Kitchen Gifts Now Available to Buy

Our first delivery has been received and photographed and is now available to buy online.

The initial range includes:

• Aprons 
• Oven Gloves 
• Aprons for Children
• Coordinating Accessories

We feel that the quality and generous cut of the products make this range stand out as great gifts for all the cooks in your life.  With Mother's day less than two weeks away, we are offering next day dispatch and free, first class delivery - an offer you'd be mad to miss!

Take a good look through the range and let us know what you think.

Kitchen Gift Stock Now In

We're excited this morning following the arrival of stock for the new Gifts section of the Dinner at Home website.

We'll be checking through the order to make sure that all of the aprons, oven gloves, and other coordinating items are there and then start taking photographs.

Check back soon to see the range of gifts that are available to buy.

Vanilla Mart

Following on from the recent blog post regarding The Garlic Farm, the next store cupboard essential was to source and buy was some vanilla pods.

I do frequently use vanilla in a number of desserts such as Pannacotta, Crème Brûlée or straightforward custard. I prefer using vanilla pods, rather than vanilla essence, as I think that the presence of the tiny black vanilla seeds makes the dish so much more appealing. The downside is that buying vanilla pods from the supermarket can be very expensive. Two small pods costing in the region of £4 - £5 and both used in one dish.

I recently discovered a company selling vanilla via the internet. Vanilla Mart offer 10 premium pods for £5.25, 20 pods for £9.00 or 50 pods for just £16.50. Even more discounts for larger quantities and postage for all orders, is free.

I ordered 50 pods from Vanilla Mart on Tuesday and they turned up today, only 3 days later. I'm delighted to report that they were approximately 20cm (8 inches) lon, twice the size of the supermarket variety, and felt soft and juicy. If their aroma is anything to go by, they will be full of flavour too.

It looks like guests at our dinner parties will be subjected to a variety of vanilla based desserts for some time to come - not that anyone has complained in the past.

Note to self - I must upload some of my favourite recipes soon.

The Garlic Farm, Isle of Wight

This year, one of our New Year's Resolutions is to find new sources for some of the ingredients we use most often when cooking at home.

First on the shopping list was some garlic, not the small, expensive bulbs that are found in the supermarket, but big juicy bulbs of garlic direct from the producer.

Two years ago at the East Midlands Food Festival we bought a plait of Garlic from one of the exhibitors who had come from their farm on the Isle of Wight. A quick internet search, led us to the website of The Garlic Farm, based on the Isle of Wight.

The website is clear and informative, packed with plenty of tips for growing, storing, and cooking with garlic and of course plenty of garlic to buy.

We ordered two 10 bulb plaits at the cost of £10.90 per plait, plus £4.75 for standard delivery. Sure enough 4 days later, the box arrived from the farm, containing the two plaits, nicely packaged within tissue paper and securely cushioned within the box. An accompanying information leaflet also advised the best way to store the garlic before use.

The plaits were well tied and the large, firm garlic bulbs and I anticipate that they will be juicy and flavoursome. Can't wait to try them out sometime soon.