* Easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce {Fat Free}

I'm still in a constant war with my weight, but I've finally begun to win more battles than I lose. You can probably tell by the fact that I've been labeling my recipes with Slimming World Syns rather than calories or points... that I have given the Slimming World WOE (Way Of Eating) a go... and so far so good... kind of - I have friends that have lost double the amount of weight that I have in half the time but I honestly don't care because this time it's staying off... again - kind of.

Most slimming world recipes drop cooking fats/oils and full fat products such as coconut milk, mayonnaise etc in favour of low cal sprays and low fat product alternatives, plus they don't tend to use any type of cream or butter and these have been my main concessions. I gave the fat free natural yogurt, fromage frais and quark a shot for a month or so in quite a few recipes - and hated them so have found alternatives. I'm not combining frog spit with calves ear lobes (not that that's what Slimming World is), so rest easy that all you have to do to unslimmingworld my recipes (currently) - is to swap back in the cooking fat/oil and full fat products... if that's what floats your boat. Personally my boat had stopped floating because it was weighed down with so much arse and I'm not getting any younger despite not telling anyone when my birthday is. Apparently, the fact that they don't know - doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Who knew??!!??

This Easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce (Did you see what I did there? I bolded it... in case you forgot why you were here... I know I did.) came about because I was looking for a recipe to use up some rice and came across quite a few recipes for enchilada rice casseroles... I decided to make my own enchilada sauce to go in one because of the whole "boat that doesn't float" thing (plus I don't like jarred sauces) and it was scrumptious.

It was also easier than bunging on a pair of flip flops and flipflopping down the road to Sainsbury in the pouring rain. Those buggers get slippy when they're wet and I'm not ready to swap them for welly boots just yet. Plus Summer. It is still Summer. Until September 21st. The planet might not know it, because apparently it no longer takes any notice of The Calendar (wish my birthday didn't)... but it is.... still... Summer...

Kind of.

* Smoky Sausage and Beans

I started this post with the pre-requisite "This Smoky Sausage and Beans.... yadayada" and got bored before the first punctuation mark. You can read the recipe then... maybe even cook it... to find out just how yummy it is, but it'll have to sell itself because today my legs feel like jelly  -which is far more important (and apparently affecting my ability to concentrate)...

... My legs feel like jelly because I walked a million miles yesterday in the pursuit of a Curly Wurly Thick Shake from The Terrace Cafe/Bar on Plymouth Hoe... and a packet of Cornish Clotted Cream Fudge from the Barbican.

After consuming both (and a panini - go me) within a one hour time slot I confess to feeling a little bit sick and a lot guilty. I hate feeling guilty about being indulgent - so I came home, knackered myself on the exercise bike then dragged my Boldest and her Bairn out for a bimble around the neighbourhood... then this morning I got on the exercise bike again.

In a minute I'm off out with Boldest, her Bairn and my Little Man for a stroll along the Cornish Coast from Lantic Bay to Polruan... where no doubt another panini awaits. I'm not sure I'll be able to stand upright by the end of the day.

If there's a fudge shop in Polruan I'm selling the bike when I get home.

* Hot Smoked Salmon Kedgeree Stir Fry

I LOVE Hot Smoked Salmon. I have a hard time not eating it straight out of the fridge, with only my fingers for garnish. You can't disguise the fact that you've just raided the fridge and helped yourself to a rather large flake of the stuff, because it's quite strong smelling in it's smokiness. So I leave the fridge foraging for when no one is home and the windows are wide open... and for when I've locked the cat in the garage. If I don't lock the cat in the garage he comes charging in through the cat flap at the first whiff - meowing "CHRISTMAS" at top volume.

This Hot Smoked Salmon Kedgeree Stir Fry was born of a want for kedgeree and pure unadulterated laziness. I can't be bothered to cook up a storm most mornings and I want my first meal of the day to take as little time as possible to prepare so that I can stuff my face in a leisurely fashion and enjoy a pint of coffee whilst I wake up... plus - I don't like egg white. Kedgeree usually involves egg of some description. Boiled, poached or fried depending on the person cooking it. I honestly wish I could stand the texture of egg white because I would love to try Eggs Benedict or Huevos Rancheros but after 44 years it just ain't gonna happen. So I tend to stir a whole beaten egg into my kedgeree as a substitute and it works better with the stir fry method than any other...

... and there's that whole need for speed thing...

* Sweet Lamb and Chickpea Casserole

I'm just going to leave this here... and pretend that I have been updating this blog on a regular basis over the past three years, that my food photography skills have vastly improved (hahahahahaaaa), that I totally planned this and didn't actually just take a random photo of my cooking and think "Dammit I'm never going to remember this recipe unless I write it down... where can I put it so that I don't lose it?"

Perhaps if I slope quietly off into the ether that is my life, I'll get away with it... Not that I'm expecting some sort of hidden fan base to suddenly arrive and start crying with joy - though maaan that would feed the ego somewhat (it has shrunk in recent years to size of a small barge - it no longer has it's own seat at the table and even gave up the spare bed at some point when I wasn't looking).

This Sweet Lamb and Chickpea Casserole is the most recent recipe I have converted to as low fat as I can handle in my never ending endeavour to drop a dress size. I've probably lost the same 10lbs a million times over in the past three years. I blame wine.. and the husband, of course.

Should you stumble back across my path after all this time and decide to give this recipe a shot - I hope you enjoy it. Please excuse my less than professional photo - my camera got destroyed by sand in the lens a few years back whilst on holiday in Crete and I never bothered to replace it. I'm still working out how to get the best out of my S7's built in camera...

... and the rest of my life ;-)

* Coconut Prawn Curry {Hairy Dieters}

Although I've always been on the voluptuous side of voluptuous, I have never really had a problem with my weight until I hit my fortieth birthday a couple of years back. All of a sudden it mattered. Oddly (or not) I have always struggled with my age... always... right back as far as the age of twenty four (many, many moons ago *sob*) when Neil bought me a bunch of flowers the day before my twenty fifth birthday because "You seem a bit bummed out about your birthday tomorrow".

Sweet.

He hasn't bought me flowers since. His excuses vary from "It's been so long, you'd wonder what I'd done wrong if I did"... to "The only flowers you'll be getting from me will be on your funeral wreath".

Wuuuuv. Twuu wuuuuv. 

I digress (what's new?)... in December last year I started up with Weight Watchers Online for about the fourth or fifth time and it lasted until Christmas Eve (ish), which is what I'd more or less expected - because I have the attention span of a rabid gnat when it comes to following any sort of plan... plus Christmas. Really. If you expected any different you seriously haven't been paying attention. I am offended. So... any weight that I lost before the Christmas period I gained back with big brass knobs on and a side of Christmas Pudding.

I've considered trying 5:2 again, Rosemary Conley, calorie counting... stapling my face shut. I've bought both of the Hairy Dieters Cook Books in a bid to inspire myself into Thindom and as yet, have only cooked the one recipe from them. This one. Coconut Prawn Curry. It's pretty scrumptious. So I thought I'd share it.

I have actually lost a couple of pounds this week, simply by walking the dog a bit further and a bit more often... I got up this morning to discover she'd placed a "Do Not Disturb" sign beside her bed and she's hidden her leash.

I'm tempted to shout "Walkies" just to see if she bites me.

* Slow Cooker Turkey and Chorizo Chilli

Over the Christmas holidays I went to my oldest BFF - Kerry's house, for dinner. It was just the two us (tres romantic) and we stuffed ourselves stoopid on her slow cooker beef chilli, cheesy nachos, all the trimmings and cheesecake. Kerry knows how to entertain when it comes to food. If she'd come to me she'd have had a bowl of chilli and rice placed in front of her, with a fork... and possibly some cheese. I may even have grated it in advance.

Her chilli was *to die for*, and though she has promised me the recipe - a bit like the cheesecake recipe of yore - she has yet to come up with the goodies (this is a not-so-subtle hint). The only thing she 'fessed up to was the use of chorizo sausage and a can of mixed beans.

After waiting very patiently - possibly a day, maybe two - for the recipe... I decided to create my own Slow Cooker Turkey and Chorizo Chilli recipe, that was inspired by Kerry's flavours but different enough that when I'm old and gray and wrinkly and she finally gives me the recipe for hers (laying it on super thick here)... that I can add it to Abbe's Cooking Antics. 

I've used chickpeas in this recipe, in place of beans and turkey instead of beef - partly because it felt right and partly because I could. It really is one of my best slow cooker recipes yet, right up there with the Moroccan Lamb Tagine and the Mexican Meatballs.

But you really should judge for yourselves... which is code for "Cook it, you'll love me".

You really will.

* Slow Cooker Chicken with Chorizo

I'm not a fan of meat on the bone, any meat... but most especially chicken. I want to eat my food, not play with it, struggle with it or get covered in it - so it's incredibly rare that I buy a whole chicken or jointed chicken. I mostly buy chicken breasts, and although they are convenient - they aren't where the flavour is. The flavour is all in the meat that's wrapped around the bones.

If I buy chicken thighs (I never buy drum sticks), I de-bone them before I use them. Which can be a royal pain in the backside.... so... my slow cooker has been amazing to use when it comes to chicken thigh recipes. When cooked, the meat just melts off the bone - no muss, no fuss - and I end up with a delicious dinner, that was easy to throw together, easy to throw on a plate... and easy to throw down my throat.

This Slow Cooker Chicken with Chorizo is one such recipe that I've just adapted (yet again) from The Slow Cook Book by Heather Whinney.  I can honestly say I have not yet had all of the ingredients to make any of her recipes, off the bat. But they are so easily alterable that the book has to be amongst my top ten cook book purchases for this year... and there have been a few.

This freezes beautifully, especially if you pull the meat from the bone before hand, and goes with everything from Celeriac and Potato Mash to Chicken Flavoured Rice... or even couscous. I can't be bothered to cook tonight, so we're having it again (from the freezer) with Jacket Potatoes and some cheesy garlic bread.

I'm incredibly good at being lazy.

* Celeriac and Potato Mash

This celeriac and potato mash came about because I had rather a large celeriac to use up, that I bought on a whim and I didn't fancy any more soup (I'm souped out. Can you believe it?!?), which is usually the obvious choice for me - when it comes to using up veg - so I thought I'd liven up some mashed potato with it.

I will definitely be doing it again. The celeriac seemed to lighten up the texture of the mash and the flavour too, giving it that almost peppery taste of celery, but somewhat milder.

I wasn't sure if it would go down like a sack of lead cr@p with Neil, because he's a bit of a purist when it comes to his mashed potatoes. He'll eat it with oodles of cheese, but otherwise he tends to regard any alteration to his beloved mash with a bone deep suspicion.

It's incredibly difficult to sit across the table from someone who is eyeing up their mashed potato as if it's going to pull a gun on them.... especially whilst fighting the urge to shout "BANG".

When I presented him with his dinner, he looked at the mash that was swirled through with parsley and said "That doesn't look right... what have you done?" This is usually where I get defensive and start on at him about a variety of past grievances that have absolutely nothing to do with the mashed potato and what I've supposedly done with it. However... all I said was "Eat your dinner." I'd had wine. He then regarded me with suspicion and took a forkful of the mash.... and then another.

When his plate was clear I got the "Lovely darlin'." that I'd been waiting for.

He didn't ask again, what I'd done.. and I didn't tell him.

* Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup {Meatless Mondays} + "Eggs" Winner

I have another new favourite soup, and it's this one. This Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup is getting it's own bank account, it's so good.

Really. Even Neil enjoyed it, and he doesn't like broccoli.

I probably wouldn't have offered him a bowl of it, if he hadn't asked what smelled so good when it was bubbling away on the stove. When I told him what it was, he said he wouldn't mind trying some.

So when it was cooked, I pushed the spoon into his face with a whole "Choo-choo here comes the food train." pantomime, to which he responded with "Please don't ever do that again." and "I'll eat that." A huuuuuuge compliment from my man of few words.

Neither of us are fans of soups that use flour as a thickener (though I do make them), so I used a carrot to thicken this soup, and to add a slightly golden colour - which makes this a gluten free soup. Also, this recipe uses the whole broccoli - both florets and stems.

I'm now trying to think of more ways to get him to eat broccoli because I love it, and it's far easier to cook one meal for both of us than two separate ones. Though this doesn't happen too often because although he's a man of simple tastes - Neil will try virtually anything (that isn't a flapjack), that I put in front of him.

It's that or starve.

Now it's time to announce the winner of the Michel Roux "Eggs" Cook Book Give Away from last Monday.... drum roll please...

and... the winner iiiiiiissssss.....

Katrina Pearce (comment number 2) - congratulation Katrina, your book is on it's way!

Thanks to everyone who entered xx

* Slow Cooker Beef and Bean Hotpot

On Sunday we decided to steal a march on the Christmas shoppers and not go Christmas shopping at all. Read it again. It makes complete sense.

Instead, we decided to see if we could hunt down the perfect flooring for our bedroom - which we are in the midst of decorating - from a wood floor specialists in town.

I didn't want to have to muck about sorting a dinner out when we got home, so for the very first time I loaded up the slow cooker and... left the house...

... I never, ever, do this. Not with anything. Not the dishwasher, not the washing machine, the dryer...  nothing. Stuff happens when I'm not in the house. Things flood, break, block up, fall over, fall off, seize up, singe... leaving the slow cooker on was a real risk. REAL. RISK. I walked super fast through town to get to the shop, ran around the shop dismissing all but one type of flooring, asked for a sample and was handed a whole plank of wood... a whole plank of wood... who does that?!?... then literally ran through the high street home, leaving the plank of wood in a passing bin because it was just too random, even for me.

When I fell in the back door a couple of hours after I'd left.. with Neil following at a leisurely "What is wrong with you, woman?" pace behind me... my Slow Cooker Beef and Bean Hotpot was very gently bubbling away, minding it's own business. The dog was guarding the floor space directly in front of the kitchen counter that it was sitting on - just in case it happened to explode and leave the kitchen covered in minced beef and vegetables - ready to perform clean up duty... and the cat was sitting on the shed roof wondering where we'd been and what was all the fuss about?

Our flooring hunt might have been a dead bust, but dinner certainly wasn't.

The poor dog was disappointed, yet again.

This recipe is linked up on Foodie Friday at Simple Living and Eating, so please pop over and see what other wonderful recipes you can find!

* Lamb Stew with Rosemary Dumplings

It's taken me about a year to get round to cooking this Lamb Stew with Rosemary Dumplings recipe for Neil. He spotted something similar on "Lorraine" one morning, when he didn't have to leave for work until a bit later than normal and was watching what the chef of the weeks was cooking - and he said "I'd eat that".

He's been waiting expectantly ever since.

Or so I thought.

I was finally feeling a bit better yesterday (I've had a bad cold - there was self pity and everything) and had remembered to get the lamb out of the freezer but forgotten what for, when I had a light bulb moment and remembered the stew recipe from a year ago. Sort of.

So. I slaved over a hot stove. SLAVED I tell you. Stopping only to blow my nose, cough, sneeze (and occasionally fart) out of the back door in a bid to not spread my happy.

At dinner time I did a whole "Ta-Daaaaaahhh" thing. Big reveal. Aren't you a lucky blokey Neil. Aren't I super duper wifey even though I'm very, very poorly. Look what I made you.

"What is it?"

"Lamb Stew with Rosemary Dumplings - it's a bit similar to that recipe you saw on Lorraine, about a year ago."

"What recipe?"

Hummpfff... "The one where you said "I'd eat that" ".

"I say that to everything."

Deep breaths. Don't kill him.

"Right... Eat your dinner. When you're done you can say "Thank you darling, that was delicious. How thoughtful that you cooked such a lovely meal for me when you were feeling like a pile of poo." !"

He grinned at me, cleared his plate and said "Lovely darlin' ".

That's his version of a cartwheel.

* Easy Cheesy Bubble and Squeak

I need to make more food with Easy Cheesy in the title. I like that title. I like anything even vaguely childish at the moment because I've got a rotten cold, which seems to go hand in hand with a more juvenile sense of humour.... my dreams are pretty freaky too - in a fun way!!! You are so rude!

I dreamt I had magic, the other night (stop groaning, you knew this is where I was heading), and that I was the most powerful magician/sorcerer in the entire world but I hadn't been challenged and therefore didn't know how powerful I was - then the dream jumped a little bit to me saving a load of people by letting them in my front door (apparently this dream could not afford much in the way of special effects)... then this *being* appeared in the sky - now don't laugh - it was Adam Ant. Moving swiftly on... I yelled out of my half open front door (that I was hiding behind - magicians get scared too apparently) at the Adam Ant cloud in the sky..."You don't want to take me on..." then imbued the last two words with a huge majestic power reminiscent of Charlton Heston in various movies "DOOOO YOOOOU?"....

Thing is.... I BOOMED the last two words out loud. In my sleep. As the Adam Ant cloud dissipated into vapour  - I heard a voice beside me snigger and say "Well I suppose this is going to be as interesting as "I'm a giraffe"...".

*sigh*

I'd woken Neil up.

12 hours later when he walked in the back door after work...

... he was still sniggering.

NOTE: There is no one real recipe for bubble and squeak - it's traditionally made up of left over vegetables from a Sunday Roast, all mashed together and fried in a pan on the stove in butter. Sometimes as a mash up, sometimes as a large cake and sometimes as patties. I find a general rule of thumb to follow is whatever weight of potatoes you use, use half that weight of vegetables (or thereabouts) - also, if you do happen to have creamed the mash together with butter and/or milk - you're best bet is to make a mash up and fry it as is, as the wetter the bubble and squeak mix, the less likely that it will be able to hold its shape and make decent patties (or cakes). Dry frying (no fat) also helps the patties to keep their shape and not take on extra moisture and become sloppy (but that might be just me!).

* Sweet Potato and Chana Dahl Soup {Meatless Mondays}

I know... you've all been waiting with bated breath for yet another chunky soup recipe. Haven't you.

I'm going to take your deathly silence as assent and plod on with the post.

This Sweet Potato and Chana Dahl Soup Recipe is a copycat of a Baxter's Soup by a similar name - except mine is a damn sight cheaper and has less calories... which wasn't the ultimate point but you can't have too much *happy* when it comes to food.

The point was... actually I don't know what the point was. I forget.

Anyway.... I've ended up with an exceptionally scrumptious and healthy soup that'll serve as a dinner if you're not craving steak and chips (fries), and works perfectly as a filling and healthy meal if you're doing the 5:2 diet... which I am. Sometimes successfully... other times... notsomuch. It seems to depend on how much cake there is in the house at any one time. 

If there isn't cake, it's really not a good idea to make cake, especially on a day when you are meant to be fasting because all sorts of things can (and do) happen... like finding yourself licking the butter cream off of the whisks or suddenly discovering your tongue in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Neither are good situations to suddenly come to your senses in. 

It's also very difficult to work out the exact amount of calories in 20 licks of coffee butter cream and 5 tongues of coffee cake batter.

Though I promise I did try.

Not.

* Spicy Cashew and Sultana Rice {Meatless Mondays}

We're celebrating Neils 45th birthday tonight, if we can manage to get to mum's in Neil's car.

Typically, both cars have gone up the spout at the same time... mine's in the garage for an MOT that's going to cost an arm and a leg... and then Neil phoned this morning to say that his car kept cutting out on him on the the way to work. 

It never rains but it pours.

Hopefully a huge "curry night" will take the edge off for all of us, and in a few hours we'll be in a curry coma.

There's a bottle of wine, beers and half the makings of dinner at mum's already - and I've cooked the rest today. We're having this lovely Spicy Cashew and Sultana Rice with Chicken Tikka Masala, onion bhajis, vegetable samosas and naan breads. I'm not skilled enough to make the tricky bits (yet - working on it), but the rice and curry are family favourites that I can turn out with my eyes closed. 

Sometimes. 

Today I nearly burnt the curry because I was distracted by something online. 

It's really not a good idea to google Hugh Jackman images when you're supposed to be cooking dinner.

* Chicken Mozzarella with Tomatoes

OhMyGod this recipe was LUSH! I didn't know what to call it.... Chicken Mozzarella With Tomatoes... Smothered Mediterranean Chicken... Pizza Pepper Chicken Bake. Seriously, food naming is almost more complicated than baby naming. At least it is for me.

All the while I was pregnant, my baby was going to be called Thomas (even if it was a girl)... but when they plonked him in my arms I took one look at his strawberry blonde hair and ginger side burns and realised he was actually called Joshua. See... simples.

Not so simple when naming a recipe... When I look at food - the possibilities are endless. You want to tell everyone what's in it without giving them a list of ingredients. Which is really hard... especially when you're like me and stick bell peppers into virtually everything. It all starts to sound a bit "samey" after a while... so... I stuck three different titles into a hat... and... well... lets just say I put the first two I pulled out, back in...

This was another of those "hate food waste" recipes, that involved using up a couple of fresh chicken breasts, and some mozzarella - I very nearly made a pasta bake (stop groaning) - but I'm getting a bit bored with those (stop clapping), and whilst I'm doing the 5:2 diet I feel as though everything that I can eat on a normal day has to be worth eating.

I rather desperately wanted carrot pancakes for breakfast this morning. I have never made nor eaten a carrot pancake in my life. I have no idea if they are awful, if they are gawjus or if they even work as a recipe. I have not yet delved into google to find out... but you know I'm gonna... and you know I'm gonna share when I do...

... Oooooohhhhh I feel a Meatless Monday post coming on...

... unless they're sh*t.

* Beef and Bell Pepper Goulash

Beef Goulash is the ideal food for the weather that we're having at the moment. It's not quite as heavy as a stew, but it's hearty, sweetly spicy and warming with a bowl of rice to soak up the juices.

This isn't a quick recipe, but more a slow burner - though still very easy to throw together and walk away from while it cooks.

After the lovely summer that we've had - it's almost inevitable that my welly boots now need their own welly boots. It isn't just raining - it's pouring.

The dog is speed pee-ing whenever she has to "go tinkles", to get it over and done with as quickly as possible and I wouldn't be surprised to walk into the kitchen at some point and find her with just her backside hanging out of the dog flap while she does her business. She never used to mind the rain, but as she's grown older she doesn't tolerate any level of discomfort well.

I sympathise completely.

I really don't like the discomfort of being hungry - which would probably explain the size of my bum. This 5:2 diet I'm on is making even cat food smell appetising when I catch a whiff of it as I trundle past the cats bowl on my way to the tap for a filling glass of water.

And toothpaste.

Toothpaste smells like gourmet fare.

I really need to go lick something.

* Moroccan Style Chicken Stew

This Moroccan Style Chicken Stew was one of those "bung it all in and hope it works" recipes... that worked. Well of course it did - I don't feed you lot any old horse manure, do I?

The stuff that doesn't work, gets spoken about in an aside. I don't give it a recipe title, a picture and a page of blurb - I give it to the dog.

This time, I had half a jar of Harissa Paste that needed using up (something always needs using up), or this might have ended up as something completely different - without the chickpeas and the sultanas. I had thought that I'd got a packet of dried-ready-to-eat-apricots sitting in the back of the cupboard that I could make use of instead of the sultanas.... and I sort of did... but I'm fairly sure that apricots are supposed to be a pale orange in colour - not blue and furry and beginning to evolve - so I ditched that idea, along with the apricots.

It was lovely anyway, with a huge bowl of unfussy couscous and a generous glass (or two) of wine.

Neil enjoyed it, because it had chicken in it. He's really starting to notice when a meal is vegetarian just recently. I had some Butternut and Bell Pepper Curry left over in the freezer, and he guilted me out so much about the lack of meat that I grilled a chicken breast and chucked it into his when I used it up.

I almost regretted it when he gave me an "Atta girl!" upon spying it in his curry. I told him if he slapped my backside and called me a wench he'd be wearing his dinner. Not eating it.

He got the hint.

Dinner was a quiet affair that night.

* Blackberry Ice Cream

I have been a-foraging. I have cuts, bruises, scabs, grazes and thorns in my feet (because I was in a hippy happy mood and wanted to wear my sandals in the sunshine) and up my arms. Thankfully my face has remained un-harmed by my endeavours into "Death by Blackberry Bush".

The dog found it all vastly amusing and sat huff-huffing behind me as I balanced on my tippy-toes, reaching for just-one-more-black-berry... and went arse over tit into the bushes. MY GOD they have the tiniest little thorns on them that weave their way under your skin like splinters. I really wanted my mummy. At least twice.

She used to take us (my baby bruvver and I) blackberrying on the way home from school, every September. We'd get home with purple fingers and faces, and decide that we were going to come and live in the brambles and feast on the berries for ever and ever and ever... 

... until one of us would say "I bet you ate a maggot".

Aren't kids lovely... I used to tell my brother that we found him in a dustbin.

Where were we? Blackberry Ice Cream.... Oooooh.... right... I inherited my dad's decrepit Ice Cream maker and have only recently pulled it out of the attic and cleaned it up so's I can play. I have never, ever made ice cream before. Definitely. Not at college. Not in my yoof. Not in my house. Not in my life.

I have now made blackberry ice cream.

I will be making it again.

I will not be telling anyone next time.

I will not be sharing it.

You won't want to, either.

* Creamy Tomato Soup

Up until a couple of years ago, we had a medium sized greenhouse in the back garden that was chock full of tomatoes every September... but only above waist height.

This is because the dog likes tomatoes, and if we didn't get to them quickly enough, she'd wander in whenever she felt like a snack and chew the bottoms off of all of the tomatoes she could reach. As she got older, she'd just suck them as she walked by - so we never took a chance on picking anything that was at Sammy's head height.

We got rid of the greenhouse two Summers ago, because neither of us had the time to pay it the attention it needed - and although life is certainly easier without having to disinfect it annually, replace broken panes and lovingly tend the vegetables on a daily basis... I miss it.

I haven't made a tomato soup with fresh tomatoes in two years, and there's nothing quite like it. So when I "came by" (in a totally legal fashion without actually purchasing them)... a kilo of fresh tomatoes - I knew exactly what I was going to do with them.

Make a pie... kiiiiidding!!!

My mum makes a lovely Mediterranean style tomato soup with peppers and whatnot in it, but this creamy version has always been my own "go to" recipe because it uses up my bendy carrots and reminds me of Heinz tomato soup... but without the indigestion.

Years ago, when only a little girl (many, many, MANY moons ago) - my darling mum introduced me to mashed potatoes with a tin of tomato soup poured over the top... because it's what she used to have when she was a little girl.

My mum is the reason that my bath towels don't meet in the front.

* Chicken Chilli

Because I knew I was going to be out all day today, I cooked dinner in advance - I'm not normally this organised, but I have my moments... and they never last. I made a chicken chilli, because I didn't know what we'd be eating today and knew we could have it with or without rice/bread etc, depending on how hungry we were both were.

You wanna know where I've been? You do?!? ... I have spent an entire day sitting in my cousin's garden in Newquay - in the sunshine - with my weird and wonderful family. They are mostly women with a few men thrown in to prevent any fits of uncontrollable girliness... though occasionally it slips through in the form of a blinged up Dorkie.

We've eaten barbecued hot dogs and chips... and trifle. I loooooove trifle. Never quite liked the idea of it as a kid and apparently kicked up merry hell whenever my mum used to put it on the table... then always asked for a second helping. I don't make trifle at home because I love it with a layer of custard, and Neil doesn't eat custard. Neil doesn't like being in the same room as custard. His face distorts into an "I don't like custard" grimace and his whole body physically shudders.

When he does this, I have a hard time not throwing stuff at him. He has never been able to say a polite "No thankyou" if he doesn't like something. He pulls out the whole "I don't like custard" facial/body move at every opportunity - even when faced with something like strawberry ice cream...

Him - "What's for dessert?"

Me (from the kitchen) - "Sod all."

Him - "What. Nufink?" He's common.

Me (opening up freezer to have a gander - I'm common too) - "Errr... there's some strawberry ice cream if you want it....?"

Him - lip curls up, shoulders suddenly appear by ears as if to protect them from the infiltration of strawberry ice cream... aaaannnddd.... "I don't like strawberry ice cream" aaaaand whole body shudders... shoulders relax... lip moves back into normal place.

Me (still in kitchen) - "Did you just pull an "I don't like custard" face? With the body shudder? DID YOU?!?"

Him - "Nnnnnno."

Liar.

Anyway, we had a fab day with fab company and fab food and then we came home and ate this.

It was lush.