COURGETTE & MARIGOLD

Courgette, avocado & marigold salad (serves 1)

1 courgette, thinly sliced length ways

½ avocado

½ lemon juice

Pistachio nuts

Marigold petals

Black pepper

A well-chosen wallpaper can bring your room bang up to date and cover a multitude of sins.

A sofa upholstered in the same print as the wallpaper creates a contemporary look that is almost like an optical illusion. Pick a motif from the patterned wallpaper and try and repeat it elsewhere in the room. Select an accent colour from the design and use it for scatter cushions or other small items.

Wise words from uktv

PISTACHIO & BASIL

Pistachio & basil meringues

3 egg whites

½ tsp cornflour

175g caster sugar

2 tsp basil, finely chopped

75g pistachios, chopped

Preheat the oven to 190°C, line a baking tray with baking paper

Whisk the egg whites till they form peaks and gradually whisk in the sugar and cornflour until stiff

Fold in the basil and most of the pistachios

Dollop onto a tray and sprinkle with remaining nuts

Turn the oven down to 140°C as soon as you put them in and bake for 1 hour.

Turn the heat off and leave in the oven with the door shut for another hour to dry out

 I couldn’t decide which evening course to enrol on, I got in a right old fluster and signed up for millinery.  I do like hats, I suppose.    

SAFFRON & COURGETTE

Saffron & courgette flower barley risotto (Serves 2)

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

½ cup pearl barley

1 glass of vermouth

400ml vegetable/chicken stock

Pinch of saffron

4-6 courgette flowers

2 courgettes

Parmesan

Black pepper

Sweat the onion and garlic until soft then add the barley for 1 minute

Add the vermouth, a third of the stock and saffron, boil then simmer

Gradually add rest of stock stirring occasionally

Add the courgette flowers and courgettes 5 minutes towards the end of cooking

Stir in the parmesan

Serve with extra parmesan and season with black pepper

The salesman ended up coming over for dinner.  He was talkative, Laura was cheerful and gave him the rest of the cake to take home.  

EGG & LIME

Quail’s eggs with Mexican salt

Rock salt

1 lime, zest and juice

1tsp smoked paprika

1tsp chilli flakes

1tsp ground cumin

1tsp dried oregano

Cook the spices in oil for I min.

Add the lime juice

Mix with salt when cool

It was Jimmie Spheeris, the original tap dancing kid that gave him the notion. 

RED CABBAGE & DATE

Red cabbage, parsnip, orange and date salad

Adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe for the Guardian

Guardian recipe

The new Dali building combines the rational with the fantastical: a simple rectangle with 18-inch thick hurricane-proof walls out of which erupts a large free-form geodesic glass bubble known as the "enigma." The "enigma," which is made up of 1062 triangular pieces of glass, stands 75 feet at its tallest point, a twenty-first century homage to the dome that adorns Dali's museum in Spain.

The Dali museum, Florida

HONEY & VINEGAR

Infuse cider vinegar with honeycomb & apricot kernels

Leave in a cool dark place for 1 month.

Use a staple gun or double sided sticky tape.  After all, rules are made to be broken.

SY Love for textiles

CREAM & VINEGAR

Vanilla ice cream with sweet strawberry & black pepper vinegar

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time.

I'd relax, I would limber up.

I would be sillier than I have been this trip.

I would take fewer things seriously.  I would take more chances.

I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.

I would eat more ice cream and less beans.

I would perhaps have more actual troubles,

but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.

Oh, I've had my moments,

And if I had it to do over again,

I'd have more of them.

In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.

Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.

If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. 

I would go to more dances.  I would ride more merry-go-rounds. 

I would pick more daisies.

Nadine Stair, 85 years old.

RHUBARB & FENNEL

Shaved salad with toasted seeds (Adapted from Alice hart; Vegetarian)

2tbsp cider vinegar

70ml extra virgin olive oil

1tsp fennel seeds

Handful chopped fennel herb / dill

2 beetroot with leaves, thinly sliced

2 small fennel bulbs, shredded

½ forced rhubarb stalk, matchsticks

1 red apple, quartered, cored, thinly sliced

3tbsp sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds, toasted

Combine the ingredients for the dressing

Toss all together and top with seeds

The Purple Hairstreak butterfly is one of summer’s true delights, flittering amid the oak populated countryside throughout southern Britain.  It is particularly spirited in bright sunshine and in the right woodland during the early hours of the evening.

TOMATO & TURMERIC

Turmeric roasted cherry tomatoes

Yellow, orange, red cherry tomatoes, halved

Sugar

Smoked sea salt

Olive oil

Turmeric

Sprinkle tomatoes with the rest of ingredients & roast 180°C for 50 minutes

 “George got out his banjo after supper, & wanted to play it, but Harris objected: he said he had got a headache, & did not feel strong enough to stand it.  George thought the music might do him good – said music often soothed nerves and took away a headache; & he twanged two or three notes, just to show Harris what it was like.  Harris said he would rather have a headache”

Jerome K Jerome; Three men in a boat

APPLE & TOMATO

Apple & green tomato pie (Recipe from Skye Gyngell; How I cook)

Auntie, Auntie Gladys

Every Sunday wears a hat

always takes her tea at four

Likes to talk about her potted plants

and the second world war

(Zoe Lewis)

Baked green tomatoes and apple on vanilla ice cream