Evocative video about two sibling chocolatiers.

Grocery--beta

Find everything you need to stock your kitchen cupboards. You'll find fresh food like fruit and vegetables and meat & poultry. We also have an extensive range of dried goods including cereals, pasta and biscuits, snacks & crisps and baking supplies. Also, browse our range of alcohol and beverages, including beer, wine, tea and coffee. (beta and feedback--what's this?)

 

Really interesting new beta from Amazon: Groceries. http://amzn.to/bCyqn2

Seen some attempts at online groceries with varied success. Obviously, the supermarkets seem to have the edge at the moment. Will be interesting to see if Amazon can cut off a piece of the pie.

It's early days, but I'm fairly interested to see how it develops. Whilst not having a track record of selling food, they do engage third-party vendors well enough to potentially make this work.

The Grocery site is still very much in the Amazon model, so ordering a weekly shop as one might be used to doing from Tesco or Waitrose would be a bit of a head shift. (Couldn't find any milk, for example).

But, there is certainly a lot to look around that is weird and wonderful, and fresh! Such as the salubrious 10lb Traditional Monster Pie - 4.5kg http://amzn.to/bvdZOc

Or the intriguing Upita De Los Reyes Tortas De Aceite Sugared Olive Oil Biscuits 180g http://amzn.to/c1JkqM

What would be interesting would be to attempt ordering as much of a weekly shop and seeing what happens. Am trying to convince my wife to do this now. For reasons of research, you understand.

That and it would be cool to mention to the other parents in the school playground: "Oh, yes. We do all our grocery shopping through Amazon, you know."

I'm so shallow...

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Mug

Instructions:

Mix flour, sugar and cocoa:

Really simple cake recipe for microwave magic cake-in-a-mug.

Did this the other day and the kids were amazed. Especially when the cake emerged over the top of the mug in the microwave: "It's spilling out, Dad!".

Joy made her own yesterday and was most chuffed with herself.

Sieve the flour/s and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Not heard of doing like this before. Got to try it.

Say what you like about Jamie Oliver (or rather the Jamie Corp as it now is) - he's got style.

Pictures to come of my attempts.

Yum!

Love the look of these breakfasts from around the world. Such beautiful photographs. Would really like to try this Swedish one.

I think breakfast choices when staying at hotels can really define your meal-character. You can experience all the wonders of international cuisine at lunch and dinner, but when you wake up early in a strange bed, in the wrong time zone and have a meeting in 30 minutes - that's when your basic food needs become plain.

My standard hotel breakfast when I'm traveling is:

1. Eggs - Scrambled if I can get it, but am happy with any kind. Prefer it hot, but eat cold hard boiled eggs too.
2. Coffee - Tea is really hard to get right in other countries, but coffee seems to be universal. Hot and black. Netherlands seems to have been the best place for this.
3. Bread - Fresh as possible. Fortunately, this rarely seems to be a problem. Really where France comes into it's own as I have never had to worry about getting good bread there - even when staying in the worst hotels.
4. Yogurt - Excellent way of padding out the tummy until lunch. Especially, if you don't know when lunch will be. Choice and quality can be varied.

Extras - if I can get, at least, the items above then I am usually satisfied. But, the following items are great if I can get them.

5. Porridge - Or Oatmeal as the US calls it. A steaming bowl of bland goodness with a drop of honey sets you up for the day nicely, as I discovered when staying in upstate New York during a very snowy January.
6. Bacon - Now this really does change from country to country. Even hotel to hotel. I don't usually have bacon with breakfast unless it is a special treat but when staying away from home treating oneself to the odd rasher at breakfast. This really is a volatile issue and maybe deserves a post of its own. Yes, I think that's best.
7. Juice.

What's your list?

Great, easy to follow recipe from Chow. I love the way they make these so accessible. One for the kids? Pah! I'm doing this one!

Great article on how easy it is to make marmalade.

My mum made some fantastic marmalade in the autumn from Tesco Value Oranges using Delia Smith's recipe ( http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/preserves/how-to-make-marmalade.html ) - it was amazing. Soooo much better than anything I had bought in a shop.

The secret of the ease of making marmalade is that you don't need special Pectin enriched sugar as there is piles in the Orange peel. The secret to successful marmalade according to Delia is to let it boil a good long while so that the peel goes really soft.

Do try it yourself. It makes you feel so proud of yourself. Will document my own attempt as soon as I get the chance.

Celine’s breads are made using a live sourdough starter, which has to be fed a couple of times a day. She shared with me that she has been to known to take her starter on vacation with her so she could continue feeding it. That's commitment!

Totally understand this one. Sourdough starters are like children after a while.

Check out the 'Home From The Vinyl Café' book and the sourdough story to see what got me started on the Sour dough trail.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1862078564?ie=UTF8&tag=ovcwritersfor-21&li...

Have an old, probably dead, starter in the fridge that I need to throw or revive. Either way I need to re-start my sourdough adventure. There really is nothing like it when you make your first batch.