Food shopping with one of my offspring recently, I discovered that the said loved one would prefer not to be served meat, fish or poultry on Christmas Day. This news did not really surprise me, as I had noticed a marked change in the shopping habits over the last several months, with more and more one-kilogram bags of carrots, amongst other vegetables, being added to the trolley each week. 

'So these are apricots?' Peter asked, taking a bite of my latest dessert offering. 'No, it's pumpkin,' I replied. His eyes widened. 'Pumpkin? Really?!' he responded. 'You would never know pumpkin could taste this good in a dessert.'

Once a delicacy reserved for royalty and rulers, asparagus was bestowed the title "King of Vegetables" by the ancient Egyptians. According to The World Encyclopedia of Vegetables, the ancient Greeks enjoyed wild asparagus, but it was not until the Roman period that it was cultivated. It's said that Julius Caesar best enjoyed his asparagus dishes with melted butter. Simple and delicious.

Oh, how I love the  early morning ritual of watering the strawberry patch. After showering the plants, I check for those stealthy snails that have made their way into the garden overnight to take massive bites out of the fruit. I pull out any weedlets (my word for baby weeds), lest they invade the entire bed. Then I watch dozens of bees flit to and from strategically-planted lavender bushes to lamb's ears, and seaside daisies, and on to the freshly moistened flowers of the strawberries. It may sound silly to you, but watching this small but nonetheless glorious event makes me sigh with joy. 

'Eat your greens too, darling one,' I suggest to my Peter in a gentle, mother hen fashion. Sometimes he forgets about them and then they've gone cold, which seems to give him the perfect excuse to push them to the side of the plate.

Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold. Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old.
                                                                                                                                  - North Country rhyme

'What sort of soup are you making this afternoon, mum?' my grown up son asked. 'Leek and potato,' I responded. 'Oh yum, you make a really good one of those,' he exclaimed, making me smile. I could almost hear him smacking his lips together over the mouthpiece. 

'Cookbooks have always intrigued and seduced me. When I was still a dilettante in the kitchen they held my attention, even the dull ones, from cover to cover, the way crime and murder stories did'. - Alice B Toklas.