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Here's one from southern Italy called Peperoncino cotto. It's keeps for a couple of years and is fab on bread, cheese, meat etc. Peperoncino Cotto Cut chillies into tiny pieces (take out seeds first - you could keep them in if you're hard enough, but I'm not sure if this will affect preserving quali...

We're bravely (or stupidly) preparing an Indian meal for Italian friends tonight (dhansak, dahl, bombay potatoes and chapatis). Whilst I love the food and the passion for it over here it's so local that we could end up with some very hungry guests.

All the more for me - yum!

Hi Ina, I feel for you being vegetarian in Scotland. Beautiful part of the world but not a good place to eat out if you don't do meat. My husband and I got married in Scotland and all we could eat on our various scouting missions was plastic macaroni cheese with chips. I was very excited by a Mexica...

Hi Rhonda, I've been a vegetarian for nigh on 30 years and have found it to be most liberating in the kitchen. Like many, when I first stopped eating meat I experimented in recreating favourite foods that contained meat - send me a pm if you are interested in any in particular. Nowadays I can create...

Not sure if this will help but it’s what we do with our olives. Jar them in a brine solution 2 pints (1 litre) of water plus 3% oz (100 gms) of salt for every 1 kg of olives. Place the pan with this solution on a moderate heat. As soon as the water comes to the boil take it off the heat. Leave the...

Morning all. I harvested all of our spuds a couple of weeks ago as is the norm in southern Italy. Although I'd been picking them as and when needed everyone digs the lot up after the festa of Saint Antonio in mid-June. I love the way that the gardener's diary is tied in with religious one over here ...

As someone with a really, really slow t'internet connection would it be possible to list (just the name and number) the current top however many, so that I can check out what has been suggested so far? Cheeky request from someone who hasn't suggested a single 101 so far but it would help me get past...

Thanks for the idea Thomzo, as we get through a fair amount of homemade lemon squash this will make a welcome change. I love the idea of using the flowers in ice cubes too - pretty funky. I guess that they'd work quite well in G&T or even whiskey if I was feeling daring.

Thanks for the idea Thomzo, as we get through a fair amount of homemade lemon squash this will make a welcome change. I love the idea of using the flowers in ice cubes too - pretty funky. I guess that they'd work quite well in G&T or even whiskey if I was feeling daring.

And what's more I've found a recipe that only takes a week to make, rather than one mese! If anyone's interested let me know. I've just discovered how to make another digestivo using basil leaves - really nice and fresh tasting. Digestivo al basilico 500g alcool (or cheap vodka) 500g sugar 500g wate...

Contadino's not giving you the whole picture. The wasps that made one of our olive trees home last year were as big, if not bigger, than fifty pence pieces and Italian's are terrified of them as a sting usually results in a hospital visit. I had to kill (and me a vegetarian too) about 15 of them one...

A little dab of essential oil gets stubborn gluey gunk off too.

Probably not something that I should be proud of but I was once pelted with a water bomb. The morons who threw it were driving a red convertible so they really stood out. Later on that same day myself and a friend had the satisfaction of standing on a bridge and pouring the contents of our chip bags...

At the back of the book there is a list of other titles including the one that you mentioned Robin. I can't comment on them as I've never read any, but I'm guessing that Storey’s Basic Country Skills contains a synopsis of each title.

Storey’s Basic Country Skills - by John and Martha Storey Subtitled A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance, this encyclopedia contains a collection of 150 different authors specialising in different areas of expertise. Covering almost every area of rural living this is a great reference book to have a...