I love my motor racing weekends making tea for the HRDC drivers and crew. I have never seen so many cakes consumed in a day, but it doesn't seem to slow the drivers down!

• in the paddock
• loving the Academy cars
• savoury muffins
• cakes!
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October 25th and we are all set up and ready to go. The Little House of Cooking Cafe will be open every day at Blackthorpe Barn until December 22nd.

Who would have thought that in the middle of the peaceful Suffolk countryside that one of the best ever punk bands, The Mekons would re-unite and party like they haven't partied for years. We popped up with our Little House of Cooking cafe and every little crumb was eaten. Thank you for a brilliant weekend!

• Portuguese tarts were a hit
• the calm before the storm
• here we are!
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Late February and into March saw my annual holiday to the sunshine of the Caribbean, a trip to see Claire (fellow SuffolkFoodie) in Barbuda. For those that don't know, Barbuda was wiped out by Hurricane Irma on September 9th. The island was devasted and 6 months on still is. No electricty and running water makes life difficult enough, but for those still living in tents or without a roof over their head, life must be miserable. Food and general supplies are desperately short, so first stop after arriving in Antigua was shopping and buying supplies to send on the cargo boat. Three days in Antigua provided enough time for some sight seeing and to eat some street food which is available on nearly every corner. Also this fantastic island breakfast at our Airbnb. In Barbuda we cooked for ourselves using the supplies that we'd sent ahead. There is little else to buy unless you find a fisherman or hunter with a good catch. We found Bernie who had just been out in his boat and supplied a 10lb red snapper to cook over the fire. We also successfully dived for conchs which were so tough to remove from the shell that we had to take we them to Bernie to release. Limited ingredients, only a generator for power keeps you on your toes when deciding what to cook. But our conch escabeche would give any top restaurant a run for it's money.

• Bernie's was so happy to have caught some fish
• Antigua street food menu
• loading our cargo in Antigua for Barbuda
• Curry chicken patties from a food stall in Antigua
• Conch's out of the shell
• Conch escabeche
• Dumplings cooked to order in Antigua
• Dumplings
• Barbuda red snapper grill
• Antigua kitchen
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Pizza Rosso has certainly put some life into The Railway Tavern in Elmswell. Friday night's only, grab yourself a lovely thin and crispy stone baked pizza from the food truck in the car park (from about 5pm to 8.30pm). Order your pizza, pop into the pub and have a pint while you wait for a text to tell you the pizza's ready. We ordered the Carne with salami, spicy beef and prosciutto and the special Code di Gambero with cray fish tails, jalapeno, sweetcorn and cajun seasoning. The smoked chipotle chilli dip was so fiery that it called for another pint of Aspall's. Lovely service from the owner and his mum, plus a pudding of the day too. Note that The Tavern, as the locals call it, only takes cash and despite it being run down has a dart board, a pool table and a friendly landlord. Unlike Elmswell Fox who has a grumpy landlord, I mean who shouts at customers for walking through a door in the wrong direction? Pizza Rosso is in Woolpit on a Monday, Stanton on Tuesday, Bacton on Wednesday and Thurston on Thursdays.

• Code di Gambero with crayfish tails, jalapeno, sweetcorn and cajun seasoning
• Carne with salami, spicy beef and prosciutto ham
• open from 5.30pm until about 8.30pm
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I have just discovered the perfect little 30g bar of chocolate. Made with certified organic cacao sweetened with coconut blossom sugar, it feels good for me. Better still, 3% of the Bedfordshire based company profits go to UNICEF. My favourites are this 70% Raw Peruvian Chocolate with Pomegranate and the 100% Raw Peruvian Cacao Bar with Mulberry. Find some for your Valentine.

If dining in is the new dining out then The Spice Pioneer subscription box will be a great success. Members receive a spice box each month in the post which includes a menu plan and recipes.  Enough to impress your friends and create a dinner party for four people. There's a postcard from the place that inspired the menu (each month is a surprise and travels the culinary world) and a link to a music playlist to set the scene while you are cooking and dining. The spices are provided for a starter, main course and side dish or a dessert. I've been sent the aromatic Moroccan box and the spicy Sri Lankan box to try, both with easy to follow and inspiring recipes. The quality of the spices is really very good, and for those of you out there unlikely to have a store cupboard with the selection required to cook amazing curries and spicy dishes, then this is the answer. You do need to go and buy the main ingredients but the shopping list is concise and easy to snap on your phone camera. Nothing complicated to search for with all the Moroccan box ingredients found in Lidl and the Sri Lankan ingredients all from Asda.

• Chicken tagine with apricots ginger and ras el hanout from Morocco
• Orange and date salad with preserved lemon and pomegranate molasses from Morocco
• Spicy green beans and black mustard seed from Sri Lanka
• Sri Lankan monkfish curry
• Beetroot curry - really very good and I would never have thought of making this before
• The spice box and ingredients purchased actually fed 6 of us.
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No drizzles or blobs but gutsy, generous dishes; powerful yet simple flavours; a superbly written menu including offbeat ingredients and natural, biodynamic wines. That you won't find anywhere else in East Anglia. Pea Porridge -  It's tough to decide what to eat!

• Bertha grilled sardines, salmoriglio, grilled lime
• Blythburgh pork belly 'Petit Sale aux lentilles', soft polenta, crispy pigs ears
• Tarte tatin, vanilla ice cream
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Introducing the Bubblewrap Waffle, the pimped up Hong Kong sweet egg waffle that everyone wants. The business started on the streets with a stall at Berwick Street Market and now has queues of up to an hour outside their new shop in Wardour Street. Chinatown.  Three flavours of waffle, six varieties of gelato, fourteen toppings and nine sauces to choose from. Here's a cheesy Winter Flame.

Food redistribution charity FareShare East Anglia officially launched in Ipswich today with the aim of supplying hundreds of local charities with good food that will otherwise go to waste. FareShare is the UK’s largest food redistribution charity tackling food waste and food poverty by redistributing in date, good quality food from the food and drink industry. The food is redistributed to frontline charities and community groups that support vulnerable people, including homeless shelters, children’s breakfast clubs, and domestic violence refuges. These organisations transform the food into nutritious meals, which they provide alongside life-changing support.  The FareShare East Anglia Regional Centre was made possible through a £500,000 donation by the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation as part of its ‘Fill Your Tank’ programme^.  So how can you help? If you are an East Anglian charity or community group interested in becoming a food member to access good quality in-date food, visit http://fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-centres/east-anglia/. If you would like to become a local 'food hero' and are free to volunteer a few hours a week to drive surplus food to local charities and groups, visit http://fareshare.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering/apply-to-volunteer-east-anglia/