A Year in my Fenland Kitchen

 It's the first Sunday of Advent and Christmas is fast approaching. Here in my Fenland Kitchen, sprouts are on the menu and I'm reminding myself that the, sometimes maligned, Brussel Sprout is not just for Christmas! So let's give them some love!  Rule number one is not to boil them into submission. Overcooking results in an unpleasant smell and is possibly the reason a lot of people claim that they do not like sprouts. Steaming or stir frying are the way to go ... or roasted as in this  recipe  by Love&Lemons. Alternatively, Brussel Sprouts are delicious raw and make a lovely salad. I hope you will enjoy this  recipe with a hint of sweetness from the apple and cranberries and agree that sprouts can be delicious! Speak soon. Annie x

...November is the pearl-grey month, the changeling between warm crimson October  and cold white December... These words are from a poem entitled  'A Poem for November' written by Alison Uttley of Little Grey Rabbit fame. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Little Grey Rabbit, she is the main character in a series of much loved children's stories, published between 1929 and the 1970s. The stories tell the tale of Little Grey Rabbit and her friends, amongst them, Hare, Squirrel, Speckledy Hen, Wise Owl and Fuzzypeg, and their everyday life in their woodland home. They are charming stories, told with great affection for the community of woodland creatures and beautifully illustrated by Margaret Tempest. Alison Uttley was born in Derbyshire at Castle Top farm near Cromford and had a deep love of nature as is evident in her writings. Apart from her prolific storytelling, she was also notable for being awarded a scholarship to study at Manchester University, where in 190...

  For my first post of the new month of November, I give you what must be one of the best loved and most comforting of puddings, the Great British Crumble! A pudding which rose in popularity, it seems, during World War 2, when, due to rationing, it became a more frugal and economical alternative to a fruit pie. This crumble recipe, however, is a little more indulgent than the wartime recipes would have been and uses hazelnuts and dark chocolate in the topping. I used plums from my stash in the freezer, part of the plum harvest from earlier in the year and tweaked my usual crumble recipe to include more fibre and nutrients in the form of wholemeal flour and nuts and seeds. The dark chocolate may seem an indulgence, but as we know, dark chocolate ( and I used one with 75% cocoa) actually has a number of health benefits. We enjoyed our ( relatively) guilt-free pud with homemade yoghurt! Speak soon Annie x

It's autumn, and so here is another soup recipe! This time for mushroom soup, made with a combination of dried mushrooms, button mushrooms and wild mushrooms. A few years ago we had friends who lived in France (now returned to the UK) who regularly foraged for mushrooms in the countryside around their home. When we visited, it was a favourite activity to do together. Collecting mushrooms has always been a popular pastime in France with know-how passed down the generations and in addition, most local French pharmacies will identify, free of charge, any mushrooms you have picked. Although, foraging is gaining more popularity in this country, there is generally not the same level of expertise regarding mushrooms and being of a nervous disposition, collecting mushrooms for the kitchen is something I prefer to leave to the experts. Consequently, the wild mushrooms in the photo below were bought from Waitrose!   For a number of years when our two daughters lived at home, soup, and in par...

 The history of yoghurt can be traced back thousands of years and probably has its origins in what is now Turkey. Some historians believe it may have been invented by accident, when milk exposed to bacteria in warm temperatures turned sour. However it came about, people soon realised that not only did it taste delicious, but that the fermentation helped to preserve milk, since its natural acidity slowed the growth of harmful bacteria. And nowadays, it is probably our best known fermented food. My first introduction to yoghurt was as a child in the sixties, when little pots of yoghurt under the trade name Ski started to appear in the shops. Their USP was that it contained REAL fruit (a rarity at the time) and despite having a lot of added sugar was marketed with the jingle "Ski, the full of fitness food" Mum, always something of a trailblazer when it came to eating healthily, eschewed Ski and much preferred Longley farm yoghurt which she bought from the health food shop, since...

It's autumn and that means a return to warming and cosy meals .... and in particular, soup. I love soup! Easy to make, endlessly versatile, nourishing and most important of all....delicious. Root vegetables especially seem to lend themselves to being transformed into soup and this recipe uses two, namely, carrots and sweet potato. I have garnished the soup with a few of the fried onion slices from the recipe, and a good sprinkling of zaatar, a Middle Eastern spice mix, readily available from most supermarkets. The addition of a swirl of yoghurt and a good squeeze of lime juice helps to offset the inherent sweetness of the root vegetables.  I hope you will agree that this is a perfect recipe for those darker evenings which are just around the corner. Speak soon. Annie x (N.B. I realised that I had omitted to include the fresh ginger in the method ... oops! It should say 'add the grated ginger along with the garlic')  

 These last couple of weeks have seen a seismic shift in our national history with the sudden death of Queen Elizabeth, our sovereign for the last 70 years. Along with the majority of people here in the Uk, I have known no other monarch. The Queen was a constant in the ever changing patterns of our lives. And it is difficult to grasp that she is no longer with us. Her faithfulness in keeping her coronation oath,  her devotion and hard work, an example to us all. The day before the state funeral, we drove the 40 or so miles to Sandringham, one of the royal residences where Queen Elizabeth used to love to spend Christmas and the winter months. Along with hundreds of others, we laid a small posy of flowers as a tribute, adding them to the sea of flowers already there. Despite the crowds, there was a calm and peaceful atmosphere on what was a beautiful autumn day. Today is another lovely autumn day and I am still celebrating all that autumn has to offer and in particular, the deli...