When there's strawberries in the house that's how I know it's summer. I never eat them out of season; I feel like it's worth the wait to abstain from eating strawberries for nine or ten months of the year and then gorge on them from late May until they disappear again. Mostly I just eat them as they are but sometimes I like to make something a little more interesting. This Strawberry, Basil and Shortbread Mess is exactly that. Something that doesn't Strawberry, Basil and Shortbread Mess
When there's strawberries in the house that's how I know it's summer. I never eat them out of season; I feel like it's worth the wait to abstain from eating strawberries for nine or ten months of the year and then gorge on them from late May until they disappear again. Mostly I just eat them as they are but sometimes I like to make something a little more interesting. This Strawberry, Basil and Shortbread Mess is exactly that. Something that doesn't 
When I was young I baked with my Granny at any opportunity. She's got mad cooking skills and will beat anything together that looks like it's not going to work, portion up a raw chicken to freeze in the blink of an eye and somehow manages to produce amazing food from seemingly nothing. Safe to say, she knows what she's doing. However, we made these biscuits once together and, thanks to a timely phone call from my Mum, somehow both forgot to add any 
It's February, apologies for stating the obvious. To me, February is the interim month; not as fresh as January when I'm enthusiastic about the New Year and not as good as March when you know that spring has pretty much arrived. So as far as I'm concerned February needs a bit of brightening up to get us all through the cold, grey days. That help can come in many forms; in this case coconut and lime biscuits. This particular flavour combination can 
Hello and welcome to my new website; I hope you enjoy it! To kick things off on my new site it was only right that I baked something; I had to have something to keep me motivated during the changeover! These orange and poppy seed biscuits are a recipe from Cathryn Dresser (former Great British Bake Off contestant) author of Let's Bake and she has teamed up with Pyrex to create a series of baking recipes for National Baking Week from 13th to 19th 
A while ago I was having some lunch in a restaurant. For pudding I had some soft, sugar covered dough sticks which were to be dipped in a well known hazelnut chocolate spread. At some point in the kitchen a rogue bit of rosemary had ended up on my dough stick. I imagine there must have been some sort of herb-off going on in the kitchen between the chefs and the remnants of the duel had not been cleared up. Unbeknown to me I submerged it in hazelnutty 
There are times in life where a great slice of cake is just what you need. A bad day at work, it's been raining and you've left the washing out or unexpected expenditure all seems insignificant, smaller somehow, when you're eating sponge and jam. These problems can even disappear completely if it's a cake fresh from the oven. There are those other times though. When cake just can't cut the mustard and it's the bite of a biscuit that you need.
I 
So you’re in the kitchen feeling a bit peckish and you spot the biscuit tin. My biscuit tin had previously been looking after some elderflower and white chocolate shortbread but was there any left? Yes. Yes there was some left, but just one piece. Should I eat it myself and snub all knowledge of its existence?
Unfortunately as I was plotting how to cover my tracks my other half walked in to the kitchen with a similarly devilish plan. I 
When you’ve gone to the effort of making elderflower sugar it is paramount that you make the most of it in ever varying and interesting ways. I thought I’d run out of sugar much sooner than I have; indeed I still have around 500g left. The sugar itself has an incredible aroma and every time you open the lid it smells of hedgerows. The little elderflower cakes I made were lovely but I wanted something a little more biscuit orientated. Not only 
I like books. I can rarely walk past a charity or second hand book shop without having a little nose around. My affection for literature is not just for old books, I love the smell of new ones. As a result of my fondness, and subsequent collection of books, it was about time I sorted a few out in order to prevent some sort of hardback avalanche occurring.
So that I didn't get bored I thought it was a good idea to intersperse the organising with 
Rhubarb has been making a few appearances of late and there are only so many crumbles you can eat without wishing for a little variety. Rhubarb has so far featured on here as Rhubarb and Custard and Rhubarb and Blood Orange Compote. It's been with something else; something to cushion the blow of its out and out sourness. Now is the time to embrace the wonderful cheek puckering that rhubarb provides with a decadent rhubarb sorbet.
I managed to 
️ meal,…