Don't you love autumn and its plentiful bounty of free food? Apples and pears tumbling from their trees over walls and fences, lovely crab apples littering country lanes, mushrooms, brambles, even pheasants and pigeons that fly out of high grass right in front of you on a Sunday walk and conveniently meet a car that happens to pass by. A bit gory I know but too good to leave for the birds of prey to enjoy! Make the most of mother nature and all her seasonal treasures! Here is today's apple…

Spring-cleaning your kitchen storage cupboard can be a good way to rekindle interest in long-forgotten implements, tools and machines! I was indulging in this dubious pleasure the other day and found stuff that hadn't seen the light of day for a very long time. I decided it was time for these items to come back to the fore.

  One of them was the pasta machine. Recovered long ago from my in-laws who had used it once and then got tired of it, it enjoyed a place of honour in our kitchen…

Had quite a bit of home-made marzipan left over from my moroccan dinner which has been turned into delicious bouchées to enjoy with coffee. Yum yum!