Caitríona Redmond: How to make my comforting slow cooker lamb stew recipe

Plus a recipe for pizza-flavoured muffins and some praise for the humble apron 

Lamb stew served in the white bowls

Somebody asked me recently if I enjoyed working from home: “Yeah it’s great, I love being here for the kids and having an office workspace and a kitchen I use for testing each week.”

I didn’t mention how difficult it can be at times, particularly in the winter. There were weeks when the only other adult I saw apart from my husband was the postman and sometimes a neighbour. The combination of not being very mobile plus bad weather made the house a warm cocoon. The days can meld into one another; sometimes the only distinction between a weekday or the weekend was that there were no lunchboxes to be prepared or whooshing kids out to school.