Monthly Archives: August 2017

Summer Vegetable Paella

My Goddaughter, Chloe, came and stayed with us for 6 weeks this summer   She had come back from NZ to go to some weddings and whilst away had taken the decision to become a vegan

My husband was somewhat aghast at the prospect of eating a plant based diet for the duration of her visit but gamely said he’d give it a go.

I am glad that he did because we discovered some new recipes that are set to be family favourites – not for when we want to eat vegan – but because they are simply delicious!!  In fact if you served some of them like this paella I bet the first thing to cross your mind would not be the fact that this is vegan dish Continue reading →

Sue’s Parmesan Shortbread

The “Sue” in question is my sister-in-law who lives in Devon and who stayed with me for a week recently. At about 6-30pm we would sit outside in the sunshine and have a drink with some of these before having our evening meal. She couldn’t believe they were so easy to make, and that I kept a roll of the unbaked dough in the fridge ready to slice off and bake when the fancy took me.  (My record for keeping the dough in fridge is a week as I have baked and eaten it by then!) Continue reading →

Spiced Runner Bean Piccalilli

If you grow your own runner beans you will know that they are a bit like growing courgettes – they are the gift that keeps on giving   Just a few vines and you have runner beans all summer long

As much as I love them there comes a point when there are protests at the thought of runner beans for supper yet again (let alone for breakfast and lunch) and even friends and neighbours don’t want a bag of them.  So I needed ideas as to how to deal with the surplus   I have frozen some (strung and cut to size, blanched for two minutes, then open freeze on trays so beans don’t clump, before putting into small bags to be cooked from frozen later) but frozen beans aren’t as good as fresh and don’t seem right in the depths of January so freezing has limited appeal.  So what else can be done with the surplus? Continue reading →

Blog at WordPress.com.