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Croque Monsieur fingers
I've been too happy to write anything recently. Before this, I was too miserable to write anything, now I'm too happy. My life is too much like an advert for ... something. Cashmere socks? Sometimes,...
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White fish with coconutty leeks
The most extraordinary thing has been happening to me over the last few weeks. I have been feeling, for the first time in my life I think, broody. I know! I know! The madness of the thing. I have spent...
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Best crunchy crackling and a Christmas pep-talk
My husband has discovered a way of cooking pork belly that produces the lightest fluffiest, crunchiest crackling ever. I think he stumbled upon this by accident, though he claims to have known about it...
View ArticleBoxing Day Buffet
A more onerous task than a Boxing Day Buffet I can't really imagine. But for many of you this year, it is a reality.How do you feed many people, of wildly different ages with basically zero prep time?...
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Gingerbread
Apologies for the unforgivably crappy piping here - I was listening to Serial at the same time and so was distracted Gingerbread is the most terrific stuff. It is easy to make, easy to handle and then...
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Christmas decorating
I often read a blog called "Cupcakes and Cashmere", which is written by a gloriously Californian control freak and tells you how to do your nails, how to "braid" your hair, how to make teeny tiny...
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Tuna melt muffins (for Claudia)
Doesn't look much here but STAGGERINGLY tastyI am always a bit shaken up by Christmas and New Year. It's something to do with the weight of expectation vs the result, which is worse times a million...
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Esther's takeout broccoli
You're supposed to be looking at the broccoli hereI once went to a talk by Irma Kurtz - where and why now escapes me - about getting old. She said that as you get older it's important to change your...
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Laotian fried pork
My photos will all be crap iPhone photos from now on because we were burgled and my camera was stolen. SAD FACEI fell to talking the other day to someone about Sam's sleeping. Specifically, about how...
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Profiteroles
I was in an absolutely foul mood the other weekend - pretty much all weekend. My husband would say "how could you tell?" because he thinks I am always in a foul mood, even if I am smiling, wearing a...
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Recipe Rifle goes shopping: Spring Fashion
The problem with all fashion, no matter who you are or what you do, is trying to make it work for you - for who you are and what your life is like.There are also levels of fashionability. I simply do...
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Courgetti and bolognese
Now that my kids are set square on the path of growing up, we are none of us stuck in a non-speaking, non-walking hell, no-one is pregnant, no-one is postpartum, I can feel myself regressing, going...
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Bircher museli for Charlie Potter
I had a very nice email recently from a reader seeking advice. My favourite kind of reader email, really - actually asking my opinion. It gives me licence to take a deep breath and just go on and on...
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Aga Dundee Cake
A thing I find a bit frustrating about having people round is Shy Guest Disorder. You know what I mean, the sort of people who come in apologising for something, (it's never clear exactly what), and...
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Buffalo wings for the boyz
I'm going to try hard in the next few years not to become the Woman Who Has Forgotten.It's already starting to go, to fade - you know... the horror.I remember the nightmare of two children under 3, in...
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Pancakes 2.0
One of the things that has made me think it's time to let this blog go is that I keep re-visiting old recipes. I have started to do the thing that has always panicked me in conversation with others and...
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Mixed vegetables and yoghurt with green chilli oil
Of course, for all my new-life evangelical shit about how my kids are all so easy now and we're in the broad sunlit uplands and so on, it sort of only applies at home.Going on holiday with two children...
View ArticleBest of... the comments
Genuinely the best thing about writing this blog for the last six years has been you. No, really - YOU. All of you. Thank you. But particularly anyone who left a comment. Any comment delighted me, but...
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Recipe Rifle goes shopping - summer round-up
Once upon a time, going bikini shopping for me was easy. The only stipulation was that the pants had to have NO TIE-SIDES because I find them annoying and they make my hips look w-i-d-e. Other than...
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Esther's chia seed pudding
I'm very late to chia seeds, like I'm late to everything, except when I have to be somewhere, in which case I am always punctual.Mostly I'm late to chia seeds because I dislike food fads - I don't like...
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Matzoh balls
I often marvel at how similar I am to my husband.Neither of us ring friends "for a chat", we are suspicious of ski-ing, believe Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, to be the best film ever made, like to go...
View ArticleSteamed sea bass with ginger, chilli and pak choi
I have rarely done video posts on this blog because I think my actual presence probably spoils whatever voice you have for me in your head. Historically I have posted videos and everyone has gone "Oh...
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Avocado and crayfish tails
I am not sentimental. My husband complains about it a lot. "Don't go near her, Sam," Giles will warn my son as he toddles towards me, eyes shining, with his chubby arms outstretched. "Your mother...
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Goodbye, the end
Now it's here, the end, I find myself uncharacteristically unable to think of anything profound to say.I'm sure there's so much I've forgotten to tell you. The "drafts" folder of this blog is full of...
View ArticleNew home
Hi Rifler!What are you doing standing about here? I've moved; join me for a housewarming over at The Spike. Everyone's been asking where you are. Just watch out for the punch...
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