Cooksister | Food, Travel, Photography

Food, photos & faraway places

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About me
    • Contact me
    • Work with me
    • Legal
      • Copyright notice & Disclaimer
      • Disclosure
      • Cookies and Privacy Policy
    • Press and media
    • Cooksister FAQs
  • RECIPES
    • Recipe Index – by course
    • Baking (savoury)
    • Braai/Barbecue
    • Breakfast & brunch
    • Christmas
    • Dessert
    • Drinks
    • Eggs
    • Fish
    • Gluten-free
    • Leftovers
    • Pasta & rice
    • Poultry
    • Pulses
    • Salads
    • Soup
    • South African
    • Starters & light meals
    • Vegan
    • Vegetables
    • Vegetarian
  • RESTAURANTS
    • British Isles restaurants
    • Dubai restaurants
    • France restaurants
    • London restaurants
    • Montenegro restaurants
    • New York restaurants
    • Pop-ups and supperclubs
    • Serbia restaurants
    • Singapore restaurants
    • South Africa restaurants
    • Sweden restaurants
    • Switzerland restaurants
    • USA restaurants
  • TRAVEL
    • All my travel posts
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Canada
      • Dubai
      • Cruise ships
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Grenada
      • Hong Kong
      • Hotel reviews
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • Jersey
      • Mexico
      • Netherlands
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Singapore
      • Ski & snow
      • South Africa
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • UK
      • USA
      • Wales
  • PORTFOLIO
    • Freelance writing portfolio
    • Speaking and teaching
    • Photography portfolio
    • Buy my photos
You are here: Home / Memes / The “I confess!” meme

The “I confess!” meme

by Jeanne Horak on November 7, 2005 12 Comments in Memes

Cooksister-tomato

While trying to catch up on some blog reading the other day, I came across a fun meme on David Lebovitz’s great blog.  He has basically compiled a list of his various culinary confessions and thrown it open to the rest of us to confess ours.  So… here are mine:

I do not own a rolling pin – if something needs rolling, there’s always an empty wine bottle around.

I have never made a soufflé.

Back home, I once inadvertently served a vegetarian friend soup made with chicken stock.

I can easily leave a bar of chocolate on the shelf until it goes stale.

I have lost many perfectly good bars of chocolate by “saving them” too long!  (see above)

I will not eat bananas but I love banana bread.

I used to think oysters were overrated.  I don’t any more!

I don’t think I could stomach eating a durian, even for scientific purposes.

I do not make my own mayonnaise, nor do I think I will start doing so any time soon.

I love cheese above all other foods.

I have been known to eat spoonfuls of Hellmann’s mayo straight out of the jar. 

I have never baked bread in my own house (only on a baking course).

I have been on a baking course!!

My mother’s chicken curry was the best thing in the world ever, even though it was sweet and very mild and pretty un-curry-like.

I’ve always hated mixed tinned fruit.

I’ve eaten sweetbreads but I doubt if I’d do so again.

I have eaten horse meat (in a salami-style sausage) and I’d do it again.

I own a springform pan but have never used it.

2 years ago I didn’t know what fleur de sel or dulce de leche were. 

I have never made a béarnaise sauce, a hollandaise sauce or, in fact, any sauce that can separate.

I will happily eat salted butter on its own, in slices.

I think leaving crumbs in the margarine/jam/Bovril should be an offence punishable by death.

I have been known to dice garlic by hand to avoid washing the garlic crusher.

I use gravy granules.

If there is no apple sauce available, I have been known to eat roast pork with apricot jam.

I would not eat reduced-fat croissants, even if my survival depended on it.

I always eat the fat on my meat – in fact, it’s the best part. 😉

Whenever I go home, I bring back a supply of Aromat.  It is basically salt and MSG and I grew up eating it on everything.  MSG rocks.

I have a set system for washing up.  It drives me insane when somebody washes the pots before the glasses.

For me, the best part of a high-end meal is the amuse bouche.

I would choose a starter over dessert.

I would choose a cheese trolley over almost anything.

I love to eat with my hands.

It’s not Christmas unless I’ve had roast gammon with aspic cubes, warm potato salad, melon and grape salad, and seven layer salad.  This was what my mom made for as long as I can remember and I plan to do the same.

I own Nigella’s Feast but have never made a single recipe from it.

Even if I am bursting at the seams, there is always space for ice cream.

The only two things I ever crave are Coca-Cola and cheese.

I sometimes drink cheap, sweet sparkling wine and I love it.  What can I say – I grew up on Babycham…

I always save the best thing on my plate for last.

So… ‘fess up!  What are yours??

More deliciousness for you!

  • Dinner at Westminster Kingsway College with WineTrust 100Dinner at Westminster Kingsway College with WineTrust 100
  • Spinach, feta, sun-dried tomato and toasted seed saladSpinach, feta, sun-dried tomato and toasted seed salad
  • Saturday Snapshots #313Saturday Snapshots #313
  • Saturday Snapshots #160Saturday Snapshots #160

Never miss a Cooksister post

If you enjoyed this post, enter your e-mail address here to receive a FREE e-mail update when a new post appears on Cooksister

I love comments almost as much as I love cheese - so if you can't leave me any cheese, please leave me a comment instead!

« EoMEoTE#12 – Night of the Living Bread
Sweet potato muffins »

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Stephanie says

    November 7, 2005 at 5:16 pm

    I keep meaning to do this, but never get ’round to it.
    Horsemeat? Really???

    Reply
  2. Jeanne says

    November 7, 2005 at 6:05 pm

    ‘Fraid so… But you really can’t taste WHAT meat it is once it’s had the salami treatment applied to it! It’s just salty and fatty and tasty… I must also add that I didn’t read the label before buying it and Nick was idly reading it a week or so later when we had already eaten half. He refused to touch another slice, but I could see no point in letting half go to waste! I mean, it wasn’t going to bring back the horse! :o)

    Reply
  3. Ronni Bennett says

    November 7, 2005 at 7:44 pm

    I’m with you on cheese and ice cream, and in recent years I seem to have lost my taste for chocolate. In fact, we agree on a lot about food, but this untutored American has some questions:
    1. What is amuse bouche?
    2. What is durian?
    3. Good grief, there is Hellman’s in London and South Africa???
    As to your last item, I have a friend who eats the best first. Reason? Just in case he dies mid-meal, he doesn’t want to have missed something really good.

    Reply
  4. Jeanne says

    November 8, 2005 at 11:13 am

    Hey Ronni
    Glad you stopped by! And here are the answers to your questions:
    1. An amuse bouche is a small, complimentary appetiser serverd at fancy restaurants before the hors d’ouvres. Because they are so small, the chef can let his creativity run wild in terms of flavours and textures and I often find them the most exciting part of the meal.
    2. A durian is a big, thorny fruit from southeast Asia that known for its creamy, gelatinous flesh (shudder!!) and its pungent smell, which has been likened to smelly feet or limburger cheese. See where I’m coming from with this one??!
    3. Oh you bet there is!! I grew up on Hellmans and for many years I wasn’t even aware there WAS another type of mayo! And yes, we buy huge jars of it here in London too. Now I buy it as much for the taste as for its lack of artificial ingredients…
    I like your friend’s philosophy 🙂 It also means that you won’t be too full to enjoy the best part!!

    Reply
  5. angelika says

    November 8, 2005 at 11:14 am

    Ooohhh Jeanne ! How have you made me laugh. And I agree on many items, I confess. I am just thinking about writing my very own confessions as well – as soon as I have worked thru the heaps of work to be done right now. And: welcome home and back to foodblogging ! Take care, angelika

    Reply
  6. Craig says

    November 9, 2005 at 7:23 am

    If you really want to cheat with the apple sauce, but a bottle of purity apple food for babies. Its better than ANY bought apple sauce!
    So that’s my secret out.

    Reply
  7. Anna says

    November 9, 2005 at 9:14 am

    Hi Jeanne,
    Hmmm, this has set me thinking. I definitely agree on several points, but I am sure I must have various idiosyncrasies food-wise which I need to confess. This may distract me from my working day ahead!

    Reply
  8. Jeanne says

    November 9, 2005 at 2:12 pm

    Hi Angelika
    Glad that made you chuckle! I certainly enjoyed writing it… And I keep thinking of more to add, but I think I have to preserve SOME of the mystery! 😉
    Hi Craig
    Purity apple! Yes!! I remember absolutely loving that as a kid (and I mean a big kid, not a baby anymore!) And I do agree that it’s better than any apple sauce…
    Hi Anna
    Yes, it is strangely compelling, isn’t it!! I couldn’t rest till I’d confessed all 😉

    Reply
  9. Anna says

    November 9, 2005 at 5:04 pm

    I won’t drink instant coffee (unless I have to be ultra-polite), but I love piercing the foil on the top of a jar of instant.
    The smell of a bagel toasting can make me SO hungry.
    My last meal would have to include freshly baked scones, home-made jam and clotted cream.
    Every year after eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (cooked by my husband), I say “Wow that was a really delicious thing to eat, and so easy to cook. I don’t know why we don’t have them more often.” We then don’t eat them again until the Shrove Tuesday of the following year.
    Ditto mince pies and Christmas.
    I like Marmite, but prefer Vegemite (less salty).
    I eat an old-style Sunday night tea, consisting of foods like crumpets, scotch pancakes, malt loaf, and whatever cake I have made at the weekend.
    I have never cooked a roast dinner.
    My favourite instant pudding is affogato – make an espresso , tip it over some good vanilla ice-cream – two of my favourite things in one glass!
    I have obsessive purchasing disorder when it comes to baking equipment (do I need anymore biscuit cutters? – why, yes I believe I do).
    I once rinsed, steamed and served to my husband a vibrant green head of broccoli, which was the habitation of a vibrant green, broccoli-coloured caterpillar (still alive and well and on the plate).
    I was a teenage vegetarian (thinking it might go down well on any dinner date with Morrisey). My first non-vegetarian meal was poached salmon and vegetables.
    I HATE it when you go to a smart restaurant and you find a wine waiter has been put in charge of pouring your wine, and the wine has been put on a special bottle table a good long, long way from where you are sitting. I want to pour my own wine thanks very much, and I also hate it when they refill you glass every two minutes in an effort to empty the bottle quickly.
    I love making lists.

    Reply
  10. Jeanne says

    November 10, 2005 at 1:40 pm

    Hi Anna
    Aaaah, I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist the Lure of the List!! And isn’t it cathartic!! 😛
    Clotted cream!!! How could I have left that off my confessions-of-a-cholesterol-girl?? To be Mrs Morrissey – noble aspiration indeed. I was dead set on being Mrs Billy Bragg but was never socialist enough, I fear…
    I feel an “80s music confessional” list bubbling up!!

    Reply
  11. stef says

    November 17, 2005 at 11:05 am

    i have to think of my list, but your confession about MSG reminded me that when i was a little kid i’d sprinkle MSG on the palm of my hand and start licking away. addictive stuff!

    Reply
  12. Eddie says

    September 5, 2006 at 7:57 am

    I love your confessions, we all have them.I have 3 rolling pins and can’t find them. Cookies…need I say more.
    kathyireland.com is a great site. Love the info, love the solutions, love the recipes, love her.

    Reply
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Never miss a Cooksister post!

Get my latest recipes delivered by e-mail!

Search over 500 recipes

Recently on Cooksister

  • Perfect broccoli and Stilton soup [keto, low carb, GF]
  • Masalchi by Atul Kochhar – Indian street food in Wembley
  • Barbecued salmon with blood oranges and capers
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts with feta, pomegranate and pine nuts [GF, V]
  • Love Yourself healthy meal delivery [Review]
  • Antillean
  • Festive roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
  • Rustic blood orange and pistachio galettes

Archives by month

Archives by category

Popular posts

Peppermint Crisp fridge tart - a South African treat
Nigella's Bakewell slices & the Big Bakewell Taste-off
Oxtail and red wine potjie
Gem squash 101: how to find them, how to grow them, how to eat them!
Beef, broccoli and udon noodle stir fry from "The Japanese Larder" by Luiz Hara
Things to do in Kitzbühel if you don't ski

Featured on

Also available on

Happy lunar new year! [Invited] To celebrate the Happy lunar new year! 

[Invited] To celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit, why not head over to @mamachensdumplings currently doing a residence at the @thegantrylondon in #stratford where you can feast on prawn & chive dumplings; pork, Chinese cabbage and shiitake mushroom dumplings; pork & prawn wontons with Mama Chen’s chilli oil; vegetable dumplings; smacked cucumber salad; and spicy noodles coated in garlic and Szechuan pepper oil.

And afterwards, make sure you head up to the @unionsocialoc bar for a cocktail - I loved the Moreish Fashion with bourbon, PX sherry, chestnuts and mandarin orange bitters!
Got leftover Stilton (or any blue cheese) from Chr Got leftover Stilton (or any blue cheese) from Christmas? Turn it into this super simple and super indulgent broccoli and Stilton soup! So easy to make and soooo delicious to eat - and it is low carb and GF. What more could you want?! Click the link in my bio for the full recipe. What’s your favourite soup?
CELEBRATE. So the fireworks are over, the champag CELEBRATE.

So the fireworks are over, the champagne is finished and the leftovers are all eaten. We are one week into 2023 and I have had some time to think about what my intent is for the year. 

In 2022 my brother had a life saving kidney transplant. Since the operation, he has had a Peanuts cartoon as his WhatsApp profile pic, where Charlie Brown and Snoopy are sitting on a pier talking. Charlie says “Some day, we all die Snoopy.” And Snoopy replies: “Yes - but every other day, we will live.”

Waking up in the morning is a gift, every day, and it is so easy to forget this. The last few years have been difficult for so many people and the coming year promises its own challenges. But every day that we don’t die is a day to live, to celebrate life in some small way.

So my intention in 2023 is to celebrate. Celebrate our achievements however small. Celebrate our friends and family. Celebrate small things. Celebrate life.

Did you make any resolutions or goals for 2023? I would love to hear them in the comments! Wishing you all the very best for 2023 🥂
Happy new year, everyone! Here are some scenes fro Happy new year, everyone! Here are some scenes from last night with friends in Deptford. My deconstructed avocado ritz; @twinkleparkstephen ‘s bobitie; Giles’ Ottolenghi tomato salad; and Jean’s clementine trifle - and the London night sky ablaze with fireworks!  How did you spend your evening? 🥂🎇🎆
Merry Christmas to all those celebrating - I hope Merry Christmas to all those celebrating - I hope your day was merry and bright, filled with family, friends and love 🎄🥂. Mine was spent alone at home - my choice and the result of a combination of Covid (not mine!) and rail strikes 🤦‍♀️ but very relaxing and indulgent!
Looking for a stylish and easy Christmas starter y Looking for a stylish and easy Christmas starter you can make ahead? Look no further than my individual smoked salmon terrine! Hot smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives wrapped in cold smoked salmon in a ramekin. Still one of the most popular Christmas recipes in my blog, it looks cheffy but is soooo simple to make - and will save you time and effort on the day! Get the recipe by clicking on the link in my bio.

How is your Christmas meal prep going? Are you entertaining at home or going to friends or family? 🎄🥂🎄🥂🎄
Looking for a brilliant biryani near Marble Arch? Looking for a brilliant biryani near Marble Arch? I recently enjoyed a feast at Biryani Kebab Chai @bkc.restaurant on Edgeware Road, including wonderful sweet, spicy and crunchy papri chaat; smoky burrah lamb kebab; galouti lamb patties; juicy chaap chicken thigh kebab; spicy chapli chicken patties; and the surprising vegetarian dahi ke patties made of yoghurt! We also tried the chicken and soya biryanis, both with incredibly fluffy and delicately spiced rice. You can get their biryanis as a 1kg takeaway, served in a beautiful branded clay pot that serves 3-4 people, for about £30. Bargain! We also took home a sample of their desserts, including a fragrant and delicious kheer rice pudding. If you are in the Marble Arch area, get yourself to BKC!  #invited #bkcrestaurants
The gorgeous colours of Autumn ❤️❤️🍁🍂🍁🍂❤️❤️What’s your favourite season?
RIP HRH Queen Elizabeth II - a loss of one of the RIP HRH Queen Elizabeth II - a loss of one of the constants in the world; certainly for my generation. I went to see the floral tributes in Green Park this weekend and they were truly overwhelming - even more so the cards with personal messages. The funeral service on TV this morning is the kind of somber pageantry that only the British can truly pull off. Think what you will of the monarchy; the Queen dedicated her life to the service of her country, under the microscope of public scrutiny, and provided a constant anchor in a changing world. We will not see the like of her again.
Load More... Follow me on Instagram

Follow Jeanne Horak-Druiff's board Recipes by Cooksister on Pinterest.

Cooksister

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

Latest Recipes

Bowls of broccoli and Stilton soup
Salmon with blood oranges dill and capers
Brussels sprouts with feta and pomegranate
Roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
Blood orange & pistachio galettes
Cauliflower topped steak with melted cheese
Plate of potted smoked salmon with slaw and a glass of champagne
bowls of pistachio pomegranate bircher muesli

SITEMAP

Home

Contact

About me

Recipe Index

Restaurant Index

Copyright & Disclaimer

Cookies & privacy policy




blog counter

© 2004 - 2023 · Jeanne Horak unless otherwise stated - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not reproduce any text, excerpts or images without my prior permission. Site by RTW Labs

Copyright © 2023 · Cooksister on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Cooksister cookie consent
We use cookies to ensure you receive the best experience on our site. If you continue to use this site, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions. Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT