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

Another busy week in the food world with Wednesday taking me up to the London Excel for the International Food Exhibition. As always lots of amazing new products, food ideas/concepts and of course many samples! After trying ice cream, meringues, sauces, salad dressings, chocolate to name a few I wanted to just give you a round up of my favourites. These are companies to look out for in the future and in some cases already stock our supermarket shelves and maybe you haven’t no

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

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

Again a non refined sugar recipe, perfect for after school. These are easy as they are no bake but still good for lunchboxes as there are no nuts! Ingredients: 1 cup mixed seeds, pumpkin, sesame, sunflower for example 40g cocoa powder 100g medjool dates pitted 1 banana 6 tbsp maple syrup 250g oats 5 tbsp coconut oil Method: Blitz the dates, banana, maple syrup and cocoa powder in a blender or processor. Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan. Add the oats to the melted oil and st

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

How was Christmas? it already seems a long time ago… It was a flurry of food and family for me but no snow until now! Generally it was a good one for us as a family. Boxing Day meal went very well with ham, quiches and salads which I had tried to prep in advance, and yes it was a relatively relaxed event. I did over cater which is better than under catering. I boiled two hams and we only used and needed one so New Years Eve we had the other ham, which actually worked out well

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.”

So today the girls break up from school and the routine all changes as we have a couple of weeks of well earned holidays. Last night we went up to Kew Gardens to see the Christmas lights and they really are magical. Some displays are with music and others are just a feature like the ‘beehive’ – beautiful and if you are already booked in this Christmas to visit, I hope you enjoy as much as we did! Christmas presents are nearly all wrapped and I have posted all my cards (that w

Hopefully Christmas cake is made and pudding too, if you make it from scratch.  I have also made homemade mincemeat this year which I love and makes a real difference in those mince pies! I have enough jars to get me through the holidays. Another delicious recipe idea is Christmas muffins. A delicious way to use up leftover jars of mincemeat after Christmas or to christen a new jar, whichever way, they are great with a cup of coffee over the Christmas period. As you know I ha

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

These work for any round cheese brie or camembert. Chilli-Pecan Camembert Ingredients: 50 g pecan halves, coarsely chopped 1 fresh jalapeño chilli (or other fresh green chilli), seeded and finely chopped 70 g apricot jam 1 round (250 g) Camembert cheese (about 10-11 cm in diameter) 1/2 large French baguette (about 200-225 g total weight) Olive oil Directions: Preheat oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/Gas 5. Coarsely chop pecans. Finely chop jalapeño using Food Chopper. In small bowl, c

This was an extremely busy week. Back to normal after half term, and Halloween on a school night, which I can never remember! It didn’t cramp our style too badly but I think we had a lot less visitors… The Spirit of Christmas has been on all week at Olympia in South Kensington. I got up for the day with Sue and we had a great day, although slightly rushed – I realised my watch was still on summer time, so we missed the Champagne Tasting. It really got me in the mood, I cannot

Ingredients: 2-3 vacumn packed beetroot 2 ripe bananas 120ml cooking oil 160g coconut cream 275g plain flour 50g cocoa powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 150g caster sugar Method: Preheat oven to 180C. Pop into a blender your beetroot, bananas, oil, bicarbonate of soda, and coconut cream. Pulse to a pink paste. Scrape pink mixture into mixing bowl with flour, cocoa powder and sugar, mix well. Grease a loaf tin and scrape the batter mixture in. Pop into the oven on the middle sh

Ingredients: 175 g unbleached plain flour 2 and ¼ tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt 25 g cold butter, small dice 75 g strong cheddar cheese 50 ml buttermilk (or dairy or non-dairy milk with a little lemon juice added) 1 tsp grain mustard 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrin’s for preference) ½ raw or cooked small beetroot finely grated extra flour for rolling surface a little milk for brushing on the scones (optional) Method: Preheat oven to 220 (200C fan). Sift the flour an

It’s been a busy half term with Halloween cookery classes and ‘batty’ baking sessions. We have made ‘mummy sausages’ and spider webb pizzas and learnt the art of beautiful witches hats out of fondant icing. It’s not ideal with Halloween on a school night this year, Monday 31st but I am sure all weekend we will enjoy our Halloween goodies and as a family we are off to a Bonfire and Fireworks display on Saturday night! I have just got my slow cooker out (aka my cauldron) and fe