Dbee Robinson Artist - The Fat Struggling Menopausal Artist

Are cooking shows running out of ideas? Do cooking shows really need to use armed forces recipes for technical challenges? The Great British Bakeoff technical challenge in Series 11 Episode 8 was 'Sussex Pond Pudding'. According to Pru Leith it's a suet pastry filled with butter and sugar, encasing a whole lemon. It reminded my Husband of a savoury Navy delicacy lovingly called, ' Babies Heads ' which is in fact Steak and Kidney Pudding. A tasty comfort food delight for many of our armed forces. I guess if you have a warped vivid imagination it does look a little like a babies head perhaps??   We thought it wouldn't be long before another Navy favourite would appear on a cooking show.  But we were rather surprised to see Monica Galetti on Master Chef : The Professionals - Episode 13 Series 8 - cooking the much loved Navy breakfast 'Sh!t on a raft '. And no I cannot seem to type the correct spelling of this wonder food. Monica called it Devilled Kidneys,

Pressure king pro 24 in 1 and Thermomix make the easiest tastiest bread ever and a super-fast pina colada microwave sponge  I wouldn't say I love cooking, but I do love eating. And anything that can make my life easier, and tastier works for me. So I have a small Microwave, a Thermomix (TM5) with a cook key, and a Pressure king pro 24 in 1 (PKP). Today I made Olive, sundried tomato, and red pepper bread with herbs and seeds, and after watching the Great British Bake Off (GBBO) cooking last night I had to make a pineapple upside-down cake. And as I had to make dinner too it was a busy day in the kitchen for me.  First I made the Hairy bikers low-calorie Sweet and Sour Chicken for lunch using my PKP by pressure for 15 mins cooking using the chicken setting. It was delicious and wasn't too sweet, and the vegetables did not disintegrate as they sometimes do when I slow cook.  Then, because of the GBBO, and I had half a can of pineapple leftover, from the sweet and sour chicken, us

 Best Buddies - Pressure King Pro 24 in 1 and my Thermomix TM5 I have had a Thermomix for a number of years. Starting with the robust TM31 and moving on to the larger TM5 with it's cooking chips, (no not potato chips but electrical recipes for the machine), and later upgrading with the aid of a cook key, to online recipes uploaded onto my machine for total ease of cooking. It's the most hard-working thing in my kitchen.... other than me of course.  My TM5 can weigh, cook, boil, simmer, stew, chop, mince, blend, mill, grind, knead, whisk, puree, and has automated white rice, custard and yogurt functions. You could also buy recipe chips for guided cooking which plugin to the machine for you to follow the recipe directly on-screen. And now with the use of a Cook key chip which links to the internet, I can download over 500 recipes directly into my TM5. What a team we make, especially during all this Coronavirus stuff when I am cooking all the time without even one take out. The l

Today was a day I will remember for ever. We laughed so much I had tears rolling down my face. We started the day eating spaceship pancakes in defiance of the poor Dr Who shows recently. “We defy you Dr Who Team.” For all those missing real aliens, monsters, time travel and a decent story, here is one of my pancake space ships. (Yes my Husband David and I had sweet pancakes for breakfast, and according to someone special, we are adults so we can have what ever we want, even chocolate cereal)   Be warned BBC, it is carrying a new life form that was cloned from Steven Moffat and Matt Smith. It will be known as a ‘ Smatfat,’ It will   write great stories and act them out with exceptional aptitude. There will be no long boring scenes talking of morals or feelings, as this is not what Dr Who is all about. Time travel will be beyond our earthly thoughts and the aliens will be of such awesomeness we won’t be able to get out from behind the sofa. Spaceship pancake The day started

No title - Any ideas comment below - Mixed media It’s been a pretty gutty few months but I actually feel that I am back in control of my life and my feelings. Things had built up and like a contained pressure cooker, it exploded taking casualties. Now I must admit I wasn't the one to blow up, but I am certainly one of the casualties who almost melted into oblivion. When I was younger I would sit on Hayling Island beach and look at the waves, staring at their shapes, size and colour, (Yes, they have colours). They have a hypnotic, rhythmic almost cleansing sensation to me. The sounds of each wave crashing on the shore, cleaning the sand and my soul, it just calms me. It's what I listen to at night via an APP called CALM when I can't sleep, or my body is dog tired but cannot keep up with my racing cat alert mind which just wants to play all night. Sometimes when things go bad for us, we just want to cut our losses and run to save ourselves from further stres

This years challenge is reading A friend told me that this year she was going to challenge herself to read a book a month. Thinking that I haven’t read a book for quite a while or actually made much time to just relax, I decided to join her challenge. Normally I would paint to chill out but it’s quite cold in my studio at the moment and by the time I get home from work it’s just too dark, so reading seemed like an excellent idea.  That same week my Niece told me about ‘Borrow Box’. It’s a free app from your local library so you can borrow ebooks and audio books for free. The fact it’s free is brilliant, but what is even better is I can read books without a light on at night which could wake David or, if I want, I can just listen to an ebook and someone will tell me a story which I just love. It reminds me of my childhood and being read to at bed time, and yes, it still sends me off to the land of nod dreaming of the story as I drift off to sleep with unicorns or beautiful mounta