I have always said there are certain cuisines that you should just pay for and Japanese food has always topped that list. Well, I haven’t changed my mind. I absolutely love Japanese food and as we don’t have a Japanese restaurant on the Island, this seemed an exciting adventure! I picked my cookbooks, chose the… Continue reading Japan

Today has been very hot by UK standards. It got well into the 30s here on the Island and I think I actually saw colleagues melting across the floor. There was a point of sweatiness from which there was zero recovery towards the end of the working day. I try not to moan about the… Continue reading I is for Italy

How, how are we half way through June? We are in week 24 which means I should be almost half way through the alphabet on this years challenge. I randomly know that M is the middle letter of the alphabet and I’ve made it as far as H. Hmmm, that means I am 5-6 weeks… Continue reading G – H. The precursors to I & J

I’ve not taken to the keyboard since B in January but life has been insane and time seems to be something I am short of. Fear not though, this is a four recipe blog post with some doozies included! C-F definitely better than A and B. I’ll try and tackle them in alphabetical order but… Continue reading A, B, C, D, Egypt, France too……

More precisely, B is for morog pulao which is a Bangladeshi pilau rice dish and the dish I decided to cook for challenge 2/26. It’s easy with this challenge to end up doing insane amounts of research and then getting choice paralysis but for this one, I went with ‘will the kids eat it?’. This… Continue reading B is for Bangladesh

On a day when life literally gave me lemons, it has also given me a metaphoric dose of citrus sourness. Things started out really well when I discovered five ripe lemons on our lemon tree. This is fairly momentous given it is January in England and by all accounts lemons shouldn’t really grow here and… Continue reading When life gives you lemons – Argentina

Anyone else had just about enough of the endless cycle of cooking that lockdown has brought with it? If it isn’t the basic three meals a day, it’s the endless snacks required. I can set my watch by the following conversation: Child 1/2 or 3: ‘mummy, can I have a snack?’ Me: ‘yes, no crisps’Child… Continue reading Wagon wheels and KFC

It’s day 5 million and something of lockdown. I have completely forgotten what seeing friends and family is like and the days blur into an endless stream of meals shopped for, thought about, cooked and fairly often rejected. I am making my way through the last wine order all by myself as COD decided to… Continue reading Pig in a cow blanket

Perhaps it’s the fact that we haven’t had a holiday in well over a year and it’s not looking much like we will be having one anytime soon, but recently (and a recent meal) I’ve been thinking about holidays from my youth. Growing up in South Africa, holidays usually meant driving from where we lived… Continue reading Fishy-eggy-breakfasty goodness

Last Saturday morning I was out running with my running crew. The amazing ladies who are helping keep me sane trotting up and down the hills of Ryde and beyond. While discussing our plans for the weekend I mentioned we were having friends for dinner and I was going to make bobotie. This was of… Continue reading Custard-topped bolognaise? WTF?