With Sugar

Since the start of the fig season 3 or 4 weeks ago, stallholder Maureen has been at me to find this recipe which I used to make about 6 years ago. I’d totally forgotten about it. From memory I’d translated it from an old French cooking book. It’s a bit fiddly in that the process […]

The weekend before last at the end of the day on Sunday Terry Lister gave us a tray of ripe figs knowing how much Mike and I love figs. We couldn’t possibly eat them at once and, rather than waste them, I decided to make some jam. Because the figs were quite sweet already and […]

I’m not quite sure why I’ve suddenly got into making jams and chutneys this year but I’ve now realised how easy it is. I simply make a list of the main ingredients – a fruit or vegetable, onions, 1-2 apples, cider vinegar and sugar and then list possible ingredients – various herbs and spices, garlic, […]

Once again I’ve called on Louise for another of her favourite cakes as the last one was a hit with many of you. With summer fruits starting soon this cake is perfect. Louise has agreed to bake this and her Swedish Saffron cake for us on Thursday 15 December. She’s going to do them in […]

During the last three weekends I’ve been working in our new Kitchen Shop where we have a good selection of items needed for baking. You may have noticed that it’s rare for me to include baking in our weekly recipes. This is because I’ve never been very good at it. However working amongst the baking […]

On Sunday night we had a family dinner to celebrate both my father’s and Mike’s birthdays which I had missed last week while in Paris. In a jetlagged state I made the main course and Mum baked the birthday cake for dessert. When she asked what Mike liked I remembered her orange cake that she […]

Originally Possets were purely medicinal…a  drink of milk thickened with wine or ale and spices (similar to eggnog). Then over the centuries, the word posset came to mean a simple pudding. In this recipe, the acidity in the lemon juice causes the cream to thicken when chilled. Ingredients: 1 litre cream 250g sugar Juice of […]

For our birthday last Friday we had planned to serve Christmas cake (the ones we were selling) with the bubbles. However on Thursday morning a customer bought all our cakes so we had nothing. After an initial panic I asked Lou if he could make something. But what? I subscribe to David Lebovitz’s blog from […]

Last week we had an overabundance of tomatoes that I’d picked from our plants. After several days of using tomatoes in all sorts of salads I decided to cook the rest. The result was a delicious sauce that I used as a base for several dinners – with grilled aubergines and courgettes, another with pan […]

Last week for our family dinner on my mother’s birthday I decided to cook duck. That’s pretty usual for a family celebration but this time I tried a new recipe from a book, published in 1982, on the cooking of south west France that I bought a few weeks ago. The recipe is very easy […]