I DON’T like cooking…

I’m not really a cook.

Not at all.

As a writer, I don’t buy cook books, and I make the same favourite foods over and over again.

Much prefer to dig over a vegetable patch or unpick my embroidery mistakes…

But sometimes just having a super veggie garden out the door is enough to spur me on.

Today was one such day.

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Last night husband and self watched a show called Made in Italy and the presenter/chef cooked a yummo dish of zucchini flowers and young zooks (courgettes?) over fresh pasta. It was too good to ignore. So I picked the flowers, the zooks, the fresh basil and cooked away. Served it over cappelleti with a bit of lemon zest and grated pecorino.

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Oh – my – gosh!!!!

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Also served a roasted peach, mint and feta salad. The glaze for that is amazing – star anise, cardamom, sugar, vinegar and so on. Heaven! The meal sounds too filled with flavours but truly it wasn’t. (I have an overly sensitive gut, allergies and have to really careful) and even ten minutes after finishing, I could identify each single flavour in the most tantalising blend.

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I also made a cake for my friend’s 70th birthday tomorrow – a chocolate almond jobby that has a layer of milk- chocolate mousse. To counter the richness, I picked a bowl of raspberries from the berry house for the top.

AND found 2 sparklers in the drawer to light to celebrate!

But my friend is taking people away on their boat for the this celebratory day and my husband wonders if sparklers and gas cyinders etc might not go together. MY biggest worry is that their boat fridge may not be big enough to keep the cake and its mousse cold and set for the day.

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And not to be outdone, my husband picked 2 kgs of cherry plums and made sour cherry jam – something we all call Cherry Glug. We love it!

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And all this in a house where I DON’T LIKE COOKING!

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Now – back to hotfooting it through 12th century Byzantium!