Having previously posted a recipe for my quick and easy lemon marmalade, I thought I'd mix it up a bit for my gin-loving friends and make some boozy preserves for their Christmas presents! 5 medium lemons 2 limes 1kg preserving sugar 4½ cups of boiling water 5 tbsp. gin  See my previous post for marmalade-making tutorial with pictures and tips on sterilising your jam jars. Wash the fruit. Cut in half and juice into a bowl. Strain the juice to remove the pips. Cut the skins in half again. Put the fruit, juice and 1cup of the water into your liquidiser jug/food processor and pulse t ..read more

© Pizza Muffins (Puffins)  It's been a while, I know. So I feel I owe any regular readers (if there are any left) an explanation.  If the truth be told, I've fallen out of love with blogging for a few reasons: Competitiveness - I used to read a lot of other blogs and felt my posts and images needed to look as good. That takes time. A lot of time.  Inspiration -  lack of! Kids growing up - one is at uni and the other is at college and will go to uni next year. That means that we have fewer family meals together. Work - working full time leaves less time for bloggin ..read more

I currently have a glut of perpetual spinach growing in  raised beds, in my kitchen garden.The older leaves are much larger and a bit tougher than normal spinach and I was wondering how to use them up in something other than spinach and feta pie. I suddenly had a brainwave to try another Greek dish, dolmadakia; in case you don't know, dolmadakia (little dolmades) are traditionally made with vine leaves. ½ cup risotto rice 1 onion, finely diced 1 large clove of garlic, crushed 1½ cup veg. stock  1 tbsp tomato puree, optional ½ tsp sugar 2-3 tbsp each of chopped fresh parsley and min ..read more

Hummus Where The Heart Is by Dunja Gulin, is a cook-book with a difference, as all the recipes are for, or involve, hummus! The book itself is a cute little number, with a heart shape cut out of the front  cover, which makes it an ideal gift for hummus lovers. The humble hummus has become an essential item for vegetarians and vegans alike, but the shop bought stuff is not a patch on the homemade variety, not to mention being vastly over packaged and over priced! This book contains an amazing array of cheap, quick and easy to follow hummus recipes, including some using pulses other than ..read more

This delicious and indulgent recipe for millionaire's shortbread is one my grandma used to make, so it's been tried and tested over three generations and is still a family favourite. It takes a while to make, but it's definitely worth it for a special occasion or gift. For the shortbread base 200g/8oz block butter 200g/8 oz caster sugar 300g/12 oz SR flour 3-5 tbsp. milk For the caramel 200g/8oz butter 200g/8oz soft brown sugar 2 tbsp. golden syrup 2 x 400g/1lb tins of condensed milk a good pinch of sea salt To top 300g milk chocolate 50g white chocolate (optional) Grease and line a non ..read more

This was my attempt at recreating a Nando's beanie burger for my daughter. Apparently, it didn't taste as good as the Nando's one, but she still enjoyed it. The recipe is packed full of protein from different sources, so this is a good recipe to fill up growing children and hungry adults alike! Serves 4-6 1 medium onion, finely chopped 1 large clove of garlic, crushed 1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped ½ cup each of frozen peas and sweetcorn 2 tsp cumin ½ tsp smoked paprika ½ tin chickpeas ½ tin black eyed beans, or other pulses 4 tbsp chopped or coarsely ground pumpkin seeds (or cashew ..read more

I hope you'll excuse this deviation from my usual food-based posts, but I've recently got back into machine sewing and wanted to share my latest creations. They make great gifts, are very cheap to make and take just one afternoon, or a couple of hours to make. This particular design makes two large and two small purses from just two fat quarters of fabric - so that's a cost of around £2-3 for all four pouches, depending on the price of your material. The patterns for both pouches are made from a single sheet of A4 paper (folded in half for the smaller one). I hope you can follow my picture ..read more

I started this blog 7 years ago when my older daughter was 11 years old and had just started high school. She's now 18 and off to university. Where have the years gone? Anyway, as she's going to be self-catering in her halls of residence, I've been helping her buy some essential kitchen equipment (Home Bargains and IKEA are your frugal friends!) and have drafted a basic food shopping list. As I don't know if she'll find anyone to food-share with, I'll be buying many of these items to fill her cupboard in the shared kitchen, so that I know she'll be eating OK for at least the first couple of w ..read more

We've had a good crop of discovery apples this year, so I've been trying to come up with different ways of using up the windfalls. This fruity upside-down cake, which was inspired by this week's episode of The Great British Bake Off, makes a lovely autumnal recipe for the Suma Blogger's Network and must almost count as a 5-a-day! Serves 6-8 2-3 dessert apples, peeled, cored and thickly sliced 100g/4oz toffee sauce - I used Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding Sauce from Suma 100g/4oz butter 100g/4oz soft brown sugar 2 eggs 150g/6oz SR flour 1 medium-large carrot, grated 50g/2oz raisins or sultana ..read more

It's that time of year again and my home grown courgettes are fruiting in abundance - the yellow variety are doing particularly well.  As I'm not a fan of traditional potato salad, coated in mayonnaise, I devised this recipe instead. Serves 4-6 as a side dish 200g/8oz baby courgettes/zucchini, sliced 100g/4oz green beans, sliced 500g/1lb new potatoes, halved if large 2 cloves of garlic, unpeeled 2 tbsp olive oil For the dressing: 2 tbsp. olive oil a good handful of chopped, fresh tarragon or a mixture of any fresh, green herbs you have to hand (parsley, oregano, basil, mint etc) 2 tbs ..read more