A cook's journal

The king of salads

20/11/2019

By Jan Cheshire

THIS is the season for salads! I love salads but sometimes I get a bit bored with making them and am always looking for a new recipe. This recipe is not new and, like me, you have probably eaten it in a restaurant or cafe before now. However, I have never made my own Caesar salad and I was delighted with it. I hope you will enjoy it too.

Chicken with the lot

24/10/2019

By Jan Cheshire

I’VE had this recipe for quite a few years, but for some reason or other I hadn't made it. Recently, I decided to try it and was very pleasantly surprised, it was really delicious and very easy to make. I hope you will try it too.

Just like Mum made

28/8/2019

By Jan Cheshire

WE TRY to have at least one fish meal every week, two if possible. This lovely tuna mornay is very special, and I hope you will like it. It is very easy to make and doesn’t stretch the budget!

Blast from the past

18/7/2019

By Jan Cheshire

I AM really getting historic this month! I was looking through some of my old cookery books for inspiration when I found a really old one from around 1974. At the time it was the only cookery book I had with coloured photos of the finished recipes!

A young Mary Berry made this contribution to the book. This recipe for chilled lemon flan was one of our favourites at that time and in fact this recipe is timeless.

Winter warmer

18/6/2019

By Jan Cheshire

WITH all this cold weather, it’s definitely time for a tasty bowl of spicy carrot and ginger soup.

The not so simple snag

30/5/2019

By Jan Cheshire

FOR a long time now, I’ve wanted to make a sausage cassoulet. I was inspired by my 16-year-old granddaughter who spent last Christmas with a family in France, where she was very impressed by the food. Also, I received a very nice French cookbook for Christmas, so I’m trying out a few recipes.

This cassoulet is very easy to make, tastes delicious and is perfect for the colder weather.

Have a marzipan Easter

17/4/2019

By Jan Cheshire

I’ve wanted to make this cake for a long time. It’s a very traditional and lovely Easter cake and well worth the effort. The 11 balls on top represent the 12 apostles, minus Judas.

Cucumberful and plenty

8/3/2019

By Jan Cheshire

CUCUMBERING!! Well, I know there is no such word, but that’s what I’ve been doing lately. Cucumbers are sneaky thing. In the garden you look at them one day and they are quite small. You check the next day and they are quite LARGE! You can only eat so many pickled cucumbers so I googled and asked: What can you do with cucumbers other than pickling?

Anyway, I found a great recipe for this very delicious cucumber soup. Great for those very hot days.

Plum perfect

8/2/2019

By Jan Cheshire

A FEW years ago, I went to a restaurant in Melbourne where I enjoyed a very delicious dessert called cherry clafoutis. Clafoutis is a French dish, with a batter that consists of eggs, sugar, milk, and flour.

The tropical touch

13/12/2018

I EXPECT everyone is thinking about Christmas right now, what gifts to buy, what food to serve, putting up decorations, choosing the wines and generally having a busy time. I'm so organised this year, I already know what I'm having for an entrée on Christmas Day!

Bert and I love this tropical salad. If you don’t like prawns, you can always make this with smoked salmon.

Berry, berry nice

29/11/2018

By Jan Cheshire

I OFTEN have problems making cheesecake. However, this simple recipe is delicious and easy. It would make a lovely dessert for a birthday or anniversary celebration. Quite honestly, I could eat it for dessert every day of the week!

Swede dreams

19/10/2018

By Jan Cheshire

WHEN I was growing up in London we had school dinners. In the winter we would often have a stew which included potatoes and invariably swede as well.

I quite liked swede and still do. We now have quite a few in the vegie garden and as usual it is a challenge to use them up. I was quite impressed with this recipe. It’s enjoyable and very easy to make, and potato bake is always a family favourite.

A delicious dollop

18/9/2018

Jan Cheshire swears by this delicious Scandinavian dessert with the intriguing name of Peasant Girls in the Mist.

Cold comforts

4/7/2018

By Jan Cheshire

BRRRRR, it’s cold. I’ve just arrived home from a trip to Zanzibar where my son and his family live. The temperatures there ranged from 25-28 degrees most days! However, I do like winter cooking and I enjoy making warming soups. This is a new one for me, but I love celeriac; it’s a strange looking vegetable, I agree, but has the most wonderful taste.

She’s apples

17/5/2018

By Jan Cheshire
RECENTLY we went to a barbecue with some old friends. We go every year and usually take something for dessert and/or a salad to share. Because we have lots of apples at the moment I thought I would make an apple cake of some sort. Then I found this among my recipes. I haven’t made it for ages and it was a great success and used up a couple of apples too!

Catch of the day

3/4/2018

By Jan Cheshire

I know all fish lovers will enjoy this recipe. I call it “Dawn’s Salmon”, because my daughter cooked it for us at recently at her place. Bert and I loved it so much we have it for special occasions now.

Berry nice

1/2/2018

Photo: Roozitaa

By Jan Cheshire

AS USUAL we’ve had amazing amounts of berries this year, strawberries as well as blackberries. This is just one of the delicious recipes I made to use some of them up. These muffins are very easy to make and lovely to eat. Perfect for a family picnic and they freeze well too.

Salad days

15/11/2017

By Jan Cheshire

Some warmer weather at last – it must be time for salads now. I hope so, anyway, as I love salads of any type but in particular I love a potato salad. This salad is very easy to make and tastes wonderful.

Flash in the pan

18/8/2017

By Jan Cheshire

I MUST admit I’m not very good at cooking pancakes. In fact, I had sort of persuaded myself that I didn’t actually LIKE pancakes! However, my grandchildren love them and as they are threatening to come to stay during the next school holidays, I thought I had better be prepared. These are very simple to make and, I must admit, I really liked them, with lots of maple syrup of course. You can buy 600ml packs of buttermilk in the milk fridge at the supermarket.

Fish dish a breeze

24/6/2017

By Jan Cheshire

WE LOVE to eat fish, however we don’t get much variety in the supermarkets around this area, so I try to cook a few different fish dishes from time to time. This is one of the best fish pies that I have ever made and is a very easy and economical recipe.

A taste of Russia

20/5/2017

By Jan Cheshire

I’M going back to the seventies with this dish. Recently, I was throwing out some old recipes which I have had for years, the paper all yellow; some torn beyond recognition, some spattered with whatever sauce I was making at the time. I decided I had to keep some of my all-time favourites and type them up on the computer for posterity.

Pumpkin pieces

22/4/2017

By Jan Cheshire

MY LOVELY niece in Canada sent me this recipe last year. I had never heard of pumpkin spice biscuits before. This year we have had our usual crop of “feral” pumpkins, so I plan on making these delicious, spicy biscuits very soon. Although they don’t look very inspiring, I’m sure you will enjoy them as much as I do.

Pasta with the lot

14/3/2017

By Jan Cheshire

WE HAVE had such an overabundance of vegetables this summer that it has been hard work finding recipes to deal with it all. In particular, the tomatoes are still going strong, but so are the eggplants. We only had a few last year, but this year they have gone crazy!! This recipe uses all those vegetables and is particularly delicious into the bargain. If you are not sure about the “vegetarianism” of this dish, you could always barbecue a couple of good steaks to go with it.

Salad with a splash

4/2/2017

By Jan Cheshire

RECENTLY, I was wracking my brain to find a different but easy salad to take with me to the Woolamai Picnic Races. I am not sure how this one cropped up, but I thought I had better try it out on Bert first. Hooray, it was a great success! I don’t usually like salads with noodles, but this one is particularly tasty and, of course, very easy to make.

A touch of spice

16/12/2016

By Jan Cheshire

Shortbread is a bit of a tradition with us at Christmastime, they are so easy to make, taste delicious and are very moreish. You can’t have just one, I’m afraid! These ginger shortbreads are especially delightful.