Can you believe I made it to the ripe old age of twenty three without knowing how to make popcorn!?

When I was little we had a machine that did all the work. But this last year I’ve discovered that making popcorn the old fashioned way is easy. It’s also lots of fun if you have a saucepan with a glass lid. I could stand there and watch corn pop all day.

Popcorn

1 tablespoon light vegetable oil

1/3 cup popping corn

Flavour of your choice

Put the oil in a heavy saucepan over a medium heat. Add three or four kernels of corn while the oil heats up. When all of your test kernels have popped it’s time to throw in the rest of of the corn and put on the lid. Once the corn starts popping, give the saucepan a gentle shake. You know it’s done when you can only here one or two pops per second. Take the saucepan off the heat and let it rest for half a minute or so. Pour out into a bowl and add your favourite flavour. Enjoy!

Flavours

• My personal favourite, sea salt flakes and tuffle oil
• Try finely grated parmesan and powdered paprika
• Drizzle your popcorn with sweet stuff: honey, maple syrup, salted caramel
• You know those chai latte sachets? That’s right. Makes an awesome popcorn flavour
• Sprinkle with vinegar and salt
• Use a microplane to zest a lime and add chilli flakes
• Shave 85% coco chocolate and nutmeg over the top
• Mix up some wasabi and sesame oil
• Dust with vanilla sugar
• Sprinkle with cinnamon and soft brown sugar and the tiniest bit of butter
• Use crushed dried sage and cracked black pepper
• Mix in pumkin seeds and pine nuts

My brother & I had a hankering for pancakes, so I whipped some up & we devoured every single one. Just like the Walrus & the Carpenter in Alice in Wonderland! Those poor tasty pancakes! Would you like some of your own? I’m sure you do, so here’s the recipe.

Bella’s Tasty Pancakes

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

pinch of salt

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder & salt into a large bowl. Crack the eggs & add to the bowl with the milk & whisk vigorously! Let the mixture sit for about half an hour to let the eggs & the baking powder react. Whisk again & then cook in a frying pan (or proper pancake pan if you can afford one!) over a medium heat. Serve with all things delicious & share with a good friend. Makes about eight pancakes.

This is in my opinion, the best pancake recipe I have come across. I don’t like recipes that make you add melted butter, because the whole thing separates and gets messy & I don’t like recipes that make you wait a whole hour while the batter sits! I like my pancakes with raspberries & maple syrup. How do you like yours?

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