09 June 2010

Recipe - French Tomato Tart

The 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...

04 June 2010

May 2010 Food Blog Round Up

This month definitely has a seasonal theme of Spring to it.  Everyone has recipes for rhubarb, all of which are so much more inspiring than the classic Rhubarb Crumble that I blogged about this month and the rhubarb compote that we have been living o...

31 May 2010

Ripon Water Walks - Along The Ure

I 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...

24 May 2010

Recipe For Pink Rose Macarons

Pink is one of those colours I have never really liked.  However, getting married and then having a daughter have made me accept pink as a colour and slowly but surely start to like pink as long as it is subtle rather than Barbie coloured.  Sophie ha...

22 May 2010

New Season Asparagus

There's nothing simpler, nothing more delicious than new season asparagus.  Some years ago, Sophie and I tried to grow asparagus, but we never had sufficient patience and that project came to nought.  But luckily there are loads of brilliant local gr...

21 May 2010

Recipe for Indulgent Coffee Cup Cakes

There's lots of fuss and carry on about cup cakes and how wonderful they are, so I felt I better try and make some.  I was, also, unsure what the actual difference between a cup cake is and a good, old fashioned fairy cake.

20 May 2010

New Indonesian Pepper Just Arrived at Steenbergs

I 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...

15 May 2010

Is There An Easier Way To Save The Planet?

I 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...

14 May 2010

Steenbergs In the Media

Lifestyle magazine has long been a big supporter of Steenbergs and use many of our products to be inspired with. Many of the products not branded Steenbergs are available in our online shop.  Lots of inspiration for everyone.

11 May 2010

Two Business Decisions That Will Shape Steenbergs Over Years Ahead

We've made a couple of small, seemingly innocuous commercial decisions in the last 10 days that will probably have a dramatic impact on Steenbergs as a business over the next 5 - 10 years.

08 May 2010

Recipe For Rhubarb Crumble

Rhubarb is one of the first signs of the fruitfulness of the new season, and I really love rhubarb - we have always had lovely rhubarb at home.  There's a Steenberg family story that our sweet rhubarb came from the Russian Royal family, however I per...

03 May 2010

Great British Ice Cream Parlours

One of the great changes caused by the decline of agriculture in the UK has been farmer diversification, and one of the wonderful changes made by dairy farmers has been home-made ice cream.  Some of these are real gems.

02 May 2010

New Organic Vanilla From Tahiti

We've had a delivery of some gorgeous fecund organic vanilla from Tahiti.  It's brilliant kit and it's totally different from normal organic vanilla from Madagascar - firstly, it's a different species of vanilla orchid, called Vanilla tahitensis as a...

28 April 2010

Fairtrade Flowers And The Volcano - An Update

This is the response I got from Sainsbury's on Fairtrade Flowers:

26 April 2010

Recipe For Chicken Breasts Stuffed With Sage And Onion Stuffing

Thursday 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...

25 April 2010

Main UK Political Parties On Climate Change And Global Warming

There is a general political consensus that climate change is the number one environmental issue and there seems to be general agreement on how to address the problem, now that arch global warming skeptics like Boris Johnson and Nigel Lawson in the C...

24 April 2010

Global Warming And Greenhouse Gases

We've looked at whether there is global warming and there does appear to be global warming albeit not at such a dramatic level as we read about in the press - perhaps more like 1oC rather than 4oC or 5oC. 

21 April 2010

Recipe for Tagliatelli With Mushroom and Truffle Sauce

Simple is best sometimes.  Last night, I was struggling as to what to feed the kids now they have gone back to school and time at night has been squeezed ever tighter.  So hunting through the bare cupboards, I found some unfinished mushrooms and the...