Widow releases Christmas cookery book for charity

A WIDOW who was “born with a wooden spoon in her hand” has written a Christmas cookbook in aid of a suicide charity.

Belinda Hill, 64, from Peppard, who founded Stirring Stuff: The Henley Cookery School, has published her second book, Stirring Stuff at Christmas.

The first 50 copies raised around £2,240 for James’ Place charity, which provides help for suicidal men in London, Liverpool and Newcastle.

She chose to support the latest charity after her late husband, Adrian, took his own life in March 2019.

The book incorporates traditional family recipes which have evolved across generations through life changes, including deaths, family members moving around the world and the integration of in-laws and their traditions.

It includes recipes and guidance for using seasonal ingredients throughout the year, to prepare for Christmas Day.

Ms Hill said: “The book is not just about Christmas, it’s about family traditions, how they change over the course of generations as people move on and in-laws bring in new traditions.

“Everybody has to shift and change but that expands the traditions rather than detracts from them.

“I have always had an interest in the flavours and textures of food. My mum had a bookshelf of fabulous books, all with lovely pictures. I spent many a happy afternoon gazing at them until one day I realised ‘I can make that’.”

A recipe for a chocolate flan, from the sweet treats and chocolates section, was a comfort dessert during the first Christmas after Adrian died.

Ms Hill said: “We developed a weakness for these utterly irresistible oat and chocolate biscuits on a family trip to Finland.

“That year, we needed something completely different to begin the journey of making new memories in his absence.

“My daughters and their partners drew up a wish list: snow, skiing, spa days and Finland fitted the bill perfectly.

“We spent a few days in Helsinki, then travelled north for Christmas itself, staying in a beautiful boutique hotel deep in the wintry wilds.

“On Christmas day, we curled up by a roaring fire, read thoughtful gift-books and were served endless cups of tea and plates of chokladflarn.

“Eminently repeatable, these delicious biscuits bring a little of that memory home each time we make them.”

Ms Hill’s initial career was in nursing and healthcare before she retrained, undertaking a master’s degree in food anthropology at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies in London and opening the cookery school.

She developed her passion from a young age, standing on a stool to help her mother, who was a self-taught cook.

Her childhood included cooking banana custard and being fascinated by her grandmother’s Penrith fudge.

She said: “There’s always been this joke in the family that I was born with a wooden spoon in my hand, rather than a silver spoon.

“I always used to stand on a stool and stir custard from the minute I could stand.”

Her first book, At Home in Cumbria, was released in 2017 and raised more than £20,000 for Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland. It celebrates the food and landscape of the Lake District.

For more information and to order the book, which costs £32, visit www.stirringstuffat christmas.co.uk