Gourmet & Speciality Foods in general

So it’s Christmas Eve and to get the senses ready for the festivities I decided to make some mince pies. Now, if you are like me, I do not have the time or patience to be making my own mincemeat and find it much easier to cheat with a ready made jar (I really do cheat – I also buy the pastry ready made but that’s for a different review!) This year I hunted around and settled on Tesco’s Mincemeat with cherries, almonds and brandy. The jar cost appoximately £1.30, the contents weighed approximately 411g and I got 36 small to medium sized mince pies out of it. The Initial Aroma: Upon opening, you get an ...  Read the complete review

What do you do as a person who's trying to put her money where her (enormous) mouth is with regard to ethical food purchasing but you just can't find the time? You're trying to keep away from nasty additives, irradiated groceries, exploitative production methods for both workers and livestock, but you keep on needing some beef stock. Just one peek at the ingredients on the Bisto and Oxo packets frightens the life out of you, but you really do need that beef stock. Well, you know, I do believe I have the answer. Enter Baxter's Luxury Beef Consommé. It comes in a tin. I think the tins in the Baxter range are rather dull to look at, if I'm ...  Read the complete review

This past Friday was an event much anticipated, the culmination of my most massive undertaking since an abortive attempt at recreating a scale model Viking longboat and sailing it in a municipal swimming pool while grilling hamburgers on a hibachi. (The boat actually did set sail, we got it that far. But something went awry with the hibachi and the poor thing burned. I'm not joking, either. It's more sad than it is funny, you just had to have been there. We named it the Bismarck, even.) But Friday had nothing to do with a funeral pyre for which I never bargained, thank all that's holy. It was the annual University of Helsinki International ...  Read the complete review

I was well into adulthood before I found I could enjoy mushrooms. Somehow the texture and apparent lack of flavour put me off. It was only when I gave up smoking for the first time and diverted my nicotine craving to popcorn, that mushrooms entered my life. Initially the 2 stone weight gain which resulted had novelty. At 6' I could take the addition and my partner rather liked the new Junoesque me. However my newly increased bosom was fast being joined by a widening waistline and something had to be done. In any case things were clearly not going to stop until another stone had been added. So I joined Slimmers Magazine classes. Of all the things I ...  Read the complete review

This one's for Jill and comes with an open invitation for dinner when I open my café. So, my favourite thing – my beloved, wolves, Buffy, my cat lying on my feet when I have to get up in the morning and, of course, Kate Bush – but the thing I love to do most is cook for my friends. When I get in at night from work, the one thing that relaxes me the most is making a really good meal. Everything I've been worrying about during the day just seems to ebb away and I can feel myself slowly relaxing and becoming human again. Ever since I was little I've loved cooking, I used to love making breakfast in bed for my mum. As I ...  Read the complete review