Our ‘dining room voyages’ begin with mint tea – thanks to Morocco and its famous tea culture. We drink our Nigerian version, out of a rather English teapot from Turkish tulip glasses – evidence of our global identity. We love it. Mint is somewhat vital to our family’s happiness. For months, our garden blooms with...
I’ve been away in Edinburgh, where love has taken me by surprise. For love has a way of doing that, doesn’t it? Be it love for man, child, and even city. All my life, I’ve dreamt of loving only a handful of cities –Tokyo in the spring when the cherry blossoms perfume the air and...
Consider this the sequel to the LA Times’s Lemon List ‘100 things to do with a Meyer Lemon’, essential reading for Meyer Lemon buffs. Like me. Indeed one can find a multitude of ways to worship the Meyer. #17: Give a Lemon Lesson. Watch children chomp on it with excitement Below are 34 35 of my...
Do you sense it as well? This grasping at straws. The Meyers are leaving me be. And I sit here, moaning the end of a season, a friendship….a love affair even, …..with Meyers, my Meyers. The strawberries are no better. They’ve turned an insipid colour that I won’t dignify by calling red. For these bear...
Or Meyer Lemon Cinnamon roll, inside-out. Because that’s essentially what it is, a cinnamon roll that wears its fragrant sugar crystals on it sleeve, and chest. Not hidden, not tucked into a pinwheel to be seen in hints, but no, a roll that is bold. Courageous, one that sends cinnamon well before it, not just...
The early morning walk up the canyon is done slowly. The path looks deceptively gentle, but as we climb, knees bent, hands free and backs laden with rucksacks, the ground before us rises steeply…. This is Utah. The hills of Utah. I’m out seeing Geology but taking in scents. Scents of the valleys, scents of...
If four-leaf clovers are the plants of luck Then four-leaf clover rolls are the breads of good fortune Full of Guinness goodness, and the nuttiness of dark rye Sweetened with maple, brown sugar Softened with milk and eggs These are the perfect celebration of Paddy (Paddy, a word in Nigeria which means friend)...
I’ve been searching for the easiest way to turn out sticks of beautiful bread in the manner of le Francais. For I equate French breads with a gorgeous tan, exterior; a soft, chewy interior and well developed flavour. Pain a l’ Ancienne. Bread made in the ‘old-fashioned way’. t6p says: They might look like a true baguette...
I’ve always loved tea, but never considered it more than a drink, hot or cold. Recently, that has changed. And two things have done that for me: a book – ‘The Art of Blending by Lior Lev Sercarz’ which has nothing to do with tea, and everything to do with spices and one man’s passion;...