Finishing touches …

Finishing touches ….

….. are something I’m always thinking about! They are the best bits of anything I’m making, wearing or wanting to do!

In my case – finishing touches can be a perfect cushion for my garden bench, fab earrings to make my chosen outfit ‘pop’ and course herbs & flowers to add extra flavour, colour and ‘zing’ to a dish.

With everything I cook, not only am I thinking about how it will taste – but also how it will look. Casual dining is often ‘oven to table’ and you may want to add extra colour, taste & freshness to something that has been in the oven for a while. A zesty gremlota – chopped flat leaf parsley, garlic & lemon zest – is a fantastic ‘finishing touch’ to a slow cooked beef casserole and really gets your taste buds dancing before they relax into the soft, sweet and tender pieces of meat. A fresh green pesto – herbs (usually basil, parsley), garlic, nuts, Parmesan cheese and olive oil – is a reliable, delicious and highly complimentary friend to almost any savoury dish – from roasted chicken or pan fried salmon to a feta salad, fresh pasta or dolloped into humous– it sings of sunshine, freshness and salty taste as well as being so beautifully colourful. If you have any left, fresh pesto can be kept in a jar, in the fridge with a layer of olive oil on the top.

Edible flowers as you may know, are a particular love of mine and can finish many dishes – either just with their delicate beauty and seasonal freshness, or to add extra taste and zing. Nasturtiums are the very best at this – they are the peppery ‘pep’ to a salad as well as adding colour and texture; Garlic flowers can elegantly float in a fresh early summer soup and add ‘popping candy’ with their seed heads to any mouthful. Rose petals add fragrance (and romance) to cakes and cordials – I love scattering them, at the last minute, to chopped strawberries, or as part of a delicately iced cake – or as I’ve previously written, to homemade Raspberry (& rose) cordial.

And finally to my (slightly out of control) obsession with earrings! I love anything that dangles – perhaps its because my ears stay the same size, whilst the rest of me expands and (occasionally) retracts?! I love earrings much more than necklaces and have many hanging around my dressing table mirror, bedside table, handbag pockets and inside car doors.

Earrings can finish off or take an outfit to the next level and with my Autumn/Winter demos, I’m excited to think about the earrings I might be wearing! They are part of me and my love of colour! Clearly my guests will be coming to learn about recipes, foody tips and tastes – but perhaps I can add something extra to my demonstration skills with the perfect pair of dangly earrings! 

"So pretty"