Welcome to the website for the cookery book Maureen’s Family Favourite’s.
Read on to find out how this book came about, preview some of the recipes and purchase the book in support of Children’s Cancer North.
Peach, Pistachio and
A note from
Maureen
How this book came about
I decided to write this cookery book for a number of reasons. I have always loved cooking and entertaining friends and family and in my later working years this interest led me into paid employment as a cook and food stylist. Combining my work with my hobby meant that family meals and dinner parties benefitted from a stream of new and interesting recipes, and many of my long-term favourites were refined or given a presentation facelift.
Enjoying home cooked meals around the kitchen or dining table with our children, wider family and friends has been an integral part of my married and family life, and I have many happy memories associated with these occasions as a result.
I had always planned on handing my favourite recipes down to my children and grandchildren – although the original idea was a home-made file or album of handwritten recipes and printed out photos.
However, over the years I’ve had so many comments from friends, family, colleagues and clients suggesting I write a cookery book that I started to dream about the possibility more and more.
Working with professional photographers had helped me get used to seeing my work in print so I decided to bring up the idea of writing my own book with my daughter, Claire, who works in educational publishing.
Thanks to her enthusiasm and encouragement, along with her reassurance and guidance on what would be involved, I began to realise that my dream could become a reality. Finally, during the first lockdown of 2020 I committed to the project and 18 months later it was in print!
Click on the photos below to preview
Sample Recipes
Available to buy online -
Buy yours for your own Christmas preparations or as a perfect gift for friends & family.
The cause
From the outset of writing this book I have always had in mind that I would like to donate any funds raised to a nominated family charity Children’s Cancer North in memory of our cousin’s child Grace Lillian who died at the age of five from a rare form of childhood cancer, Pleuropulmonary Blastoma (PPB).
During my own childhood I spent a lot of time in hospital and knew what it was to suffer operations, pain, and long stays in children’s wards away from my beloved family with very little visiting time back then. I had contracted meningitis at eleven months old and then again exactly one year later which had a long-term effect on my hearing and eyesight requiring ongoing operations up until the age of 10.
I’m extremely thankful to know that my episodes of Meningitis were treated by Penicillin which was just starting to be widely used in those days and I was fortunate to be one of the early recipients which ultimately saved my life.
In donating the proceeds of this book to Children’s Cancer North I’m very pleased to be supporting their work in making hospital stays a more positive experience for children and their families, and of course their work in researching and trialing new life- saving treatments so that many more children will be able to come through the adversity of illness to lead a healthy, full and fruitful life as I have done.
In support of
Children’s Cancer North is dedicated to making life better for children with cancer. We fund life-saving research to find more effective and less toxic treatments, as well as providing activities and entertainment for children going through treatment for cancer at the Great North Children’s Hospital.
Find out more at www.childrenscancernorth.org.uk
