Changing Food… One Meal At A Time!
Jan Fullwood Food Consultant
(aka JamJarJan)
NOTES FROM A CHAOTIC KITCHEN
Welcome to daily life in a chaotic, well-used kitchen…..
A constantly busy, always evolving space: full of cooking, eating and creating (dinner, treats, mess), for work and for play, for family and friends.
Let me introduce myself and my family:
- A Food and Recipe Consultant who is ‘never knowingly under-catered’, I’ll whip up a five-minute muffin mix at a moment’s notice. I’m constantly creating, evaluating and tasting, always cooking, eating and learning something new
- Long-suffering Hub, who just wants a clutter-free kitchen and peace and quiet. Happiest in the garden. He grows, I cook and preserve
- Eldest Cheffy Son and his Pastry-chef girlfriend, who cook catering quantities of restaurant quality food at every opportunity
- Protein & carb-obsessed younger Student Son, currently at uni. Loves food, but cooking not his forte - student survival skills ongoing
We all eat to live. Let me help you live to eat.
Share my learning and experiences to make the most of your meals too.
What's in Jan's Pan?
JANUARY 2026
We’ve made it through dry January (or wet, in Cheffy Son’s view - he’s still clearing his supply of Clarkson’s Hawkstone lager). Many find the first month of the year dull - the weather takes a turn for the worse, resolutions are made and quickly broken, and things settle back to routine after the excesses of December. But here it’s the beginning of birthday season, with at least two on New Year’s Day to kick things off, followed by a few more of note, then Hub’s, so there’s always an excuse to carry on celebrating to lighten the potential dreariness.
Student son has gone back to uni and is already missing having a different meal every day. His latest hack is to cook a whole cut-price chicken which lasts him most of the week, paired with mash or potato wedges mainly, or perhaps in a curry if he’s feeling adventurous. Then he might move on to bargain mince for his next week of eat and repeat. He had a couple of masterclasses from Cheffy Son though, so he’s been putting his knife skills to good use. He’s been busy working on a deadline whilst making last minute preparations before he jets off to New Zealand to continue his studies at Massey university for the second half of the year - the opportunity of a lifetime. Needless to say I’m already planning a visit, so watch this space, there’s lots to look towards in 2026.
January is generally quieter in hospitality so The Chefs’ days off continue to involve plenty of creativity in the kitchen, birthday cakes are being made as I write. Cheffy Son is often trying to recreate a dish he’s made at work but finds things hard to replicate on domestic equipment, where flames aren’t quite so fierce and quantities (in theory) are smaller. Meal of the month has to be a chicken lasagne layered with tomato sauce and pesto - quite delicious and gloriously calorific.
I tuned in to a fascinating conversation on Substack Live between Mark Diacono and Guardian food writer, Felicity Cloake, discussing the writing process. I admire both of these charismatic food writers, and with the news that Nigella is to replace Prue on Bake Off it struck me how some of the best writers are self taught, with a journalistic curiosity about how recipes work rather than specific culinary qualification's. Interesting, as I always wished I’d completed a professional chef’s qualification post degree when I had the chance. But curiosity and experimentation is just as valuable, and my Jack of all trades degree has stood me in good stead for a varied career. On discussing the benefits of revisiting the desire to train, Cheffy Son’s view was ‘you just need to work in a restaurant to learn’, and he’s right, a hands on approach is key. There’s no doubt that there are benefits to learning the classic techniques to bend the rules and create your own twists, but there is a lot to be said for research and learning on the job. Recipe testing projects have been my personal learning tool, with Middle Eastern, Japanese, Spanish & American cookbooks, to name but a few, serving as my education into each cuisine from the experts. You can’t beat short courses too, it’s great to learn from someone with a different perspective, and that’s what I love about food - there’s always some new twist or technique to take on board.
Talking about Nigella, it’s certainly quite a coup for GBBO - she will give the format a much needed boost, as it starts to stale quicker than Paul’s own homemade baps, and I’m sure she’ll keep the Silver Fox in line.
So scroll on for this month’s culinary creations in the chaos that is my own kitchen. A birthday worthy jazzed up tea loaf, airfryer skewers, and a tableful of treats at Tewinbury farm. A good start to what is going to be a great year.
Birthday Tea Bread
Hub loves a tea cake and this is his mum's recipe with my tweaks. Easily measured with a cup (a standard cup size being 250ml).
1 cup dark muscovado sugar
1 cup dried fruit (I went rogue and used sour cherries, diced apricots, sultanas and 1 tbsp crystallised stem ginger but feel free to adapt to your liking)
1 cup of infused tea (I used a rooibos orange and cardamom teabag)
25g butter
Put these into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil then allow to cool. Once cooled stir in
1 egg
2 cups of self raising flour
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp cinnamon
Put into a greased and lined 900g loaf tin and cook at 180C/160Cfan/Gas 4 for 45mins.
Leave to cool before turning out.
I decorated with icing sugar mixed to a drizzling consistency with a little more of the tea, then I sprinkled on some more of the crystallised ginger. A slice goes perfectly with a cuppa slathered with a slick of butter. Candles optional.
What's on Jan's restaurant plate.
We celebrate our silver wedding anniversary this year - 25 years since we were married at Tewinbury Farm Hotel. So we snapped up the Black Friday deal they were offering for dinner, breakfast and evening meal with wine to celebrate Christmas, birthdays and anniversary all in one.
Hub always compains that his birthday gets forgotten before mine takes over 10 days later, so we booked the meal for his actual birthday.
We booked in and found that our room was in the Farmhouse, where we'd been based on our wedding night. Not the bridal suite this time, but a small but perfectly formed room looking out over the Stable where we took our vows, and the lawn where we had our photographs all those years again.
Tewinbury is one of those rare businesses that has gone from strength to strength over the years, evolving and improving, particularly during Covid, when they had to be creative to survive. What was the carpark outside our wedding room is now a covered outside seating area, complete with fire pits, pool table and pizza oven. Considerably more appealing than parked cars hindering the photos. The Stable is rarely used for weddings now (there are plenty of other options for nuptials) but instead it is full of cosy sofas - a cocktail bar and sitting room for guests in the evening, and a work hub for members during the day (very on trend).
We started with a delicious basil martini with rosemary syrup and a negroni (bottom right) and complimentary olives before moving on to the Cowshed restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious 4 course meal
For Hub, marinated stone bass with horseradish cream and beetroot (main pic)
For me, Burrata with crispy kale and pesto (bottom left)
Hub enjoyed pork tenderloin, braised peas, lettuce, bacon, lemon, mint whilst I had a light but flavourful dish of cod, parmentier potatoes, fennel, bouillabaisse sauce (too busy eating to photograph)
We finished with winter pear parfait (top right)
dark chocolate sauce, sauternes gel, candied walnuts and pumpkin cinnamon latte tart with milk ice cream and were presented with happy birthday and happy anniversary macarons to go with our coffee.
That was it, nothing to do but to collapse back on the cosy sofas in the Stable and reminisce on the day it was buzzing full of friends and family and we tied the knot.
Back in the room they had thought of everything - pillow spray included, so that was me out for the count, and woken to the option of tea leaves and a teapot or fresh ground coffee and a cafetiere in the room - now that's what I call quality.
What's in Jan's Airfryer?
Finally I’ve bought a wire rack for my airfryer. It came complete with metal skewers, so I decided to test them out with these marinaded chicken skewers served with spiced vegetables.
I marinaded 300g chicken breast chunks in a couple of tablespoons of yoghurt with 1/2tsp turmeric and 1tsp garam masala for a couple of hours in the fridge.
These were threaded onto the four skewers and cooked at 200C for 10-15mins, turning once, until cooked through with a golden caramelised exterior.
I served these on a bed of sliced peppers, onions and chard stalks fried until softened with 1tsp cumin and 1tsp coriander and 1/2tsp turmeric and lots of shredded fresh ginger. I added in around 250ml double cream and 50ml water, brought to a simmer and added in the shredded chard leaves to steam with the lid on.
Inspired by a Romy Gill recipe I saw on Saturday kitchen this Janaury, it went down a storm.
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