nearly disastrous mixed berry scones

I always use this Nigella Lawson recipe from Nibblous when I make scones. It’s an absolute cracker – they never fail to rise, no matter what you do. You can mix the flour up with wholemeal, add cheese, have them plain or cheesy, whatever. Last night we fancied fruit ones, so I did about 60/40 wholemeal/white flour…

leek, spinach and goat cheese flan

Two fat leeks, a bit wrinkled, looked accusingly at me every time I opened the fridge. There was also about 1/4 of a bag spinach left, and some rather elderly eggs. I trimmed and washed the leeks, and sliced them up, then sauted slowly in olive oil and butter; threw in some fresh thyme part…

twelve chicken legs

I was in Tesco last Saturday – I don’t like Tesco one bit, but they were the cheapest place to buy a couple of slimline water butts, which we wanted for the garden, and so I whizzed round and bought a few bits while I was there. They had a special offer on chicken legs…

beautiful tea

We have horrid water here in the East Riding – it’s very hard, full of calcium, and we get through a lot of Brita filters (and have to use softening tablets in the washing machine too). We recently bought a gadget to give us Reverse Osmosis water (see Wikipedia for more info). Basically, you plumb…

what to do with leftover kebab #2

This follows on, really, from here. We had even more left over this time! I cut up an onion and some garlic, and fried them off in olive oil. Then I added a heaped teaspoon of Ras el Hanout and fried that off for a minute or two. In went the meat, cut into smallish…

courgette and spring green stir fry

We bought *loads* of veg at the weekend – trying to lose weight and keep carbs under control (yay! 4lbs lost last week!). We also bought some rhubarb – well, you have to when it is local, don’t you?  The threat of a rhubarb crumble (albeit one made with brown flour and porage oats) meant…

pasta, pancetta, passata (how alliterative)

And here’s what I did with the half carton of passata! I go Morris dancing on a Tuesday (yes, really – I do), and I prefer to eat at lunchtime on those days. Still not done any shopping, so … Chopped onion and garlic, softened off in olive oil. Added a packet of pancetta cubes…

cauliflower and potatoes with mushroom rice

I’ve been a bit “meh” about cooking of late; trying to lose weight leaves me uninspired. On Sunday, we had planned nothing foodwise. Pete had gone for a nap after garden-related exertions, and I went for a rummage in the fridge, to find: one very tired field mushroom half a lemon a cauliflower that definitely…

who pays for the 2 for 1 offers?

When you go shopping in a supermarket, and fall upon those “two for the price of one” offers, I’m sure you are delighted at the bounty of Tesco et al. But think again. Big supermarkets are appalling for suppliers to deal with, and due to their purchasing power, there are very few other markets. Read…