When I first set up my recipe website I had no intention of becoming a blogger ( indeed the word was unknown) , working full time in a demanding job and already leading a very full life. And so this isn’t really a blog, just a collection of recipes that I have cooked and enjoyed over the years from my extensive (and still growing) collection of cookbooks. You won’t get adverts and you won’t get videos. Its just about sharing the recipes so you can all enjoy good food in your own homes. My own diet now is mostly vegetarian, though i do occasionally eat meat and fish, and i particularly enjoy food from the Middle East and Asia.
My site first started many years ago- 1996 to be precise, when the internet was in relative infancy. My now deceased partner Laurence set up a recipe website for me called Sue’s Recipe Server to share recipes i had enjoyed.I used to write them all down on cards in a card index but Laurence was an Access Developer and set up a database for me to keep them, then wrote the html script to get them on to the World Wide Web . I think I may well have had the first UK recipe website- it was well before Delia Smith and others were posting recipes online!! Over five thousand people a week from all over the world would regularly visit my site and many would contact me through the site asking for particular recipes. How different it is now with many well known recipe writers published online and the multitude of food blogs out there. So I don’t attempt to compete and i get nothing like the same number of users, but keep on doing it because I love food and want to share the love.
The original site , with over 1500 recipes, was based on an Access 2 database which I managed to maintain for a while following Laurence’s sudden death in 2010 . Finally the Server went down after a lengthy power cut, never to reboot, so i decided i had to go for external hosting. At the same time a new PC for myself meant an updated version of Access, and an apparent inability to run the old Access 2 database on the same machine perhaps reflecting my lack of technical knowledge. Faced with not even being able to store my recipes locally in an organised way , and with no programming skills whatsover, I had to look for a new way of doing things. Hence the move to WordPress . Many years later I am still gradually transferring the 1500 recipes alongside adding new ones and suspect this will always be a bit of a work in progress!
Enjoy, please share and spread the love.
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes. I came across your site randomly today, but remember the original site and one of my all time favourite recipes came from it – a seafood pie with mussels, saffron and a puff pastry top. I can’t see it on here, but I’m sure I still have it somewhere on a splattered print out.
I’m so glad you are back online. I am very sorry for your loss, but it is lovely to hear your story and remember when the internet was a very different and in many way gentler place. With best wishes.
Thank you for your comment. I will seek out the recipe you remember and get it back online soon! Best wishes, Sue
Thank you so much for posting this recipe, Sue.
I am of your vintage and Mushroom Timbale is our very popular Christmas Dinner. This year we have promised it for the first time for Easter Dinner for the gathered clan at a relative’s home some distance away. Unfortunately, we packed some of the ingredients but not the (battered old) copy of “Not just a load of old lentils”.
Of course, I don’t remember exactly how to make it – we only have it once a year!
Your posting has saved my blushes at the family Easter!
Dear Sue, You have no idea how much I have loved and shared your recipes, especially your Thai Green Curry Mussels. I am so sorry to hear about your partner and thank you for explaining your absence on the internet. Your recipes have brought so much pleasure to so many people. Thank you.
So glad to find you’re back. I printed off many of your old recipes. Sorry for your loss.
Hi Sue,
I just wanted to say welcome back online. I was an avid reader of your recipes and have made many delicious meals on your inspiration! Not least of all the sea bass with potatoes and tomatoes which I was searching for without success when I found this. I am very sorry for your loss but it is great to know you had such a legacy with your recipes. It will be a fantastic achievement to get them all back online, and I very much look forward to seeing and following them again. It is lovely to know about the origin of the recipe server and the story behind it and I wish you all the best in your endeavour.
Thank you. You have given me the inspiration to continue with what feels at this time like a mammoth task!