Mince pies and pudding are the quintessential Christmas treat. Both share many of the same ingredients so making your own will save you money. Last year I made mince pies the easy way. I bought a jar of mince meat and filled some ready-made vole-au-vent cases and bunged them in the oven. They were tasty, [...]

I’m not dreaming of a white Christmas; I want mine to be a ginger one. I’m kind of bored with the Christmas decorations I’ve had for eons so instead of going out and buying new ones, I’ve decided to make them. Gingerbread Christmas ornaments are a cinch to produce and they look great on the [...]

Try this cunning little chestnut cake recipe. It’s moreish and gorgeous, and perfect to have on standby for nibbles now, or great Christmas eats. You can easily freeze it and throw it in the freezer for use at a later date. But you’ll want to eat it now; try it on its own, after dinner [...]

A couple of years ago, I received a jar of jam for Christmas. This may seem like a stingy present but it was actually one of the nicest presents I got that year. It wasn’t any ordinary shop-bought jam but homemade, wrapped specifically with me in mind and had my name printed on the jar. [...]

We’re at mid-November, and right now is the perfect time to make your Christmas pud. If you don’t usually make it, try it: it’s wonderful, all the more succulent and sweet for having made it yourself. Last year my sister, who is a sensational cook, used Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries as a starting point and [...]

Breakfast bars are handy when you are in a rush and you need a quick burst of energy without caving into another coffee. Rather than going out and buying them, why not bake your own. They are so simple to make, the basic ingredients are really cheap and you can add whatever you fancy and [...]

I don’t want to sound like an ol’ biddy but Halloween is getting really commercial. I did live a fairly Dickensian childhood but when I was a young lass; all the decorations were handmade, weeks were spent sowing costumes and, with the exception of monkey nuts, all treats were homemade. Of course, to be honest, [...]

Following on from Tuesday’s post on cookbooks, another one of my favourite books is ‘Just One Pot’ by Lindsey Bareham. What I love about this book is the recipes cover a whole range of cuisines including – India, France, Trinidad, Spain and Thailand amongst others. As you can tell from the title, all the dishes [...]

Rounding of a series of seasonal pumpkin recipes, this is a delicious weekend feast. Pumpkin Cheesecake Ingredients: 225g digestive biscuits 60g butter Juice and zest 1 lemon 340g cooked pumpkin (steamed or roasted) 225g caster sugar 450g cream cheese 1tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg 4 eggs 90ml double cream 90ml natural yoghurt [...]

There are a stupid number of great and not so great recipes available online but to me having a cookbook in my hand feels good. I like the way you can tell what recipes have been cooked by the state of the page and you can also bring the book to the kitchen counter rather [...]