The best magazine … that's gratis and a grumpy old cook.

Most supermarkets have a give away magazine, usually monthly or seasonally. To the best of my knowledge there's only one supermarket in the UK that charges for the privilege and that is Sainsbury's. You can generally find something of interest in all of them but my award for the best is Waitrose Food (WF).

In the April edition – p111 – “The Sweet Spot” gives a recipe for Lemon curd crumble bars, described as a zesty, springtime treat from the WF test kitchen.

I suppose the recipe attracted my attention for two reasons, lemon and crumble – a perfect combination. I did what I always do, set my stall out and prepped all the ingredients so that I could get stuck in whenever I felt like it.

Here's the grumpy old cook bit. The recipe calls for a 325g jar of lemon curd. Oh goodie I thought - I was given a really posh organic lemon curd Waitrose Duchy Organic Sicilian Lemon Curd to be precise – I'll use that. When I took it from the pantry I was not impressed to read that it weighed only 320g. You may think I'm being picky – may be you're right – but if I'm “road testing” a recipe for the first time I follow it to the gram.

I then made matters worse and went on a “curd hunt” and pulled out Waitrose Orange Curd and M&S Sicilian Lemon Curd – guess what – they both weighed 325g.

I feel almost guilty criticising particularly since I think the WF mag is excellent. I realise that originally the “Duchy” label was acquired from The Duchy of Cornwall – in other words Prince Charles and I know that it supports The Prince's Charities. It may be that it goes with the territory but it makes no sense that you're selling what is now a Waitrose product that doesn't fit the WF recipe. Moan over!

I shall now “get a life” as they say! Here are my notes – try making your lemon curd in the microwave – it's faster – check out Saturday 11^th February 2017 – Sweet week – The lemon curd dilemma for the recipe.

I have frozen the bars – watch this space to see what happens.

I served the bars as a dessert, warmed with home-made ice cream – went down a storm!

P.s. If you're not able to pick up a copy of the magazine check out www.eatyourbooks.com and check out Waitrose Food Magazine April 2017 for the recipe.

Photos coming up - see if you're tempted.