Tips

Rustic Inspiration & Summertime Gadgets

Cuisipro ice cream stack sandwich maker

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One of the most interesting and appealing episodes of MasterChef was episode 22 of Series 11, which featured two restaurants, with one featuring open flame Swedish cookery. It was filmed at the Ekstedt restaurant, which uses no gas or electricity… everything is cooked over birch wood flames.

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Macaroons

Macaroons

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Our lovely Laura made some Macaroons for her sisters wedding… here is how she did it!
If you have any tweaks, suggestions or you have tried the recipe and love it – let us know…

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Egg-zackly right…

Possibly my favourite interpretation of Easter eggs for this year, Praline Quails Eggs, £5, Waitrose.

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As the Easter festival gets closer, we all tend to forget it’s real meaning and focus on the chocolates and eggs … my resolution this year (rather than a New Year’s resolution, it’s an Easter resolution) is not to forget what it’s really about. But, at the same time I want to make sure everyone has a lovely holiday lunch to look forward to, as well as an Easter egg hunt and some cupcake treats to finish off the day.

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Cheatin’ Christmas… Don’t panic!

Tesco Christmas Pudding Cheese Bombe

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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…

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The nights are drawing in…

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It was only a few weeks ago that we were enjoying an early autumn hot-spell, & had got the barbecue equipment out again. It hardly seems possible that the nights are drawing in so quickly, & that I’m sweeping leaves off the lawn as well as collecting apples…

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A clean sweep for the new season…

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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…

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