From the Kitchen

It turns out that I love nothing better than pootling in my kitchen when I have a) time and b) space. Not meals, you understand, but all the extras - cookies, bread, granola, snacks, anything that adds a smile to our faces - just because. Meals... well, it's a chore isn't it? Doesn't really give me quite the same kick.

Another thing I am enjoying right now is the first fresh green things in our vegetable boxes and supermarket shelves! Sugar snap peas? Already?? Yes, please! It makes a nice change from, well, root vegetables and soup.

Grabbing more than my fair share of these peas, I knew exactly what the first batch was destined to become - my mouth has been watering for them all year - the 'Pickled-Dilly Snap Peas' refrigerator pickle which appears in issue 1 of TEND. I'm a big pickle fan and the combination of these sugar peas and the pickle spices is simply heaven - heaven, I tell you. I doff my cap to Denise - she has an exquisite palette. Anyone who can get me excited about food has to be a genius, and I am already eying the recipes in the summer issue (mouth-watering, I'm not kidding).

I will never go back to shop bought pickle again; I have been a bit lazy in the past in this regard - but oh, this recipe is so quick and EASY and so so gooooood. The only downside is that you have to wait a few days for the flavours to be ready and they're gone so quickly!

I can see this will be another staple of our spring/summer diet this year, along with the never ending popcorn snacks and hummus. After a long winter it feels good to finally eat fresh and local produce.