Carrot Cake Cookies

Before I had Nino, it used to annoy me when people told me that I wouldn’t understand a particular something or story until I was a parent. It sounds so patronising, so exclusive, that this club you’re not yet a member of has this deeper understanding of a situation that your single self can’t yet comprehend. My mum would say the same thing with books of hers I’d borrow – you’ll appreciate it more when you’re older, as a mother – which I’d resolutely ignore, assuming my teenage self to have all the emotional capacity (surely more?) of a grown up adult. But the thing about those parents, my mum? They’re right. Continue reading →

22Feb2017

Pistachio Cream Filled Doughnuts

When Nino came out of hospital for the first time, we paid a lot of visits to the supermarket. During those early weeks, he wasn’t supposed to come into close contact with anyone other than immediate family due to the risk of infection before the big op, but walking outside or round the shops was allowed. I can remember spending a lot of time shopping for and preparing elaborate family meals with our baby boy in his sling, slumbering away or inquisitively watching my every move, still at that stage where he was far too small to grab at things or get in the way of my master chef-ly endeavours. Continue reading →

24Oct2016

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Few things make you appreciate the passage of time like a baby. This time last year I was five months pregnant, just starting to feel the movement and weight of his little life inside me. Now that (not so) little is careering round our kitchen, shrieking with delight as he masters each new trick. Nino’s lived in the outside world almost as long as he spent in my tummy and October has well and truly arrived with its crisp, bright mornings and chill in the air. We’ve started putting on the heating in the nursery again, our families are discussing Christmas and as the nights draw in I’m seeking comfort in autumnal offerings of squash, spice and all things nice. Continue reading →

4Jul2016

Sweet & Salty Nori Popcorn

In a couple of weeks I’ll be half way through my maternity leave. While I appreciate that I’m extremely lucky to be able to take a whole year working on the project that is our delicious baby boy, I also can’t quite imagine the time when I’ll spend a whole day apart from him. The longest I’ve gone so far is four hours at the hairdresser, most of which were spent texting his babysitting Nonna (my Mum) for updates and photos and missing him madly. Six months from now he’ll be sitting, talking, possibly walking, eating real food and showing even more of that fabulous personality we’re seeing more glimpses of every day. Reflecting on how quickly things are changing truly makes me savour every second of these precious days. Continue reading →

27Apr2016

Croquetas de Sobrasada

On Friday, much sooner than anyone had expected, we returned home from hospital. I want to share some thoughts on those crazy ten days (plus the preceding weeks at home, in fact the months since we first found out about Nino’s condition) but my brain is still processing it all. Suffice to say that my faith in human nature has grown with every wonderful nurse, doctor and member of staff that we met and every friend or family member who has supported us so far, and that our tiny twelve week old boy is stronger and more resilient than I could ever have begun to imagine he could be. Continue reading →

7Dec2015

Apricot, Coconut & Hemp Protein Bars

‘If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.’ – Gail Sheehy

The past few months have been marked by rapid change. My growing belly and the increasingly present little person inside it are testament to the physical, we’re doing up the nursery and spending inordinate amounts of time in John Lewis and on Pinterest, but beyond that there’s a change in attitude too. In eight short weeks – give or take, I’m aware most babies have a habit of arriving on their own terms – we’ll be parents to this living, breathing being. Life, as we know it, will never be the same again. Continue reading →

21Oct2015

Churros with Chocolate Orange Sauce

This Thursday just gone we jumped on a plane and spent the long weekend in Seville for some much needed r&r. After a detour to Malaga due to thick mist on the runway, our weather prospects didn’t look great, but two hours later we arrived to a city bathed in autumn sunshine. Having filled our bellies with tapas we decided to skip on cultural activities for the afternoon (if you know us well, it didn’t take much persuasion) and spent the rest of the day sunbathing beside our hotel’s rooftop pool. Continue reading →

1Sep2015

Squash + Feta Empanadas

If you enjoy cooking (and eating), feeding others is a very special thing. Sara wrote a beautiful post about it here; her feelings about how sharing food and nourishing the people around us is an unspoken act of love are so much in line with my own. But for all I love to choose ingredients, spend time in the kitchen and finally sit down at the table to share the spoils with the people I love, sometimes I also need to be fed.

Continue reading →

2Jun2014

Scotch Quail’s Eggs

When I was little I loved helping my Mum out with drinks parties. It felt exciting and somehow glamorous to be staying up late, dressing up smart and pushing trays of canapés round a room of grown-ups, eavesdropping on their conversations and sipping soft drinks from my very own champagne glass. And then there was the food – making it in advance with my Mum, arranging salamis and cheese straws on plates or punching cocktail sticks into a melon (this was the ’80s, after all), offering plates of treats to guests and seeing the smiles on their faces with that very first bite. Continue reading →

14Apr2014

(The Best) Avocado on Toast

After last week’s cookbook announcement, I wasn’t sure what to post today. Saturday morning was spent perfecting a recipe for fruit pastilles and eating one too many scones (for quality control purposes, of course), so come lunchtime all I wanted was something really simple and savoury. As I sat down to avocado on toast, I realised I’d never posted my version of it in on this blog. A few minutes of photos later and this post was ready to roll. Job done. Continue reading →