Hooray it’s February! Gosh, I don’t know about you, but it felt like January went on for a long time. I went for an early morning run in the week and I am noticing the lighter mornings, along with some cracking sunrises - spring is on the way. This weeks blog is quite a personal one to me, my wonderful step dad would have had his birthday this week, I still can’t believe its nearly 3 years since he died - feels like a lifetime and just a minute, all at the same time. I alw

Happy New Year! This is where all the best intentions begin and it's such a good opportunity to flow with this collective momentum to make changes in your life too. Last year I started running again and managed to keep it going…more's the miracle! I must say though that I am still a reluctant runner and am not jumping out of bed with a spring in my step to get started. I am more of a ‘talk myself into it’ for 10 minutes with my mini mantra of 'No is not an option!’. I know

The other day, I took the afternoon to make a list of all the Fridays left until the end of the year (surprisingly few!!) so that I could plan the blogs out to make sure they are seasonal and exciting. I promise that I am not normally that organised. So to keep things throughly autumnal and not rush ahead, I reached for golden pecans and decided to make a pie. I decided to push the pecan pie boat out, so to speak, and added some dark chocolate as there was some going spare

I have wanted to have a go at making biscotti for a while now, I always wondered how it was that they were baked twice; the actual meaning of the word biscotti. After playing with a couple of recipes I found that they were pretty easy to make - so I feel these delicious biscuits will be baked a few times over autumn . They go brilliantly with tea or coffee, but I have also enjoyed them with my Californian family, dunked in a glass of fine red wine! I am sharing two recipes t

Let’s talk about chocolate, roasted hazelnuts and salted caramel and putting them all together into a biscuit! Then you have caramel puddle biscuits. I have shared the recipe to make sea salted caramel in a previous blog on the 23rd December 2016, so you can head back to that to whip some up. It is always worth having a jar of caramel in the fridge for all sorts of treats and this is one of them. If you don’t fancy making this yourself, then you can buy caramel in a tin in

These cookies are buttery and nutty and with the addition of dark chocolates, they have a slightly bittersweet flavour to them. Now when it comes to cookies, the question is - do you like them chewy or crunchy? My answer would be…both! The centre has got to be chewy but the edges crunchy, for me that is the ultimate cookie goal. The main factor in determining the texture outcome is the length of time in the oven - the longer they are in, the crunchier they become. So if yo

Gosh - there is so much chocolate in the shops!! With all the Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies packing the aisles of the supermarket, it has been hard to avoid (not that I try!). If you fancy making something chocolatey yourself, maybe even to give as a gift, then this recipe has to be it - hazelnut chocolate spread. I know there are a million chocolate spreads available, but this one is the best I have ever had. Fact. The roasted golden hazelnuts and quality chocolate ta

I hope you are enjoying the edible gift ideas I have shared and they have inspired you to join in and get baking. I can’t believe that there is only just over a week of festivities to go, but there is still time for a couple more foodie gift recipes, so lets get cracking. This week I have been making Florentines, a festive treat if ever I saw one. Essentially they are a golden caramel cluster of nuts and candied fruits, dipped into dark chocolate - yum! There are only a fe

The winds have changed direction this week with storm Angus hitting our shores and with them, a change of seasonal heart - I am feeling the onset of festive tidings. Over the next few weeks I am planning on making edible gifts to give to my wonderful friends and family and I hope you can join in. I have always been a big fan of making gifts for Christmas, usually edible! I smile when I think back to the year that I made fresh pasta, hanging it up to dry all around the kitch

I spoke in a previous blog (Blackberry Time) about my endeavour to stay ‘seasonally present’ and not canter ahead into autumn. I held fast and the beach BBQ last week was the perfect end to a wonderful summer season; and so we pass into autumn. I decided to venture into unknown territories this week and I baked some blondies. Blondies are by no means a new phenomenon and have been popular in recipe books and online for years – but they are new to me. For those not intimatel