Focaccia

We made this for a party, where it disappeared rather rapidly. It made a nice change from making bread in the bread machine.

It's an American recipe, so everything's in cups.

You'll need:

1 packet (7g ish) of dried yeast
4 1/2 cups strong white bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup olive oil

Mix together the yeast, 2 cups of flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the warm water and milk, together with the olive oil. Beat the lot together until it's well combined - I started off with a whisk, but ended up using a wooden spoon.

Gradually add the rest of the flour, half a cup at a time, until you've got a gloriously smooth, slightly sticky dough. Cover the bowl with cling film, and then leave it in a warm place for an hour or so, until the dough's doubled in size.

You rather enjoyed the next bit - punch the dough to get rid of any air, and then knead for a couple of minutes. Sling onto a large greased baking sheet (or one lined with a silicon sheet), and then stretch your dough out into a large rectangle, around 1 inch deep.

Leave in a warm place for another hour or so. I stuck the oven on to warm up at this point - you'll need it at about 200 degrees C.

Once it's risen again (you should have a pretty fat looking focaccia by now), poke some dimples in the top with your fingers, and give it a drizzle of olive oil. (You could get fancy at this point, and brush it with some pesto, or some finely chopped rosemary).

Sling the dough in the oven for 15-2- minutes or so, until the bread is golden brown. My oven's a bit fierce, so it didn't take very long.

It's best eaten straightaway, but you can warm it up again the next day (if it lasts that long).

Lamb patties/kofte

This goes brilliantly with some plain boiled rice, salad and Strictly Come Dancing.

Makes enough for 3 greedy people. You'll need:

400g lamb mince
1 small onion, grated
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
a good pinch of cinnamon
a good handful of freshly chopped parsley
90g fresh breadcrumbs
a couple of tablespoons of olive oil

Mix all this lot together, and add a good dollop of salt and pepper. Leave for half an hour or so, for everything to stick together and all the flavours to meld.

Heat up a grill pan, and add a little olive oil, so everything doesn't stick. Take about a tablespoon of the mixture, flatten it in the palm of your hand, and sling it into the pan (you can usually fit 4-5 in at a time). Fry for 3-4 minutes (don't even think of moving it), and then flip it over and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Tip out onto a hot plate, then make the next batch in between the dancing.

Chocolate chip cookies

Be warned. These are spreaders...

Makes about 12 (very very) large ones. You'll need:

100g dark chocolate
125g butter
100g granulated sugar
75g soft brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Stick the oven on at about 190 degrees C, and line your baking tray (essential).

First of all, chop up your chocolate into small chunks. You might like to cheat, and buy some chocolate chips, as this takes a while - but Sainsbury's value dark chocolate is only 27p a bar. You win some, you lose some.

Bung the butter into a small saucepan, and gently melt. Pour the sugar into a mixing bowl, then add the melted butter, and beat together. It'll look extremely strange, but go with it.

Sling the egg and vanilla essence in, and beat well again. Gradually add the flour and baking powder, then stir in the chopped up chunks of chocolate. Dollop some spoonfuls of this onto your baking tray A LONG WAY APART.

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until the cookies turn golden brown. Whip them out, then leave to cool on the baking tray for a couple of minutes, until they start to harden. You can then sling them onto a cooling rack.

Keeps for a week or so in an airtight tin. Like that will happen.

Christmas gingerbread house

You could spend ages making the gingerbread sides/chimney/roof, but to be honest it's easier buying the kits (this one's from IKEA, with a price-tag to match).

You'll need royal icing to stick your choice of (revolting) sweeties on to the house. This makes quite a lot (you could use it to decorate biscuits to hang on the tree, or just spread it about the gingerbread house with rather more wild abandon).

an egg white
about 225g (ish) icing sugar

Separate your egg white into a large mixing bowl. Sieve the icing sugar into the bowl, and gradually incorporate. If you're piping it, it needs to be reasonably stiff (you may need to add a little more icing sugar, depending on the size of your egg) - make sure you beat it well with a wooden spoon to get rid of any lumps and bumps.

Stuff the icing into an icing gun or use a freezer bag (a la Jamie Oliver) with the corner cut off to pipe the icing all over the house. Your friendly 4-year-old should be able to do the rest.

We had some fondant icing left in the cupboard from M's birthday cake, so we also made snowmen and a snow cat, mouse, snake, penguin, sausage dog and pond complete with fish. I suspect that might have been the highlight.

Butternut squash and feta pie

Perfect for vegetarians, or for eating after a long afternoon playing with Gran and Grandpa.

Makes enough for 4 greedy adults. You'll need:

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and chopped into chunks
olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
about half a pack of feta cheese, cubed
dried thyme
whatever cream you have in the fridge (I used a drizzle of single cream)
shortcrust pastry

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. Sling the chunks of butternut squash into an ovenproof dish or on a baking tray, drizzle lots of olive oil over the top and give them a good shake. Bung this in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the squash is soft.

In the meantime, make your shortcrust pastry, and leave to rest in the fridge. Fry the onion in a little olive oil until it turns translucent.

Once your squash is done, you're ready to assemble. Don't turn off the oven!

You'll need a pie dish (whatever you've used for the squash is usually a good bet) - tip the squash, onion and feta in, and give it a good mix. Sprinkle some dried thyme over the top, and grind over some black pepper. Add a drizzle of cream or a little water so that it doesn't dry out in the oven.

Roll out your pastry to the size of your pie dish, and lay over the top. You could get fancy with pastry decorations, or brush with a little beaten egg, but frankly, life's too short.

Sling your pie in the oven - it'll be done in about 20 minutes when the pastry is golden brown. Slice and eat with a green, spinachy salad.

Pasta with bacon and broccoli

This should probably be called something fancy, like "orecchiette with purple sprouting broccoli and lardons", but to be honest you'd probably have refused to eat it. Quite right.

You'll need:

pasta - orecchiette would be good, but we only had bows (farfalle)
broccoli - again, this would be fab with the purple sprouting stuff, but ordinary calabrese broccoli does just as well
bacon - a rasher or so of streaky per person, chopped up small
a medium-size onion, sliced
a clove of garlic, minced
a small tub of single cream

Chuck the bacon into a frying pan with a dash of olive oil, and fry until it starts to colour. Add the onions and garlic, and cook for another 5 minutes or so until they're translucent.

In the meantime, stick your pasta into a pan of boiling water, and simmer away. Chop up your broccoli into small florets, and cook in another small pan of water (or if you're really eco-friendly, steam it on top of the pasta). Whip the broccoli out after a couple of minutes, as soon as it's al dente.

Chuck the broccoli into the onion/garlic/bacon mix, and add the best part of a small tub of single cream and lots of black pepper. Simmer for a couple of minutes, until (a) it starts to thicken and (b) the pasta is ready.

Drain the pasta. Empty the sauce over the top. Mix. Eat with lots of cheese grated on top.

Steak pittas

Another quick tea, after a day at nursery/work.

You'll need:

a couple of pitta breads per person, toasted
a tub of hummous (one of these days I'll get round to making it myself again)
salad leaves (preferably involving baby spinach and/or rocket)
a nice piece of steak, at least 1-2 cm thick (ours was reduced to clear in Sainsburys, but no worse for that)

Heat a griddle or grill pan up on your hob, and brush with a little olive oil. Once it's sizzling, place the steak on it, and sear for a couple of minutes. Turn over, then leave for another couple more - it depends on how well-done you like your steak (this will do it medium rare, with a lovely pink bit in the centre). Whip the steak out of the pan, then leave to rest for 5 minutes or so.

Slice as thin as you possibly can, and then jam into some pitta breads with the salad leaves (if you've got any juices left in the pan then drizzle them on top). Top with a small dollop of hummous.

Smoked mackerel with onion rice and greens

Nicked from Hugh Fearnley-Whearnley in the Guardian at the weekend, but no worse for it. This made a really nice, quick mid-week supper.

Makes enough for three. You'll need

200g rice
1 medium onion, finely chopped
greens - the cabbage, chard, spinach type of thing
1 clove garlic, minced
a couple of tablespoons olive oil
a couple of teaspoons of cider vinegar
smoked mackerel - a fillet or so each

Fry the onion gently in a little olive oil until it turns translucent. Add the rice, and swirl around to coat in the oily onion, before pouring in 450ml water. Leave on a low heat until the rice has absorbed all the water and is cooked (this will take about 10-12 minutes).

Meanwhile, chop up your greens into thin ribbons. Fry the garlic in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil until it colours slightly, then add the cider vinegar and take off the heat. A couple of minutes before the rice is ready, plunge your greens into some boiling water, and cook until al dente.

Then all you have to do is plate up - assemble a fillet of mackerel, and a spoonful of rice (or three) on each plate. Drain the greens, then toss in the olive oil/cider vinegar/garlic dressing, and dole out.

Christmas cake

Guaranteed to make the house smell of Christmas.

You helped me to make this one, together with Philip and Judith. Everyone stirred, and made a wish with their eyes screwed up tight.

It makes an enormous amount of cake - enough for a 20cm cake tin, and a loaf tin - one to eat now, and one to feed and keep for Christmas. You'll need:

350g butter
350g soft dark brown sugar
350g plain flour
1kg of dried fruit - I used chopped apricots, quartered glace cherries, candied peel and some chopped prunes
5 large eggs
100g ground almonds
150g shelled hazelnuts
500g raisins/sultanas
5 tablespoons brandy (I wasn't allowed to use your Dad's armagnac, so I had to make do with some orange juice this time)
zest and juice of an orange and lemon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Line your cake tin(s) with greaseproof paper (which needs to come a few centimetres above the top of the tin). I ignored this bit and did it in silicon moulds - which was fine, but made for a rather chewy edge to the cake. Stick the oven on at 160 degrees C.

Beat the butter and sugar together until they turn light brown and fluffy. This is so much easier in a mixer, but you'll feel very virtuous if you spend 10 minutes working out your arm muscles instead.

Add the eggs to the mixture, and beat thoroughly. Then gradually add the ground almonds, hazelnuts and the dried fruit, pausing now and again to let your junior helpers have a try of everything. Mix in the zest, juice and brandy, and then fold in the flour/baking powder.

Scrape into the tin(s) and marvel at the sheer amount of mixture. Bung in the oven for 1 hour at 160 degrees C, then turn the oven down to 150 degrees C and continue to bake for another 2 hours. You might need to place a sheet of greaseproof paper over the top of the cake if it looks like it's browning too fast.

Poke a hole in the cake with a skewer - if it comes out clean, then it's done. Leave to cool, and then remove from the tin.

Wrap in greaseproof paper then foil, and place in a airtight tin. I tend to feed mine a little brandy every week or two from now until Christmas - make a few small holes in the top with a skewer, and then drizzle a little brandy over the cake. It'll be nicely sozzled by the time you want to eat it.

Chicken in ale stew with thyme dumplings

This was one of those stew/casserole hybrids necessary to get rid of some of the odder ends of the vegbox (kale and swede). We spent the afternoon making Christmas cake, while this bubbled away on the stove.

You'll need:

a couple of chicken thighs per person
1 medium swede, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, sliced
a couple of carrots, chopped
three or four handfuls of kale, shredded
half a bottle of slightly flat ale, that your Dad didn't really like much
a good pinch of thyme
lots of black pepper
a good slug of olive oil

Drizzle a decent slosh of olive oil into the bottom of a casserole dish, and brown the chicken thighs. Decant to a plate for 4 or 5 minutes while you fry the onion until it turns translucent. Tip the chicken thighs back in the dish, and add the swede, carrots, ale, thyme and lots of black pepper. You'll probably have to add a mug or two of hot water (or even better chicken stock) as well, depending on how much ale is left.

Bring all this to the boil, and then simmer for an hour or so, until the swede is tender and the chicken is cooked. Add the kale, turn the oven on (to about 200 degrees C) and then get started on the dumplings.

You'll need:

vegetable suet
self-raising flour
a teaspoon of dried thyme
a little cold water

As it says on the side of the Atora suet packet, your basic dumpling involves a ratio of 2:1 flour: suet (so if you have 100g flour you'll need 50g suet). Chuck the suet, flour and thyme into a bowl and mix. Add a little cold water until you have a slightly sticky dough. Roll into small balls, flatten slightly, and place on top of your stew.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or so, until the tops of the dumplings have turned golden brown. Eat at once, fighting over the last dumpling.

Spicy apple chutney

Grandma and Grandad brought a bag of apples with them last time they came, so we now have a large batch of chutney sitting at the back of the pantry. It needs a couple of months to mature, but will then be fantastic with cheese and crackers.

The recipe is unashamedly nicked from the Domestic Goddess herself. It's ridiculously easy, as long as you don't mind a little bit of peeling and chopping.

Makes enough for 3 large jam jars (about a litre). You'll need:

500g cooking apples, peeled and roughly chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 red chillies, sliced
250g sugar (it's nicest with something slightly darker, like demerara)
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves (you can leave this one out, if you find the taste a little overpowering)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
several good grinds of black pepper
350ml cider or white wine vinegar

Chuck everything in a very large saucepan, and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat a little, and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the mixture's thickened.

That really is it - decant into some clean, sterilised jars (either warm from the dishwasher, or freshly washed in hot soapy water), and make sure the lids are on tight.

Leave to cool (the strange popping noise after an hour or so will undoubtedly be the seal in the lid popping out).

Lentil and bacon soup

I think this is probably your Dad's favourite soup. You quite like it too.

Makes enough for three. You'll need:

3 rashers of bacon, snipped into pieces
an onion, finely chopped
3 or 4 carrots, sliced
a leek, sliced
some chicken stock
3 handfuls of red lentils
dried thyme, black pepper

Chuck the bacon and onion in a large saucepan with a little olive oil, and fry for 5 minutes until the onion is translucent.

Add the carrots/leek and fry for another couple of minutes. Pour in the chicken stock, add the lentils, and scatter some dried thyme and black pepper with abandon.

Bring to the boil, and simmer for half an hour. You'll probably have to add some more water - it all depends on how much chicken stock you have, and how soupy you like your soup...

We ate ours with some doughballs hot from the oven and slathered in melted butter.

Halloween spider cakes

Needless to say, these disappeared very very quickly...

Makes around 12 really large cupcakes. You'll need:

3oz butter
2oz dark chocolate
1 tablespoon milk
8oz self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
3oz light muscovado sugar
2oz caster sugar
150ml cream

And for the spiders:

12 prunes
24 silver balls
lots of liquorice laces
a little white icing (mix together a scant amount of warm water and lots of icing sugar)

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and line a muffin tin with 12 cases.

Melt the chocolate, butter and milk together in a small saucepan over a low heat. Leave to cool slightly.

Mix together the flour, bicarb and sugar (both lots). Then beat the egg and cream together, and slowly add to the flour mixture. Pour over the cooled chocolate/butter mix. It'll look terrible...but don't worry, just stir a little (but not too much).

Spoon into your paper/silicon cases, and bake for about 20 minutes in the oven until they've risen (and they rise a lot).

Leave to cool on a wire rack. Once cool, spread icing on the top, and assemble your spiders. Eat with gusto.

Sticky date pudding

We made this for Grandma and Grandad while your Dad was in Sweden. I've never seen a pudding disappear so fast.

Makes six small puddings (they're quite heavy duty...). You'll need:

140g dates, chopped
105ml water
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
60g butter
60g sugar (I used light muscovado)
1 egg
60g self-raising flour

For the sauce you'll need:

100ml cream
90g dark muscovado sugar
70g butter

Stick the oven on at about 190 degrees C, and fish out a muffin tin (large) which you'll need to grease.

Sling the dates in a small saucepan with some water, and bring to the boil. Add the baking powder (which froths, to great amusement), and then leave this very odd mixture to cool down for a bit.

In the meantime, cream together the butter and sugar, and beat in the egg. Stir in the flour, and then the brown, odd-looking date mixture. It'll look like a right old mess - but mix it together, and then spoon into your muffin tins.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or so. To make the (butterscotch) sauce, you'll need to put the sugar, butter and cream in a small saucepan, and bring to the boil very slowly (you'll need to stir this). Simmer for 3 minutes or so, until it thickens and goes glossy.

You can just pour this over the pudding, and eat straightaway, or if you want to be fancy about it, pour a little over each of the puddings and stick them back in the oven for a couple of minutes, to make a sticky glaze. Needless to say, ours didn't get that far...

Butternut squash and feta tart

Your Dad and I ate this in front of the telly after you'd gone to bed, indulging in a little West Wing season 3.

Makes enough for 2. You'll need:

puff pastry, about 200g (I bought this - life's too short to make it)
1 onion, finely sliced
1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into small cubes
a good slug of olive oil
50-100g feta cheese, cubed
dried thyme, lots of black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C, and fish out a baking tray.

Sling the cubed squash into a pan with a good splosh of olive oil, and gently fry until it softens. Add the onion, and fry for another 5 minutes or so, until it turns translucent.

Roll out the pastry into whatever fancy shape you like (I'm rather boring, and usually go for a rectangle). About 1cm in from the edge, draw a border round the whole piece of pastry using the point of a knife. Carefully place the pastry on a greased baking tray.

Tip the squash/onion onto the pastry, and even it out. Scatter over the feta cheese (if I was Nigella I would say tumble, but that's wrong wrong wrong) thyme and black pepper.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the pastry has turned crisp and golden.

Lamb hotpot

We spent the afternoon at the library today, and returned home in desperate need of a cup of tea (me, after an hour of reading aloud), and something warming to eat. Lamb hotpot hit the spot.

Makes enough for 3. You'll need:

4 or 5 medium-sized pieces of lamb (we had a right old rag-bag of pieces on the bone)
an onion, sliced
3-4 sticks of celery, chopped
a large carrot, chopped
the remains of a bottle of red wine that wasn't quite at its best (probably a glass)
dried thyme and lots of black pepper
5 or 6 large potatoes

Stick the oven on at about 160 degrees C.

Brown the pieces of lamb in a casserole dish (you may need to add a little olive oil so that they don't stick). Add the onion, celery and carrot, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add whatever wine you've got left and some boiling water, until everything's completely covered and there's no bits of lamb poking out the top.

Season with thyme and black pepper, bring to the boil, sling a lid on and shove in the oven for 2-3 hours. Check it occasionally, just to make it has enough liquid.

After 2-3 hours, start on the potatoes. Peel them, then boil for 15 minutes. Drain, slice and then place in a pretty pattern on top of your stew. Dot with butter, turn the heat up on the oven to 200 degrees, and sling the casserole dish back in for another 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are crispy.

Eat with something green - you can't beat a few frozen peas. Cooked, obviously.

Lamb and olive stew

It was a proper autumn day today - warmish, but drizzly and grey. There were soggy leaves everywhere on the way back from nursery - which weren't much fun to swish through. So we left the lamb and olive stew to cook in the oven, and went for a swim.

You'll need:

a few lamb pieces, preferably on the bone (we had about 400g of large bits of lamb in some very odd cuts)
one onion, sliced
2 green peppers, sliced
1/2 a jar of green olives
a tin of tomatoes
dried thyme, oregano and black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 160 degrees C.

Brown the pieces of lamb in a large ovenproof saucepan or casserole dish - you may need to add a little olive oil so it doesn't stick. Chuck in the onion and green peppers, and cook for a couple of minutes.

Tip in the green olives, tomatoes, and some water (about a can-ful). Season liberally with thyme, oregano and black pepper. You probably won't need much salt, especially if your olives were packed in brine.

Stick the lid on, and cook in the oven for 2-3 hours, until the meat is falling off the bone, and the tomatoes have cooked down to a beautiful red sludge. Check on it every now and again- you may have to add a little more water half an hour before the end.

We ate this with couscous and a spinach salad.

Smoked haddock, potato and sweetcorn chowder

Not many posts recently, as there haven't been many new recipes - when I'm snowed under with work tea tends to head towards the family classics.

This one was new though, and inspired by the lovely Nigel's suppers on BBC1.

Makes enough for 4 greedy adults. You'll need:

a large fillet or two of smoked haddock (undyed is probably nicer, but day-glo yellow means it looks pretty...)
a large onion, finely chopped
a large tin of sweetcorn, or a mugful of frozen sweetcorn (defrosted)
lots of potatoes - 4 or 5 large ones, peeled and diced
milk - about a pint

First of all, poach the fish in the milk. Bung both into a large pan, and gently heat the milk until it's almost boiling. Turn down, and simmer for 4-5 minutes until the fish is cooked through. Drain the fish (keep the milk!), and flake into large chunks (removing any bones, and discarding the skin).

Fry the onions in a little olive oil until they're translucent. Add the potatoes, and swish round in the oil. Add a mugful of boiling water to the potato/onion mixture and the rest of the fishy milk. Season with lots of black pepper, and simmer until the potato chunks are cooked.

Add the sweetcorn/fish, and warm through.

Serve with lots of fresh crusty bread, maybe topped with a little cream cheese.

Banana skewers

I should have photographed these because they were fantastic, and you were so proud of them. Next time...

Makes enough for 3. You'll need

a couple of bananas, roughly cut into large slices
straws (or skewers - but straws are easier if you're only small)
100g (ish) of chocolate, preferably dark
a couple of tablespoons of dessicated coconut on a small plate

Break the chocolate into small pieces, and place in a small bowl. Stick in the microwave for short intervals (eg 15s) until the chocolate is melted - it helps if you keep stirring it in between the bursts.

Thread your banana piece on a straw/skewer. Drizzle over the melted chocolate, then roll the whole thing over the coconut so it sticks to the chocolate.

Stand each straw/skewer in a glass, and leave to harden. Eat as quickly as possible, so no one can pinch yours.

Apple upside-down cakes

We spent all day at the allotment digging up the potatoes, so we needed a pudding for tea.

Makes 4 muffin-sized cakes. You'll need

1.5 apples, cored and sliced
a good knob of butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
65g sugar
65g butter
65g flour

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out a muffin tin.

Put the apples, knob of butter and brown sugar into a saucepan on a low heat, and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the apples are tender, and the butter and sugar has formed a golden sauce.

Grease the muffin tin, and then place the apples (and a small drizzle of the sauce) at the bottom of four of the holes. Keep the rest of the sauce!

In a food processor, blitz together the sugar and butter, until it's soft and fluffy. Add the egg, and whizz until it's incorporated. Add the baking powder, flour and cinnamon, and blitz again until it all comes together. My egg was on the small side, so I had to add a little extra milk to stop the sponge mixture from being too stiff.

Dollop the sponge mixture onto the apples, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the sponge has gone golden brown. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, loosen round the edges, and then turn upside down to turn out.

Drizzle over a little extra sauce, and serve with a little creme fraiche or ice cream. Perfect for Sunday tea!

Chicken and rice in a chard parcel

One of the more random meals we've had recently, inspired by the fact there was a load of Swiss/rainbow chard in the fridge after a trip to the allotment.

Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

2 chicken breasts, sliced into chunks
1 onion, finely sliced
10 large leaves of chard
dried thyme
about half a mugful of rice (or whatever cooked rice you've got lurking in your fridge)
1 small courgette, diced
1 green pepper, diced

1 tin of tomatoes
a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all make your tomato sauce - it's a doddle. Simply tip the tin of tomatoes into a large frying pan, add a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

While that's going on, cook your rice (or extract it from the fridge). Sling it into a large bowl.

Add a slug of olive oil to a frying pan, and brown your chicken. Tip it into the bowl of rice. Add the onion, pepper and courgette to the chickeny pan (you may have to add a little extra olive oil), and cook on a low heat until they've softened. Tip this lot into the bowl, and season with salt and black pepper - you should now have everything you need for the filling.

Plunge the large leaves of chard into a pan of boiling water for 3-4 minutes, until they've softened. You're now ready to wrap...take each leaf, and plonk a good spoonful of the filling in the middle. Fold over the edges of the leaf to make a parcel, and place in an ovenproof baking dish.

Once you've done all the parcels, drizzle the tomato sauce on top, until they're nicely covered. You could top it with a little cheese too, before you sling it in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until everything is heated through and piping hot.

Coleslaw

This one's dead easy, and a good winter recipe. It's also the sort of thing you make in your first cookery lesson at school.

You'll need:

a couple of carrots, thinly sliced (you could also grate them)
a good wedge of white cabbage, very finely sliced
a tablespoon or so of mayonnaise (Hellman's will do fine)
a couple of tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
salt and black pepper

Mix the carrots/cabbage together in a bowl. Whisk together the mayonnaise, yoghurt, salt and pepper, and drizzle over the top of the carrot/cabbage mixture. Done!

Fishcakes

Perfect for a quick tea, after a busy afternoon jumping on beds and playing with Playmobil dinosaurs.

Makes 10 fishcakes

6 or 7 small/medium potatoes, peeled and chopped (or whatever leftover mash you have in the fridge)
a little milk
a good couple of knobs of butter
1 tin of tuna, drained
1 onion, finely diced
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped
a handful of fresh chives, chopped
a couple of tablespoons of flour

Stick the chopped potatoes in a pan of hot water, and simmer until soft. Mash together, adding a little milk to get a smooth texture. Tip into a large bowl, and add the tuna, parsley and chives.

Fry the onion in a little olive oil, until it's translucent. Chuck into the potato/tuna mixture. Mix everything together gently, and form into smallish fishcakes (about the diameter of digestive biscuits, but a lot thicker).

Melt a little butter in a frying pan over a gentle heat. Coat each fishcake in a little flour, and let sizzle in the pan - it'll need a couple of minutes each side.

We ate our fishcakes with some homemade coleslaw, and a green salad.

Note: If you want to do this properly with fresh fish, you'll need to poach your piece of fish in simmering milk to start off with. Flake the fish (taking off the skin, and removing any bones), and use the milk in the mash.

Fig tart

There were so many figs around in the hedgerows at Grandma and Grandad's that we made fig tart. This is not the sort of thing that you'd make if you had to buy them in Sainsbury's.

You'll need:

20-24 figs, halved
a good dusting of icing sugar (preferably infused with vanilla)
8oz flour
3 oz butter
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
a little water

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees.

Rub the butter into the flour, and add the eggs. Mix gently until the dough starts to come together (you may need to add a little cold water if there's not enough liquid). Wrap in clingfilm, and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Carefully roll out the pastry, and use to line a flan tin. Place your halved figs on the pastry base in whatever pretty pattern you fancy, and then dust liberally with the icing sugar.

Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the figs are cooked.

Chicken, coconut and potato curry

This one was a bit of a 'let's see what there is in the fridge and chuck it in' curry. Makes enough for 4.

You'll need:

1 large chicken breast (or whatever cooked chicken you've got hanging about), sliced
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 yellow pepper, sliced
a handful of spinach
4 or 5 mushrooms, sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
about half a block of creamed coconut, dissolved in about a tin of hot water
2 teaspoons dried ginger (fresh would be even better)
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

Chuck the onions and garlic in a frying pan with a little oil, and fry until translucent. Add all the spices, and fry for another couple of minutes. Add the chicken, and stir, coating it in the spices. Cook for 4-5 minutes, and then throw in the pepper/mushrooms/spinach/whatever, and stir round until they're soft.

Add the tin of tomatoes, and stir in the coconut/water. Tip in the potatoes, and bring everything to the boil. Leave to simmer for as long as it takes the potato to cook - the longer the better (45 minutes or so), though you may have to add a little extra water if it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Eat with lots of basmati rice, and a scattering of cashew nuts on top.

Pickled runner beans

Seeing as how you and your Dad don't like these, I'm running out of other options. They're edible in two weeks...fingers crossed.

Will allegedly keep for 12 months.

You'll need:

500g runner beans, de-stringed, trimmed and sliced
250ml vinegar (I used pickling vinegar, but I suspect cider or white wine vinegar would be good too)
50ml water
150g sugar
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

As ever, you'll need a couple of sterilised jam jars - I used a couple of old coffee jars.


Chuck the runner beans in a saucepan with some boiling, slightly salted water, and boil for 5-6 minutes, until they're cooked (try them and see!).

In a smaller pan, add the water, sugar, allspice and pepper to the vinegar. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves, and let bubble away for a couple of minutes.

Drain the cooked beans, and return to the pan. Pour the vinegar solution over the top, and then simmer for another 4-5 minutes.

Strain the runner beans (keeping the vinegar solution), pack into warm sterilised jars, and then top up with the vinegar.

Screw the lids on, label the jars, and leave at the back of the cupboard for a bit.

Aunty Michelle's lamb tagine

We've eaten this in England and France, and it's fab. Today was no exception.

You'll need:

1kg cubed, boneless lamb (I did it today with lamb shoulder on the bone, and just cooked it for longer)

1 tablespoon ground ginger
1-2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

3 garlic cloves
4 large onions, finely chopped or grated
olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt
a handful of dried apricots
50g raisins/sultanas
50g flaked almonds
1 tablespoon honey
300ml tomato juice (I used water and a good squirt of tomato puree today)
1 can chopped tomatoes
300ml lamb stock

Stick the oven on at about 170 degrees C.

Mix the spices in a bowl, add the cubes of lamb, and coat evenly. Brown the lamb in a large frying pan (you'll probably have to add some olive oil to stop it sticking). Sling into your casserole dish. Fry the onions and garlic in the pan, until soft (again, you'll probably need a little olive oil). Tip these into your casserole dish too.

Add the apricots, raisins, flaked almonds, honey, tomato juice, chopped tomatoes and lamb stock, and season with a little salt. Cover your dish, and cook in the oven for at least 2 hours. You could do this on the hob too - just be prepared to add a little extra water if it looks a little dry.

Eat with couscous, and the inevitable courgettes.

Courgette and feta tart

Courgette, allotment, glut, yada, yada...

We've spent the day recovering from the delights of birthday parties, beaches and too much cake. So pastry for tea was the ideal solution. This makes enough for 3-4 people, or 2 very greedy ones.

You'll need:

a couple of large courgettes, sliced
3 medium onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
a good slosh of olive oil
half a pack of feta cheese, cubed
the scone base from Grandma's pizza or shortcrust pastry - they're both nice with a teaspoon or so of dried thyme added to the flour.

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees and fish out a baking tray (you'll need to grease it or line it with greaseproof paper).

Fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil until they've softened. Roll out your dough/pastry, and line the baking tray. Scatter the onion across the base, and then lay out the slices of courgettes in whatever pretty pattern takes your fancy - I like the geometric niceties of rows, but you could go all out for arty-farty if you've got time. Scatter the feta cheese across the courgettes, drizzle a little extra olive oil all over, and season well with lots of black pepper.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the base is crispy and the feta cheese browned. Goes well with a green salad, and Patak's aubergine pickle.

Birthday cake

I can't claim this one for my own - it's based on Nigella's buttermilk birthday cake. As she says, it's perfect - it'll take any shape, and slice beautifully without collapsing.

You'll need:

1 large swiss roll for the turrets (you could make your own, but I ran out of time, and Morrisons came up trumps)
4 ice cream cones
1 very large pack (1kg) of ready roll fondant icing
a tube of smarties
a tube of pink icing (once again, you could make your own and pipe it, but life's too short)
black food colouring
a tablespoon or two of apricot jam (or gooseberry, or something pale)
a couple of tablespoons of strawberry jam, to sandwich the cake layers

For the cake sides, you'll need a 23cm (9 inch) square cake tin. And the following:

125g butter
200g white sugar
3 eggs
75g yoghurt mixed with 125ml milk (or 200ml buttermilk)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
250g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees, and line your cake tin with greaseproof paper (bit fiddly, but worth it).

I did all this in the food processor, as it's a right pain if you have to beat the butter and sugar together by hand (an electric mixer would probably be even easier).

Sling in the butter and sugar, and pulse on a high speed until they are light and fluffy. Slowly add the eggs (one at a time) on a lower speed, until everything's blended together.

Pour the yoghurt, milk and vanilla into a measuring jug, and mix well. In a bowl (or second jug), mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt. Add a couple of tablespoons of the flour mix to your egg/butter/sugar combo in the food processor, and blitz for 20s or so. Do the same with a couple of tablespoons of the yoghurt/milk/vanilla mix. Repeat ad nauseam until everything is combined. It's a bit of a faff, but does make for a light cake.

Pour into your cake tin, and then bake in the oven for about 35 minutes, until it's golden brown on top and a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes or so in the tin, and then leave to cool, preferably overnight.

To assemble your palace, you'll have to wrap each of the main components in fondant icing. Divide the swiss roll into 4, and then brush boiled jam over each segment. Roll out about a quarter of your fondant icing (you'll want to dust the surface liberally with icing sugar), cut into wide strips and then roll up each swiss roll piece in it.

Divide your main cake into 4 long strips. Halve each of these, and sandwich them together with a layer of strawberry jam. Brush all over with boiled jam, and then cover with fondant icing.

Decorate with pink icing (use this to stick on the Smarties). I also coloured some of the fondant icing with black food colouring, to make some doors/windows.

Stick the cones on top of the turrets, and add some flags/candles. On no account attempt to assemble all this on a windy, sandy Northumberland beach...

Party food

Outside catering is always interesting, particularly when it's for a bunch of kids aged from almost 2 to 8. And we decided to do a beach birthday party for your 4th birthday, so it wasn't exactly practical to schlep in large plates of food that could get overturned in the sand.



The result? Small sandwich boxes (4 for £1 in Morrisons), filled with:

2 baby tomatoes (your favourite)
a tiny bunch of grapes
a few carrot sticks
a small sausage roll
a tiny dough ball, filled with cream cheese

We also added a carton of apple or orange juice, a packet of Hula Hoops, and a tiny packet of Iced Gems (which most of the grown ups looked longingly at).

Cheese and potato scones

Or what to do with leftover mashed potato that will amuse a grumpy three-year-old.

Makes around 10-12 medium-sized scones, or lots of small ones that can be scoffed with some parma ham or smoked salmon. You'll need:

6oz mashed potato
8oz self-raising flour
1 1/2 oz butter
pinch of salt
2oz grated cheese
a little freshly grated nutmeg (paprika would be good instead of this, if you're making it for grownups rather than small people)
3-4 tablespoons milk

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C, and fish out a baking tray (you'll need to grease it or cover it with a silicon sheet).

Measure out the flour into a bowl, and rub in the butter. Stir in the salt, nutmeg and grated cheese. Mix in the mashed potato, and then add the milk a little at a time, until you have a soft, pliable dough.

Roll out the dough to about 1cm thick, and cut out rounds. Place these on your baking tray, and bung in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until they have risen and are golden brown on top.

Eat while warm. I'm not sure they keep particularly well, but to be honest that really wasn't a problem.

Apple and blackberry slice

It feels like autumn today - windy, grey and cold. So to celebrate I made apple and blackberry slice to use (a) some of the blackberry mountain from the allotment and (b) the leftover filo pastry from the courgette/chickpea pie experiment.

It went down rather well, with a scoop of blackberry ripple ice cream.

You'll need:

4 or 5 eating apples - peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
a small punnet of blackberries
125 filo pastry
a jolly good squirt of runny honey
a sprinkle of cinammon
15g butter, melted

First of all, stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C.

Sling the apple chunks into a small saucepan with a little water (maybe half a mug). Bring to the boil, then simmer until the apple has turned to a beautiful mush.

Take a small foil tray or whatever cake or loaf tin comes to hand. Brush all over with melted butter, and line with 4 or 5 sheets of filo pastry (each brushed with melted butter), leaving a little overlap hanging over the edge.

Place the blackberries on the pastry, and top with the apple mush. Drizzle over a good squirt of runny honey, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Fold over the overhanging edges of pastry, and then place a couple more sheets of filo on top (brushing with more melted butter).

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.

Courgette, chickpea and filo pastry pie

I made this on a whim, mainly to use up a box of filo pastry I had in the freezer and the mountain of courgettes from the allotment. It was really good - and would be perfect if you've got vegetarian friends coming round for a meal.

I can't claim credit for thinking it up though - it's the blessed Nigella's recipe, slightly tweaked. Feeds 4 if you add a nice green salad, and maybe some crispy French baguette.

You'll need:

1 smallish onion, finely chopped
2 medium-sized courgettes, diced
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
60g rice (I used basmati)
1 can of chickpeas, drained
a good blob of butter (about 25g), melted
100g filo pastry

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C. Dig out a springform tin (one of those where you unhitch the sides, leaving the base free) - it needs to be a good 5cm deep.

Fry the onion and cumin seeds in a good slosh of olive oil, until the onion goes translucent. Add the coriander and turmeric, and mix well. Sling in the courgettes, and fry on a high-ish heat, until they too are soft and bright yellow. Add the rice, and stir it round well, so it takes on the oil and spices.

Gently add around 250-300ml water in stages - you want the water to be gradually absorbed by the rice. Stir well every couple of minutes - it should be cooked after 10-12 minutes. Drain the chickpeas, and chuck into the mixture.

Then comes the fun bit (you really liked this part). Take your springform tin, and thoroughly brush it all over with melted butter. Then layer the sheets of filo pastry (keep a couple for the lid), putting them at an angle to each other so no filling will escape, and leaving a little overlap at the sides. As you slide each pastry sheet into the tin, brush each one carefully with more melted butter.

Tip in the filling, and fold over the overlaps. Take your last couple of sheets of filo, scrunch them, and arrange on the top. Brush with more melted butter to seal.

Stick in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until the pastry is golden brown and crispy. Once you've retrieved it from the oven, decant from the springform tin, and stand back and admire for all of...ooh 20 seconds before you dig in.

Courgette and goat's cheese pancakes

One of the easiest pancake fillings in the world (after bacon and maple syrup).

Makes enough for 3-4 pancakes. You'll need:

a couple of courgettes, diced
a small onion, finely chopped
some herbs (I used rosemary because I'd just cut back the bush in the garden)
a very good slug of olive oil
some goat's cheese (I used the really spreadable stuff that we had leftover from making something else)

Sling the onions in a frying pan with the olive oil, and cook gently until they're soft. Add the courgettes and chopped herbs, and fry for another 6-7 minutes until they too are softened and coated in the olive oil.

Make your pancake.

Spread a line of goat's cheese down the centre of the pancake, followed by a tablespoon or two of the courgette/onion mixture. Season with black pepper, and roll up. Eat while it's still hot.

Rosti

The Swiss would probably take umbrage at this version, but it's rather good. We ate it with some chard from the allotment, and it all disappeared rather rapidly.

Makes enough for two greedy adults and one greedy three-year-old. You'll need:

700g potatoes
1 large onion, finely chopped
5 slices of streaky bacon, sliced into small pieces (lardons would be even better)
salt and black pepper
butter

Scrub the potatoes, and then sling them in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes, until they're parboiled. Peel (you should be able to easily do this with a knife), and then grate using a coarse grater.

While the potatoes are boiling, fry the onion and bacon together for 6-7 minutes, until the onion softens. Tip into the grated potato and mix gently - if you find the potato starts to stick, you'll need to add a knob of melted butter - and season with salt and lots of black pepper.

Melt another large knob of butter in your frying pan. Divide the mixture in two, and press half into the pan. Fry for 7-8 minutes on a medium heat (if it starts to burn, add some more butter). Turn the rosti over (it's probably easiest to slide a plate on top, and flip the pan upside down), and fry for another 7-8 minutes until it's crispy on the bottom.

Eat as quickly as possible. Do try not to have a heart attack.

Chocodoodles

It's been rather a strange, grumpy day, so we made chocodoodles (little chocolate biscuits/cakes) to cheer ourselves up. It's a Nigella recipe, slightly tweaked - we ate them with slices of juicy nectarine, and will finish the rest off with the blackberry mountain currently sitting at the bottom of the fridge.

Makes about 16. You'll need:

65g butter
50g sugar
25g cocoa powder
100g plain flour
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a small egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out a baking tray (you'll need to line it with greaseproof paper or a silicon sheet).

Cream the butter and sugar (50g, not the tablespoon) together, until they're fluffy. A bit of elbow grease works wonders, but you could cheat and do this in the food processor. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, and then carefully add the cocoa powder, and mix gently. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix until everything is smooth.

Mix the remaining caster sugar/cinnamon, and place on a plate. Take a teaspoon of mixture, roll it in your fingers to make a ball, and then roll each ball on the cinnamony/sugary plate until it's thoroughly covered. (You loved this bit.)

Sling each ball on the baking tray (they don't spread too much while baking, so you don't have to space them widely), and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until no longer soft. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Ratatouille

We returned home to be greeted by the largest courgette ever on the allotment. (Seriously, it was about a foot long). This is probably not the world's most authentic recipe for ratatouille, but it did have the benefit of using up about a third of the monster...

Makes lots and lots. We ate this with meatballs and rice, and I'll probably also puree some of the leftovers to make a pizza topping.

You'll need:

1 medium aubergine, cubed
1 large onion, finely sliced
a couple of cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 monster courgette, cubed
1 red or yellow pepper, sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of tomato puree
lots of black pepper and Mediterranean herbs
2 bay leaves

Sling the onion and garlic into a frying pan, and add a large slosh of olive oil. Fry until they've turned translucent. Add the aubergine, and fry until it's softened. It absorbs a lot of olive oil, so you may need to add another large dollop.

Throw in the courgette and pepper, and fry for a couple of minutes until they too have softened. Tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes, another tin full of water, and the tomato puree. Season with a good sprinkling of dried Mediterranean herbs (think oregano, thyme etc), and a couple of bay leaves. Bring the sauce to the boil, then leave to simmer for a good 30-40 minutes - the longer the better.

Spaghetti with tuna, spinach and lemon

Actually, this may not have been spinach - it might have been chard. It's grown some rather enormous leaves on the allotment, anyway, which the snails have started to take a liking to. So we thought we should get in first.

You'll need:

enough spaghetti for three (a small handful per person - spaghetti always miraculously expands when cooked)
1 large onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
unidentified green leaves - preferably spinach/chard or that sort of thing, sliced into strips
1 tin of tuna
lemon zest (about half a lemon will do)
lots of black pepper

Stick the spaghetti into a large pan of boiling water - it'll need 7-8 minutes until it's al dente.

In the meantime, fry the onion and garlic in a good slug of olive oil, until they've softened. Add the greens, and fry for a couple of minutes until they've wilted. Stir in the tuna, and leave to warm through.

Drain the spaghetti, and tip into the greens/tuna pan. Stir everything thoroughly, so the spaghetti becomes covered with the tuna and onions. Season well with lots of black pepper, and some grated lemon zest.

Divide up into bowls, and top with a little extra drizzle of olive oil, and maybe some parmesan cheese.

Chocolate puddings

To celebrate our return from sunny France to rainy Gateshead we made chocolate puddings for tea.

Makes four small puddings - they were brilliant with blackberries from the allotment, and a scoop of ice cream.

You'll need:

50g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
50g self-raising flour

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. You'll need four little ramekin dishes, or something similar that's oven proof. The puddings stuck slightly to my glass dishes, so make sure to butter them well.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the egg (you could do all this in the food processor, to speed things up). Add the cocoa powder, and gently mix (if you're overenthusiastic it tends to erupt in powdery clouds all over the kitchen flour). Ditto with the flour.

Divide the mixture into the four dishes, and place on a baking tray (this makes it easier to get them in and out of the oven). Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they've risen, and are firm to the touch.

Eat rapidly - they're better warm than cold.

Beetroot and goat's cheese tart

We may have found the only beetroot recipe in the world that your Dad and I like (we're not big fans, let's put it this way). This one is nicked from Hugh Fearnley Whernley and slightly adjusted.

Makes enough for 4 (or for 6 as a starter). You'll need:

shortcrust pastry (I used 200g flour, 75g butter and a little cold water)
3 red onions, finely sliced
150ml red wine
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon dried thyme
500g small beetroot
a little fresh dill, finely chopped
200g goat's cheese

First of all, you need to roast the beetroot. Wash them, cut the top and bottom off, and stick in the oven at about 200 degrees C with a little olive oil for 40-45 minutes (you may need a little longer if they're on the large side). Let them cool a little, then peel, and chop into wedges. It's best to delegate this bit, as it's rather messy.

In the meantime, make the shortcrust pastry, and prepare the rest of your filling. You'll need a flan tin (I used one about 20cm across with a removable bottom), which you need to grease, and line with the pastry. Stick a circle of baking parchment on top, and then tip in some baking beans, or dried pulses. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or so, and then haul it out.

Fry the onions in a little olive oil until they're soft. Add the wine, vinegar, dried thyme, honey (and a generous helping of black pepper), and then simmer until almost all the liquid's gone. Stir in the beetroot wedges, add a little fresh dill, and mix well.

Cut your goat's cheese into thin-ish slices (about 1cm thick). Lay a few on the bottom of the tart, tip in the beetroot mixture, and stick the rest of the slices on top.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes - you want the goat's cheese to be bubbling, and browning on top.

Serve with a green frondy salad. And beware...it'll turn your wee pink.

Blackberry muffins

The blackberries at the allotment just seem to be getting bigger and bigger - it must be all the rain. The monsters need eating, so we made muffins this afternoon - you were brilliant at all the cracking eggs and mixing.

Makes 12 small cupcake-sized muffins. You'll need:

200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
85g sugar
a pinch of salt
40g butter, melted
140ml milk
1 egg, beaten
three or four blackberries per muffin

Stick the oven on at 200 degrees C, and dig out a cupcake tin. I lined mine with silicon cases, but the paper ones will do just fine.

Sling all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, and mix well. Pour the milk, melted butter and egg into a measuring jug, mix together, and dump into the muffin mix. Stir until everything's combined together (it'll be a stiff-ish mixture).

Drop three or four blackberries (depending on how large they are) into each paper/silicon case. Spoon the muffin mixture on top.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the tops have gone golden brown. Decant the muffins (still in the cases) onto a wire rack to cool.

They're delicious with a dab of creme fraiche, but to be honest are best scoffed immediately with a cup of tea.

Blackcurrant jam

Again, too much on the allotment. And this is my favourite jam (you're much more of a strawberry jam girl).

Makes 3 1/2 large jars (454g size).

You'll need:

800g blackcurrants
1 1/4 pints water (yes, I know this should be in metric too, but I forgot to convert it)
900g (ish) sugar

Make sure you've washed the jars in hot soapy water, and then dried them out in a low oven. Put a plate in the fridge, so you can test whether the jam is ready or not.

Sling the blackcurrants and water into a large saucepan. Bring to the boil, and then simmer until the blackcurrants are soft and sludgy, and the liquid has reduced by about half.

Add the sugar, and stir carefully so it's all dissolved. Bring this mixture to a rolling boil (the bubbles still remain if you stir them), and keep it there until it starts to thicken (should take about 5-10 minutes). Drop a little of the jam onto the cold plate - once it starts to wrinkle when you push it with your finger, you're good to go.

Decant into the jars, and then leave to cool on the worktop overnight. Label, and place proudly at the back of the pantry, on the jam shelf.

Bacon, feta and pea salad

Our veg box arrived today in the pouring rain, containing a box of freshly picked pea pods and the most amazing bag of salad leaves.

Makes enough for one. You'll need:

some peas, freshly shelled (this is one occasion where the frozen variety probably aren't worth using)
a handful of salad leaves (mizuna or rocket, spinach and butterhead lettuce is a good combination)
25g feta cheese, cubed
2 rashers of streaky bacon
some salad dressing of your choice - something balsamic-y is good

Fry the bacon (you don't need to add any extra oil) for 5 minutes in a pan until it goes crispy. Slice into small pieces.

Sling the salad leaves into a large bowl, and chuck in the peas (uncooked). Add the feta cheese and the bacon pieces, and toss together. Drizzle over a little salad dressing and season with lots of black pepper.

Eat with some nice bread, or failing that some pitta bread that you've dragged out of the freezer and toasted...

Ketjap manis

Also called Indonesian sweet soy, apparently. We needed it for the Indonesian noodle salad, so Google obliged (hence the American cup measurement).

You'll need:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark treacle
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Stick the water and dark brown sugar in a saucepan, and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, and then keep on a high heat for 5 minutes.

Reduce the heat again, and chuck in the rest of the ingredients. Stir until everything's dissolved, and then simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Decant into a jar - it'll keep in the fridge for 2-3 months. It's rather good as a dipping sauce, and it's even better if you have it with a little lime juice.

Indonesian noodle salad

This one surprised your Dad by being so good - he's not a natural vegetarian. You liked the peanuts best, but did enjoy dipping the noodles in the sauce.

It's adapted from a recipe I found in Olive magazine - their's has raw veg instead.

Makes enough for three. You'll need:

1 egg per person (hardboiled, and halved)
medium egg noodles
1 yellow pepper, sliced
2 green peppers, sliced
1 carrot, peeled and finely sliced into batons
1 onion, finely sliced
roasted peanuts - a scattering per person
1 lime, halved
ketjap manis - a tablespoon per person
a little olive or sunflower oil

Sling the onions in a pan with a little olive or sunflower oil, and cook until they've softened. Add the pepper and carrot, and fry for another 5 minutes or so, until they are tender.

Cook the noodles in boiling water for 3-4 minutes until they are tender. Drain, and add to the vegetables in the pan. Mix everything together, and dish out into three bowls.

To each bowl of noodles add an egg and a scattering of roasted peanuts. Drizzle with a little ketjap manis, and squeeze a little lime juice on top.

Orecchiette with anchovies and broccoli

We ate this for tea, after a hard day playing in the garden - you made cat tunnels out of the hedge clippings, and dragged branches around for Rustle to chase.

Makes enough for three. You'll need:

300g broccoli, chopped into small pieces
4-6 anchovies
a very good slug of olive oil
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
orecchiette (they look like tiny hats or ears. I suspect shells would also do well)

Put the broccoli into a pan with some boiling water, bring to the boil, and simmer for 5-7 minutes until it's soft. Drain, and keep the water (you might as well cook the pasta in it too).

Sling the olive oil and anchovies into a large frying pan and apply some heat - the anchovies will start to disintegrate. Swish them round - don't let them burn - and then add the garlic. Cook for another 3-4 minutes until the garlic's softened and flavoured the oil, and then tip in the broccoli. This needs to cook for 10 minutes or so, but (a) keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn (b) be prepared to add a little more olive oil now and again and (c) remember to break up the broccoli with a spatula as you stir it.

While all this is going on, cook your pasta in the broccoli water. Drain, and tip the pasta in with the broccoli/garlic/anchovy mixture.

Season well with black pepper (the anchovies are so salty you're unlikely to need salt), and then decant into some bowls. It's lovely when topped with lots of grated parmesan, and some chilli flakes.

Blackberry ripple ice cream

We've now got four tubs of ice cream in the freezer, which may be overkill. This one's mine and your Dad's favourite - made with some huge, squishy blackberries from the allotment.

You'll need:

350g blackberries
50ml apple juice
200g sweetened condensed milk (don't laugh...)
300ml double cream
50g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

First of all, you need to make a blackberry syrup. Stick your blackberries in a large saucepan, together with 50ml apple juice. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the sugar, and stir until it's dissolved. Bring to the boil again, and simmer for another 5 minutes, so the blackberry mush turns syrupy.

Pour the blackberries in a blender (or use one of those handheld things - even easier to shove in the dishwasher afterwards), and whizz round for a minute or so. Pour the resulting blackberry puree through a sieve, to get rid of the seeds, and then leave to cool.

While you're waiting for things to cool down, whip the cream until it stands in soft peaks. Add the vanilla and condensed milk (if it's good enough for Pooh...), and fold through. Pour into a freezerproof container - and then comes the fun bit - drizzle over the blackberry sauce for a ripple effect. Fold it loosely into the cream mixture, and then stick the whole lot in the freezer. You don't need to stir it, but leave the ice cream for at least 3-4 hours before you eat it, preferably in a sugar cone with a dark chocolate lining...

Sticky chicken with cashew nuts

We spent the day pootling about on the beach at Druridge Bay, and then came home to eat tea on the balcony in the sunshine. The cashew nuts were a big hit.

You'll need

3 or 4 skinless and boneless chicken thighs, chopped into strips
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon runny honey
50g cashew nuts
a little olive oil

Decant the soy sauce and honey into a large bowl, and tip in the chicken strips. Mix thoroughly, and leave to marinade for 10-15 minutes.

Heat a splosh of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan, and once it's hot, tip in the chicken and cashew nuts. Fry for 5-8 minutes (depending on how thickly you've sliced the chicken), making sure everything doesn't stick.

Turn the heat up, and fry for another 5 minutes, so that the honey starts to turn sticky, and the chicken browns.

We ate ours with wedges of sour lemon, and a spinach and mangetout salad. It would be lovely with a little egg fried rice on the side too.

Strawberry jam

There were too many strawberries at the allotment again - and this time they were a bit squishy. So we made some jam, to eat with croissants at breakfast.

This makes 3-4 jars (standard jam/marmalade size of about 454g), and is dead easy. You'll need:

850g strawberries, hulled and washed
1 kg jam sugar (the sort with added pectin in - if you've only got ordinary sugar, add the juice of a lemon instead)

You'll need to wash 3-4 glass jars thoroughly in hot soapy water, and then place them on a tray in a low oven to keep warm. (Using them straight from the dishwasher also works.) Remember to stick a small plate in the fridge - you'll need it later on.

Tip the strawberries into a large pan, and attack with a potato masher until you have a glorious-smelling pulp that looks like something out of a horror movie. Warm on a low heat, and then tip in the jam sugar. Stir until it's dissolved.

Bring the mixture slowly to the boil, stirring all the time so the sugar doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan. Now you need to reach a 'rolling boil' (when the mixture is bubbling away, and keeps doing so even if you stir it). Keep the jam at a rolling boil for 4 minutes, then quickly dab a small bit onto a cold plate (that's the one you put in the fridge at the beginning of the process), and see if it wrinkles when you push it with your finger. If it does, you're in business - retrieve your jars from the oven, and decant the jam into them.

Screw the lids on, and then leave to cool on the worktop. Don't worry if you hear popping noises about half an hour later - it'll be the little vacuum disc in the top of the lid popping out.

Chorizo, chickpea and spinach salad

We spent the afternoon at the swimming pool, and came home completely knackered and starving. Luckily, you can make this in about 10 minutes.

Makes enough for three. You'll need:

chorizo sausage (a couple of hundred grammes should do - depends how chorizo mad you are)
a large avocado, peeled and sliced
half a small bag of spinach
a tin of chickpeas, drained

Slice the chorizo, and sling into a frying pan (you don't need to add any extra oil). Fry for 8-10 minutes or so, until it goes crispy and has released all its oil. Tip in the chickpeas, mix well so they're coated in the chorizo oil, and warm through.

Stick the spinach into a bowl, and scatter the avocado throughout. Tip in the warm chickpeas and chorizo, and gently mix together (the chorizo oil will coat the spinach, so there's no need for any extra dressing).

Season with lots of black pepper, and then decant into some bowls. We ate ours with some crusty bread. It disappeared very rapidly...

Lemon and mint chicken

We've spent the day dodging thunderstorms - the front garden was awash, and the cat cowered on the porch.

I made this for tea, to inject a little sunshine into the day. A girl can dream...

You'll need:

a couple of boned and skinless chicken thighs per person
a lemon, sliced into thin wedges
a largish sprig of mint per thigh
a slug of nice olive oil
black pepper
a little salt

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C.

Take each boned chicken thigh, and spread it out. Place a wedge of lemon and sprig of mint in the middle of each, and roll up again. Place in a baking dish/tray, and drizzle with a little olive oil. Season with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

Roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until the thighs are cooked through - they may be done sooner if they're very small.

We ate this with some onion, green pepper and parsley couscous, and spiced things up with Patak's aubergine pickle.

Ricotta, spinach and pine nut tart

Otherwise known as "how to use the other half a pot of ricotta leftover from making yesterday's tea - I know, I'll put some pastry with it"

Makes enough for 4 reasonably greedy people. You'll need:

half a pot of ricotta cheese (about 125g)
a medium-sized bag of spinach
a couple of onions, thinly sliced
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
a handful of pine nuts
a slosh of olive oil
lots of black pepper and a little salt
8oz flour (preferably self-raising)
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
2oz butter
a little milk (about 4-5 fl oz)

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and find a baking tray.

First of all make your scone base. Chuck the flour, baking powder, pinch of salt and butter in a food processor, and whizz everything round until it looks like tiny breadcrumbs. Add the milk a little at a time, so as to not drown everything, and blitz until the dough starts to come together. Roll out, and press onto a baking tray, that you've lightly greased with a little butter or oil.

Stick the onions and garlic in a pan with a good slug of olive oil, and fry until they turn translucent. Spread over the base of the tart. Tip the spinach into the same pan, and cook for a couple of minutes until it's wilted.

Dollop the ricotta roughly over the tart, and sprinkle with a few pine nuts. Drizzle a little extra olive oil on the top, and liberally apply black pepper.

Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes - once the case is nicely browned, it's time to get it out.

We ate ours with a green salad covered in an Asian-style dressing (lots of sesame oil and soy sauce).

Strawberry ice cream

After eating strawberries for breakfast, lunch and tea we threw in the towel and made something that would keep for a while.

You'll need:

a large punnet of strawberries, washed and hulled
a 300ml carton of double or whipping cream
100g caster sugar

If you're using an ice cream machine like ours, don't forget to put the bowl in the freezer the night before...

Sling the strawberries and sugar in a liquidiser/blender. Whizz round until you have a lovely smooth strawberry puree. Tip in the cream, and mix the two together.

Decant into your ice cream maker, and follow the instructions. Ours is a bit rubbish and threatens to overheat after about 45 minutes of churning, so I tend to decant it into a tub and stick in the freezer for a final burst until it's properly set and frozen.

This time I had so much mixture that I also made one batch solely in the freezer - just remember to come back every hour or two and give it a good stir to get rid of any ice crystals.

Ricotta and tomato spaghetti

This made a ridiculously quick tea after a traipse about Hadrian's Wall in the mist and murk.

You'll need:

enough spaghetti for three
half a pot of ricotta cheese (about 125g)
a couple of large, ripe tomatoes
a large onion, finely sliced
two cloves of garlic, finely chopped (I used a bulb of wet garlic, which gave the same effect)
a couple of tablespoons of good olive oil
a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
lots of black pepper
some dried chilli flakes

Tip the spaghetti into a large pan of boiling water, bring to the boil and simmer until it's al dente.

In the meantime, fry the onion and garlic in half the olive oil until they turn translucent. Finely chop the tomatoes (you could deseed them, but I can't be bothered with faffing about).

Drain the spaghetti, and toss with the onions/garlic/tomatoes. Divide into bowlfuls, and dollop some spoonfuls of ricotta onto each portion. Drizzle over some balsamic vinegar, and a little extra olive oil. Season with lots of black pepper, and a sprinkling of chilli flakes.

You and your dad insisted on a scattering of capers on your plates too.

Strawberry smoothie

We have more strawberries on the allotment than we know what to do with, so we've started eating them for breakfast. You like this smoothie a lot, because it's pink...

Makes enough for 1 (adult). You'll need:

1 small banana banana (the riper the better)
a handful of ripe strawberries, hulled
a tablespoon of yoghurt
3 or 4 ice cubes

Stick everything in a blender. Whizz around until the ice has been crushed, and everything has turned a glorious pink. If you're making it for a little one, don't bother with the ice cubes - just dilute with a little cold water.

Broad bean, tuna and spring onion salad

I may have made this even more exciting/even worse (take your pick), by adding the remains of your boiled egg to the mix. Well, I liked it.

Makes enough for 1.

You'll need:

1/2 a tin of tuna
8-10 pods of broad beans (you want a nice double handful of beans)
a couple of spring onions, finely chopped
a splash of balsamic vinegar
a good slurp of olive oil
lots of black pepper

Pod the beans, then cook in boiling water for 5-7 minutes until tender. Don't add salt, or overboil them, or they'll be very tough.

Drain, and decant to a bowl. Add the spring onion, tuna (and any boiled eggs you happen to have lying around), and then dress with a good slurp of olive oil/balsamic vinegar, and lots of black pepper.

Serve with some slices of baguette, spread with butter.

Summer bubble and squeak

We trekked over to Whitburn today to visit Souter Lighthouse, which has a rather splendid pirate ship outside to clamber all over. You had fun taking pictures, and dressing up in the princess/pirate outfits. Here's one of yours:



This 'sort-of' bubble and squeak seemed like the perfect idea for tea, and was remarkably popular. Makes enough for 3.

You'll need:

a small spring cabbage, finely shredded (nicer if you take the leaf ribs out too)
enough new potatoes for 3, scrubbed and chopped into small pieces
3 or 4 rashers of streaky bacon per person, chopped into small pieces

Stick the potatoes in a pan, cover with boiling water, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10-12 minutes until tender, and then drain.

Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a large frying pan (you may have to add a little extra olive oil if it sticks) until it starts to go golden. Add the cabbage, and fry until it's tender. At this point, tip in the drained potatoes, and mix everything together. Fry for a couple of minutes (you may have to add a little extra oil if the potatoes start to stick), and then season with black pepper.

Turn out onto a plate and eat at once.

Spiced carrot and lamb salad

I can't claim credit for this one - it's pinched from the Sainted Jamie, who I saw extolling the virtues of carrots on his Jamie at Home programme.

Sadly, I didn't have the delightful purple/white/yellow varieties of carrots to play with (the allotment doesn't seem to like carrots very much), so my version didn't look quite so pretty as the original salad.

Makes enough for 3 greedy people. You'll need:

400g lamb mince
1 1/2 heaped teaspoons garam masala
3 or 4 large carrots, peeled
1 large teaspoon sesame seeds
lots of fresh mint leaves, shredded
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large spring onion, finely chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon ginger (freshly grated or powder)
lots of olive oil

Tip the lamb mince into a large pan, and fry until the fat comes out. Add the garam masala, and then cook the mince until crispy.

In the meantime, make your carrot salad and dressing. You'll need to peel the carrots to get rid of the outer skin - then just keep peeling, so you get lots of very thin strips. Shove these in a bowl.

To make the dressing, toast the cumin seeds in a dry frying pan for about 30 seconds. Stick in a pestle and mortar, and grind up. Tip into a bowl, add the finely chopped spring onion, lemon zest, lemon juice, ginger and a pinch of salt. Pour in 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, mix well, and have a taste. If it's too lemony, add a little more oil.

Toast the sesame seeds in the dry frying pan too, until they go golden (should take a minute or so).

To assemble, tip the dressing over the carrots, and add the shredded mint (Jamie also suggests coriander as well, which I think would make things even better). Mix well. Decant onto plates, add the lamb mince, and then sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

This goes well with bread (we only had baguette, but naan bread would be better), and aubergine or lime pickle.

Gooseberry jam

I'd forgotten just how hideous picking gooseberries is - our giant bush has very prickly thorns.

This makes about 2.5 normal-sized jars of jam - perfect for putting two in the cupboard, and starting one right away. It's definitely on the sweet side. You'll need:

650g gooseberries (topped and tailed)
900g sugar
300 ml water

Stick the gooseberries and water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently until the skins have gone soft and the gooseberries are reduced to a gloopy pulp (this should take about half an hour). Add the sugar and stir, until it's all dissolved. Bring the jam quickly to the boil, and then boil rapidly for about 10 minutes - you really need to stir it well.

Pop a plate in the fridge or freezer, and drop a tiny amount of the mixture onto it. If it wrinkles when you push your finger across it, you've reached setting point. Beware - don't boil this jam for too long, as gooseberries contain a lot of pectin. I made that mistake, and my jam is (a) very dense and (b) very stiff!

Decant into some sterilised jamjars, and leave to cool.

(You can sterilise jamjars by washing with hot soapy water, and then drying out in the oven on a low heat. Using warm jars also stops the glass from cracking when you pour the boiling hot jam in.).

Grandma's marmalade cakes

Everyone felt a bit rotten this afternoon, so we made these to cheer ourselves up. You can make lots of small cakes (the mixture made enough for 12), or one large one (in which case a 7 in cake tin, or a loaf tin should do the trick).


You'll need:

8oz plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4oz butter, softened
4oz sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons bitter orange marmalade (I used rhubarb and orange, which was all we had left)
grated rind of one orange

First of all, stick the oven on at 180 degrees C (all Grandma's cakes bake at that temperature). Mix the baking powder into the flour, and rub in the butter (or cheat, and do it in the food processor). Stir in the sugar - I used brown, but white caster sugar would probably produce a lighter result.

Beat the eggs and the marmalade together - this looks absolutely disgusting. Add it to the dry mixture - you should end up with a fairly stiff mix. I loosened mine with a tablespoon of milk. Stir in the orange rind, and you're good to go: spoon the mixture into small fairy-cake sized cases (of the paper or silicon variety), or into a big tin (see above).

Bake in the oven until the tops have gone golden brown, and a little bit crunchy. It'll take about 20 minutes if you do the little cakes (and keep an eye on them - you might have to turn them round, and bring them out a little earlier if your oven's fierce). A big cake will take about 1 1/4 hours.

Allow everything to cool in its tin for a 5 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack. They're nicest sprinkled with icing sugar, and would also be good with a blob of creme fraiche and some fruit.

Coconut dahl

This one was shamelessly lifted from Olive magazine, and tweaked slightly. It's delicious with cold chicken, naan bread and salad.

You'll need:

250g red lentils
a tin of coconut milk (around 400ml)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 onion, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon crushed dried chillies
1 teaspoon turmeric
a good splosh of sunflower oil
a teaspoon of black mustard seeds

Chuck the lentils, coconut milk, finely chopped onion, tomatoes, chillies and turmeric into a saucepan. Add about 300ml water to start off with (you may need a little more later on if the lentils aren't quite cooked and are starting to stick).

Mix well, and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for half an hour, until the lentils are tender - everything will have gone a beautiful yellow colour.

Take the sliced onion, and fry in a good splosh of sunflower oil until it's crisp and browned. Add the mustard seeds, and fry until they start to pop. Sling on top of the lentils and serve (some fresh coriander on top would also be nice).

Millie's chocolate and banana pots

You made these all by yourself - you did all the chopping, and the wrapping of everything in foil.

Makes enough for three. You'll need:

3 glass ramekins
a couple of bananas
whatever leftover chocolate you can find (ours was the remnants of the Easter hoard)
a handful of cranberries/raisins
a splash of rum or orange juice

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Peel the bananas, and chop into small(ish) rings. Place on the bottom of the ramekin dishes. Smash up all the chocolate you can find, and divvy up evenly between the pots. Sprinkle over whatever dried fruit you fancy (cranberries or raisins are good).

If the pot is for a grownup, they'll appreciate a splash of rum in the bottom. Children can stick to a slurp of orange juice.

Cover the pots with foil, sling them on an oven tray (makes it much easier to get them in and out of the oven), and put them in the oven while you eat the first part of your tea - they need about 15-20 minutes.

Take the foil off carefully, and then serve with a dollop of creme fraiche, or ice cream.

Spinach, ricotta and wet garlic cannelloni

I'd never come across wet garlic before - the veg box is full of surprises. You love going through it and seeing what we've got for the week (mainly to make sure there's some broccoli).

This makes enough for 4. You'll need:

a small tub of ricotta cheese
half a large bag of spinach, washed
an onion, finely chopped
a bulb of wet garlic, finely chopped (I was a bit overenthusiastic and used two, and we may not have been pleasant to meet for a couple of days...)
about 8 lasagne sheets (fresh or dried)
a tin of tomatoes
2 bay leaves
a splash of balsamic vinegar
a slug of olive oil
black pepper
grated cheese to go on top

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all, get your tomato sauce going. You could mess about with shallots or onions etc, or you could just tip a tin of tomatoes into a frying pan with a good slug of olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a couple of bay leaves, and leave it to simmer down for 15 minutes while you get on with the cannelloni.

Fry the onion and garlic gently in a little olive oil, until it turns translucent. Add the spinach, and cook until it wilts. Take this mixture, and bung it in a food processor - give it a quick whizz until everything's chopped. Don't overdo it - you don't want a liquid.

Dump the ricotta cheese into a large bowl, break up with a spoon, and add the chopped-up onion/garlic/spinach mixture. Season to taste - you might need a little salt and a lot of black pepper.

Traditionally you'd stuff this into cannelloni tubes. But frankly life's too short to be faffing about with teaspoons or icing bags, no matter what Jamie et al tell you. Either use fresh lasagne sheets (a doddle), or dried (you'll need to par-boil them for 3 or 4 minutes until they're soft enough to roll up). Stick a line of filling in the middle of your lasagne sheet, roll it up, and sling it into an ovenproof dish.

Pour the tomato sauce over everything, top with some grated cheese, and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until everything's piping hot and the cheese is bubbling.

Lemon drizzle cake

Just the thing for a hot day, especially if decorated with sugar flowers. I would add a picture, but it's nearly all gone.

You'll need:

4oz butter
6oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
6oz caster sugar
2 eggs
6 tablespoons milk
grated rind of a lemon

for the lemon drizzle icing

juice of a lemon (ie the one you've just used the rind from)
3oz caster sugar

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and line a rectangular baking tin with greaseproof paper.

You could just chuck all the cake ingredients in a food processor, and blitz until it's smooth. I suspect you'll get a fluffier sponge if you blitz the sugar/butter together first, then add the eggs/milk, and then the flour/lemon rind/baking powder.

Spoon the mixture into your tin, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until it's turned golden brown. Take it out of the oven, but leave in the tin.

Mix together the lemon juice and sugar, and pour (drizzle) over the top of the cake. You might want to make a few tiny holes with a skewer first, so it soaks into the cake too.

Leave to cool - then cut into squares. We decorated ours with tiny sugar flowers (v tasteful), and then lots of pigs/rabbits/owls/dogs (v silly).

Courgettes stuffed wth pork, rice and mint

The weather's gone all summery, so we required something Mediterranean-ish for tea. Sadly, it won't last...

Makes enough for two. You'll need:

two large courgettes, halved lengthways, and with the insides scooped out
120g cooked rice (about 50g dry rice)
200g pork mince
a large handful of mint, finely chopped
an onion, finely chopped
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Brown the mince in a frying pan (you may need to add a little olive oil if it's very lean). Add the onion and garlic, and fry until they go translucent. Add the spices, and cook for a couple of minutes. Chuck in the innards of the courgettes, and cook for another couple of minutes until they've mushed down.

In a large bowl, mix this onion/courgette/mince conglomoration with the cooked rice. Add the chopped mint, and season with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

Place the courgettes in a baking dish, and stuff them with the rice/mince mixture. Cover with foil, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the courgettes have cooked through.

We ate this with a ridiculously hot tomato and chilli sauce. It'd also be nice with something a little tamer.

Strawberry, pineapple and marshmallow skewers

You saw these in a freebie supermarket magazine, and were desperate to try them out. You weren't disappointed.

You'll need:

strawberries (enough for 4 or 5 per person)
chunks of fresh pineapple (enough for 4 or 5 per person)
marshmallows (enough for a couple per person, depending on how much of a sugar fiend you are)
dark chocolate, to melt

Thread the fruit and marshmallows onto wooden skewers in a pretty pattern. Place a little chocolate in a ramekin dish, and carefully heat in the microwave, until it melts.

Dip fruit/skewer in chocolate. Eat quickly before anyone else can.

You could also put these on the bbq, if you're a fan of squidgy marshmallows - the pineapple would char nicely. Just don't forget to soak the skewers in water first.