Why I love Easter so much!

With the easter bunny on its way I cannot contain my excitement! Although in the last few years Easter holidays have always meant revising and essay writing it has still held its place as one of my favourite celebrations of the whole year. A time to be with the family, eat well and most importantly- eat lots of chocolate.

Although I am 22 I am certain I am not alone in loving the traditional easter egg hunt which I hope happens up and down the country in everyone’s gardens, whatever the weather. When I came to uni I was shocked that one of my best friends had never experienced an easter egg hunt and so I quickly changed that for her! If thought about bluntly there seems nothing more pointless than hiding chocolate around in a garden, but to me there is nothing more thrilling than waiting inside the house resisting the temptation to peek out of the window to see where my parents were hiding the eggs.

Another thing I love about easter is the chocolate. I have only met one person in my life that doesn’t eat chocolate and even she could not resist a mini egg!! There is definitely something about egg shaped chocolate that makes it taste better. I also believe that it is the only time of the year you should eat chocolate straight out of the fridge. The way the chocolate rustles out of the foil and cracks spectacularly when you break a piece off is like nothing else. I really hope that this easter the chocolate you eat is really appreciated.

Easter is a good advert for the versatility of chocolate. Firstly for those people brave enough to give up chocolate over lent it highlights how many things have chocolate in them. Secondly, easter is a chance to eat as many treats as you can with not as much guilt as usual. Make sure you take advantage of this!

This is my favourite of all the easter treats I recommend making up a batch and eating them the same day as they are so yummy!!

Easter Nests:

Ingredients:

-          200g of your favourite chocolate (mine is always Green and Blacks!)

-          5 shredded wheat biscuits

-          1 packet of mini eggs

1.       Melt the chocolate either in a microwave being very careful not to burn it, or place in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt slowly.

2.       Bash up the shredded wheat with a rolling pin until all the strands are separated.

3.       Mix the two together so that the chocolate completely coats the shredded wheat.

4.       Fill cupcake cases with the mixture and then top with mini eggs, making them look as much like nests as possible.

5.       Refrigerate until the chocolate has set solid again and then gobble them up!

So at this lovely time of the year where you should be remembering what you should be thankful for; be thankful that we are lucky enough to be able to eat what we want and we can have luxuries like chocolate eggs.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday roast on Easter day and shares it with special people.  

Is a women's place really in the kitchen?

I am sure everyone has heard someone utter the phrase ‘A women’s place is in the kitchen’. I expect that those who said it were attempting to be funny rather than really believing it but I do think it is a common view that women are expected to cook more at home than men. So why in the professional world of cookery are there hundreds of male chefs and only a handful of female ones?

It was recently International women’s day and in light of this I began thinking about why professional chefs all seem to be men whilst cooking is associated with women. I think the common suggestions may be that the atmosphere is too hostile and aggressive for women to hold their own, or that the hours expected of the chefs are too taxing. However I do not think these reasons apply to just women. In fact in my experience women are welcomed into professional kitchens as they have a reputation of being more organised and better at planning than their male counterparts. One of my chef tutors once told me that head chefs look to employ women as they change the atmosphere within the kitchen and make it a calmer place to work. Although it makes extremely good television it has been realised that screaming, shouting and swearing at chefs working for you does not make them work any better or serve food at a higher standard.

So could it be that women just do not want to pursue careers as chefs however much they like cooking? I hope this is not the case. From what I have learnt so far, to be a great chef you need to have an ability to pay attention to detail, be organised and have a clear head when under pressure. Not only are women capable of all these things, from the women I know I think we excel at these things!

In every job I am sure there is someone who likes to shout to get there point across, or someone who has a limited vocabulary so chooses to swear often. I am extremely sure that at least once a day the topic of football will come up within the office. But these do not deter you from working there.

I am arguing that more women should follow their passion of baking and cooking for family and friends and make it a career for themselves. There has to be the next Mary Berry out there who will take cooking and make it a ‘cool’ profession and inspire another generation of chefs to come.

So in response to the next person who says a women’s place is in the kitchen, I say, yes it is! More women chefs would be great and our men should be encouraging us if only for the reason that their Sunday roasts will become even more tastier than before.