Here is a recipe for spring. I’ve been out in the garden this weekend, trying to mow the lawn after all the rain. I need to strim it first, which is such hard work. The lilac tree is leaning low heavy with scented wands of purple flowers, the cherry, apple and pear blossom is out in various shades of pink, while the tree peony is yellow upon the brick wall. The Clematis Montana is swarming up the fence. Maybe April is my favourite time of year for the garden. Soon I’ll be eating on my balcony terrace, dishes like these: Print Saffron, lemon, fig and walnut risotto I had this in Noto, Sicily I ..read more

The Trouble with Jessica just came out on general release in cinemas. It stars two of my favourite actors: Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films) with sickly sweet voice and the razor-sharp-cheek-boned Rufus Sewell. The story centres around a middle class dinner party in London. The hosts are trying to sell their house because they are broke, business is bad. Mid-dinner, one of the guests hangs themselves on their terrace. The remaining guests decide to cover it up, because a suicide will affect their house sale. Chaos ensues. A recurring trope in the film refers to a cl ..read more

Two of the most popular foods are pizzas and bagels. So as well as the mini pizzette for my daughter’s birthday party last week, I also made mini bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon. I looked for a recipe on my blog as I’ve made bagels several times over the years but no, there didn’t appear to be one. Zilch. I think for a long time I didn’t realise the purpose of a food blog was to have recipes. I couldn’t remember how I made them so I used Ed Kimber’s recipe which works very well. I’ve only made a couple of tiny adjustments. Even though I’m using yeast, I make them a little bit sour ..read more

It was my daughter’s 30th birthday on Saturday. She had a party at my place. The theme was ‘gold’. This turned out to be a great idea because everybody glittered. My son in law indulged his camp side and wore gold and black sequin trousers and a gold necklace. He looked like a mix between Russell Brand and Morrissey. I’m here for it. I love it when men dress up. My granddaughter wore a gold dress too. My daughter hired a mixologist. He made cocktails all night, using my babycham glasses. I think we went through seven bottles of tequila. His Margaritas, Porn Star Martinis and Pina Coladas wer ..read more

On the 16th March, after four days of travel by car, I reached the Mexican Dark Skies supper club in North Western Scotland, Assynt, Sutherland, (north of Ullapool) run by Monica Shaw and her partner Mark Washer. He’s particularly interested in astronomy, and the long black northern nights in Scotland are perfect for this. They have an airbnb for rent with attached observatory. This is one of the wildest areas of Scotland. Sutherland means ‘southlands’ which seems bizarre until you realise it was so named by the vikings who came from further north. Monica, being American, having lived a while ..read more

I’ve been obsessed with trims and tassels for a while now. When living in France I used to buy vintage shop stock, trimmings wound around old cards, from markets. During lockdown, I spent the first few months sewing bobbles around all my seat cushions, and I have a lot – after all, I run a supper club. I like to decorate. I’m a bit of a maximalist so any decorative craft is like catnip. In the last five years or so, the fashion for interiors in the UK has veered towards patterns, decoration, vibrant colour and vintage crafts; very different to earlier more stripped down, modern, white walls ..read more

Here I write mostly about food and travel. I’ve started a substack to write about everything else I’m interested in (which turns out to be a lot): stuff like fashion, politics, interiors, books (about food and not about food), TV shows, films, music, my granddaughter and any musings that occur to me. It consists of short notes. My substack is more like my blog was at the beginning. I’ve stopped sending out my posts via mailchimp because it cost me $120 a month and at the moment I’m not even earning that. I’m reducing my outgoings as much as I can: I haven’t had the heating on for two years now ..read more

A standard dal tends to be yellow or orange, using red or yellow lentils. I had a packet of urid dal lurking about, to be used up. I’ve never made Dal Makhani, but looking it up, it turns out the correct lentil for the recipe is urid (or urad). Urid dal is sometimes described as creamy or even slimy. (It’s amazing how many cultures, particularly Africa, love slimy food). A scoop of urid/urad dal is often added ‘tempered’ to Indian dishes to add texture and nutrition. I love it in lemon rice for instance. I bunged half a packet into soak overnight. You are supposed to add kidney beans but I di ..read more

These cabbage rolls are an Eastern European version of Greek dolmades, but using fermented cabbage rather than vine leaves. I used Thai purple rice rather than white rice because that’s what I had, also it adds a nutty flavour. Print Fermented cabbage rolls (vegan) Usually these are served stuffed with meat but a vegetarian version is nicer. The fermented cabbage gives the dish a slight alcoholic flavour. With the cabbage, if there is a thick heart or some smaller leaves left, chop them small and add to the stuffing. Course Main Course, Vegetarian main course Cuisine Macedonia Keyword Cabbag ..read more

I recently wrote a piece for BBC Food on other uses for Kitchen gadgets. As part of the research for the article, I put a grilled sandwich machine through its paces. This is a great kitchen gadget to have in a bedsit or in halls if you are a student. (My daughter insisted on taking the family rice steamer when she was at university. She kept it in her room- can of tuna, some olive oil, lemon juice and steamed rice and that’s a great nutritious and cheap student dinner. Put it this way, she is the ONLY student I’ve ever heard of that ended university with savings.) You can make more than cheese ..read more