We have been asked for some time whether we could source a pomegranate molasses and I am nearly there on that. One of our current suppliers, who is based in Beirut in the Lebanon, sent us a sample of Concentrated Pomegranate Juice which is the same...
Read moreFor many years, I shaved with a Gillette safety razor that used a classic plastic double-bladed Contour disposable blade until mid 2009. However, I did not find the shave particularly close or satisfying, and I didn't like having to chuck the blades...
Read moreEngland's football team were abject last Sunday, but the Chocolate And Nutella Tart recipe from the French patisserie chef, Pierre Hermé, was the perfect compensation - sweet, rich and complex in taste that left you just wanting more. In one of my p...
Read moreSometimes you visit some people, who really are so good and wonderful that it shames you a bit. The people at Jennyruth Workshops are some of those unsung heroes that underpin every society in the world; they just get on with it, doing good work, da...
Read moreHaving been given a great sweet tart pastry recipe by Anthony Stern from Independent Foods, I have recently come across an even better Sweet Tart Dough in Pierre Hermé’s book “Chocolate Desserts”. I must admit to being given the heads up about the w...
Read moreSaturday, a cold Saturday a few weekends ago that felt like winter but was meant to be almost midsummer. It felt like a good day to start trying to find the Steenberg family's favourite burger recipe. We tried three recipes which we taste tested si...
Read moreSaturday evening saw the roads quieten off as everyone hunkered down to watch England in their first match at the South African World Cup. The constant background noise from the A1 disappeared as it only ever does on Christmas Day - England hoping f...
Read moreThe other day my parents visited from Northumberland, and as it was a gorgeous sunny Thursday, I plucked up the courage to try one of David Lebovitz's recipes. It's always a matter of bravery as I am in awe at other people's ability to make seemingl...
Read moreDid you know that one of my first jobs was in the Pets & Cleaning Department in Fenwick's in Newcastle? And ever since, I have had a strange and haunting obsession for Household Cleaning products. Well, I am not really that fascinated in them,...
Read moreI mentioned in my first blog about walks in Ripon in North Yorkshire that I did not believe that Ripon had only been settled as a monastery in 650AD. I believe this basic historical fact about Ripon's history even less now after walking along the Ri...
Read moreAs you walk through the centre of Ripon alongside the River Skell, you get an appreciation of how many bridges there are. Sure, Ripon isn't Venice with its profusion of quaint, romantic curve bridges that play on the imagination nor the strong, engi...
Read moreI read a book last year called “The Scents of Eden” by Charles Corn – it’s a history of the spice trade. It was great as the perspective was different from the histories that I had read in the past which always wrote them from the angle of European...
Read moreI worry about the planet. I worry about poverty. I worry about freedom. I want the world to be a better place, and I want the planet to be fit healthy and beautiful for my children when they grow up and for their children and so on for many thousa...
Read moreThursday last week was a gloriously sunny, late spring / early summer day. The daffodils are looking gorgeous. I am amazed anew every year at how the garden comes back to life, while I have been doing nothing to it, after a bitterly cold winter. S...
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