Oh my. I have a weakness for custards ... and there are few things more exquisite than a really good orange in its season.... So I was intrigued by Claudia Roden's recipe for a baked custard -- a flan -- made with no milk or cream: just eggs, a … [Read more...]
A Maytime menu to cook together: asparagus and pea ravioli, and coffee crème caramel
May: the landscape is never so alive with growth as it is now, life pushing ahead, making more of itself. It renews us too: our love for life and each other, our desire to connect with all this radiance. A friend was telling me recently as we … [Read more...]
Fresh coconut cake and cream pie, oh my…
It's April, the cherry blossom and lilac are in glorious bloom, and it's Easter week. In our house this means it's time to make fresh coconut cake, which for idiosyncratic reasons I always associate with this time of year. There's something about … [Read more...]
A Valentine’s menu, and musings on love’s labours
We are all in search of easy ways to eat well, but when I see recipes that claim to be ‘effortless’, I raise my eyebrows. Feeding ourselves is a basic need that requires effort, even when it’s pleasurable, creative and appreciated. Preparing a … [Read more...]
Primula vulgaris: a common treasure
My English country garden is more abundant with the native, pale yellow primrose this year than I have ever known it. Suddenly the insignificant volunteer seedlings I half-remember seeing in unpromising places have plumped into blooming clumps that … [Read more...]