I love food. I love cooking and experimenting. Indeed my ideal job would be to go to all kinds of food establish and try dishes on the menu that I have not had before.

But I cannot afford it alas as a new retired pensioner who has to watch their pennies slightly.

I have cookbooks that I've bought from 1984: my first few were from Marks and Spencer which I still have and look through regularly. However I also have in my collection books from the 1930s onwards and a large collection from across the world.

Can I just admit now that I have never bought a Novella Lawson, Jamie Oliver or Mary Berry at all but will slavishly watch them on TV and then look up a recipe that I am interested using good old Google or Bing or using Amazon search. 

One book that I bought from a humble sale way back when mentioned Cinammon butter spread: I read the recipe and thought it was disgusting but for some reason this recipe slept dormant in my mind for decades.

After sneaking downstairs one evening to raid the fridge and finding no goodies waiting to be devoured, I decided to do something sweet. This may well have been influenced by the three G&Ts I had slumped whilst tweeting like a and thing on Twitter but I was ravenous.

So, out came the  small trying pan, in went the vegan butter, maple syrup and some vanilla essence and I stirred furiously like a mad thing. It looked a little dark so I added a little skimmed milk, just enough to lighten the colour, but not enough to change the flavour. After tasting this concoction, I knew there was something missing so I threw in or forgot to measure a whole heap of cinamon. Five minutes later it was done.

Then I realised that I didn't have a sterilized bottle to hand. 

Out came a little bottle from the cupboard, filled it with water, placed it in large glass bowl, bungee in the microwave for five minutes and voila, sterilized jar.

Reheated slowly cinnamon mixture, slowly recanted into bottle and screwed on top that had been sterilized in boiling hot water.

Toasted some bread, covered in butter and tried the mixture. Heaven on toast.

This is not for the calorie conscious people out there, my word, it is good. This is now my evening snack. Crisps, biscuits, cakes can take a hike.