Interesting read and quite timely as my blog last week was questioning the future of our cookery skills.  Waitrose Weekend newspaper – 27th April 2017  “Youngsters are learning the benefits of cooking from scratch earlier than ever…” I teach at several local schools in Surrey and Kent and completely agree with the article in the Waitrose newspaper. Cookery classes are becoming as popular as swimming and ballet! However the reason I agree with the article is that it is not all

This time we will be making some summer recipes : picnic ideas, preparing seasonal fruit and vegetables and summery sweets! “Cookery is a life skill and a subject I feel very passionate about! I have two daughters and I feel the more children can be involved in preparing food – from the beginning – the more likely they will enjoy eating and exploring adventurous tastes and flavours.” Date:  Friday 25th August 2017 Time: 10-3pm Cost:  £40 includes all ingredients and lunch Age

This time we will be making some summer recipes : picnic ideas, preparing seasonal fruit and vegetables and summery sweets! Date:  Wednesday 26th July 2017 Time: 10-3pm Cost:  £40 includes all ingredients and lunch Age Group: Boys & Girls aged 8-12 years Location: Crockham Hill Village Hall, TN8 6RP Please REMEMBER to bring a snack/drink and a container for you to take your goodies home in! For further details email jobanks@alivewithflavour.com Places are limited and need to

Been a really interesting week of food… and it really has prompted the question what is the future of cooking? I hear more and more secondary schools are cutting Food Tech, Home Economics and such like due to the courses not being ‘academic enough’.  In my opinion, secondary schools are running this subject more like a ‘cookery club’ and not always taking it seriously enough. Have we forgotten the fact that there are thousands of prospective jobs in the hospitality industry a

Kefir or kephir (/kəˈfir/ kə-FEER), alternatively milk kefir, or búlgaros, is a fermented milk drink that originated in the north Caucasus Mountains made with kefir “grains”, a yeast/bacterial fermentation starter. It is prepared by inoculating cow, goat, or Sheep milk with kefir grains. These are not grains in the conventional sense, but cultures of yeast and lactic acid bacteria that resemble a cauliflower in appearance.  Over a period of 24 hours or so, the microorganisms

There is associated snobbery about frozen food versus fresh when it comes to fruit, meat and fish. We have all been known to shove the fish fingers and oven chips out for tea, when pushed for time but I wanted to delve a little deeper… Following on from my article about ‘Spring Cleaning’ and what keeps and what doesn’t in the fridge and freezer I started doing some research on frozen vegetables and fruit. I was impressed with the findings. Frozen can be more nutritious than f

Thursday 6th April 2017  – Crockham Hill Primary School, Hall and Kitchen After 8 years dedicated to food, Jo Banks brings creative recipe ideas together through fun, clear, interactive presentations and hands-on workshops/classes. “Cookery is a life skill and a subject I feel very passionate about! I have two daughters and I feel the more children can be involved in preparing food – from the beginning – the more likely they will enjoy eating and exploring adventurous tastes

Wednesday 5th April – Crockham Hill School, Crockham Hill, TN8 6RP After 8 years dedicated to food, Jo Banks brings creative recipe ideas together through fun, clear, interactive presentations and hands-on workshops/classes. “Cookery is a life skill and a subject I feel very passionate about! I have two daughters and I feel the more children can be involved in preparing food – from the beginning – the more likely they will enjoy eating and exploring adventurous tastes and fla

Thursday 19th April – Hazelwood School, Art Room After 8 years dedicated to food, Jo Banks brings creative recipe ideas together through fun, clear, interactive presentations and hands-on workshops/classes. “Cookery is a life skill and a subject I feel very passionate about! I have two daughters and I feel the more children can be involved in preparing food – from the beginning – the more likely they will enjoy eating and exploring adventurous tastes and flavours.” This time

Ingredients: 275g cooked beetroot 250g dark chocolate, broken into pieces 250g butter 3 eggs 200g golden caster sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 75g plain flour 50g cocoa powder pinch of salt Makes 15 Grease the base of cake tin or brownie pan. Place the beetroot in a food processor and whiz for a few minutes to form a smooth puree. Set aside Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, taking care that the bowl does the

Another week has whizzed past, sticking with no alcohol and watching the calories, who said this was a good idea? I have had to look harder at hardy winter vegetables that are in season and thinking about more adventurous recipes in the kitchen. Love all the swede and turnips particularly butternut squash, sweet potatoes and of course carrots, cauliflower, chard, kale, leeks, and parsnips. So easy just simply roasting these vegetables and I do like Brussel sprouts but you may

We made these at my after school club with the children and they were all voted ‘very yummy’ by the children and all the Mums and Dads collecting. I talked to the children in small groups about refined sugar and the benefits of using dried fruit instead to sweeten naturally, a few of them were not convinced until they tasted… I don’t think many flapjack trays got all the way home for trying later. Irresistible and healthy with no refined sugar. The recipe is flexible you can

So January is quite a dull month. Short of money as we are paying off credit cards and Christmas expenses, weather is very cold and then in this country very wet… and certainly in our house we are trying to be good with cutting back on sugary, fatty snacks and its the 19th and I have not had one glass of wine, which has to be a record… With this I have had a busy week of looking at healthier after school snack options. Both of my daughters come in starving after school and of

These are more banana bars or banana cake slices but with the oats and being baked they sort of classify a flapjack. They are really delicious, filling and nutritious too. MOST IMPORTANT NO REFINED SUGAR Ingredients: 150g/2cups of oats 50g  coconut oil 3 bananas 125g chopped dates 1 tablespoon of maple syrup Melt the coconut oil in a pan over a low heat. Measure out and mix the oats and add to the saucepan to allow the oats to soak up the oil,  for at least five minutes. Set

Ingredients: A little butter 4 slices of bread 2 eggs and 2 tablespoons milk a handful of fresh mint leaves 2 handfuls of frozen peas or corn kernels small handful of cheddar or parmesan cheese Turn the oven on to 375F (190C) Gas 5. Put a little butter on a piece of paper towel and rub it inside 4 of the holes in the muffin pan to grease it. Lay a piece of bread on chopping board and use the round cutter to cut out a circle of bread. Press it into the muffin pan. Do the same

Thursday 16th February 2017 – Crockham Hill Primary School After 8 years dedicated to food, Jo Banks brings creative recipe ideas together through fun, clear, interactive presentations and hands-on workshops/classes. “Cookery is a life skill and a subject I feel very passionate about! I have two daughters and I feel the more children can be involved in preparing food – from the beginning – the more likely they will enjoy eating and exploring adventurous tastes and flavours.”

Christmas Muffins Ingredients: 2 cups self-raising flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon ground allspice ½ cup light brown sugar 1 cup fruit mincemeat 1 egg, lightly beaten ½ cup (4oz) butter, melted ¾ cup buttermilk 1 tablespoon milk 2 teaspoons Demerara sugar Preheat oven to 400F / 200C Mix the flour, baking powder, allspice, and brown sugar together in a large bowl. Melt your butter and mix together the mincemeat, egg, melted butter, buttermilk, and milk. Add the wet i

Makes: approx. 18 shortbreads Ingredients: 150 grams plain flour 75 grams grated parmesan 100 grams soft unsalted butter 1 large egg yolk large handful of finely chopped rosemary METHOD Mix all the ingredients together – using bowl and spoon, electric mixer or food processor as wished – until a golden dough begins to form a clump. Turn it out onto a surface and knead for about 30 seconds until smooth, then divide into two. Take the first half and, using your hands, roll it in

Our teenage daughter was born in the states, Tennessee to be precise so we used to celebrate Thanksgiving in a big way. It was a good time of year for family to come from the UK and visit away from the Christmas holidays and we found Thanksgiving was more popular than Christmas for bringing American families together. Falling on the fourth Thursday of November the festival dates from 1621, when a group of New England pilgrims served a feast to their Native American neighbours

A few years ago I went on a course to learn how to master macaroons. It is not an easy skill and quite time consuming but if you have time and energy a fun way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon. Ingredients: 350g icing sugar 250g ground almonds 215g egg whites (use older eggs) 150g caster sugar 5g powdered food colour For the macaroon shells: Preheat the oven to 155’C. Sift the ground almonds and the icing sugar together. Whisk the egg whites until white and fluffy and then