Reading this post over on Cornflower's blog all about cauliflower cheese made me realise just how much I enjoy cauliflower and reminded me of one particular recipe that I just had to do over the weekend as a bit of autumn comfort food.Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie features a fantastic recipe for potato and cauliflower dauphinois which we have recreated many times as an accompaniment to a variety of meat dishes and stews. It's quite simply delicious and something a bit different from "straight" cauliflower cheese (no doubt helped by the huge ... read more
Red, red wine
I can't disguise the fact that I am rather partial to a nice glass of wine, especially when curled up with a good book or my knitting. I've done an evening long introduction to wine tasting course at my local independent wine shop which certainly taught me a lot, but I'm still much more of a James May than an Oz Clarke when it comes to knowing about wine. I generally buy things that are on some sort of a special offer in the supermarket and go back to the ones that I discover that I really like.One that I found recently in the Waitrose new world wines offer ... read more
Let’s grow!
I don't normally get drawn in by the various TV adverts that we are bombarded by during most TV programmes, but tonight I did see one that made me go to the internet to look up more.I'm very keen that we teach children more about healthy eating and where food comes from and hence I really like the sound of Morrisons' Let's Grow campaign. It works in a very similar way to the way the other big supermarket chains have their vouchers for schools campaign, but in this one schools can exchange the vouchers they are given for gardening equipment that the children can ... read more
Lots and lots of garlic
I went along to the St Albans' Farmers' Market a couple of weeks ago for my usual Sunday morning amble around looking at all the wonderful food produce available and choosing a few items to take home and use in that week's meals. When I was there last the semi-regular Continental Market was also still on with their stalls at the end of where the regular Farmers' Market ones are.I'm not such a big fan of the continental market, mainly due to some rubbish cheese that I've had from one stall in the past, but this time one particular stall really caught ... read more
Parmesan Bread
I've not been that adventurous yet in my bread making, but I've certainly always wanted to be more so, especially after the tomato bread that I got to eat at a friend's house and so I got out one of my bread making books with the aim of making some sun-dried tomato bread.The lack of sun-dried tomatoes in the store cupboard meant that my plans had to be modified someone and instead I ended up making parmesan bread. I started off with the sun-dried tomato bread recipe from Jennie Shapter's Bread Machine book and followed the instructions for the medium ... read more
Hairy Bakers
After seeing it advertised quite a few times I was thrilled this evening to actually catch an episode of the Hairy Bakers on BBC 2.I've been a fan of the duo Dave and Si that make up the Hairy Bikers for a while now and the idea of them doing a whole series on baking seemed like a fantastic idea. There are so many cookery programmes on TV, yet I don't recall a single one that is devoted to baking alone.In the episode I caught tonight (number 2 I believe) the aim was for them to prepare tea at the Henley Regatta and so first they went on a trip to try out various different ... read more
Visit to River Cottage – part 3
A few final bits from our day at River Cottage HQ. Part of the grounds at RCHQ were used for some rural craft demonstrations and one stall that particularly interested me was that from wilderness survival skills who run courses that teach people, as their names suggests, wilderness survival skills. Having heard all about the various courses they run I'd be really interesting in going on one and might have to work on Mr C to see if he'd be interested in coming with me. Their ten day intensive bushcraft course sounds fantastic, but I'm just not sure I'm ready for ... read more
Visit to River Cottage – part 2
In addition to the demonstrations at the River Cottage Festival there were also various other things going on and we were able to wander round part of their grounds to see the various animals that they have on the farm and the fruit and vegetables that they're growing. One of the first animals that we met was Blossom the pig. In his latest UK television series, River Cottage Spring, Hugh challenged a group of families from Bristol to grow their own food on allotments in the city. As part of this exercise they also kept chickens and pigs for food. Blossom was one of those pigs and is kept ... read more
Visit to River Cottage – part 1
There's so much to say about Sunday's trip to the River Cottage Festival that I'm going to have to split it into multiple posts. It was just such a fantastic day that going through all the photos again brought back some great memories.The Festival was held in the grounds of the River Cottage HQ at Park Farm between Axminster and Lyme Regis and had a variety of stalls and demonstrations covering the range of things that the River Cottage series encapsulates. Mr C and I tried to make the most of the demonstrations that were going on throughout the day. The first one that we ... read more
Chelsea Physic Garden
Thursday lunchtime I joined the "women wot lunch" from work and visited Chelsea Physic Garden in London. The gardens were founded by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1673 and is very much hidden away in Chelsea. In fact, until F suggested going there I have to admit that I hadn't heard of it! Entry price could be considered a bit steep, but luckily F had found some vouchers in a local pub that gave each of us a £2 discount.Apparently the gardens used not to be open to the public, but in 1983 a charity took over the running of the gardens and opened them to the ... read more