Ahhh Winter, we meet again you cold hearted fiend. The only cure? Socks so fluffy they would make an angel weep, selling a kidney to install underfloor heating & a deliciously slow cooked dish that not only fills your home with incredible smells, but fills your belly & wraps you in the food equivalent of your mums hug.

Does anyone else have a favourite cooking utensil? That tray that you could swear makes the potatoes that lil bit crunchier, the frypan that alllllways delivers on the omelette front & THOSE heroic tongs who refuse to let your knuckles get attacked by those hot n angry lil fat splatters from your bacon.

This recipe is such a great Winter meal. It’s fabulous for when you have people coming over, as you can make it before hand and then reheat when you sit down to eat, it’s quick to make and it’s so bloody delicious that there will groans of delight around the table.

There are few ingredients in the world that bacon does not go with and this recipe is no exception. It’s just a real classic mid-week dinner that This Little Pig’s mum used to make her four piglets (that’s right FOUR) to fill up their tum’s and produce squeals of delight. It’s simple fare but one cannot live the year on oysters and champagne alone, one must have sustenance and this comes in the form of pasta, pasta and more pasta.

This Little Pig had a low fridge and pantry day - one of THOSE days - you know the one piglet. The last lemon languished in the fruit bowl threatening to grow mould at any minute, the cherry tomatoes were slightly wizened on the bench next to the lemon and the ‘fresh linguine’ was in the freezer underneath 3 roast chicken dinners, a bag of frozen corn and some unknown meat that had potentially been there since buying the fridge in 2013.

What is the yummiest thing on earth? Why the answer to that question is porchetta. Picture this if you will piglets. Crispy, golden, sizzling, hot crackling wrapped around tender juicy pork that has been smothered in cardamom, chilli and sea salt and stuffed with parmesan, garlic and rosemary. “Good lord” I hear you say and I do indeed agree.

When it’s pouring with rain and freezing cold, what is better than a slow roasted meat in the oven? Absolutely nothing piglets, apart from maybe takeaway Indian bought to your bedside whilst your animals snooze quietly next to you. This dish is one of those, rub it with delicious things, pop it in the oven and don’t look back for 4 hours kind of dish. Literally! The most beautiful thing about this dish, apart from the fact you don’t do anything with it for four hours is that when you do finally pull it from the oven, you merely poke it with 2 forks and the whole thing falls apart in shreds. It’s like nothing ever seen before and really must be experienced on a Winter’s evening to be believed.

This Little Pig is rather disdainful of the real fast food options. Every time it has a craving for one of the fast food menu items, a vision in this fine swine’s head appears. The image is of hungover youths in hairnets with not enough health and safety training and dirty rubber gloves pulling veg for the burger out of giant premade tubs of salad in a haphazard fashion. This and the story of when this piglet’s cousin, who worked at a fast food joint, told the story of how once a chicken fell out of the bag and slid across the floor and due to the sudden rush of orders, they scooped up the chicken and sent it out the takeaway window anyway. After reminiscing about these two thoughts, This Little Pig decides that it doesn’t crave that fast food as much as it initially thought.

“Mum you’re practically perfect in every way as a mum”. These are the words that This Little Pig uttered at it’s mother just on Monday. It was after a rather long and busy pack of Little Pig boxes and when these fine swines thanked their mother for her help she said “it was a priviledge to be here with you piglets”. Now if that isn’t the most gloriously good attitude we don’t know what is. Mothers are wonderful creatures, and in the case of Little Pig, very necessary to the mental and emotional health of these fine swines. Therefore the porcines use Mothers Day as a way to shower their Bron with glorious gifts and of course….food.

This Little Pig has a few loves in life. One is spaghetti, another is Paisley the greyhound and Michael (this fine swines handsome husband) and the other is…Apricot Chicken. Please note – loves are not listed in order of love – if so, apricot chicken would be first….just kidding Paisley and Michael.

Has anyone ever said to you “one day we’ll just need to take a pill for our food and life will be so much easier”? This Little Pig has had many swine’s say this over the years and it imagines getting a big glazed honey and ginger ham leg and clonking it over their head. I mean who in their right mind would indulge the idea of forgoing food for a pill? This fine swine often thinks about that statement when it eats particularly delicious things and this crumbed lamb chop recipe was one such dish.

Life for This Little Pig is full of complex and luxurious food that after a while this porcine takes for granted and starts thinking that oysters and lamb chops are fridge staples and “leftovers night” is a quick homemade sundried tomato pesto with roasted cherry tomatoes and lashings of prosciutto. However, every now and then (like after Easter long weekend) this fine swine’s pantry does hit rock bottom and from desperation delicious things are born.

This Little Pig used to be a dedicated carnivore. It would chortle at jokes such as “being a vegetarian is a big missed steak” and when eating vegetarian would say “this is perfect, all it needs is bacon.” Now whilst This Little Pig actually still chortles at that joke and does think that everything is improved with bacon, there has been a real shift in this fine swines mind. Not only is vegetarian a great way to fill your life with veggies, it also has the suprising delight of making one more creative in the kitchen adding nuts and fruits and grains and one can be far less organised because veggies are easy to keep for ages as opposed to meat which has a rather short lifespan and can ruin a whole meal by going off before one is ready to eat it.

Easter! An extremely long weekend that celebrates chocolate and religion all in one go. No matter where you sit on the spectrum how great is 4 days off in a row!? This Little Pig has made it’s go to guide for all things delicious on the blog so that you can sit back, relax and enjoy what could be the most delicious Easter ever.

This Little Pig has spent many months over the years travelling in Asia, getting sick in Asia, drinking and eating in Asia and attending cooking schools all over Asia. This is probably where this fine swine’s love of all types of Asian cuisines come from and why the number for the local takeaway Japanese and Vietnamese restaurant is in its phone under “you’re my only friend Vietnamese” and “Hello Friday Friend Japanese.” – Not even joking.

 Ranking just slightly lower than a few handpicked individuals, there is not many things in life that This Little Pig loves more than spaghetti meatballs. This fine swine cannot quite put it’s trotter on why exactly. Perhaps it is the slippery moorish pasta that can be twirled and swirled, perhaps it is the salty and juicy chunks of meatball or perhaps it is the glossy sugo that coats and infuses the pasta. All This Little Pig does know… is that it loves it with a passion close to a religious zeal. Amen.

What’s cool, refreshing and welcome anytime? No, it’s not This Little Pig (although that is true too yes) it is in actual fact a chilled pickled cucumber salad. With the weather making everyone feel like they’re wearing a thick polyester jumper at all times, this fine swine thought it was time to whip up a quick and cool salad. This is crunchy, cooling and most of all quick-as-a-whip to make. This Little Pig recommends serving it with chilled soba noodles and hot chunks of teriyaki salmon for an easy summer nights dinner. Wow, that does sound fantastic. Agreed.

This Little Pig has never believed in the idea of using fish in wraps or sandwiches. Why? This fine swine hears you ask. Purely because it always seemed like such a waste of an expensive and slightly fancy thing to be just slapping it into a bread roll or wrap like a common piece of ham. However recently This Little Pig pushed its misgivings aside, made up some spiced salmon wraps and literally had it’s mind blown out of the water. It was amazing! So..this fine swine has had to eat humble pie (and it was delicious) about having fish in wraps and if you’re of the same mentality, put aside your judgment oh judgmental swine, because boy oh boy are you going to be pleasantly surprised.