Welcome to January

Welcome one and all to the month of January. The Christmas decorations have all come down-even though Twelfth night falls on Thursday-and although the house looks a tad empty I'm trying my best not to go out and fill right back up again!

This month is still quite full of warming food that need to be jam-packed with energy. Hot soup, juicy steaks and steamed puddings will all be playing a massive part in tea time planning this month, although salad has its place too. I love casseroles in Autumn, but by January I feel like it needs mixed up a teeny bit. Personally I love Greek food, and like to picture the summer holidays and have warming food that’s very Greek, I'm talking kleftiko and stifado…..yummy! Running around the sales could burn off any heavy food calories you have had, but it won’t do any good to those resolutions you only made a short while ago about being the Queen of Thrift.

Remember if you want to buy cheap food mackerel is great right now. We’re really lucky living by the sea and can easily get a whole bunch of fish if we want, I'm learning to be braver as when we moved here I had no idea how to prepare it…but I've slowly been learning and I urge you to try to prepare it yourself if you can! Crab would be a good place to start, so try it now as in January its perfect. Also try to get some seasonal Swede, make some delicious mash with it, it’s really scrummy with proper sausages. For pudding get some great forced rhubarb and make a pie or crumble with ‘lashings’ of cream…what was that resolution about being healthier?

Of course January ends with Burns Night on the 25th, so you have to get your haggis, neeps and tatties ready for your Burns Supper!