These tasty Chocolate Orange and Ginger Biscuits were a request from my Dad. He was in one of his gluten-free phases, but was wanting something sweet and tasty, so I baked these up. However, once they were cooked, everyone ended up loving them, and didn’t even know they were gluten-free! A rich chocolatey taste, paired with classic orange, and a subtle hint of ginger are the prominent flavours of these tasty biscuits. For a simple decoration, I baked them topped with some orange slices (the zest is used in the biscuit dough, so no waste!), which creates a super easy but gorgeous fin ..read more

Ahhh Bologna. How I miss you. And even more so, how i miss your food! Known as La Rossa, Grossa e Dotta, which translates to the red, fat and learned, because of the buildings’ beautiful red hue, the spectacular (but weighty) culinary options, and its reputation of having the oldest university in the Western world, this really is a city that has it all. I spent 6 months there as part of my year abroad in 2022, going only with the intention to improve my Italian and to sample some of the most renowned dishes in the world. I can safely say I achieved both of those goals. From my very first day t ..read more

I have always loved to travel, but in 2022 I embarked on my biggest adventure yet. As part of my university degree, in which I study Spanish and Italian, I had to complete my year abroad, which in all honestly, was the real reason I chose my degree anyway. Who wouldn’t want to spend a year exploring new cities, cultures, and languages, under the guise of ‘study’? While plans for the year had been brewing years in advance, in my second year of university I had to start getting down to business and decide where exactly I would go and what I would do. This section of my blog is all about what I d ..read more

Ok, so I know it is perhaps a little presumptuous to claim that these are the Best Ever Chocolate Cupcakes. However, I must confess, these are not my original recipe. They are in fact from the queen herself, Mary Berry, which may offer some insight into this somewhat daring assertion. I have made many cupcake recipes over the years, but these ones, with a few slight adaptions to the cooking times, have become my go-to. These are so fluffy inside and absolutely have to be eaten warm out of the oven. This does create the dilemma of melting icing, but I tend to just slather it on out o ..read more

The name for this beef stew is something of a joke in my family. I had tried to think of a suitable name for this tasty Middle-Eastern inspired beef stew, and after lots of thinking, I just had to go with the name that it is known by in my house. We have some family friends called the Lavins, and whenever we would meet up with them before the pandemic, it was always a feast. We would bring food to their house, and them to ours, and enjoy something of a feast together. This happened quite frequently, and we always liked to think about what we would bring the next time we met them. Wh ..read more

It seems the sunny spell that blessed our lockdown period at the beginning is starting to fade. The weather around where I live recently has been drizzly and depressing, and I’ve lost much of my motivation for summer salads. Sometimes you need something a little more comforting. I’ve been craving pasta recently, and this Chicken and Broccoli Pasta is a tasty option, but that’s a little healthier and refreshing. This pasta dish is creamy and delicious, full of subtle but delicious flavours that just hit the spot. Garlic, lemon, and fresh basil, paired with marinated chicken and your ..read more

About these brownies These salted-caramel brownies were actually a bit of an experiment. I recently visited Fredrick’s Ice Cream Parlour which is the BEST Ice Cream place ever. It’s really close by to me which is great, as I love their ice cream. I went to visit and took a few photos, but obviously I had to buy some of their delicious ice cream. They have so many delicious flavours, and I will be writing a post soon about my latest trip, but I highly recommend paying them a visit if you live around the Greater Manchester area. They even deliver ice cream around the Lancashire area a ..read more

So this recipe is my new favourite. At the moment, I’m making so many new recipes that my family haven’t eaten the same meal more than once pretty much since the start of lockdown. So when I decide to have the same meal twice in one week, I know it’s a good one. When I made these noodle bowls, I was tired, I didn’t know what they would turn out like, everyone was starving, and I was generally in a bad mood. I’d started cooking later than I should have and I knew my family were getting impatient. I got to the point where I just wanted to get it onto the table as fast as I could. But ..read more

Once again, I’m raving about Dishoom. As soon as this lockdown is over, this restaurant is going to be my first destination. Cooking their recipes has been a delicious adventure over the past few weeks. I am yet to try one and not declare it my favourite recipe. Honestly, if you make one purchase during this period, I couldn’t recommend their cookbook enough. Every recipe is so different, and just so special. However, I was slightly apprehensive to try their famous Naan. Perhaps the most famous of Indian breads, Dishoom stresses that no home oven will be able to create a naan as per ..read more

Anyone who knows me knows that I usually consider the words “chocolate” and “baking” as one and the same. Baking something sweet without chocolate, for me, is a rare, rare occurrence. However, from time to time, I just need something a little different. I had a bunch of limes in our fruit bowl the other day, and it gave me the idea to give these Lime and Cardamom Biscuits a try. And I certainly didn’t regret it. Not once while eating these did I think about the fact that there was no chocolate in sight. And for me, that is an achievement. Slightly sweet, slightly salty, with sharp l ..read more