Passionate about food

Hi there, and welcome to this site where I blog about my many adventures in the kitchen. I hope you find a few recipes to inspire you to cook something delicious tonight! I am no professional chef but my passion is unwavering.

I love cooking. The story goes that my kitchen expert mother pleaded with me as teenager to come and help her to prepare meals for the family. My interest was null. The only thing I was interested in making in the kitchen was tea or toast, two teenage staples. One year on holiday, I ventured into the kitchen to fry an egg. This was documented on camera as the family could not believe lazy bones me was cooking something.

When I was 18 I left home and moved in with my then boyfriend. Since the only thing I could cook were eggs, the poor guy got eggs in abundance. He was far more advanced than me in the cooking department, and very kindly showed me the way of cooking pasta. This is when a door to endless creativity was opened and my interest and passion for cooking continues to grow.

I now live in leafy Surrey, England, with my boyfriend and our three legged cat.

They say we resemble our pets; thankfully I have all my legs but the cat was destined to be mine what with it’s chaotic accident prone ways! The cat’s main goal in life is to terrify us to within an inch of our resolve by regularly nearly killing himself.

Cooking for love

I am quite grateful that one of my favourite things to do is something I get to do often. Cooking really gets my creative juices flowing, it tests my time management, it makes me consider others. It is not watching TV or surfing the Internet mindlessly. It’s a super hobby and my favourite way to spend free time. It’s really quite a treat for the senses, with all the amazing smells and the beautiful scenes of onions slowly bubbling in a frying pan, or a chicken developing a beautiful golden crust as it roasts. After all that nurturing, tweaking, tasting, and adjusting you then get to serve up a beautiful plate of food, with the right balance of colours, textures and smells and present it proudly to your loved ones who graciously accept with hungry tummys.

Cooking for health

It is undeniable these days that eating the right foods can improve your health. I think all foodies love tasty delicious meals but that doesn’t mean they have to be laden in fats and evils. I really try to balance my diet with as many fresh ingredients as possible, and sometimes I think using organic meat and vegetables makes the difference not only in taste, but quality too. Despite the colourful array of foods I cook, I also feel its worth supplementing my diet with vitamins and minerals. For example, as a South African I have grown up with an abundance of vitamin D produced by the African sunshine. In the UK however, the rate of vitamin D deficiency related illnesses and ailments is much higher due to the latitude of the country and therefore the lack of sunshine. Here in England we have a health shop on every high street, demonstrating the desire of the Great British public to be healthy, high street stores such as Holland & Barrett or more specialist stores such as the Nutri Centre are a super convenient way of getting your vitamin and mineral fix. Now you can even buy online at both of those making it even easier to enjoy the delicious food you love to cook!