This lunchtime I popped out from work to go to the Post Office to post a parcel. As usual at lunchtime there were queues stretching around and past all the shelves that hold all the standard stationery that Post Offices sell: the boring stationery with plain envelopes, brown paper and parcel tape. Just as I was leaving another shelf full of goodies caught my eye and I found that this Post Office was a step above the others as it was selling books! I was delighted to find that they had a whole section of cookery books, all at very cheap prices! The first book I picked up was James Martin's ... read more
Corn Stuffed Tomatoes
A while back Mr C and I decided that we should put some more time into our cooking. We were getting into the habit of eating out quite frequently, and while we enjoyed it, it certainly wasn't doing our waist line, or bank balance, much good at all. Logically, if you are replacing eating out, then you can look to spend a fraction of that money on good quality ingredients and cook at home instead and get just as tasty a meal. We therefore started making the most of various cookbooks that were starting to gather dust on our kitchen shelves and started being a bit more adventurous in the kitchen. ... read more
Cowboy Bean Hash
Tonight was Mr C's turn to cook - something he does quite often and is fantastic at! The first stage, of course, had to be to provide some lubrication for the chef and his assistant. This initial stage sorted, it was time to move on to the main part of the evening's entertainment - the food. Cowboy Bean Hash (our chosen name!) is a meal that Mr C's mum originally taught him to make. Quite where it came from we're unsure. She may well have got it from Delia (many of her meals were) but we can't swear to it. The minimal ingredients and general style make us think not - but we may be wrong. In ... read more
Hugh’s Chicken Out fight against Tesco
I'm quite disappointed to hear on the lunchtime news just now that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has failed in his attempted to get his special resolution passed at the Tesco AGM for them to improve their chicken welfare standards. I understand that Hugh managed to get 10% of the vote. Unfortunately Tesco had stated that he needed a whopping 75% for the resolution to be passed. Since Hugh launched the Chicken Out campaign I've been following his progress with interest. His television programme showing the conditions in which many chickens are forced to live certainly made me think again about ... read more
Lemon, lime and bitters
When traveling round New Zealand earlier this year Mr C and I discovered a fantastic soft drink there that provided a level of refreshment that couldn't be matched by anything else and became very much the drink of our trip (despite all the fantastic local wine). Bundaberg's Lemon, Lime and Bitters provided a fantastically refreshing drink that was much needed after a day of driving around in our campervan. An Australian drink, we knew that we'd have to find some way of recreating it for the British summer. Upon returning to the UK we did find that our local Waitrose did stock bottles, but ... read more