Month: March 2010

  • Frugal living

    This post was inspired by a comment I made on twitter about frugality. The other name I was seriously considering for this blog was “your grandma was right”. Our grandparents lived incredibly frugally – meals were centered on fresh, seasonal, local produce; meat was a once or twice a week special thing; nothing went to…

  • Kitchen Failures

    It’s something no-one likes to admit to. When you follow the recipe and… you fail. I was looking forward to some nice tangerine and lime marmalade and, instead, I have lime/tangerine soup. Or maybe a marinade or glaze… but not something you can spread on toast, or crumpets, or whatever. I even tried opening up…

  • Lime marmalade

    This is the divine lime marmalade that the munchkin is loopy about! 12 limes 5 cups / 1.2 litres water 6.5 cups / 1.3kg sugar Slice the limes thinly, saving any pips. Tie the pips in a cheesecloth bag and place the bag in a large non-reactive pan with the finely sliced lime. Add the…

  • This is why I cook

    Yesterday I was cooking up some lime marmalade (see my previous article on marmalade) which filled the house with an awesome smell – slowly simmering limes, yum yum! Once I had added the sugar and the marmalade got to almost the right thickness, I did a quick sample. It tasted awesome. I decided to run…

  • Crumpets

    So, what is the point of making all these tasty fruit preserves if you don’t have something to put them on? Yes, you can do toast, but crumpet is a uniquely British institution that is perfectly designed to soak up phenomenal quantities of butter and sweet toppings. Ah, crumpets. As British as tea, the Royal…