My name is Jo and last Thursday I ate meat! Yes, in meat free January, I ate the most meaty of meats – venison! Now as confessions go I realise it’s not exactly up there with “I shot JFK” (or JR for that matter!) but i felt it best to get it out in the [...]
Archive for January, 2012
Confession Time
Posted in dinner parties, tagged dumplings, leeks, medieval, mince pies, red cabbage, venison on January 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Food for Friends & Family
Posted in dinner parties, tagged caponata, chard, cheesecake, feta, halibut, pizza, pumpkins, soup on January 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
We had friends over on Saturday night none of whom had been before so the pressure was on to make a good first impression! One of the guests was a pescatarian so keeping to our meat free dining was not a problem. This is the menu I chose: Chard & Feta Filo Parcels Squash [...]
A Taste of the Orient
Posted in cakes, oriental, soups, tagged banana, cake, pumpkins, soup, sushi, thai on January 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Last night I was invited to a friend’s house for a sushi making night! There were eight of us in all and the only things we were asked to bring were a chopping board and a knife. I had never made sushi so was really looking forward to it and was not disappointed! Our [...]
(Not quite) Rising to the Occasion
Posted in baking, bread, suppers, tagged bread, cheese, leeks, souffle on January 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I cooked two things today which, whilst tasting fine, didn’t quite look the ticket! The first was the white loaf from the fabulous baker brothers. it came together fine; I hand kneaded it for 10 minutes and did the pokey finger test, then left it to rise for 2 hours having first dug out a [...]
Lady and the Tramp
Posted in allotment, suppers, tagged allotment, apples, pasta sauce on January 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I played Duchess of Cambridge and planted two trees! It was a beautiful, sunny morning and felt more like April than January. Mum came to help and advise and we were the only people at the allotment, our sole company, a woodpecker who would occasionally tap away in his hunt for a snack. I [...]
Hot, hot, hot!!
Posted in cakes, suppers, tagged allotment, cake, chillies, coffee, goats cheese, mango, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, thomasina miers on January 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Continuing on our meat free odyssey, tonight we set sail across the Atlantic and headed for Mexico, courtesy of Thomasina Miers and her smokey stuffed peppers. Since Sainsbury’s delivered very small peppers, I stretched things by using 3 gorgeous dinky Baby Bear squash from last year’s allotment crop and it was hard to [...]
Cracking Cheese(cake) grommit!
Posted in desserts, tagged beef, cheesecake, chilli, chocolate, Heston, lorraine pascale, orange on January 8, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Last Friday was our monthly girls’ get together and this month W was hosting with chilli on the menu. i offered to make pud, mainly so I could give Lorraine Pascale’s chocolate cheesecake a go. And what a result! this is one of those fantastically simple, basic recipes that can be adapted many ways and [...]
Something to set your pulse(s) racing
Posted in suppers, tagged allotment, chickpeas, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, lentils, pumpkins on January 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Ok, so maybe I’m over stating things a bit, but we have just had another very tasty vegetarian supper! This time it was thanks to that bloke who started us off on this meat free quest, Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall. From his Veg Everyday I cooked a North African Squash and Chickpea Stew – which also [...]
Digging for victory
Posted in allotment, baking, bread, suppers, tagged allotment, apples, bread, chickpeas, chutney, curry, kale, mushrooms, Sarah Raven on January 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Over the holidays I ordered some apple trees; some for home and a couple for the allotment. As they could turn up any day, I took advantage of the ok weather and headed off to our plot first thing and began to clear the wasteland at the back of the beds where they will be [...]
