Flourish With Food

Hello Flourishers - what’s cooking? 🥹👩‍🍳 Sorry there’s been no news here for a wee bit….

Before any kind of “normal” service resumes…I want to make a tribute to the woman who made it all happen; the reason I’m here at all; she bought me my first cookbook at age seven; she put up with me pretending to be Delia Smith on my own cooking show in her kitchen around the same age….my dear Mum.

We suddenly and unexpectedly lost her just a few days before Christmas and it’s been a heartbreaking time since then.

So here she is, and I’ll be doing this thing from now on with her not far from my thoughts or feeling her “beady eye” on me keeping me in check.

Love and miss you forever, Mammy ❤️

It’s taken me some weeks to find the words for this….. not sure I have the adequate flair of prose to describe just how my Dalmuir and Dumbarton cooking crews have affected me with their consistency, dedication, questioning, grace, patience and growth this past year. They’ve never let me down and I haven’t them.

I’ve come away from our sessions really quite emotional each week.

We can all cook. Allowing yourself to explore is the biggest hurdle. Try. Fail. Laugh at it. Try again. Succeed. It's all good... Just get on the tools and experience what it feels like to feed people. It’s exhilarating listening to their silence whilst gorging on the food you’ve prepared.

Try it. Let’s Flourish.

After a busy couple of weeks, I’m looking forward to a day off today for admin and kit cleaning…

I ended my working week with a yoga session with Down to Earth Yoga at Centre81 yesterday evening. Best. Decision. Ever.

Literally the best yoga session I’ve ever done - and I’ve tried quite a lot!! It’s on every Wednesday 6-7pm.

“Meditative and mental” was how we described it 😂 Ali’s soft guidance coupled with her carefully chosen stretches and poses were exactly what was needed to give my fascia the pull needed to really relax. Tunes and chat were a bonus. I left floating on an essential oil cloud ☁️

After a cracking nights sleep, I’m up with the larks to seize the day!

Thanks Ali 🙏

Here’s some photos of my cooking crews these past couple of weeks.

Looking forward to making autumn pies next week 🥧 🍁 🎃 and also starting a new weekly cooking session with Lochwinnoch Community Larder!

Go forth and FLOURISH! ❤️🥰

I love a Wednesday…. ❤️

Wednesdays mean I’m with my Dalmuir massive and we cook whatever they decide to do. Yesterday, they wanted to re do a class we’ve done before - which I usually reserve for a first session with new people. The premise being, if all you have at your disposal is a bag of tatties and some cupboard staples, you can make 3 dishes that are deeply satisfying, comforting and I want to say usually quite healthy….but yesterday we went through a whole pun o butter!!! 😂

Some tweaks were made to the original dishes to demonstrate how versatile these meals can be.

We made Gnocchi with a Rosemary and brown butter sauce. Classic Rumbledethumps (a firm favourite with this crew!), Aubergine fritters and tattie scones.

We did use a bit of EVOO…. 😬

Last week was a whirlwind of fun 🤩 🌮 👩‍🍳 with the Ysortit WestDunbartonshire crew doing meal provisions and cooking sessions with these very important young people.

Also back with the Dalmuir Massive for a second round of cooking sessions. These guys bring it every week - the energy is brilliant!

Looking forward to this week’s sessions making gnocchi with a brown butter and sage sauce, REAL tattie scones and Rumbledethumps with some tweaking.

Happy Wednesday Flourishers! ☺️😎♥️

Hello Flourishers, what’s cooking?🧑‍🍳

Hope you’ve all enjoyed a lovely summer, whatever you’ve been up to?

We’ve had a difficult one….

It would be remiss of me not to make a tribute here to someone very much beloved by us and a huge inspiration for this Flourish with Food cooking journey.

We very suddenly and unexpectedly lost Janice Thomson the most wonderful wife, mother, granny, sister, auntie, friend, neighbour…you name it…Janice was the best of everything.

An excellent cook and phenomenal baker - she always had the kindest of words, encouragement and her love was boundless.

I was so lucky to have her as my mother in law.

Now, I’ve inherited a lot of her cooking utensils, books, notes and most importantly her love of cooking for folk, sharing meals, ideas and encouraging others to flourish.

And it’s time to get back to work and on with this thing called life, with her not far from my thoughts - ever.

We’ve got two new exciting clients and also back with the Clydebank and Dumbarton crews as well.

Welcome Lochwinnoch Community Larder and Ysortit WestDunbartonshire looking forward to our cooking sessions!

Let’s smash the rest of 2025!

Much, best and fondest love ❤️

Rona xx

Back with my Dumbarton crew today to tackle Three Cheese Mac for the community cafe. We also made a plant based version - so it was like running two classes in tandem! Didn’t get any photos of the process!

We covered Cook Safe standards, labelling with allergen information, reheating guidelines and as always, the crew were on point, turned up to work and smashed it! 🧀 🫕☺️

Busy wee weekend at Flourish With Food HQ…..

Cracking deal on double cream (£1.50 for 600ml), a bit of elbow grease with the butter churner and we’ve got enough butter to last us 2/3 weeks….and buttermilk from that for the mashed totties with yella label chicken kyivs for dinner..!

Swapped a print that was sitting in a cupboard for some gorgeous homegrown rhubarb from a kind neighbour from the local community page and made a crumble….😍

Lastly, had loads of leftover red onions from a workshop two weeks ago (over bought!) and made a quick brine pickle with them for future kitchen endeavours… added in some lovely fresh bay leaves from Mammy Pammy’s garden Carrie Gordon 🥰🍃

Put my new Flint & Flame UK knife to good use…☺️

My Damuir massive are getting so confident and advanced - I gave today’s class a second thought….! I usually reserve this session for the first class with a new group. 3 ways with totties.

The premise being - if all you have at your disposal is a bag of totties and some fridge/cupboard staples, for whatever reason, then you can be creative and make the three different dishes that will keep you and your family satisfied.

It all starts with mashing the potatoes and we make Rumbledethumps (Scottish version of Colcannon), Gnocchi with a tomato and basil sauce and real potato scones - a revelation in simplicity!

Needless to say - the crew’s instinct, energy, efforts and positive attitude made every dish come off perfectly and at a record pace.

I just adore working with them..☺️♥️ 👩‍🍳

Every single week my Dalmuir crew blow me away with their efforts and energy. Yes Chef, YES! 🙌🏼🧑‍🍳♥️

We have a very chilled, fun and supportive team that makes a recipe for brilliant results every time - pun very much intended there! 😂

No judgment from me - but some quick fix meals can be all too easy to fall for when you’ve not got a lot of time, energy or frankly - inclination. A certain “golden arches” place too often can have a detrimental affect on your health, waistline and your purse. Another famous brand of cheesy macaroni is also packed full of nasties with high levels of sodium, saturated fat, and potentially harmful chemicals like phthalates.

So we decided to make our own today - from scratch. Smash burgers 🍔 with our own “Maccies not-so-secret sauce” and Mac’n’Cheese on the side. Not everyone can do a bechamel sauce first time as it can be tricky - they got it straight away!

For the same price of a super sized meal - we made enough food for 8 people.

I’m so proud of them and made sure they felt damn proud of themselves.. 🥰♥️ 🍔 🧀 🥗