It's a funny time of year now, the days and dates get all a bit confused and everyone is in a state of simultaneous post Christmas relaxation and start of year enthusiasm. I use it as a time to reflect on the last year (of cooking and life in general) and also as a way to think about what I might like to do and try for the upcoming year. Below is a list of my ten favourite recipes from the last 12 months; although of course they are all my favourite My favourite recipes from 2014
It's a funny time of year now, the days and dates get all a bit confused and everyone is in a state of simultaneous post Christmas relaxation and start of year enthusiasm. I use it as a time to reflect on the last year (of cooking and life in general) and also as a way to think about what I might like to do and try for the upcoming year. Below is a list of my ten favourite recipes from the last 12 months; although of course they are all my favourite 
I always like seeing sweetcorn growing in the fields near where I live; it's one of my absolute favourite vegetables. The only thing that is a little irritating is the inevitable corn-stuck-in-the-teeth situation which ensues after consuming corn from the cob. Particularly irksome if surrounded by unfamiliar company. Worth it though; especially if you're lucky enough to have a 50:50 butter to corn ratio. If you're looking for something different to 
It's all about green beans and peas at the moment and a veg box delivery last week left me with beans coming out of my ears! I wanted to put them on toast to make them go as far as possible so I tried out a broad bean and feta smash. I like the slightly odd bitterness from broad beans and it goes so well with salty feta cheese. The cucumber and dill salad on the side adds real sweetness and freshness to the meal. It's super quick to make too so you 
I'm not sure you can ever have too many vegetables in the house at once but at this time of year with the peas in the garden, the veg box and whatever looks tempting at the farmers' market I can find it a little challenging to close the fridge door. You know it's got a bit excessive when your carrot fronds are getting in the way of the door seal. If you find yourself fighting some spinach to reach the butter or battling beans to get to the mayonnaise 
I'm often a bit slow on the uptake. Pulled food, more specifically pulled pork, has been doing the rounds for some time now and it's not something that I had attempted. Yet. I wanted to make an Asian coleslaw that used some spring carrots (I demoed this at Eat Reading Live) but wasn't too sure what to serve it with. It seemed an ideal time to attempt some sort of pulled pork. If, like me, you can't be bothered with pulling anything I think this would 
I can't have cheese on toast without a dribble of Worcestershire Sauce. I've added it to countless different meals; cottage pie, risotto and spaghetti bolognese to name a few. Lea and Perrins are working with the guys from Sorted to show different dishes you can add your Worcestershire Sauce to and I was asked to see what I could come up with.
Ingredients
You will need (for two):
3-4 medium onions, finely sliced
3 tbsp Lea and Perrins 
I don't get to eat much fish at home as the OH isn't a fan of anything with gills and I certainly can't be bothered to make something different for both of us! Now I'm working from home I can have all sorts of things for lunch. The mind boggles. In reality it's almost always toast but I was offered some Skrei cod to try and I thought it would make my midday meal much more exciting.
Skrei is a much loved Norwegian delicacy. Skrei must be caught 
When I was in Bruges last year there were a few foods that cropped up on almost all of the menus: moules, frites, waffles and croques. There was one café which we went to more than once because their croques (monsieur, madame and various takes on these) were so good. It was something like €8 for one croque and salad but €10 for two croques and salad; a no brainer really. One of the croques they served was full of ham, cheese and tomato then 
When I was younger I didn’t much care for vegetables. The one exception to this was my regular request for ‘Mummy’s Vegetable Soup’. I had tried soup in tins, in restaurants or at other people’s houses but nothing else came close. I think the thing that fascinated me about it was that no matter what amount or combination of vegetables went in (never potato) it would always come out somewhere between green and orange and it would be just 
Who doesn’t like a bit of cheese? Over the last couple of years I think Cheddar has been getting a bit of a bad name. Indeed ‘cheddar’ can be used to describe any cheese where the cheddaring process had been used to make it; hence, a piece of chewy, nasty, plastic cheese can be called Cheddar along with lovely, crumbly, exemplary artisan Cheddars.
Barber’s kindly invited me to the BBC Good Food Show last year in Birmingham and I really enjoyed 
