28 March 2010

Global warming - what's the fuss all about?

I have to admit to becoming more skeptical about global warming since I began studying at The Open University on an Environmental Studies and Science Course.  I doubt that becoming less convinced about much of the stuff written about global warming w...

27 March 2010

Recipe - Hot Cross Buns

I have always bought our hot cross buns from the baker or the supermarket, which just seems a bit too lazy really, so I thought I would have a bash at making them myself this year.

16 March 2010

Steenbergs Fairtrade Vanilla - Some Background

I tried to post a response online at The Times in relation to their article but they wouldn't post it - perhaps it was too long or too partisan.  In any case here are some further details on Steenbergs vanilla. 

14 March 2010

Recipe for Simnel Cake

Today is Mother's Day and what a glorious sunny, Spring day it has been.  We gave Sophie a gorgeous bouquet of flowers - white roses, lilies and greenery - and went to church for a Mothers' Day Service, a bit of a rarity for me.  I liked the sentimen...

05 March 2010

Recipe For Granny Salad Or Cucumber Salad

Following on from the recipe for Yorkshire Salad, my mum makes a wonderfully refreshing cucumber salad, which has a similar sweet and sour flavour.  It's lovely in the summer for al fresco dining and great with fish all your around.

05 February 2010

Steenbergs Launches New Design For Spice Tins

At Steenbergs, we have been doing a lot of work trying to refresh parts of our organic spices and seasonings range.  Now we have relaunched our spice tins into a bright new label and an elegant rolled tin.

04 February 2010

Recipe for Traditional Pudding: Queen of Puddings

I was listening to Radio 4 the other day and they were talking about steam puddings and how it is a truly English traditional that is not found anywhere else.  One of the puds they were talking about was Queen of Puddings which was being made  at Riv...

01 February 2010

Trying To Build A Better Spices Business

When Sophie and I set up Steenbergs, we were very clear in our own minds about what Steenbergs as a business wanted to offer as products - the widest and most exotic range of great spices, herbs, seasonings and teas from around the world that are gro...

30 January 2010

Reflections On Le Credit Crunch

I think I am now pretty much up to looking back on 2007 - 2009, and thinking about 2010 and forwards.  Le credit crunch and le recession have been a roller coaster, like surfing a bad set of hairy, tumbling roiling waves, but it's been a truly cathar...

28 January 2010

Vanilla, Gorgeous Heady Vanilla

I love vanilla.  I really do.  I blogged about it as a spice back in May 2009 under Vanilla - the temperamental diva.

24 January 2010

Recipe - Baking Chocolate Brownies For Haiti

Our children's school council have decided to run a cake stall tomorrow to raise money for Haiti.  I feel especially moved by Haiti as my grandmother was born next door in the Dominican Republic, which has escaped the horrors of their neighbours.  Th...

14 January 2010

Recipe for Chicken Nuggets and Chips

The roads yesterday were like an ice rink - there was a thin layer of black ice outside our house that made the road treacherous.  No gritting of minor roads or housing areas seems to be being done.  We're not that good in England at cold weather - o...

08 January 2010

Recipes - Oranges And Lemons For Really Great Homemade Biscuits

While snowed in in the cold countryside of Northumberland, we enjoyed some warming chai as well as delicious mulled wine using our organic Fairtrade mulling wine spices.  I also concocted a couple of citrus based biscuits, with one of them coming fro...

01 January 2010

Recipe For Luxuriant Chocolate Chai Latte

The snow is still here and it's a white and cold Christmas and New Year period.  We've travelled to Northumberland, my home county, where we have observed the traditional first footing in a harshly, cold and rural climate - I love it. 

20 December 2009

Recipe For Snowy White Mince Pies

19 December 2009

White Snow... White Icing - A Recipe For Royal Icing

16 December 2009

Recipe For Egg Free Marzipan And Baking For Christmas Fairs

It's the time of the School Christmas Fairs, Nativity Plays and Carol Concerts and we are always being tapped for products or being asked to do some baking. 

09 December 2009

Recipe For Oxtail Casserole

I made a delicious oxtail casserole the other day.  Sophie brought a pack of oxtails - there were about 5 decent sized ones and 4 smallish ones.