A good white sauce is the basic of several of my favourite meals - gammon and parsley sauce, lasagne, or a simple cheese sauce on pasta. Yum.

The base is plain flour and melted butter mixed to a paste, which you cook for a little in the pan before adding milk (careful not to burn it!). Quantities obviously vary depending on how much you want. What my mother taught me is the importance of adding the milk a little at a time. Initially, just a splash at a time, then mix it in fully. It takes quite a while to get to the liquid stage. Make sure that each bit of milk is mixed in properly and heated through before adding more.

Then, keep gently heating and stir constantly until it thickens. Then you can add your parsley or melt in your cheese. The whole thing takes patience, but it definitely worth it for a creamy, lump-free white sauce.  I'm not great in the kitchen, but I can pull of this one (almost) every time.

Cookery Food and Drink Kitchen

#17 How to make white sauce

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When my sisters and I were young, our birthday parties were epic adventures in which our living room and playroom were transformed into other worlds, and the games followed intricate plots. I had a Pirate Party, a Princess Party and a Puzzle Party (they didn't all have to begin with 'P'.  I had Egypt as well...).

The centrepiece of each party was the food, also carefully themed and labelled. And the centrepiece of the food was always the cake; the cake, always to the same recipe, and always delicious. No shop-bought Victoria Sponge for us, and no fondant icing either. The chocolate cake appeared in many forms - a pirate chest, a swimming pool, and once a magnificent dragon. But at its heart it was always the chocolate cake.

We still make in now - my sister is partial to making it as a gift for friends. The page of my mum's recipe book on which she has written the instructions is filthy.

I'm going decipher the smudges on the page and share it with you too (excuse old fashioned weights... deal with it, it's worth it):

To see the recipe click "read more"...

Cookery Food and Drink Kitchen

#12 The recipe for the best chocolate birthday cake

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Here is a handy little hint that we all use in my family.

The next time that you are struggling to open a new jam jar (or a jar of marmalade, or pickle, or whatever takes your fancy, of course) grab a teaspoon. With the back of the spoon, give the rim of the lid a few strong taps. The lid should come off easy as anything.

My mother assures me she has used this technique to open jars that had previously defeated the strongest of men.

I've not done any scientific research, but it seems to work!

Cookery Food and Drink Kitchen

#9 How to open a jam jar

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My mother advises that tea leaves require boiling water, but if you pour water from the kettle into a cold teapot, the tea pot will quickly absorb the heat. And that is bad.

So, pour a little boiling water into the kettle (before you put the teabag in, obviously...), swish it around and pour out. Then, make your tea as usual. Doing this has the added advantage of a) rinsing the pot after its previous use, assuming you are not an obsessive teapot cleaner, and b) keeping the tea just that bit warmer for that bit longer (and you can always add a tea cosy!). Chin chin.

Food and Drink Kitchen

#5 Warm the teapot first

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So, this sounds obvious and,  in all honesty, it is obvious. But perhaps it is so obvious that you've never really thought about it.

If you are a general spiller/dripper/hair in your dinner lazy kind of eater, this could be worth considering the next time you have a meal - especially useful for soups and any meal with sauce.

Food and Drink People

#3 Lean forward when eating to avoid drips

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Let us start with one of the most practically useful pearls of wisdom handed to me by my mother. This simple technique allows you to slice an onion into small bits, quickly, easily and with minimal crying. I use it every time I need to fry onion to start a dish.

1.       Use a sharp knife. With the skin still on, cut the onion in half through the root. It’s important that the half root remains intact as this holds the onion together.

2.       Place one half of the onion face down and cut of the end (be careful not to cut the root by accident). At this point you should easily be able to remove the skin.

3.       Slice several incisions lengthways. Do not cut through the root, or your onion will fall to pieces.

4.       Now cut across the onion, instantly creating small pieces to pop into your frying pan. Easy!

Cookery Food and Drink Kitchen

#1 How to slice an onion

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