Zelda's Zecrets has been taking a short break but will be back soon! Read Full Story

DAFT is a fundraising group which supports a whole range of animal charities. This week I cooked a meal for some of the members to raise money for the Redwings Horse Sanctuary. Here is the menu. Starters Fresh Orange Juice Curried Parsnip Soup Spinach, Soft Cheese and Red Pepper Filo Parcels   Main Courses Quorn and Leek Pie Vegetarian Sausage and Mash Potato, Cheese and Spring Onion Tart All served with a selection of fresh vegetables   Desserts Crème Brulee Apple Crumble Cheese and... Read Full Story

Safety in the kitchen is very important. It is important for adults and for children. When you think about it, you have blades, high temperatures, boiling water, heated surfaces, sharp points, naked flames, etc. etc. That means that everyone should take reasonable precautions in order to ensure that major accidents are avoided and minor accidents are kept to a minimum. But this all has to be put into perspective. I have cut my fingers with a knife and I have burnt my hands on the oven shelves... Read Full Story

I have lost count of the number of occasions that the first time someone new finds out that I am a vegetarian, they say “So was Hitler”. What am I supposed to say in return? “Oh, I didn’t realise that – you’d better order me a steak, then”? Hitler was a vegetarian. But it was not the absence of meat in his diet that made him an evil dictator and there has not, as yet, been proven to be any direct correlation between beansprouts and a maniacal quest for world domination. It is interesting to... Read Full Story

Spring is here. It’s official. And just to prove it, this weekend the clocks even went forward. So we should now be having lighter evenings and warmer weather alongside the birdsong and daffodils. But this time of year always creates two problems – what to wear and what to eat. Look along any city street and you will probably see that most people choose to solve the former in the same way – jeans and a jumper (with a t-shirt underneath) or jeans and a t-shirt (with a jumper around their... Read Full Story

Not just for children, this clever animation is both an exploration and celebration of fine cuisine. Remy the Rat is a would-be-chef and food lover whose enthusiasm for ingredients, flavours and creativity is the driving force of the narrative and is illustrated beautifully by the graphics. His mentor, the late Auguste Gusteau (clever plays on words abound), famously declared that “Anyone Can Cook”. The film shows that, while this is true, dedication combined with a love and understanding of... Read Full Story

So you just had to come back after five years to solve our modern culinary dilemmas as only you can. How did we ever manage without you? You conveniently forget, or fail to notice, that the likes of Jamie Oliver are always showing us how to cook fine food in minutes. You have obviously never watched 'Ready Steady Cook'. Instead you believe that, like some dormant super-hero, you have been summoned back to save us from our own lasagnes. Yet I have never seen such a self-indulgent cookery... Read Full Story

We are supposed to be undergoing a food revolution in this country. We are now being educated in nutrition each time we shop so that we make the correct choices about the food we consume at home. Our school children have the opportunity, even if not always the inclination, to purchase a healthy midday meal. New initiatives to tackle obesity seem to be announced daily.   I visited a sick relative in hospital on a few occasions this week and was shocked to see the quality of food on offer to... Read Full Story

It seems we can't turn on the TV or radio or pick up a newspaper these days without being reminded of the latest increases in the price of food. There is a very simple solution to this: Cook your own! No-one doubts the convenience of ready meals but, if you have the time, there is nothing to beat home-made food and now there is an even greater incentive to make it. As an experiment, using Sainsbury's website (although I could have equally used one of any of the other major supermarket's) I... Read Full Story

...is a great community! This is the latest one I've found: http://simpledailyrecipes.com/great-cooks-blogroll/ If recipes include meat, just substitute it. For help on doing this see The Secret Vegetarian Tags: community, cooking, recipe, blogs Read Full Story