Mrs Portly Takes a Break

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Archive photo of Mrs Portly

I’m not packing my bags … any holiday in our ‘new normal’ is by definition a staycation and I will be back soon … but I’m taking a summer break. 

There’ll still be quickie recipes and (I hope) inspiration on my Instagram and Facebook accounts and of course there are hundreds of recipes already on the blog. Just use the search box to find what you need. 

I’m aiming to come back refreshed and reinvigorated and bursting with ideas. Well, that’s the theory, anyway. See you soon and have a good summer, all things permitting.

Illegimiti non carborundum.

 

 

Easing Lock-down

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I understand the economic imperative, as one sarky journalist put it, of getting businesses with rateable values back up and running. I understand the joy of some of my friends in the restaurant industry, who’ve been struggling to make ends meet behind locked doors, at being able to earn a few quid at long last. I also understand the ones who’ve said: “Re-open? In these circumstances? Not likely!” Continue reading →

Summer Fruits

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Whether you’re picking them from a garden or buying them in the shops and markets, this is a wonderful time for summer fruits. Cherries, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries and currants, they’re all fresh and ripe around now. Continue reading →

Broad Bean, Feta and Strawberry Salad

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I enjoy a complex curry or fiddly French pastry as much as the next person, but good ingredients don’t always need a lot of faff and hours spent hovering over a hot stove.

Some of the best meals I’ve had have been the simplest – fragrant amber honey poured over thick yoghurt with a handful of chopped nuts for breakfast in Corfu, freshly caught mackerel barbecued on the beach in Ireland, home-grown asparagus drenched in salted butter. And this. Continue reading →

Lock-down Reading List

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The coronavirus lock-down has turned us all into home cooks, whether we want to be or not. We’ve seen large numbers of people embracing the joys of sourdough and posting social media pictures of cakes and cordials, pastries and pies. Long may it last, I say, though I suspect many new cooks will find they revert to old habits as the lock-down eases and the different rigours of ‘normal’ life ratchet up.

If you want to carry on cooking but make it fit around work and/or home schooling, here are some cookbooks I’ve found useful for easy but delicious meals, and a few more to provide inspiration for when you have the luxury of time. Continue reading →

Things on Toast

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I know that sounds a bit Addams Family but there are so many delicious things you can put on toast, and there are times when a mere sandwich won’t do. Times when it really has to be hot, comforting, crisp, crunchy toast, whether it’s artisanal sourdough or a sliced white. I was profoundly shocked to read recently that most Americans don’t eat toast. Can this be true? No wonder they threw such a hissy fit at that tea party. Continue reading →

Lemon, Ginger and Honey Cake

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I can’t stop eating this cake, I’ve had to put it into isolation in another room. I’m a sucker for anything containing lemon, and if you add in ginger and honey I’m in heaven. The smell alone is enough to make my mouth water. Continue reading →