Using winter vegetables & preserving

Suddenly having loads of winter vegetables from your garden or allotment that are all ready at the same time is a joy  , but  how do you find enough recipes to use them all to the best advantage.How do you preserve them if you have a glut?This year I have such an abundance of red cabbage , savoy cabbage and leeks.

Herbs & spices

Over the years , I like many people have used more and more spices.Growing up in the 50’s I had hardly heard of a spice except perhaps cinnamon or mixed spice on the top of a rice pudding ! Now the amount used in cookery and food is amazing and new spices come to light every day.We are so lucky to live in an age where so many  herbs and spices are available to us.A lot of this of course is because of the wonderful amount of Asian restaurants in Britain now and the fact that we have become more adventurous.

Casseroles & stews

It is the time of year when we need to eat warming food that makes us feel good and are easy to prepare , bung in the oven and leave while we do other chores.Of course you do not have to stick to the original recipe,just add other ingredients you may have in the store cupboard…This type of recipe is never the same twice!

Some like it hot!..Chillies and mustards

I have been experimenting with mustard seeds lately with quite a bit of success.I did not realise how many different flavours you could have.Of course you can have black ,yellow or white mustard seeds  in your store cupboard but it’s not that important if you only have one type..