Main dishes

Introducing the British classic, Cottage pie! I have just returned from the United Kingdom, where we were catching up with family, old friends and neighbors in London and around Scotland.  It was two weeks of visiting castles, churches, The Harry Potter Exhibition, walking on glorious sandy […]

Perfect Picnic Food introducing The Sound Flat Ham Pie I am so excited to introduce you to your new go to picnic food recipe. Thick sliced ham and creamy Boursin cheese, sandwiched between two layer of puff pastry. Incredibly simple, yet unbelievably good. The sort […]

Preamble I started writing this blog about my new favorite way to roast chicken months ago, before all the fires in California and when none of us really understood how travel would seem like a distant memory. The recipe comes from the week when everything […]

Happy Memorial Day or Bank Holiday, depending on where you are! I hope you are able to celebrate with family and enjoy the holiday. I have just done a live cooking webinar for Hayvn Halftime, and wanted to share the link with you. Check out […]

St Patrick’s Day March 17th March 17th is normally a day for celebrating, finding an Irish pub, eating Irish food and drinking Guinness. But we are not living in normal times. We are all being asked to do our part, limit social contact and avoid […]

Happy Pie Day! To my lovely readers, I hope this email finds you well and in a good place. In the last few weeks, we have seen our world change so rapidly and its looks like we are all going to be spending a lot […]

Robert Burns Robert Burns, the great lyrical poet (1759-1796) was born in Scotland on the 25th January and as that date approaches, I must warn you,  I become very Scottish. Burns was a nationally recognized poet, even in his own lifetime. His poems were brilliant […]

Pulled Pork Revisited I am beginning to realize that what I call pulled pork might not meet the rigorous standards of barbecue aficionados.  But it works for me and is super easy. This recipe was offered by my wonderful neighbor, Mary McGee, although the original […]

Repost from 2015! Poached salmon is a fabulous dish for summer. A whole poached salmon is an impressive centrepiece and can be made ahead of time. I have great pleasure in giving you an updated post from a few years ago. There is recipe for […]

Salad Niçoise – Classic French Dish (apologies if you have seen this already, trying to test my website, as it seems to have stopped sending emails properly, if you receiving this for the first time love to hear from you) Salad Niçoise is a classic […]

I have just had the most fabulous experience. I spent two days in the beautiful Danish countryside, cooking for a company offsite. In this post I am going to share the menu, including my goto summer barbecue recipes, tell you a little about Danish summerhouses […]

Quiche for me will always mean Monday. Growing up in the North-East of Scotland, we generally had one of two things for tea on a Monday. We either had Stovies, a fabulous one pot combination of onions, potatoes, gravy and meat, made from the left over Sunday roast or Quiche made from the left over breakfast bacon and eggs. Bit of a win win situation.

Spring is Finally in the Air. Pasta Primavera is a quick and easy supper. Perfectly cooked pasta with crisp green vegetables, sautéed onions and fresh baby tomatoes mixed together with a little creme fraîche and lemon zest. Spring in a bowl, quite literally as Primavera […]

Vegetarian Challenge Alan and I are continuing with the vegetarian challenge. So far we are finding it very easy, last night was a stir fry. On Saturday night I made Puy Lentils with Caramelized Onion Chutney, Roasted Butternut Squash, Feta, Pomegranate and Sliced Broccoli salad . […]

My ultimate New Year’s Eve Menu, one last fabulous meal before welcoming moderate eating back into our lives in January

Chicken Pot Pie is the Ultimate Comfort Food This chicken pot pie is the ultimate in comfort food. Chicken, carrots and peas in a rich creamy sauce, covered with a snuggly little blanket of puff pastry, totally hygge. Perfect for a snowy winter’s day. The […]

Social Media is not for the Fainthearted In this post I will confess to an act of great stupidity, it involves sausages. But first let me give you a little background. Obsessions I think most of you probably know about my potato obsession. Well I […]

Every time I see red currents I have to make this quiche. I have probably only made it a handful of times as red currents were never very easy to find either in Wimbledon or in Darien. Then I moved to Denmark.  I now come […]

Salad Niçoise – Classic French Dish Salad Niçoise is a classic French dish. I switch it up slightly and use fresh roasted salmon instead of the traditional tinned tuna. With a lemon dressing, the combination of salmon, baby new potatoes, French green beans and locally […]

For Christmas I treated myself to an Emma Bridgewater Fish Pie dish.  So recently for dinner we had Fish Pie followed by Apple and Blackberry Crumble.   The menu was inspired by watching Downton Abbey, and in particular Mrs Hughes attempts to please her new husband. […]

One pizza, so many choices I love the flatbreads and pizza bases you can buy because a) everyone gets to choose their own topping and b) by calling it artisanal you can convince yourself  that it is both healthy and lower in calories than a […]

“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.” -Julia Child A beautifully cooked fillet is a thing of beauty, but they are so expensive that I find cooking them extremely stressful. My dear friends Ginger and Howard […]

I wanted to make a meatloaf for the Art Lecture lunches as part of the Mid West theme and this is my go to recipe.  I am sure this meatloaf is great hot but for some reason I have only ever served it at room […]

I have found a fantastic combination of ingredients to make what I, with great imagination, am calling my ‘Summer Quinoa’.  To be honest, add any green vegetable you have to hand although the combination of avocado, asparagus and sugar snaps is particularly pleasing.  I have […]

A few weeks ago I helped out at the Darien Men’s Association Soiree at Weed Beach.  The full menu appears under the menu tab on my website.  The food was fabulous, Roberto and two other members of staff from Tokenize club helped out at the […]

This recipe,  together with the lentils recipe, was suggested by my sister in law, Avril, who has spent many years living in Spain.   I thought it might be a little exotic for Darien but it proved to be the star of the show at the […]

This recipe for salmon is such a crowd pleaser and is so easy.  I give quantities here for a whole salmon as it makes such an impressive centerpiece if you are feeding a crowd of people, but it should work just as well for individual […]

TUNA WITH LIME CILANTRO SAUCE, WASABI MASHED POTATOES AND BOK CHOY I first tasted this lime and cilantro sauce at my friend Lynn’s house.  We were co-chairs of the wine tasting committee for the Darien YWCA, a tough job but somebody had to do it. […]

Bangers and Mash or Colcannon (first published Jan 2015) This is the lunch I served for the January 2015 Darien Community Association Woman’s group lunch.  I think I cleaned out Whole Foods as I left with 192 sausages.  It seem a perfect supper to serve […]