Marathon Sunday cooking.photos first,,then what everything is! First I made a tea loaf, then some cheese pastry tartlets ,which I have filled three if them with Caramelised onions, then some fork biscuits,very easy ,and finally a ginger and chocolate cake.The pastry was made with chilli,mustard powder,and some Zatar( thanks Yotam!)

First 

Today's salad , tomato,chilli, red onion chickpeas and Feta., with masses of basil and mint.Plus some blackberry liquor made last night.

Apologies for the out of focus photo.

 The salad has chopped red and orange tomatoes , marinated with olive oil and lemon juice, the red onion and chill are chopped finely. Then the herbs (lots of basil and mont ) are added when you want to eat, and the Feta cheese scattered on the top. With the remaining chickpeas, I made some hummus, but everyone knows what that looks like  the only difference was that I put lime juice instead of lemon juice. It is just so Moreish......

The Creme de Mûres,  I took some  very overripe blackberries , slowly simmered them, and added sugar to taste, then about a wine glass full of red wine,plus a small shot of Brandy ,I simmered it till it had

reduced and thickened slightly ,then bottled it. 

It has made 250mls, not much,but a little will go a long way.  Now of course, the bottle is  the  first picture instead of the salad.. Must remember to ask my grandchildren how to rectify this!

Today's experiments.

Is Jamie Oliver's Olive oil biscuits, made with a bread dough quite a lot of Olive oiland fennel seeds

I don't think they are quite right, as they are still a bit bready,and not very crisp,perhaps I didn't roll them out thinly  enough? The picture will show what I mean,but they taste interesting.  

I subsequently  put them back into the oven for a few minutes longer,and they do seem to be crisper now they are cold. More like biscuits than bread anyway.

Regret to say I have eaten three already!

As well as these biscuits,I have made a CEASAR Salad Dressing.  

Here's the recipe.

1egg boiled for 2minutes only, peeled..try doing that one hsnded,!

1traspoon of Capers rinsed

4 Anchovy fillets    Or more if you want a stronger taste.

1 teaspoon  of Dijon Mustard

1teaspoon of Worcester Sauce

The juice of 1/2 a lemon

1teaspoon of red wine vinegar

1/2teadpoon of black pepper

sunflower oil.

A little grated Parmesan 

Put all the ingerdients except for the egg and oil into a food processor and pulse. Add the egg, pulse again,and the add the oil a very little at a time until it thickens.  If it tastes too acidic,add a tiny bit of sugar and that will neutralise it.

It has made a whole medium sized pot, which hopefully will last in the fridge for a bit. 

It looks so ordinary that I haven't taken a picture.

Lucious chocolate ice cream.

Here ith is! Smooth and unctuous ,don't think it will last very long. 

Have made a raspberry ice cream and some Apricot as well. 

As there is a meringue mix with the chocolate and cream, there is no need to beat it at all,and it freezes smoothly.      I have used the same mix to make both the raspberry and apricot ices too.

What to make with egg whites.

I had a couple of egg whites in the fridge from a sauce  that only used the yolks.

So I beat  them up ,intending to make some meringues. Unfortunately there must have been some egg yolk in there  ,as they simply refused to firm up, by which tine I had already added some caster sugar.

I am loath to throw anything away......so ,what to do with them? 

Added about 150 Grammes of dark chocolate which I had melted in the microwave,and then beat in just under half a pint of double cream. 

The result is velvety and not too strong. It shouldn't need further attention,except to eat it! 

When it has  firmed up I shall take a photo of it.

Just the right thing to eat when the rain is pouring down.

My delicious Smoothie.

Made with fresh ice cold water, some rather tired raspberries ,a banana,about half an unpeeled cucumber,and some Basil. Palest pink in colour,and tastes delicious!

Healthy lunch

Here we have roasted Mediterranean vegetables, plus some " big Couscous" . Not entirely sure about the couscous though,I really prefer ordinary couscous.

The vegetables are red onions,courgettes. Baby tomatoes ,aubergine, Fennel, red and yellow peppers,and goats cheese, plus basil, nigella seeds and some pomegranate seeds as well. Over the top I put a Harissa dressing, made with lemon juice, tomato paste, Olive oil and chilli flakes,certain ally perks it all up.

It tastes like   Summer on a plate!