Now this is free food that everybody can recognise at this time of the year.

I have just picked an ice cream tub full and am boiling them down with a little sugar and water.
This will become a compote to serve over ice cream later, there are so many of them around, I can`t see anyone complaining about them being picked, if they do not seed, the brambles self root anyway.

My Mum used to have 3 Gooseberry bushes, which apparently I was born under, and I believed this for years (doh!), these green things make a great and sour curry but seem to be rarer these days.Sadly, I don`t think that they grow wild.

I love blackberries (apart from the seeds Mart and the odd lurking insect).

I adore gooseberries - when sweet and ripe, totally delicious.

Waitrose do a tremendous goodeberry fool.

Much as I enjoy the Saturday cook prog on the Beeb, has anyone else noticed that they only cook "bistro food"? No major recipes go on here. It`s the home cooking equivalent of fast food, which of course is ok, as a lot of people can`t cook that well, I would like to see them embark on a major preperation recipe or TV cooking is going to lose it`s credibility in a lot of areas.

Why does somebody not do a feature on stock cupboard ingredients, if they insist on going down this route? I always have enough stocks to make a meal for sometimes less than beans on toast can cost.

Cooking can be a cheap and essential art which gives us a budget for the more expensive blow out, like the odd bit of salmon or fillet etc.


Here you go, this will cost you 20p per serving.....



3 oz of spaghetti per head. 1 Chilli,1 clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Lightly heat the chilli and garlic in the oil, cool it down, serve over cooked spaghetti.
Cheaper than a Pot Noodle also!

Get yer stock cupboards correct and waste less food UK!