Fifty Two Shades of Food Lovers' Heaven

My name is Nicki and I am a Food Porn Addict! I will confess to being a fully-fledged foodie, a local produce drum-banger of epic proportions and a lover of a home cooked meal.  It was only a matter of time therefore, before #SCBP Recipes launched.  Of course, in an attempt to be sensible I have been saying “once we’re settled we’ll get the recipe section off the ground”.  But anyone who knows me well will also know that this was doomed to fail at the first thought of missing out on berry season.

My only issue was photography – because as all Food Porn lovers know, it’s the photographs that count. Those gorgeous, big images of plump, juicy berries, moist sponges and golden drizzles of oil are what make recipe books so unputdownable and food blogs so screen-time-addictive.  I can spend a very happy afternoon ogling a well-photographed burger and I was determined that any recipe section on #SCBP would live up to these mesmerising standards.

Which is tricky when your photography budget wouldn't buy you a poke of sweeties from poundland. 

I had to find a photographer who loves food as much as I do and who could be talked into snapping just for the sheer, unadulterated, love of it. Enter Gill Murray.

Gill and I come from the same foodie mould – we love eating out almost as much as we love our kids, will walk half way across a strange, foreign city because someone once told us about an amazing ice-cream parlour that was there and can feel the same love for a local artisan producer that a 12 year old girl reserves for a One Direction band member.  

We met, we talked, we decided monthly just wasn’t going to cut the wholegrain chilli mustard and it would have to be a weekly thing.  Now, if you’ve ever tried to get a weekly recipe out of a chef you will know it is as easy as herding cats.  In fact, asking the cats for the recipes would be easier.  So when we got down to talking logistics and making plans, we decided that, as much as we loved our local chefs, we would get stuck in and do the weekly recipes ourselves.  After all, we're almost certain that what you want to cook is the same as what we want to cook.

You want home-cooked, local produce, with a dash of cheating, some nifty short cuts and a WOW end result. You want to impress the kids / your girlfriend / your mum / your husband but still have time to curl up on the couch with a wee bar of Charlotte Flowers salted caramel chocolate, a pot of Bean Shop Assam and a copy of Charlie Trotter’s Desserts (again!).

And so, with all of this in mind, Gill is on photographs (and ingredient growing – I have serious greenhouse envy after visiting her), I am on words and both of us are on ideas, sourcing great ingredients and chatting up producers to join in the fun. 

Once a month we’re going to invite a proper Perthshire chef along to Gill’s studio to help us dazzle you with a spankingly good dinner party recipe. This will allow us to sit and marvel at a professional and tuck into some delicious restaurant standard food (it will be our reward!).  Because let’s face it, you’re not going to win Come Dine With Me using our lazy girls’ “you can buy perfectly good shortbread in Provender Brown” advice.

We promise you’re going to enjoy this – it is easy, cook at home, with lots of love type recipes. Please do leave your comments, requests, tips, offers and ideas. We’d love to hear from fellow foodies. 

Read the first recipe NOW - Strawberry and Orange Trifle - YAY!

Nicki & Gill xx 

PS I feel I must love-bomb this article and give a HUGE shout out to Anna Ford, my friend, and the only web developer I know crazy enough to stay up until 2am with me moving food photographs 3 pixels to the left and getting excited at how trifles look on a mobile!