This week should have seen the emergence of Spring in the UK – it’s April, it’s Easter, it’s time. But it’s been very windy, and wet, and generally shown very few glimpses of a better time ahead (that photo above is an exception). Combined with still recuperating from illness, and retreating to Somerset to do so, this has been a bit of a slow food week.

Recipes:

• Almond cake with crushed raspberries – Dan Lepard – as a birthday cake

Without a recipe:

• Me – mostly not cooking anything, but from my mum, pork spare rib chops, whiting with a herb crust, salmon biryani and pasta

Reading:

• Sous Chef has a good list of cooking projects to tackle over the long Easter weekend
• And if one of those projects is to create or revive a sourdough starter, this is a good list of common challenges when baking sourdough
• Saveur’s list of nominations for their blog awards is up – a good place to fine some new ones to follow (though mostly US)
• And not a food thing, but I’ve really been enjoying the first few days of the new online magazine ‘The Pool’