Category: Lifestyle

It was a huge steaming rectangle, not the small buns of the Godless South, that she’d cut into wedges and we’d smother in thick gravy. Only after we’d polished off the pud would come the roast.

This is a truly community effort and the team hopes to bring some light and love in this difficult year and really make a difference in Christmas 2020.

Once, in a fit of Christmas enthusiasm, we experimented with three days of exclusive holiday dining on red and green meals.  Lobster, an obvious choice, was behind an unassailable paywall but good fun was had with popcorn and red and green food dye.  Of all the new combinations of ingredients we tried, this for red […]

t’s going to be seven-ish at the earliest before I’m ready to eat again. I always find Christmas Pudding too heavy, so perhaps a classic Panettone (dried fruit rather than the chocolate variety) would make a good replacement. I had considered making a Panettone bread and butter pudding but I think I’ll have it with custard. Not very Italian, I know, but I love custard and as I’m cooking for me and me alone, custard it shall be!

All in all, I would imagine you might just about be able to cover the full cost of this for ten pounds, if Aldi does sell a small chicken for £2 at all. Not being near enough to Aldi myself to just pop in, I rely on memory, which suggests that £3-4 is more likely. There are utensils to factor in. Do you have roasting tins, a stock pot, a reasonably good knife? Come to think of it, do you even have an oven and a hob?

You, me and Afternoon Tea is part of the local virtual xmas market, which has helped the business to reach a wider audience through facebook.

Plum jam is not just easy to make and deliciously fragrant, it looks so vibrant it’s just what’s needed to brighten up your breakfast table.

This is not an exact kind of recipe; it’s more just some ideas to try out. I kind of started this dish as a way to use up some vegetables and then kept on adding…You can substitute as much as you want. If you want it to be veggie then leave out the tuna and […]

I have great memories of climbing this wonderful hill by what I think is the best route of all the seven I’ve tried. That’s Hall’s Fell, the most central of the five buttresses which make up the southern face of the mountain. Starting with a wide swathe of grass and heather, it soon becomes a narrow rocky ridge which leads unerringly straight to Blencathra summit.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” (The Hobbit, JR Tolkein)

Be patient and confident if you can. It does take practice. However, the good news is that it can’t really go wrong. Thick jam and runny jam are both lovely!

Making butter is easy and fun! Why not give it a go?

The great British teenager swap has started: lots of excited young people moving to start their adult lives at university. How do they fit in with the local community?

A tasty treat for a holiday weekend (or any time really!)

Cycling is a way of being considerate to your community, as it reduces pollution. And this is linked to another current issue: there are times when pedestrians and road users would be well advised to wear facial shields such as masks.

The Mirror & The Light is a triumph. It may win awards for the whole trilogy, but at 875 pages long, it suffers most when Mantel’s imagination overrides history.

In the UK, we had the added concern that the government didn’t appear to be in control. They were late in acting and contradictory in their advice.

Sourdough produces the most fantastic bread and once started you’ll love the results so much you won’t want to stop. (Recipe)

It started in March. As lockdown started and panic began to take hold, I could not get flour anywhere. Every supermarket had been stripped clean, no wholemeal, no rye, no plain white, nothing. I have always made bread for my family in a bread machine (which, by the way, is awesome and nothing to be ashamed of […]