Nice Cuppa and a Natter

31Jan 2022 by Ali

My twelve days of Christmas

Nice Cuppa and a Natter, Recipes over Troubled Water

Before Christmas 2021 is a distant memory I decided to do a round up of my highlights and tips for bringing joy into the world - a post advent calendar, if you like, since moments of high anticipation and glad tidings need not be confined to the festive season. On the 1st day: Mariachi comes to townStarting with a bit of mariachi fun I had with some pumpkins left over from Halloween. See what I did there? In case anyone wants to recreate similar (and why wouldn't you?!) I used some South American terracotta wind chimes that had become tangled beyond repair as sombreros for the mini gourds. On the 2nd day: Feeling gingerHaving been admonished as a teenager by my mother, for incinerating my first attempt at a Christmas…

12Aug 2021 by Ali

Tasty Lankyshire Curd Tarts

Nice Cuppa and a Natter, Recipes, Recipes over Troubled Water

How to describe a curd tart?It's not the egg custard tart of my childhood which screams pasty as in pallid and not pasty as in pic-nic, although my mum and her mother could make an excellent home-made egg custard freckled with grated nutmeg. Not forgetting that it isn't nutmeg unless it has been lurking in the bottom of the baking drawer for a good few decades. Nor is it the Manchester Tart from school dinners with a dollop of jam on top of solid day-glo custard and a smattering of desiccated coconut and certainly not the unctuous and ubiquitous Portuguese Tarts that grace delis, cafés and food shops. The Yorkshire Curd Tart hints at the texture of a baked American cheesecake but isn't sickly or rich. Buttery, fruity, slightly tangy…

12Feb 2021 by Ali

Soup it up

Nice Cuppa and a Natter, Recipes, Recipes over Troubled Water

I could dine on soup alone and often I do ...BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,Waiting in a hot tureen!Who for such dainties would not stoop?Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! Lewis Carroll We revere soup as a great comfort food, a winter warmer, a real crowd pleaser. Whether a quick lunch or supper, the first course of a meal or the main event, soup is worthy of celebration. Yet this sits uncomfortably against images in the press of 2021 soup kitchen queues and underlines the nonsense behind inequalities that threaten our sense of living in a democracy. To those people standing in line, soup represents a last resort, a lifeline, not luxury at all. Back in time for soupIt has been said that "Soup…

09Jul 2020 by Ali

Time for tea

Nice Cuppa and a Natter

I love my creature comforts. Don't you just love a nice cup of tea and a sit down? We are creatures of habit and so we punctuate our days with tea-breaks ... in the morning with a slice of hot buttered toast, as a break from work or household chores, when we've been on our feet all day and, of course, when the clock strikes four, everything stops for tea. Tea - a drink with jam and bread ... Memories are made of teaMy tea childhood memories include being sent to the Co-op at the bottom of the avenue, for "a quarter of tea" and rushing home to discover what collectable card was lurking inside the packet. We would swop them with friends and paste them into albums until our…