May Favourites

It’s telling that the most hotly anticipated home delivery of the month was my 32cm Carote Induction Compatible glass-lidded deep frying pan. I wouldn’t say that I was excited for it to arrive, because this pan is very familiar to me: it was more that I needed it, desperately, and so when it was unceremoniously shot-putted over the top of my gate by the delivery driver at 10pm on a Sunday the relief was palpable.

I cannot do without this pan. When I bought the first one, almost exactly two years ago, I couldn’t believe that such a perfect pan existed. One that would instantly and effectively connect with the induction hob (you’d be surprised how many pans don’t, even when they say they will), one with a well-fitting lid, and - most importantly - one that would be big enough to batch cook enough chilli con carne or chipotle chicken or king prawn pathia to take care of at least three evening’s meals.

And I have used the Carote pan every single day, pretty much, for two years. I have worked it to the bone. It has survived all sorts of inappropriate usage, including lack of sufficient cooking oil, over-enthusiastic charring of things and one incident with a bodged quantity of homemade caramel. I don’t know which of these events finally ruined the pan, but it now has a thick layer of charcoal at the bottom and it looks as though it has had a trip into the depths of a volcano, and so it is time for a replacement.

I don’t take it lightly, replacing the pan. It’s a big old thing - massive - to get rid of and yes, I will get Rich to try and work his magic with his various cleaners and his bicarb trick and yes failing that I will research how recyclable it is, or whether I can make it into some kind of novelty planter, but I need to stress to you how very vital it is for me to have a working version of this pan at all times. It is the key to our domestic efficiency - without it, all culinary activity would cease.

I would have ordered a replacement (or spare) earlier, but this particular pan had been almost continuously sold out since I last talked about it. I’m not sure whether I had some sort of phenomenal sales effect when I raved about it two years ago (I like to think so, ha!) but it has taken ages for it to be back in stock.

When it popped up last week, not only was it back in stock, it was £34.99 instead of sixty quid! I’ve never pressed “buy” so fast. Alas, it is now sold out again, and they only have the 30cm version. I say only, that’s still pretty huge, but the 32cm rules supreme. You can fry off two or three onions without everything getting too steamed and soggy and when I make my chilli I can whack in 500g of beef and three cans of beans easily without it feeling too full in the pan to properly cook it all.

The pan is usually here - just keep an eye on the page and, if one ever pops up, I highly recommend you snap it up.

Everything else feels like a bit of an anticlimax after that little pan sermon! God, I love my pan. I was going to say not as much as I like chocolate and then segue into a thing about Lindt chocolate, but when I think about it properly, if I had to choose between “The Big Pan” and “chocolate” I think the pan would win. I can imagine some kind of weird apocalyptic scenario (not too far-fetched to imagine in this day and age, is it?) where we’re all living in underground bunkers or something (I’ve been watching too many TV shows, eg Silo) and we get to take one item in with us per family and ours would be The Big Pan. It’s virtually symbolic at this point.

Anyway, chocolate. I’m trying to be more conscious of my sugar intake, because I am a ferocious lover of sugar and simply cannot turn it down if it’s in the vicinity and I’m not so sure it serves me that well, really. I crave it and then I have it and then I sit there gurning away on my sugar high and then I crash. When I write it down, it doesn’t seem that much fun. (But OH that sugar high!)

I’ve cut down on the cans of Coke (well-documented here) and only really have one a week, now, on fish and chips night, and now I’ve managed to be a little bit more restrained on the Mint Magnums. Most evenings, I just have a square or two of dark chocolate and the Mint Magnums I do have, at the weekend, I enjoy so much more.

I’ve noticed much better sleep quality (hello Oura ring stats) when I don’t indulge in sugary stuff after dinner, and I know that none of this is rocket science but sometimes it takes a bit of a change to make the messages sink in that we’ve been hearing for so many years of our lives.

Chocolate of choice at the moment, because it needs to be readily available at the supermarket: Lindt Dark Chocolate with Chilli. It’s not spicy, there’s just a hint of warmth to it, to keep things interesting, and a rich, satisfying darkness that isn’t too bitter. I’d say it’s an easy-eating dark chocolate for people who don’t think they like dark chocolate.

Oh and this one is good - Lazzy’s Cherry Bomb - even though it never seems to be in stock. It’s quite sweet, which I find a lot with vegan chocolate, but I actually didn’t realise it was a vegan bar until I went to look at the ingredients. It’s delicious. Has biscuity bits in. Not the cheapest, but if you’re after a treat…

That’s now the second thing that’s out of stock! Here’s something you can definitely get, and it’s brilliant: Moroccanoil Leave-In Conditioner. I think this must be one of my most-used hair products of the year. I’m picky; I think that out of all the new hair launches I’m sent, I get on with around 10% of them. I have fine, bleached hair and it’s always quite a delicate balance trying to find products that infuse enough moisture but don’t leave a greasy or waxy residue or weigh the hair down lankily. And when it comes to styling, I need things that are easy to use - that an idiot could use. Foolproof.

So yeah, most hair products don’t make the cut. It’s possibly the category with the lowest hit rate, for me! But this Moroccanoil conditioner? Whoosh! I started using it last year, every now and then, but as my hair grows longer I always have the urge to make it silkier and smoother. Shorter hair: rough and choppy, bleached and rough. Longer hair: tousled and undone but with a good, robust semi-gloss to the finish. Not asking for much, am I?

The Moroccanoil Leave-In Conditioner is a spray-in formula, which I really appreciate - I do think that you get excellent dispersal - and it is somehow incredibly lightweight, despite having a good whack of argan oil in the formula. The blurb on the bottle says that this conditioner can reduce hair breakage by up to 49% and I can well believe it; I apply this to towel-dried hair and my brush just glides through. I also find that I rarely need to follow with any sort of styling cream for the ends; I just air-dry with the Moroccanoil spray left in and I get lovely, soft lengths of smoothed-out hair.

You can find this leave-in conditioner online here. It also smells gorgeous - like an exotic holiday.

Something that doesn’t smell like an exotic holiday, but is now (unfortunately) the Official Scent of my Home: the Montebaco reed diffuser from Ormonde Jayne. I say unfortunately because of all the candles and diffusers I’ve ever tested out, this happens to be a) the one I adore above all others but b) the most expensive. By a literal mile. Fortunately the contents of the diffuser are lasting an age - I’ve had it going for at least a year now. It’s as though it’s had some sort of magic spell put upon it, like the Magic Porridge Pot.

What does Montebaco smell like? Tobacco leaf and leather. And if you’re thinking oh, like a Hell’s Angel then you have the wrong end of the Tobacco leaf and leather scale. This is, I don’t know, the tobacco and leather of a vintage sailing yacht gliding into a secret Grecian cove that is abundant with jasmine vines. The leather is refined, sensual, and the tobacco leaf always feels like a historic sort of note to me. Like old books in a library, or a spent fire in the grate of a grand old fireplace. Is historic the right word? Heritage? It’s very comforting to me, for some reason - it feels like a note that is the opposite of fleeting. It’s as though it has always been there.

Montebaco Home Fragrance

All of this leathery smokiness tempered very slightly with the warmth of the amber and the rounded fullness of the jasmine - it’s just so sexy and sultry without any hint of nineties nightclub owner. Over the past few years I’ve tried a number of “smoky” and “leathery” scents in the house (haven’t talked about this quest for the ultimate perfume for my hallway because it’s an utterly frivolous pursuit and I should be ashamed of myself, really) and the nearest I got to perfection was Feu de Bois from Diptyque. But that one really takes the whole wood fire thing quite literally and the smokiness started to jar, after a while. Nobody wants to their nose to constantly be telling them that the woodburner’s been on when it’s the middle of summer. It’s deeply confusing.

So yes, Ormonde Jayne. Perfectors of the home perfuming gig. Possibly because they are renowned perfectors of actual perfume, producing some of the finest and most revered fragrances. And the reed diffusers are simply the same scent. And why not?

One last thing before I turn in: the merino and cashmere blend henley top from Me + Em is possibly the best clothing item I’ve experienced in 2025. And I am sorry, because it’s a posh one and priced thus, but it is so featherweight against the skin and has just the right amount of cling and just the completely correct number of little buttons that can be popped open to reveal some chest. I haven’t revealed chest in AGES! I’ve actually been wearing a proper bra to maximise the whole event, make it worth my while. Very rarely do I have a casual item of clothing that makes me feel sexy: this makes me feel sexy. I know it’s an “each to their own” sort of scenario, but it does. This supersoft long-sleeved henley is on Me+Em here and I am only sorry that I didn’t order the ivory one when they still had my size…

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I have a Favourites video to go alongside this post, as always, but need to point out that this video is sponsored by Current Body before you start watching it. It has very slightly different favourites included, so you can do a spot the difference!