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Coconut & Cashew Hot Chocolate
During the last few months of my pregnancy, hot chocolate became something of an obsession. The sparkle of the festive season was strictly off limits (as were those dark winter cocktails that warm one all the way to one’s toes) and so I turned my attention to something that was allowed – and goodness, did…
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Pea & Coconut Soup with Garden Herbs
As we were walking the dogs earlier this week, we noticed that one of the fields near our house- that had seemed completely bare a couple of weeks ago – is now filled with sturdy pea seedlings, curling out of the earth. It’s a familiar sight at this time of year; the area just east…
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Elderflower, Pink Grapefruit & Rosemary Gin & Tonic
This weekend we’ve been incredibly busy in the garden. The sun has finally decided to shine on us, and so we’re taking the opportunity to weed, sow, plant and dig (not to mention building retaining walls and pick-axing and excavating new flower beds!). As a result we’ve not really had the time (nor the energy) to…
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Garden Pea & Asparagus Bruschetta
This a quick and easy post for a quick and easy recipe. At this time of year I often notice that cooking becomes a lot more relaxed than in other seasons. There’s an abundance of fresh produce that needs very little attention to coax out its quality – in my experience, a little salt, olive oil and lemon…
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A Springtime Walk in the Woods
I love walking in the woods in Springtime. The reawakening that the season brings is more apparent there than anywhere else, and I find myself quite enchanted by the unfurling of buds into leaves, the ever-changing damasked undergrowth, and the play of light through the maturing canopy. On each visit I notice something new – catkins, flushed with pollen,…
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Spiced Rhubarb Gin Fizz
The last time Maurice and I were down in London we visited Mr Fogg’s, a cocktail bar and gin parlour in the West End, themed around Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. As I love a bit of whimsy, I was quite in my element perched on a chaise longue, sipping literary-inspired libations and nibbling quails’ eggs. (And…
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Spiced Rhubarb Soda
When we moved into our house five years ago, the only thing in the garden that seemed to have been purposefully planted by the previous owners, was a large crown of Victoria rhubarb. It was so well established that we didn’t want to risk moving it, so dug the flower bed around it, and it…
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Wild Garlic Hummus with Spring Crudités
As readers of any of my previous posts on the subject will know, I am more than a little enthusiastic about the Springtime emergence of wild garlic. As April arrives, the nearby woods are lush with its strap-like leaves and distinctive allium scent, and by Mid-May the woodland is dotted with clusters of white, star-shaped flowers,…
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Cherry Blossom Martini
If there’s one sight that’s synonymous with Spring throughout the Northern Hemisphere, surely it’s the emergence of fruit blossoms, softly trembling through April’s sun and showers, and none are more celebrated nor prolific than those of the cherry tree. I can still recall the first time I encountered these delicate flowers. At the nursery I attended…
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Coconut & Raspberry Smoothie
I sometimes feel like a bit of a fraud posting smoothie recipes, because they’re just so simple, and yet I can’t resist sharing this one. Its creation was a bit of a fluke, but it’s truly delicious. Last weekend we were having (a somewhat rushed) breakfast before driving up to Scotland for the wedding of two…