ENGLISH MUM

Here’s a thing: that Jay Rayner, yes, him off the telly, the scary one who can close a restaurant with a swish of his pen? He’s actually really nice. I’ve chatted a bit with him recently about his new book, and he actually cares what I think.  He cares about food: not just posh restaurant food, but the everyday stuff that goes in our trolley.  He doesn’t eat foie gras for breakfast. Who knew? This...

As you know, we’ve had some ups and downs regarding education.  The Mad Professor is now happily resitting the first year of his A levels, but this isn’t without some hassle, and his future is by no means certain – he wants to go into the Navy and become a pilot, like his Dad, but the armed forces are taking on less and less people these days, so other options are always good.  Imagine...

Do you buy Fairtrade coffee? Chocolate maybe? I think a lot of us do – I know I do it now without even thinking about it. It gives me peace of mind to know that farmers and growers in developing country are being treated well and don’t suffer at the hands of my buying decisions. So how about cotton? I hadn’t really thought about it before, but this video is a brilliant way of explaining why...

Read any self-respecting food blogger’s posts and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the only things in our supermarket trolleys are stuff like truffle oil, organic this, free-range that, puy lentils and 90% dark chocolate. Of course I’d love to tell you that’s true, but the reality is that my teenagers hit the kitchen like a plague of locusts every evening after school and yes, I’m...

On Saturday night, well, early Sunday morning, when many people were enjoying the aftermath of bonfire parties or, like me, were safely tucked up in bed after lovely evenings with their families, 21 year old Billy Dove was stabbed in Hemel Hempstead town centre.  Obviously I can’t speculate as to the circumstances, but the end result was tragic: Billy died. As the parent of teenagers, this terrifies...

As you know, we recently visited the site of the impending London 2012 Olympics.  It’s going to be an amazing time for London, and we mustn’t forget that the Paralympics are on their way as well.  (I live quite near Stoke Mandeville, the ‘home’ of the Paralympics, so I’m a massive fan – I think it’s completely inspiring and amazing. ) The lovely chaps at Channel 4...

So back here in the UK, we’re squatting, somewhat ridiculously, in my Mum’s house.  All our stuff’s in storage (even the beloved KitchenAid), even then it’s a bit of a squeeze and the Ninja Cat of Death is living an uncomfortable truce with Ellie the labrador and fending off amorous advances from Harry the ‘ginger t*sser’ (I know it’s mean, but it’s his name...

A long time ago, back in 2007 in fact, an Irish model – Katie French – died of a drug overdose. I found some of the comments made at the time pretty abhorrent and remember writing a blog post about it. Yesterday, over 90 people, many of them teenagers, were murdered by a madman in Norway. This afternoon I watched Twitter in horror as first people near her home tweeted about seeing ambulances and...

I think I’ve got a bit of a crush on Michelle Obama (ahem, a totally girly non-pervy one). Her speech to schoolgirls visiting Oxford University this afternoon was amazing: incredibly inspiring and uplifting. I bet every mother of young women would pay a fortune to have their daughter in that room and be inspired by that speech. On education: ‘Don’t be afraid to fail.  Don’t be afraid...

Check out my Union Jack biscuits on Ready for Ten

This afternoon, Andy Gray, the Sky Sports football presenter was sacked after ‘new evidence of unacceptable and offensive behaviour’ came to light. If you’ve been living in a small shoebox in the cupboard under the stairs for the past week, I’ll bring you up to speed: during Sky’s Sunday match, Gray and his co-presenter Richard Keys were recorded off-air making offensive comments...