Paula Goddard

It would be really handy if rather than just celebrating the life, and death, of Saint George on April 23rd, we could actually still have him in full working order. He defeated one piece of unwelcome wildlife for us 1800 years ago and now Britain's wine and gardening enthusiasts need his help again to defeat a nasty Asian invader - harlequin ladybirds have been spotted in eastern-England.

The recession is making many of us rethink our spending habits and, naturally, the supermarkets have cottoned on to this big time. Even the likes of Marks and Spencer is getting in on the act telling us how cheap it is to dine with them while drinking their half-price champagne. But there are better wine deals out there, you just need to know where to look.

Easter means eggs. Chocolate eggs. And there's lots out there in the shops at the moment. Dark chocolate eggs, milk chocolate eggs, eggs filled with Smarties and even chocolate eggs filled with liqueur chocolates. But come the final egg count this Sunday there will be two important questions to answer: “Which one to unwrap first?”, and “What wine will match all that chocolate?”.

Alcohol-free beers look like beer and smell like beer, but far too often they just don't taste like beer. Which is a shame, because there’s a large and growing market for ales without the alcohol. Motorists and muslims are prime targets, as are people on certain sorts of medication which don’t mix well with alcoholic drinks.

My new weekly wine column Paula's Wines of the Week for Mature Times website maturetimes.co.uk is now live. Each week I’ll be finding and recommending tasty wines. And if these have been marked down by a couple of pounds a bottle, even better. Because good wine needn't be an expensive business, but working your way through the bland and disappointing can be. That's where I come in.

Despite the recent duty increase on wine there are still some good bottles to be found that cost the same as a couple of National Lottery tickets. The £3.99 and under price range is dominated by German wines and 3-litre boxes, where you pay more upfront but the equivalent bottle price is always less than you'd pay for a separate 75cl glass bottle.

Paddington bear is celebrating his fiftieth birthday. Yes it's been five decades since the Peruvian immigrant with a love for marmalade sandwiches arrived at a certain railway terminus and took up residence with the Brown family. Their housekeeper, Mrs Bird, instinctively knew that bears need plentiful supplies of that bitter-sweet breakfast jam if they're to maintain the shine on their fur. And so a message was sent to the local grocer for top up supplies. How times have changed. Now finding and purchasing a decent pot of marmalade suitable for south American bears and Wiltshire-born writers with a penchant for chunky, dark and sour marmalade is virtually impossible.

Despite having a diverse culinary heritage inspired through invasion, it seems we British are more interested in mastering Italian cuisine than our own traditional dishes. A new European-wide survey by Apetina cheese found that 61% of the Brits that responded would prefer to cook as Pietro and Paola rather than Peter and Paulas. But I've got news for those pasta throwing wanna-bes – ravioli and macaroni have been part of British culture for centuries.