Food & recipes
174. Kittens with dirty bums, and other stories
You’ll have to forgive the slightly sporadic posting of late. Work is busy-busy to an almost oh-dear-I’ve-slightly-overcommitted-myself level. Which, as someone who has zero problem saying ‘no’, is unusual for me. Still, I’m not complaining. Work is what keeps us...
173. Autumn routines
Isn't autumn the best? I mean, today is dark, rainy and freezing – it’s a chilly 8°C right now, when this time last week it was almost 30°C – but who doesn’t love an opportunity to wrap themselves up in an oversized cardigan and legitimately wear Ugg boots?* Wood...
170. What to do with all those courgettes
Cake. Surely the best use of a vegetable? I’ve not yet found a great way to preserve courgettes. We recently tried fermenting courgette batons in brine (mixed with dill flowers, horseradish leaves and sour cherry leaves of all things – it’s a Ukrainian...
169. Fritters
I love vegetables. No, really, I do. We only eat meat once or twice a month as a treat, so vegetables, grains and dairy make up the bulk of our diet. (After watching some eye-opening documentaries lately about intensive farming and the impact of dairy on our...
165. Early harvests
The garden is ramping up and feeding us regularly, despite last week’s epic storms. In fact, we’ve eaten (small) beetroot, (even smaller) courgettes and (lots of) tomatoes from the garden every day this week. Our early Latah tomatoes, and spoils from the...
154. January funk. Cabbage
It’s been a really mild and easy January so far. We’ve only got about three inches of snow on the ground from yesterday’s snowfall, the first snow of 2018. The road is pretty clear. The temperature is hovering around zero when we get up in the mornings,...
153. Christmas and New Year in pictures
Food wanker I mean, I hate to be a dreadful food wanker, but just look at all the lovely things we ate and drank over the festive period. For the last 11 years, Christmas dinner has consisted of turkey and all the trimmings. This year we went all Scandi:...
147. Very English concerns: Weather and booze
Brrrr As is typical in Bulgaria, the change in seasons has been marked with a huge temperature swing. After months of a pretty constant 25–30°C here in the mountains, we’ve dropped to 15°C in the blink of an eye. I realise that’s hardly arctic, and in deepest...
146. Autumn love, preserving like a boss, and a trip to the Rhodopes
Autumn is my favourite time of year – specifically that dreamy early September period when the evenings are cold enough for a sweater but the days are hot enough for shorts and flip flops, and the leaves are *just* starting to turn. And the food! Oh my, I love...
134. Return of the wonky polytunnel and a summer kitchen teaser
Lordy, where is April going? We’ve both been working such long days, there hasn’t been much time to update the blog. But here’s a brief whizz through what’s been occurring of late. We made the usual dyed eggs and hot cross buns for Easter Sunday....
133. Lovely things to do in Sofia
It’s no secret how much I love Sofia. Every time I see one of those ‘Top 10 cheap European city breaks’ articles that the Guardian publishes every other week, I always scan through thinking this time, surely this time, they’ll include Sofia. But they never...
132. Asparagus high
Not much to update y’all on this week as I’m working all hours at my laptop and Rob is working all hours on the summer kitchen. Except… Literally the most exciting thing to happen all week. Possibly ever. …our first ever proper asparagus harvest!!!...