After a long lockdown and a year later than planned, a family wedding! We celebrated the marriage of my eldest daughter Harriet to Pratik with an Anglo Indian Wedding. A beautiful Suffolk garden setting, a huge marquee and a joy to welcome the Padhiar family into ours. I made the cake - the rich fruit wedding cake recipe is here.

• decorating the marquee
• The groom's family arrive
• a Hindu ceremony
• more drumming and dancing
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I'm going backwards here because I'm writing this in October. I've spent the morning sorting through 'photos on my phone, reminding myself of the busy days in June. The fun I had growing marigolds by the pot full, gardening with my grandson, finishing layers for a three tier wedding cake and perfecting my Jain, egg free cashew and orange cake for my daughters Indian wedding in July. And that is why I didn't write any blog posts.

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Devilled eggs are back on the menu - we ate these ones at Leroy on a summer outing to London. Leroy must be one of the most affordable Michelin Star rated wine bar/restaurant in the city and also leading the way by removing all service charges. The simple three course set lunch for £25 was excellent.  If you want to re-live the 70's and make your own devilled eggs Nigella has a very good recipe here. 

Little did we know that we were in for a Seafood Boil when we booked our 'Sisters London Night Out' at Andi Oliver's new Wadadli Kitchen in Hackney Wick last week.

Although not born to it, we have family of Caribbean heritage living in Antigua and Barbuda. This was going to be our farewell supper before the three of us could meet again in Barbuda next January. So how disappointing was it to be given a load of spiel from the serving staff about the Seafood Boil being the national dish of Antigua. What utter rubbish!  Perhaps it was because we were expecting something much simpler? Or the fact that the serving staff had no real idea about Caribbean cuisine? But it was disappointing at £30 a head, more so the gob smacking £45 for a 750ml bottle of rum punch which required a further investment of £21 to add three extra shots of rum.  Give me the real roadside food of Antigua and Barbuda any day.

• rum punch
• hmm ... dive in
• prawns were nice
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Oh! the pressure on social media to be universally appealing to everyone all the time. I'm bored with it and also with the tedious suggestions that by writing a food blog I'm just some kind of influencer looking for freebies. Worse still because I have the word 'foodie' in my blog title I'm also an imbecile. Yes, I've seen that comment many times now including from the titterers on Twitter and idiots on Instagram. What's wrong with foodies?  I've not posted much for a while but have been living my best life. Sure, I've not stopped cooking all my meals, feeding my family, writing recipes, going to work, advising clients and eating out, I've just not been inclined to share any of this for a while. Normal service might resume soon. In the meantime here's my fried green tomato recipe.

Roscoe's Deli and Farmshop has openend at The Coachouse on Thornham Estate at Thornham Magna, which is very exciting for me as I live in the next village, so plan to go truffling there regularly. I took a quick peep to see what was on offer and chatted to the owner Jason who is showcasing British produce, most of it coming in from very local suppliers. He has great plans to extend the offering, with a fresh fish counter now up and running at weekends and eventually a place to stop and enjoy a coffee. Keep an eye on their website for updates. EDIT 22nd Nov 2021. Jason no longer has the fish and meat counters and is operating as a Cafe/Restaurant. Curries, pizzas, burgers ... a little varied. Pizzas are very good. Definitley check the Facebook page before you go to see what is on offer.

Busy, busy, back to work and sooo nice to be back out on the road. One of my first stops for elevensies was Bircham Mill. A welcome coffee and delicious Belgian (Bircham) bun. Well worth a visit to buy bread if you are in North Norfolk.

Food Season at The British Library is back with a mouth-watering menu of digital events inspired by the cookbooks, recipes and culinary stories in our collection. Founded and curated by food historian and British Library curator Polly Russell with award-winning food writer Angela Clutton as Guest Director, the season features an array of chefs, historians and food writers for a series of live conversations that you can tune into wherever you are. Speakers include Madhur Jaffrey, Raymond Blanc, Calum Franklin, Tom Kerridge, Ruby Tandoh and we’ll be covering topics from manuscript cookery sources, food and machismo, the cheese history of the UK, Caribbean cooking and restaurant criticism.

Ooh, Easter Biscuits. These have been on the tea table in our house since I was a little girl. This is my mother's recipe which probably came from one of those 1950's Good Housekeeping recipe books. A buttery shortbread style biscuit with spice and currants. Easter is not the same without them. Makes about 24 biscuits.