The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
There are work dinners and then there are work dinners. This one is probably one of the most memorable as it all formed part of my birthday week festivities. Not only did we have our meeting in the beautiful city of Milan but we were privileged to meet some incredible people from Italy’s leading brands. […]
Now I thought I would be the absolute last person in the world to be writing about Starbucks on my blog. Having run an independent coffee shop for a number of years I really do try to avoid Starbucks like the plague. The coffee is usually very badly made in the UK and far too […]
I have started to eat a handful of nuts in the morning. Almonds, Cashews, Brazil Nuts are what I current have in the cupboard. There are so many articles about nuts suppressing hunger, reducing calories consumed during the day blah blah blah. But I guess the main reason for me was to add protein into […]
Do you play Scrabble? My husband and I have been playing for over 20 years. Sometimes cards and sometimes Scrabble. The score sheets are so old that we don’t bother anymore. In fact now the challenge is less about points but rather about the best word. Last Christmas I got some lovely Scrabble biscuit cutters. […]
Maison Marou was one of the first stops on our recent trip to Vietnam. Recommended by the fabulous London based chocolate expert Jennifer Earle, it was up high on the list. About Marou Chocolate If you are not familiar with Marou Chocolate, then it’s well worth taking a look at some of their videos which will […]
I love travelling. Especially travelling on holiday. But the problem with holidays is that you have to leave behind important everyday chores. I know what you;re thinking. “That’s the whole point of a holiday!”. I know. I know. But when you are away during quite possibly the hottest couple of weeks in the UK for […]
I do love Instagram. It’s procrastination at it’s best! I mostly snap food and the odd picture of our beautiful Pip. It has however now also become my app of choice for taking and editing photos. It’s so easy and intuitive to use to get great results. There are a few Instagrammers that I am […]
The wonderful thing about jet lag when you visit the US is that you’re up and out by 5am. Why is this wonderful I hear you ask? Well picture this. You’ve spent hours researching places to eat in the city you’re visiting and then you make it there only to find they are fully booked […]
This year my hayfever has been worse than I can remember. It’s around now in the season that it’s really bad. Almost everything locally has begun to flower at the same time. From horse chestnut trees to honeysuckle. It’s all magnificently in bloom! I don’t think I’ve gone a day without sneezing in the whole […]
For the last few weeks, over a month even, I’ve been waiting. Waiting for just the right time. The right time to look over my shoulder, check nobody is watching and pick. Pick wild garlic to be precise. I’ve been running past it, detouring to take a peek and willing it to come up as […]
I do love a good biscuit don’t you? Having a cup of tea in the afternoon without a biscuit feels rather sad. Usually I send one of the girls across the road to the newsagent to get a packet of Rich Tea. Now that is a good biscuit. But today I wanted something rather different […]
It’s been nearly two months now since our cafe closed. I stopped baking for a while. I stopped blogging for a while too. Truth be told there was just too much still going on closing up accounts, getting rid of stock and equipment. All that alongside a full time job and overseas travel. Weekends just […]