Red Robin 70s kitsch shrubbery horror. I got about three cups of small berries from them last year, which went into a Christmas gin infusion that was […]

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Very Warm Chickpea Salad

Ah, summertime, when life is nought but Will Smith jams and over dressed lettuces. A pesto drizzled heap of rocket is all well and good but a girl (or a boy, crikey) cannot live on feathery greens alone. A girl/boy/fraggle doesn’t always want to cook loads in the hotter days either and this is when […]

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All Inclusive Salad

Most people remember their first proper couples holiday pretty fondly. Some return there every summer, anniversaries, honeymoons, the lot just to relive those heady sunscreen-scented days of early romance and short haul flights. Let’s be honest it’s hard not to have The Feelings when you’re off work and away from the inlaws in a climate […]