Food & recipes
One of those ‘whoa’ moments
You may not expect this of me, sweary, dungaree-devotee that I am, but I’m surprisingly into visualisation and manifestation. No, really. Woo woo me up, baby. I draw the line at crystals and horoscopes (with apologies to crystal- and astrology-lovers – you do you),...
Roasted courgette dip, savoury courgette muffins, and the aggressive giving away of vegetables
I dare not venture into the garden during daylight hours. The second I sneak into the veg patch, our elderly neighbour pops up on his side of the fence and yells (in Bulgarian), ‘Do you want some courgettes?’ Each time, I firmly remind him that we have four...
A really, really good vegan burger recipe
Not going to lie, this recipe has so many things that should make me hate it. I have to wrestle my food processor out from the cupboard. There’s the frying of onions. (As a human smell sponge, I usually nope out of any recipe that starts with caramelising onions.)...
How to love tofu (by an ex-tofu sceptic)
I don’t mind admitting I’ve been on a journey with tofu. A journey that started with me as a staunch tofu sceptic and has arrived here, at the point where I get nervous if I have fewer than four blocks of tofu in the fridge. You, too, can learn to love tofu to this...
Rhubarb wine (because I’m obsessed with fermenting)
Earlier this year I started brewing my own ginger beer, following instructions in the River Cottage Fermentation Handbook, and I’ve been making batches regularly ever since. My ginger bug – the ginger and sugar concoction that’s used to kickstart fermentation –...
Reducing our food bill. A thrifty soup recipe
I never used to pay attention to food prices. We live a frugal life, have old cars, go on cheap holidays, cut our own hair, and wear second-hand clothes. And because of that, I’ve always given myself licence to buy whatever food and drink I want, without...
Two packets of Bourbons and a packet of Hobnobs: The food journey of a Brit in Bulgaria
We talk a lot about how immigrant food has shaped British food for the better. We talk less about what happens – food-wise – when Brits move abroad. Which food traditions do we leave behind? Which remain rituals for life? I used to mock people who lived in expat...
What to feed the vegan or vegetarian at your table this Christmas
If you’re anything like me, you start thinking about Christmas food in, oh I don’t know, September. By November you’re bookmarking more recipes than you could ever cook or bake in the one-week period that is Christmas. And by now, a week or so before C-Day, you’re...
How we make cider
I say ‘we’ but this is mostly an annual Rob endeavour. I help out with the picking and chopping of apples, then I entirely check out of the process until it’s time to drink the stuff. Writing this post therefore meant shaking the details out of Rob’s head via a...
Mushroom season
It’s been a dry month, with hardly any of the afternoon storms that usually punctuate June. Which is great. The garden has enjoyed the abundant heat and sunshine. But it’s not so great for picking mushrooms. Every time we’ve been mushroom hunting this season the...
What to sling on the barbecue this summer
Whiplash-inducing turnaround, as per usual, on this blog. Last time moaning about the unseasonably cold April, and this time telling you to fire up the barbecue. Because SUMMER IS HERE, folks. We’ve had a couple of weekends where it’s been warm enough to cook and...
Sexy Paul. Also, more bread
Right, so I caught a bit of that Beatles documentary Get Back and I have FEELINGS on the matter. Confusing, sometimes sexual feelings. Mostly about Paul McCartney. Which is very weird because, for me, Paul McCartney has always fallen into the same category as Bono...