February 16, 2015By Linda Parker

Well… from the depths of a freezing spell, weather-wise, and the doldrums and post-Christmas self-loathing that come when you mentally add up how many mince-pies and turkey sandwiches have been scoffed, I am trying very hard to be enthusiastic and positive about a sprinkling of New Year resolutions. They are quite simple … cook healthily, […]

December 23, 2014By Linda Parker

If you’re reading about Christmas now, it’s a bit too late to start making home-made Christmas puddings and cakes. So … unless you are one of the ultra-organised home chefs who have already marinated their dates, frozen the home-made bread sauce and laid down a few bottles of home-made sloe gin or raspberry vodka you will be going to do the last-minute run to the supermarket on the 23rd Dec like the rest of us…

December 2, 2014By Linda Parker

For writers and reviewers, Christmas starts in July, with a host of events to launch the festive season’s goodies. As always with seasonal celebrations, there’s a danger of peaking too soon and getting far too fed up with all the Christmas razzamatazz before the day itself even happens…

October 28, 2014By Hayley Gilbert

Each year, Electrolux hosts a global design competition, where students are asked to submit original concepts based on a particular theme. This year that theme is Creating Healthy Homes and the six finalists have just been announced from an impressive 1,700 entries.

October 2, 2014By Linda Parker

After the latest patch of beautiful sunshine, and a surfeit of cakes’n’bakes, we strayed back into barbecue territory, using an old pot-bellied cast iron model we found in the garage, backed up with a few disposable bbq trays to take up the slack when needed…

September 2, 2014By Linda Parker

Is it wrong to be slightly underwhelmed by GBBO this time round? I think I have a bake overload. And since when did everyone refer to a cake of a plate of biscuits (not cookies) as a ‘bake’. Perhaps I’m over-egging the pudding a bit, but…