big saucer

I was up in Scotland over the weekend visiting my parents (more on that later). Naturally, porridge was on the menu. My parents are big porridge salters, but having fallen into southern ways, I prefer it sweet. I've tried the lot: bananas; maple syrup; chopped nuts; brown sugar, but my all-time favourite combo is oats with raspberries.

However, it being May, there were no fresh ones to be bought, but my mother had a box in the freezer. And a new favourite has been born: porridge with frozen raspberries. It's fantastic. The sourish ice explodes with flavour from the hot, rather bland oatmeal. I'm going to freeze some other fruits and see if it works as well. I'll keep you posted.

Posted by Nicki Symington at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I really hate halogen hobs.

All my life I have cooked on gas and this new house I'm in has a ceramic cooktop. I detest it. It has the sensitivity of a surgeon in a catcher's mit, so I've been burning a lot of food recently. Also, plasticky things keen finding their way onto hot rings and fusing onto the ceramic. I'm just waiting for my cat to jump up and cauterise her paws, or worse still Clem, because there's no visual way of telling whether a ring is hot or not, and a small red h on a grid doesn't mean much to a feline or a three year old.

If someone has a fondness for halogen hobs, I'd be really interested to hear why.

Posted by Nicki Symington at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just heard an interesting if inconclusive thing on Radio 4 Food Programme about raw food .

Posted by Nicki Symington at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)