Baking Cupcakes With An 8 Year Old For School Homework
August 19, 2010
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Masterchef has a lot to answer for – my 8 year old’s homework this week was baking cupcakes! I realise that all schools are very proud of ex-students that go on to achieve a modicum of fame, but surely trying to prepare them for an appearance on reality TV is pushing it a bit too far. What next? Practicing hanging around the house all day doing nothing and calling it “Training for Big Brother”? Read more…
We got to discussing our favourite kitchen item in the office recently, and found a few of us have some decidedly odd preferences. Sometimes it is the old faithful appliance that has been with you for years, and at other times perhaps the new toy we just unwrapped that is flavour of the week.
Food is, in my opinion, one of life’s great pleasures. I consider preparing and cooking food both enjoyable and therapeutic, and it provides rare freedom for my frustrated creative side. (The cynics I work with will just have to accept that I have one). I also consider sitting down with friends to enjoy a meal and a chinwag to be a great evening out (or in), particularly if the conversation avoids politics and religion and yet spends some time on food and flavours. 
If I was going to make fish and chips at home, I had to try and do something that would make the home made fish and chips better than the fish and chips I could buy down the road. I mulled it over for a while and came up with the answer…beer! 
Now summer has passed, it means my contribution to family meals moves from the BBQ outside to the oven inside, and each Sunday for the next 5 months, I’ll be cooking a roast dinner. As a child, this was a regular Sunday affair and I remain keen to keep the tradition going with my children. Lamb, pork and chicken will all get a regular run during the next few months, but it is roast beef that is the most popular, not least because it means Yorkshire puddings are part of the meal. 
