Comfort food

I’m the first to admit that maybe the following pictures won’t bring the same warmth into your heart as they do into mine. The fact is that you have to have been born in the North of England and deprived of said foods for well over a year to fully appreciate them!


Ahhhhh, crumpets and potato cakes, the staple food of many a Northern childhood. I’m missing them already I do have a recipe for crumpets which I will have to try out and I think I’ve tried my hand at potato cakes in the past.
So Sean came back from England carrying masses of food and tales of how cheap it was (we knew it was cheaper than Skopelos – I think Monte Carlo is cheaper than Skopelos – but we’d forgotten quite how cheap especially with the poor performance of sterling at the moment). As well as the crumpets and potato cakes he brought vegan cheese for junior, vegan pesto, red lentils (which you can’t get on Skopelos for love nor money), paté, bread flour, teabags (of course), naan breads and various other delights. He got me some gorgeous herb and garlic crackers which I’ve been eating with a garlic and herb vegan cream cheese – I really must smell delightful – but I don’t really care as it tastes great.

Junior had her party on Saturday and so cupcakes were duly made as requested. Unfortunately I didn’t expect so many children and didn’t do enough chocolate or coconut ones so junior had to do without a chocolate one and Sean was deprived of his coconut! To rectify the matter I have just made some coconut cupcakes so when he returns from his wanderings around town he can finally have one. Junior will have to wait a few days for me to make the chocolate ones. On the plus side I did get to have a lemon cupcake which I missed out on last year (actually I had more than one) and they were definitely worth the wait if I do say so myself.
At the moment I’m getting over a stinking cold, which Sean kindly gave me, and so I am unable to taste much of anything, which rather dampens one’s enthusiasm for all things culinary. I have therefore just been eating bread and crackers so that I don’t starve but hopefully I should be all better in the next couple of days and ready to unleash myself once more into the kitchen!