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Christmas Presents

Christmas gift ideas 2021

Food and cookbooks 2021

Online cooking courses: ‘Learning with experts’

Pick of the food and garden books 2020

A Christmas shopping wish list

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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msmarmitelover

Silvered barfi /burfi Indian sweets. Made with pow

Silvered barfi /burfi Indian sweets. Made with powdered milk, saffron, vanilla and pistachio. #chailover #indiansweets #mithai

Finally! I’ve finished the William Morris napkin

Finally! I’ve finished the William Morris napkins I made for my daughter for Christmas. You’d think napkins would be the easiest thing to make but I had sewing machine issues & then had to hand sew the trimming onto 8 napkins all the way around. They go with her colour scheme- green willow wallpaper- green marble table- touches of mustard & gold. #mummylove #crafting #sewing #williammorris #willow #green #mustard

The best thing about this meal I made on Sunday wa

The best thing about this meal I made on Sunday was the lemon rice. Steam your rice. In the meantime fry onions, mustard seeds, lemon zest strips in ghee or vegetable oil. I added some fennel seeds and a couple of tablespoons of urad dhal, then added the steamed rice. Really delicious. With chickpea, coconut & tamarind curry & some sweet lemon pickle brought back from Bombay . I’m still working through all the packages of pickles & chutneys brought back from India a few years ago. They last forever. This one was particularly good. #lunch #lemonrice #basmati #indianfood #spiceupyourrice

Bergamot Japanese cheesecake. Very light, no base,

Bergamot Japanese cheesecake. Very light, no base, more like a soufflé. Several cheesecake recipes in my baking book Msmarmitelover’s secret tea party. I always look out for interesting citrus such as bergamot, or blood orange in January. It’s also marmalade making season, using Seville oranges🍊but the expert in that is @vivienlloyd #citrus #cheesecake #japanesecheesecake #iphone13

Beetroot cured salmon. It takes a couple of days.

Beetroot cured salmon. It takes a couple of days. Grate raw or cooked beetroot covering the salmon. Cover with salt & sugar & hard liquor ( I’ve used gin, vodka, tequila, aquavit, whisky in the past), weigh it down with a tray on top and some tin cans and after a day turn it over. Then do the other side. Finally scrape off the sugar and salt and beet. Taste a little bit. If it’s ridiculously salty, rinse the salmon a bit. Then pat dry. After this you can cold smoke it. Which I do in my @biggreenegguk combined with a @proqsmokers box. I normally smoke a side of salmon for about 12 hours so I have to fill the smoking box with sawdust a couple of times. The trick with the sawdust is to make sure it’s as dry as possible & to fill it up to the top of the box, then draw a line with your finger around the ‘maze’ from the candle end to the middle. It should stay alight then. Make sure you only do this in cold weather. Anyway it’ll be the best smoked salmon you ever had. #smoking #homecured #diy #beetrootcure #fish #pescatarian

Whisky banana bread. Tin by @crowcanyonhome ❤️

Whisky banana bread. Tin by @crowcanyonhome ❤️ background by @fifbackgrounds, baking by me. Had a hand of blackening bananas in the fridge & poured a generous glug of whisky 🥃, cinnamon & fresh nutmeg in. There are a lot more baking recipes in my book MsMarmiteLover’s secret tea party. #dulljanuarydays #bakingtherapy #usingchristmasleftovers

Playing around with one of my photo backgrounds fr

Playing around with one of my photo backgrounds from @foodifancy that I got for Christmas. I made a couple of curries last night: cauliflower, tamarind, tomato & pepper and mattar paneer, rice & raitha. #supperclub #foodphotography #photobackground #curry #vegetarian #homecooked recipes in my book supperclub

In my parents street for Christmas Day. Happy Chri

In my parents street for Christmas Day. Happy Christmas everyone. We all took lft tests so my parents were safe. Dinner was cooked by my sister in law @bro0907, my brother @asproid_rodgers made us all laugh during the rizla game (he was Kim kardashian), my dad dressed up as charlie Chaplin, my mum told us about the advantages of losing your hearing ( say yes to everything sometimes you have wonderful surprises like the time she said yes to a shop assistant and hey presto all of her shopping was gift wrapped), my niece @flossrodgers made us her version of homemade marmite, we met her boyfriends mum, artist @iocassandra for the first time and my daughter @siennamarla & my son in law @jamescalmus had their first Christmas in their beautifully designed flat upstairs from me. My sister @imogen_rodgers_1 sadly had covid and could not come, having to self isolate. My other niece @rachaelrodgers was with her boyfriend’s family in Brooklyn (@carolvenezia ) and my nephew @rodgersmike spent Christmas with his wife @lakeyshakey who also had covid ☹️ so this is Christmas 2021. Only another 2 or 3 years of pandemic to come (being realistic), how different will we be at the end of it? It’s like a long slow war. I don’t think I’ve had it yet. It’s been a hard year for everybody as john Lennon sang in the Beatles documentary. Hard to hold onto your sanity especially if you live alone or had bereavements ( so far none in my family or friends 🙏🏼). Hard to maintain your self esteem when your business goes down the chute. The queen looks frail after her tough year doesn’t she? love and peace xx

Bergamot madeleines. These are quick to make and y

Bergamot madeleines. These are quick to make and you can flavour them how thou wilt. (Sorry reading a lot about Quakers rn). Recipe from MsMarmiteLover’s secret tea party book. #homebaking #madeleines #msmarmitelover #honey #bergamot

Look how well my paper white narcissus are doing?

Look how well my paper white narcissus are doing? Following @laetitiamaklouf’s advice I planted them in white pebbles in a glass jar, watered until it touched the bottom of the bulb. Hopefully they will decorate my Christmas table with scent. #tablescape #paperwhites #narcissi #narcissism
#indoorplants #christmas

Home sweet home. My own cooking, my own comfort fo

Home sweet home. My own cooking, my own comfort food. I have no milk, so I opened a larder tin of evaporated milk for tea. I had a few cherry tomatoes, some baby artichoke hearts I’d previously marinated in oil & vinegar, rest of a packet of linguine. I fried the tomatoes in the artichoke oil, added a few garlic cloves & cooked the pasta. Then I scooped the part cooked pasta from the pan and added it to the sauce, finishing it off with black pepper & the artichoke hearts. Truth is, I like my own food better than anyone else’s… #home #pasta #artichokes #leftovers #backfromtravel

A refreshing Middle Eastern drink called enab, a m

A refreshing Middle Eastern drink called enab, a mix of tamarind and hibiscus, served at a soma bay restaurant called @baladinaoriental in the marina. The decor and food is a cut above! The whole resort, which is only 20 years old, and still establishing itself, suffered a hiccup last year at the start of the pandemic. Obviously tourism in Egypt and the Red Sea is vital for this country. It’s now off the red list for the UK. Virtually everyone is double vaccinated. Last year most places were closed March to July, the workers did get furlough. Huge measures have been taken to reduce any spread of covid. Obviously being outdoors reduces any spread plus vitamin D- sunshine- reduces covid. #travelduringcovid #somabayredsea #egypt #vitaminsea #travel #solotravel

Souad works at the spa. Every couple of days she m

Souad works at the spa. Every couple of days she makes these petal ‘mosaics’ in wide alabaster bowls of water. Alabaster stoneware was found in the pyramids made with a lathe, incredibly sophisticated technology. Souad’s work is delicate, ephemeral, & beautiful, using local flowers such as bougainvillea. I’m staying @thecascadesgolfresortspa in @somabayredsea I’ll be writing about all the activities I’ve done soon. #egypt #redsea #travelaftercovid19 #traveling

Abdul leading me to my first dive in years. I’ve

Abdul leading me to my first dive in years. I’ve got my basic PADI, my advanced, nitrox & photography qualifications but needed a refresher. I’m staying @somabayredsea a resort by the Red Sea in Egypt, about 60 kms south of Hurghada. I’m staying at @thecascadesgolfresortspa (tomorrow I’m having a go at golf, I’ve only played mini golf before). The weather in November is 24c during the day and quite fresh at night. The last time I came to Egypt was 20 years ago. In august. It was 50c in Aswan. In Cairo you couldn’t leave your hotel till 7pm. Even the Egyptians found it hot. It was like standing under a hair dryer all the time. I was in a terrible relationship and trying to wean myself off him. I spent my time crying & waiting for his texts. The Red Sea is one of the best places in the world to dive however. I felt very safe @orcadiveclubsomabay. Yoga is good training for diving- you learn to breathe. Diving is a great sport for anyone, you don’t have to be very fit. The only thing you need is healthy lungs- no asthma. This dive centre had to shut for a few months last year due to the pandemic but they are up & running at 100% capacity- you are in the open air, plenty of vitamin d. Abdul told me that anyone who works within tourism has been double vaxxed. Anti covid measures, at the hotel & most places, are very stringent. #travel #diving #egypt #somabay #redsea #activetravel #wintersun #lovethewater💦

Overnight cardamom rice pudding made in the Aga. I

Overnight cardamom rice pudding made in the Aga. I had a lot of milk, quite a bit of risotto rice ( carnarolli) so I covered the rice well with milk, added cardamom & sugar. And foil on top. Today I removed the foil & transferred it up the top oven to get the all important skin. Perfect winters dish. I didn’t measure anything, just did it by eye & taste so feel free to do that too. #slowcookerrecipes #ricepudding #agarecipe #easypudding #cardamomrecipes #supperclub

The travel journalist @whattravel made me this bea

The travel journalist @whattravel made me this beautiful map fabric mask. I will be wearing this for future trips. Thank you, talented woman. #covid #travel #masks #sewing #maps

Bonfire night recipe from v is for vegan. Wild mus

Bonfire night recipe from v is for vegan. Wild mushroom forest pie. Made with olive oil shortcrust pastry and mushrooms including trompettes de mort and winter chanterelles from @totallywilduk slide ↔️for uncooked then baked. Click to buy the book from me #mushroompie #pie #supperclub #ovenbaked

From my book V is for vegan, ripe plantain & chill

From my book V is for vegan, ripe plantain & chilli fritters with a coconut chutney. Buy yellow plantains, mush with a fork with a finely chopped chilli, add a couple of tablespoons of flour & some salt. Fry gently in vegetable oil. Chop open a coconut 🥥 and peel off the brown flesh. Blend with lime juice, coriander leaves & salt. Makes a good brunch. #recipe #vegan #caribbean #plantains #coconut #supperclub #visforvegan

I made a little succulent display from plants I bo

I made a little succulent display from plants I bought at the #chelseaflowershow in a vintage soil sifter. Good drainage is essential. Soil and gravel. They seem to be doing well. I’ve got them outside. #londongarden #supperclub #succulents #succulove #vintagestyle

It’s such a warm October. The chillis are still

It’s such a warm October. The chillis are still growing. I’ve picked the last of my jalapeños (green on the right). @christina_erskine came over today to do the garden and brought me pumpkins and chillis that she’s grown on her allotment. Top left: Hungarian hot; middle left, a pardon left to ripen- it’s probably very hot now. The yellow chilli is a lemon Italian one. The bottom left is a Carolina reaper- not sure I have the courage. I asked Christina’did you try it?’ Yes. ‘How was it?’ Well I’m still alive. Yikes. #londongarden #chillis #homegrown #autumn #fall #supperclub #sharing

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