Posted on Sep 29, 2011 in Life | 38 comments

Just arrived

Just arrived
Meaty stews and wholesome soups, egg-in-an-eggcup for breakfast and mid-afternoon hunks of cheese with apples: my latest long-term cooking project came to an end early last Thursday morning and now it’s feed-me-up time. Our little Maya Ellen, who will be known around here as the Small Girl, took her...
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Posted on Sep 22, 2011 in Cookery Books, Read | 2 comments

The Ginger Pig Meat Book by Tim Wilson and Fran Warde

The Ginger Pig Meat Book by Tim Wilson and Fran Warde
Tim Wilson started off keeping a few rare breed pigs; 15 years later he heads up a successful business with four busy London butcher’s shops, under the name The Ginger Pig, which are supplied with a variety of meat from his three farms in Yorkshire. Part of the new wave of independent British meat...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2011 in Grow | 3 comments

Wild Damson Vodka

Wild Damson Vodka
When we bought the cottage we were lucky enough to acquire an old damson tree. The trunk and branches were mossy and gnarled and, come autumn, it turned out that the fruit wasn’t great either. I never quite got Nigel Slater’s ongoing obsession with it! Still, we got some batches of jam and one...
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Posted on Sep 10, 2011 in Do, Food Events, IFBA | 4 comments

Irish food photography workshop

Irish food photography workshop
Ask food bloggers to bring something sweet to have with coffee and just look what you get: a mouthwatering array of beautifully baked and lovingly packaged treats. And they were just the icing on the cake during a day of food photography organised by the ever-helpful Maeve Desmond at Bord Bia. Between...
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Posted on Sep 8, 2011 in Do, Eating Out | 2 comments

Berlin: Bashful dining with the Shy Chef

Berlin: Bashful dining with the Shy Chef
An email conversation with Aoife at I Can Has Cook about her forthcoming trip to Berlin reminded me of the time I spent there with a six-month-old Little Missy while the Husband did his brewing course at VLB Berlin. The undoubted highlight was the night that the Sister and I spent at a Shy Chef dinner...
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Posted on Sep 7, 2011 in Radio, Work | 0 comments

Lyric fm: The art and the business of bees

Lyric fm: The art and the business of bees
We eat a lot of honey at the cottage. The Husband is a particular fan of it on toast for breakfast and Little Missy always loves to get her fingers sticky with a corner of what he’s eating. We know better than most where that honey comes from. On a good, warm day we’re normally lucky enough to...
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