When I was asked for my alternative ideas and twists for a Christmas day dinner I knew just the recipe… My mum Mamta’s Tandoori Leg of Lamb. It can be served with all the normal roast dinner trimmings, as we do in our house, or as the central dish to an Indian feast. It’s ideal ... Read more »
Christmas shopping should be such a pleasure – finding the ideal gifts for your loved ones and anticipating their pleasure in them – but the reality is often far more stressful with time, budget and practical constraints that often get in the way. The response to last year’s gift guide was wonderful so here once ... Read more »
I love sharing recommendations for great products and great gifts. Here’s last year’s epic gift guide. And a selection of food books I suggested the year before. And the main gift guide from 2010 too. And back in 2009 I shared some great tea products from suppliers including Jing, Lahloo, Rare Tea Company and Teanamu. ... Read more »
Guest post by Kelly Atkins. After much persistence this year I finally caved in and agreed to join my mother on a mother daughter trip with some family friends to Germany. Faced with the possibility of having to finish my Christmas shopping in the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street, I decided the week before Christmas ... Read more »
I hate shopping for clothes, shoes and practical necessities but I do love shopping for presents. There’s something wonderful about finding the perfect present for a loved one; a present you know will light up their face when they receive it; a present that fits like an oven glove! Recently, I shared some recipes for ... Read more »
I love the idea of giving homemade gifts for Christmas. I’ve come across the mentality that homemade is second best; I know people who judge on monetary value and assume that shop-bought, established brands are always better than amateur efforts. Homemade to these folks is about thrift or stinginess or rose-tinted nostalgia, if they’re being ... Read more »
Long lists of ingredients – some familiar, some exotic; instructions on how to transform them into delicious treats; vivid and tantalising photographs and even an insight into other cultures and cuisines… I love cookery books! I kinda, sorta agreed, about a year or two back, to a moratorium on the purchase of new cookery books. ... Read more »
Like many of you, I’ve been thinking about Christmas gifts – what I’d like to receive myself and what might make the perfect present for others. Here are 36 ideas that I’d like to share with you… I hope some of them give you some inspiration for your own Christmas shopping or wish lists! ... Read more »
When I asked people what Christmas food (and drink) they most love and hate, Christmas pudding topped the list of hates. Luckily, enough people love Christmas pudding for me to easily find a band of volunteers to taste test a random selection of 2010 Christmas puddings. When Sarah of Spoon PR kindly volunteered Spoon HQ ... Read more »
Procrastinating as usual, when faced with a long list of overdue chores, I merrily whiled away a few hours on twitter, as you do… and thought I’d find out which Christmas food and drinks my twitter friends’ most love and hate. I did the same last year and really loved reading all the responses! Many ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]