I’m not a natural cook at all. I usually have to follow a recipe with the exception of a few staple dishes that I have been cooking for years. I’m good at baking but I think that’s because it’s all about measurements and I tend to treat cooking like a science. My husband has the [...]

Maria Crispy not only can’t cook but hasn’t even been trying to cook in about six months. To catch up, I decided to make a couple of desserts for a party, chocolate soufflés (courtesy of my friend Anna) and an apple and blackberry crumble (courtesy of Rachel Allen). The greatest thing about both of these [...]

Did I mention, seventeen times, that I had swine flu last week? And yes, I have a doctor’s note to prove it. So there. I’m better now, but I was curious to see how friends and total strangers reacted to news of my surprisingly mundane illness. The answer? They shunned me, of course. Even my [...]

Learning how to cook, Step Two. Develop an exaggerated sense of your own culinary skills, based on only one successful soup, and attempt to make meringues with chocolate chips and almond (oh so theoretically good…). Fail miserably. Fail like you haven’t failed since that school biology test when the, to put it mildly, deviation of [...]

Learning how to cook, Step One: Find a cook book with easy recipes and pick something, the ingredients for which you recognise and can locate. This cold cold week, easing into things, I thought I’d give Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Foods a go, given that it’s meant for people like me and the recipes satisfy [...]