Bite Me!

I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of the new Aga collections last night, held at the Beauchamp Place AGA shop, which is pure kitchen porn.  I lost my heart to the duck-egg blue Rayburn, whilst the general consensus on the new AGA pearl colour ("it's not grey," emphasised AGA Chief Exec William McGrath) was that it was very chic indeed. 

Guardian recipe impresario and "King of the Crumb" Dan Lepard was busy cooking up a storm, and guests couldn't get enough of the English rarebit on walnut bread and home-made lemon curd profiteroles topped with barley sugar.  Seizing the opportunity to speak to a master baker, I asked him on the best way to prevent wholemeal bread from being too heavy.  The answer?  Add half a crushed vitamin C tablet.  I'll let you know how I get on with that tip...

I was also excited to discover the new range of Joules textiles - OK, so rose-printed aprons and matching headscarves might be a bit twee, but at least I can finally buy some oven gloves to go with all my clothes from Joules.  Now all I need is the country kitchen (and AGA, of course), to go with it!