There is something about eating coconut based treats in the dead of winter that is insanely warming. It probably the mere nibble of coconut can virtually transport you to a sun-soaked tropical beach. That may be stretching it a bit, but these cookies are escapism by the hand full.

Now I'm not claiming these little balls will defend you when the dreaded winter blues, comes calling, but they certainly can help.

The playful shape evokes the image of snowball and winter, but the taste screams tropical lounging by the pool! Perfect I say!

Most people remember their ‘Firsts’....Their first crush, Their first kiss, Their first broken heart and the first time that they did It!!

Well I can honestly say I cannot remember my first kiss. Nor do I have any recollection of my first crush. I do have some fuzzy memories of my first broken heart. And you guessed it, the first time i did it is rather hazy.

Before you judge me, I've not had so many encounters that I've lost count in a Michael Jordan sort of way, its just that I tend to skip over the less than memorable events in my life. So apologies if by some bizarre cosmic twist of fate you were one of those forgotten participants who just happen to be reading this.

I do know what the very first recipe I learned to cook was! To prove that I’m not loosing my mind in my rapidly gaining old age, it proceeded all of the above mentioned firsts! My gelatin loving grandmother chose the humble Macaroni & Cheese as the first dish she would teach me.

My grandmother was a very strict but loving figure at the time. She was an accomplish cook in her own right. After some badgering I convinced her to teach me how to cook something... anything! Finally she relented and tought me macaroni and cheese. Once at the stove I held the wooden handle of the avocado enamelled saucepan in trembling fear while I stirred the flour into the melted margarine with a wooden spoon to make a roux.

Why do trend makers feel the need to reach into my childhood for ideas and trend for the forthcoming culinary year? Cupcakes - Check! Mexican Food - Check! Well that's two that have made it big in recent years so I may be exaggerating it a little but...

Reading through the Guardian's Hot List for 2010 I had a enlightening flashback when I read that a childhood treat of yore was going to trump the cupcake as the ultimate must have baked good of 2010. And sure enough with my recent visit to the Soho outpost of the Hummingbird Bakery, there they were at £3 a piece! Yes thats right! £3 a piece!

Yes the humble whoopie pie. First of all a whoopie pie is not a pie at all, more of a miniature sandwiched cake. It's the lovechild of a cake and a cookie which has suffered the same identity crisis as the beloved Jaffa Cake. You can trace the roots of the whoopie pie back to the Pennsylvania Dutch of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

The basics of a traditional whoopie pie are two moist palm sized chocolate cakes with a gooey marshmallow filling sandwiched between. Knowing that my Uncle was a huge fan of Pennsylvanian Dutch cooking, I had a look through his cookbook stash that was bequeathed to me. I found a newspaper cutout recipe with some notations on it and thought that it would be a great starting point.

Did you know that the pound cake was so named because some of the early recipes required a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. The recipe originated in the 1700's in good ole England. The original recipe called for no leavening, just the air incorporated by the countless stokes of the whisk. In the days when many people couldn't read, this simple method made it simple to remember the recipe.

Being such an easy recipe to remember; I had to try it myself. So I opted to make a 'Half Pound Cake' using the same principal of the pound cake. First beat the half a pound butter to soften. Then beat in half a pound of sugar till light and fluffy. Incorporate half a pound of eggs a small portion at a time maintain the volume of air. Then finally add half a pound of flour till combined.

It produced an perfectly acceptable, albeit dense cake, but it was too dense and dry for my liking. So I present this non-historically traditional pound cake. It's a is a lighter moist cake with a softer crumb. The extra-lightness is aided by baking soda.

You can make a variation on this cake by swapping the lime zest and juice for orange or even grapefruit for a zingy winter lifter!

Meh- winter! It's dark, cold, and the snow is here. Christmas is rapidly becoming a distant memory with summer nowhere in sight. But there a saviour of winter; namely hearty rib-sticking slow cooked meals. Meals that simmer, blurp and plop for hours on end filling your home with the olfactic stimulation of coziness and warmth while making you salivate with anticipation. Peposo is just that.

Peposo is an Italian stew hailing from Impruneta, a town near Florence. Typically peposo is made with beef, but the preparation works really well with pork. Peposo Pork is a perfect meal for when you need to warm your toes with a belly full of heat. It's a zesty peppery meal that can easily match any chili con carne out there.

I've garnished the Peposo Pork with a Gremolata, which brings a little bit of sunshine and freshness to the dish with it's citrus and grassy green notes.

Serve the Peposo with anything starchy from a soft polenta to mashed potatoes to soak up the sauce.

I find that as I get older the days fly by even quicker. When I was 10 I never imagined what it would be like to turn 30. Well I felt that feeling about 8 years ago. see how time flies!  We live in a society today that is obsessed with fast living sometimes it's hard to remember what happened yesterday or even last month for that matter.

Cue Project 365. It's been a minor phenomenon for a few years now with the advance of popularity of photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Picassa. Basically you take a photo once a day. Upload it to a site. At the end of the year you have a photography road map of where you have been, what you have seen and even in my case what I've eaten.

I found out about Project:365 from a high school chum Ally. She is a passionate photographer who takes amazing photographs. Have a look at her Flickr Stream.

Have a look at my Project 365 photo stream.  While you are at it, add me as a contact so we can see each others year in photos.

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I love television adverts. Some of them are so simple yet so effective I could watch them on a loop for hours. My current favourite are the Schweppes Christmas Entertainment spots. They are quite effective and very brand savvy.

Enjoy and I hope your Christmas is entertaining!

Every holiday feast I get the same request form the bear. Can we have potatoes two ways? I lovingly glare back and say- You want me to make both mashed and roasted potatoes along with everything else? Then I politely decline the request. One can not be making variations of potatoes all day long now can we?

After a bit of experimentation you can get the best of both worlds in one potato. Creamy potatoes encased in a crunchy coating. It's down to two requirements, potato variety and technique. The classic potato variety for roasting potatoes is the trusty red blistered King Edward. Don't get me wrong they make great roasted potatoes, but for roast potatoes 'two ways' you need a potato that has a creamier texture when cooked.

Enter the Vivaldi variety of potato. When cooked the flesh has a creamy and buttery taste. I like to par boil the potatoes with vegetable bouillon which gives the potatoes the perfect seasoning and a glorious golden hue. I've taken inspiration from Nigella Lawson by coating the potatoes with fine polenta (cornmeal) to add an extra crunch.

Don't you hate it when you read something and think, now why did I not think of that?! Well that happened when I was reading through the November issue of Martha Stewart Living.

For years I've been on a Homer-esque quest to cook the most flavourful, moist and non-fussy turkey. 

I've conquered the flavour and moistness challenges by buying a fantastic free range bird and brining it in an aromatic bath. But the process of roasting was fussy and takes up allot of oven space when cooking a huge holiday feast. If like me and you do not have the luxury of a huge sized oven, then this will be a great technique to get a quicker even-cooking turkey out of the most Bijou ovens. 



What's the trick you say? It was elementary my Dear Watson. You simply spatchcock your turkey. The spatchcocking saves oven space when cooking and also speeds up the cooking process avoiding the overcooking and drying out of the breast meat.

MMMM doughnuts. I would like to proclaim my belief that there would be allot less conflict in this world if everyone would take a step back, relax and have a doughnut break. I swear it would work! I believe Homer Simpson would agree!

Every country on the planet has their own distinctive take on the humble fried bit of pastry. The french have the beignet. The Chinese have their Youtiao. In Turkey they have Tulumba Tatlısı. In Egypt they have cheese stuffed Katayef. In The US they have about a billion different types of doughnuts with a doughnut shop on every corner!

But possibly my favourite doughnut of all has to be the humble churro from Mexico. The Churro originated in Spain. They are also popular in Latin America, France, Portugal, the United States, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands. The snack gets its name from its shape, which resembles the horns of the Churro breed of sheep reared in the Spanish grasslands of Castile.

In my take on the churro, I've made it a really egg rich and vanilla seed studded indulgent treat. The dough itself is a variation on the French Choux Pastry.

It seems that for every holiday there is a much loved holiday pie that i cannot eat. For Thanksgiving it's pumpkin pie. For Christmas it the much beloved mince pie. On paper I should really love a mince pie after all it's loaded with cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, brandy and spice. My aversion comes from the fact that the whole pie is centered around raisins and sultanas. Those little wrinkly dried fruits push my gag-factor to the limit.

Now you are probably wondering why I'm spending my time writing about gag inducing mince pies?  Well in my household the search for the perfect mince pie is akin to searching for the perfect little black dress for the holiday party season.  We spend weeks going from shop to shop, buying their best mince pie in the hopes of finding the perfect little pies to consume over the holiday season.  You can't be hasty in the search for the perfect pie and assume that the best pie from last year will be the best pie again this year.

My personal mince pie expert Christian will do the duties as a guest judge. Christian has an opinion on everything, especially mince pies; their merits and shortfalls.

Christian's mince pie expedition has taken him to sample pies from Marks & Spencer, Sainsburys, Fortnum & Mason, Mr Kipplings, Asda, and Tesco.

I'm cookbook obsessed.
There I said it, it's out in the open and no longer a nasty secret addiction. If there is a new cookbook out chances are I've pre-ordered it or buy it as soon as it hits the shelves. In the lead up to Christmas and my birthday I abstain from my cookbook fix, no matter how difficult it is, and compile a list of what i would have bought for my family.

If you know someone like me then this is your lucky day. These are the books to get them, if they don't like them I'll happily take them off their hands. Win Win!

They range from the simple to the ridiculous! Hopefully by January 1st 2010 they will all be taking residency on my bookcases!