See what stuff me and my badly behaved pals have been up to lately
The humble pallet; what a brilliant, versatile and (perhaps best of all), free material. Of course they can also be used in a myriad of ways in the home but today I want to look at some of the easiest methods for their use in and around your garden or allotment. First off, getting hold of them It’s really easy …
Welcome to the cooking exploits of Elefante – yes he’s an elephant and he really is cookin’!! Do you like soup ? (I mean who doesn’t, right?) And are you ridiculously lazy? (Again who isn’t, right??) Well this is for you. It’s soup and you don’t even have to cook it! Yes, you heard me right, let’s make uncooked …
Pastry is one of the easiest things you can make. I’m talking short-crust here. I once made puff pastry and what an absolute arse that was. Unless you happen to have a ridiculous amount of time on your hands then some things are simply best bought …
So, it’s a special occasion, you’ve made a huge effort baking a cake, so-and-so is just about to arrive, but your cake doesn’t say ‘celebrate’ it says ‘half-arsed’. You, my friend, need the art of ‘jooj’. Among other things, the Urban dictionary defines ‘jooj’ as ‘to make something appear more ‘put together quickly’. The Guardian eloquently refers to ‘zhushing’ and …
When one of my children asked me one day; ‘Mum, why are we doing this?’ I couldn’t come up with a clear answer, nor could my husband. We had seen with our own eyes how the kids learnt so brilliantly when moving around and choosing what they wanted to learn for themselves. We realised that we could not say why …
We have some builders in and they are being very helpful and considerate. There’s no god -awful mess and they’ve even been washing up their mugs. Perhaps best of all there is not a single ‘builder’s bum’ in sight anywhere. I am most thankful (and relieved) and decide they deserve some muffins with lots of chocolate therein. So in-between other …
As I scraped my sorry arse out of bed this morning, reluctantly because it was pitch black outside, I can’t say I felt exactly enthused about the time of year. I felt more like cursing. Then as the daylight broke (finally) and the outside became illuminated in a misty, almost magical morning light, I started to feel a bit more …
I love sushi and I love making it at home. Although I’d definitely say ‘goodness me no’ to a spot of Japanese blowfish carving; the truth of the matter is you don’t need to be a sushi master to make (or indeed James Bond to eat) some of this delightful fare. Sushi rolls are particularly easy and as long as …
It’s a classic saying among gardeners with a bit of a wilder edge that ‘weeds are just plants in the wrong place’; and I try and accommodate any plucky intruders as much as I can. Overlooking their pushy ways if I think they bring something to the garden, and some of them do, especially the flowers. But not all weeds …
There’s nothing new about musicians and pop stars moving out to a large pile in the countryside once they’ve made it. It’s actually incredibly common; Paul McCartney. Robert Plant, Alex James … they’ve all done it. Former 5ive rapper, Abz Love and his girlfriend Vicky Fallon however have done something altogether different. In the BBC 2 series Abz on the Farm we saw …