About

Welcome to Hob & Larder, my virtual recipe tin filled with simple ideas for flavourful and highly enjoyable food; hopefully without resulting in a huge pile of dishes. In short, inspired recipes for lazy-ish home cooks.

I started this blog because I felt inspired when I rescued grandma’s ancient Good Housekeeping Cookbook, recipe cutouts and handwritten ideas from her house after she passed away. She had instilled a deep love in Bird’s Custard and apple pie in me, so it’s only fair to give her credit.

First and foremost, I believe in sitting around the table with my family for dinner.

I also believe in good food without much fussing about (I mean, have you tried cooking fussy food with little kids running around? good luck with that). I believe in using the seasons as a means to source delicious ingredients just as much as I believe in using global cuisines to travel the world right at the dinner table. I believe in minimal effort to maximise flavor. And I believe in saving water by using less dishes, always.

Who’s writing?

I’m not very good at making myself sound unpretentious in the written word (I fully blame my book nerd-ism), but trust me, there aren’t very many things about me important enough to waffle on about.

Here are the top 6 I’ll share in case you’re utterly curious and need to decide if we’ll virtually get along:

• I’m a wife, a mother, a daughter, a lifelong avid reader of Enid Blyton books, a Potterhead, passionately independent, curiously fascinated by the Royal Family – but don’t tell anyone that last bit, I like to pretend I’m not a royalist.
• I grew up with 4 younger siblings, raised by a mainland European mum and a British step-dad (though I rarely use the word step to describe him, but just FYI so you don’t get confused). It was strange and intense and we ate French croissants and Marmite Soldiers and Bircher Muesli and Weetabix, read Rupert and Grimm’s Märchen and in the end everything turned out quite wonderfully.
• I was in love with Sue Perkins long before she was on GBBO, and I’m not ashamed to admit how proud I am of this fact. I do not usually set trends, as proven by my highly questionable fashion choices and the fact that I mostly listen to music everyone has long forgotten about.
• I will fight you over the skin graft on top of custard, and thanks to the glorious Mary Berry in the 50s episode of Supersizers, I actually know the term skin graft.
• I live for time spent in the countryside – less humans, more plants and animals. Apart from that, I’m 100% about staying in. Sorry, 2010 me, but I did get old after all.
• Cereal before milk. Come on, I’m not THAT quirky.

What you’ll find on Hob & Larder

I guess you could say they are easy-ish recipes I share around these virtual corners, because remember: We’re not lazy cooks, we’re only lazy-ish. I will not ask you to use fifteen pots for a soup (I’m all about minimising the dishes with lots of traybakes and one pot cooking!), but I may ask you to sauté your vegetables and properly brown your meats. But rest assured, only as long as it makes a true difference in flavour.

I share ideas made from garden-fresh vegetables, recipes inspired by far-away places, easy weeknight dinners and sweet nothings. Simple ingredients transformed into something truly special. In short, I share the kind of food I get silly-level excited about, wholesome but absolutely delicious, meals that makes my kids whine as little as possible (though short of eating chicken nuggets every night, you can never eliminate it entirely, TRUST ME I have tried and failed)…

And most importantly, the kind of food that doesn’t send you into a nervous breakdown just by looking at the ingredient list.

I test all my recipes several times before they make it out into the open, and I take all the photos and videos myself. I’m a one woman show (with a bunch of kids and a husband in tow), so excuse me if I’m sometimes slow to respond to a request. I do my best to keep up with everything!

If you have any questions or just want to say hi, feel free to email me at nora@savorynothings.com

I’m honoured you made it this far into the depths of Hob & Larder, and I do hope you’re here to stay and cook a lazy-ish recipe or two. ❤️