A small pot of fat-free French dressing completes the box. I will pack some fruit and a bottle of water to fill out my lunch.

put the soy sauce, half the fish sauce, honey and a pinch of salt in a dish and stir to combine. Add the steak and marinade for 5 minutes.
Place the rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with hot water and soak.
When soft, drain and refresh under cold running water.
Place the stock, 500ml water, ginger slices, lime juice, remaining fih sauce, cinnamon stick sugar and the star anise in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Heat a large frying pan over a medium high heat and sear the steaks for two minutes on each side.
Remove from pan and allow to rest.
Put the noodles and bok choi in four bowls.
Top with sliced steak, pour in the hot soup and top with sliced chili and some julienned ginger.

Pictures from my weekend. Can you tell I was a teeny weeny bit obsessed by the grape vine????

With kind permission from Jenn at NEB, I’m sharing my version of this amazing recipe with you!

This dish will serve 4 to 6 people as a side dish (or if your family are hungry hippos like mine, it will probably serve 3 to 4 on its own)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of macaroni  (Nothing fancy, I used Sainsburys Own Brand)

250g mature cheddar cheese

1 Stick of butter, this measures out as a quarter pound in UK measurements ( For me this made the recipe a little too oily when cooked so I would recommend that you cut the butter back to approx half of this, however feel free to stay with the original recipe)

three quarters a cup of milk ( I used semi skimmed cos that’s what I have in my fridge)

8 Rashers of streaky bacon ( Sounds a lot, but bear in mind this dish will feed 4 people, so that’s 2 rashers per person)

METHOD

Take a glass baking dish and grease thoroughly ( I used the wrapper from the butter)

Your dish needs to be large enough to hold 2 layers of pasta and cheese (My dish is a square pyrex measuring 25 cms x 25 cms)

Turn on oven to 180 degrees celcius or 350 degress farenheit or gas mark 4 if you are so inclined

To a pot of boiling water add a pinch or two of salt and throw in the macaroni

While the macaroni is cooking and the oven is heating, snip up the rashers of bacon into a frying pan and cook until cripsy. Transfer to a plate with kitchen roll to drain off excess fat.

Grate the whole block of cheese (yeah you heard me, the whole block!)

Drain the macaroni really well

Place a layer of macaroni into the bottom of the baking dish, cover the botom of the dish well, you don’t want a skimpy bottom layer!

Sprinkle over half the bacon

Place about half the butter in dots over the pasta and bacon layer

Cover the bacon and pasta with cheese ( this will use half the cheese)

Repeat with remaining macaroni, bacon and butter

Pour the  milk over the dish

Add the last layer of cheese

The milk will cook down into the milk and butter to create a sauce for the macaroni noodles

Place the dish into the preheated oven for approx 30 minutes or until all the layers are bubbling nicely

Just before bringing out ouf the oven, pop the grill on so you can give the top of the mac and cheese some extra crispy love. 3 or 4 minutes under the grill should do the trick.

Now the dish is only cooked and will be like molten lava, so obviously you need to let everything settle before you can eat it. This will also help the flavours develop.

So when the dish has rested, go ahead and scoop out a portion for yourself.

Take a forkful and tell me that isn’t the best mac and cheese ever!

And so jam season begins. My blackcurrant bush yielded 5lbs of berries. We have picked these and made blackcurrant jelly!

I didn’t follow an exact recipe, I simply washed and stewed the fruit in 500mls of water and then passed the pulp through a jelly bag. To the syrup I added one kilo bag of sugar and brought to a rolling boil. Stir continuously to prevent sticking.
Pour the jelly into hot sterilised jars when it reaches setting point.

Label jars when cold.

My currant crop had quite a few green berries in, this helps add pectin to set the jelly. If needed you can add pectin which you will find in most high street supermarkets under the brand name “certo”

Can’t wait to try this on some fresh crusty bread!

Serves 4 (or 2 very hungry people!)

4 chicken breasts

Thai Green Curry Paste ( I used Sainsburys own brand)

Fresh coriander

3 limes squeezed

2 sticks of lemon grass chopped in half

sugar – 1 tablespoon

4 red or green chillies chopped

garlic 2 cloves grated

ginger – grated (as much as you’d like)

2 tins coconut milk

2 onions choipped Thai fish sauce

Ground coriander 1 teaspoon

Ground Cumin 1 teaspoon

Chop chicken into bite size pieces and saute until almost cooked

add chopped onions

Add thai green curry paste, ginger, garlic, chilli and fish sauce

Add cumin and coriander

Add coconut milk, sugar and lemongrass

Add lime juice

Simmer gently until thick.

Cook egg noodles or rice to your liking and serve with curry and plenty of chopped fresh coriander

Banana and Walnut Loaf

 4 oz margarine

6 oz light brown sugar

2 ripe bananas

2 eggs

8 oz self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 oz chopped walnuts

2 tablespoons milk (if needed)

Cream the margarine and sugar.

Mix in mashed bananas

Break eggs into the mix and beat well

Fold in sifted flour and baking powder

Stir in chopped nuts

Pour into a lined 2lb loaf tin

Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 1 hr (Fan Oven) or until a skewer comes out clean. You may need to adjust the cooking temperature and time to suit your oven.

Banana and Walnut Loaf 4 oz margarine 6 oz light brown sugar 2 ripe bananas 2 eggs 8 oz self raising flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 oz chopped walnuts 2 tablespoons milk (if needed) Cream the margarine and sugar. Mix in mashed bananas Break eggs into the mix and beat well Fold in sifted flour and baking powder Stir in chopped nuts Pour into a lined 2lb loaf tin Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 1 hr (Fan Oven) or until a skewer comes out clean. You may need to adjust the cooking temperature and time to suit your oven.

Ingredients

275g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

115 grammes caster sugar

1 egg

250 ml buttermilk

4 tablespoons olive oil

150 grammes raspberries (I use frozen raspberries, easier to get hold of and cheaper too!)

Chocolate chunks (white or milk ) as many as you’d like to add!

Mix all the dry ingredients together in  a bowl.Include the raspberries and chocolate in this bowl. Set aside.

In a bowl or measuring jug, combine all the wet ingredients and mix throughly.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients.

Stir until just combined, do not beat! The batter should be lumpy.

Scoop into muffin cases in a pan and bake at 190 degrees c or 375 degrees f for 20 minutes or until risen and golden.

Many thanks to my friend McCaff for the recipe

Twist the recipe slightly to cut back on raisins and add white chocolate chips instead oh and use 1 teaspoon vanilla essence instead of cinnamon. Mmmmmmmm!

I hope it turns out, it tastes good! (well the bit I scraped out of the pot when I had finished tasted ok)

12 lovely jars of golden-ness

Oh by the way I used Pam Corbins recipe from the River Cottage Preserves handbook.

So far I haven’t had a bad recipe yet, Cheers Pam!!