Being creative with Christmas Mince Pies

LAST WEEK I gave you a recipe for Mincemeat so that you can make your own Christmas Mincemeat Pies or give jars of Mincemeat as a Christmas gift. This week I would ...

Something for the weekend? The Greek lothario

POWER IN ANY SHAPE or form can be a heady aphrodisiac, clearly apparent in our corridors of power in recent years. I’ve always wondered how, in this day and age, with the media being what ...

Everything in moderation?

CURRENTLY, there is such a concerted campaign against taking too much salt in food that I feel positively suicidal when I sprinkle a little over my porridge every morning. This pressure to avoid salt makes ...

Delicious filling for Christmas Mincemeat Pies

Mincemeat

YOU SHOULD HAVE STARTED the Christmas Cake, done the Christmas Pudding and got the Advocaat on the way – so now you can prepare your own mincemeat filling ...

Rant from a Grumpy Granny

It’s official, I’ve turned into a grumpy old woman, a Grumpy Granny. I watch and read the news with despair and disbelief at the stupidity and lack of common sense that appears to be accepted ...

‘The Bathers Asniėres’ by Georges-Pierre Seurat

DEAR READERS, to explain so much confusion that arises from the use of artistic language that misleads today I am providing an excerpt from ‘Trust Your Eye’ which I hope helps address this fantasy of ...

Who was Joe the Busker?

ONE BLEAK DAY in November 1749, a serious musical crisis occurred, which disrupted the serene and cloistered world of the famous St. Stephen's Cathedral Choir and Music School of Vienna. Two of the pupils, Joe and ...

Jackie Anderson's Christmas recipes: Making your own Advocaat

Making your own Advocaat

I HAVE BEEN making my own Advocaat at Christmas for as long as I can remember and the family always love it. It can be sipped neat or ...

Sex Gods or sex pests?

MICHAEL FALLON’s resignation was a bit of a “knee jerk “reaction I thought. The reason initially given was that he had touched inappropriately the knee of journalist Julia Hartley-Brewers years ago, a story that Julia ...

Lincoln, the greatest American of all?

As the controversy surrounding Donald Trump's presidency continues unabated, old statues are torn down and Republicans (or anyone white) are called racist we look back at Abe Lincoln, who by definition to some must have been a White Supremacist...

Jackie Anderson's Christmas recipes: Making your own Christmas Pud

Christmas pudding

LIKE MY Christmas cake in last week’s ThinkScotland this is the favourite that I just go back to year on year, it's fail-safe and tastes delicious.

How NOT to bed your partner

THERE IS ALWAYS someone somewhere doing some silly survey that usually benefits no one except the person paid to do it. The latest is from ‘leading life coach’  Olga Levancuka, never heard of her? Me ...