Add the chicken stock pot to the boiling water.  Add the macaroni and cook according to package directions until desired done-ness.  Drain well.  Rinse in cold water.  Drain again and then tip into a bowl.   Add all of the vegetables and stir together to combine.  

Beat the eggs in a large bowl until foamy.    Beat in the remainder of the sugar, the applesauce, the melted butter and vanilla.  Whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.  Stir this into the wet mixture about 1/3 at a time, mixing only to combine.  Fold in the courgette, walnuts and raisins. 

Spoon into the prepared loaf tin.  Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from the pan and cool completely.  Wrap tightly and store overnight before cutting.   Store in an airtight container.

Heat the oil in a large deep skillet.   Add the courgette ribbons and cook, gently stirring occasionally until they are just wilted.  Push to one side and add the garlic.  As soon as you can smell it, add the tomatoes and cook , stirring for several minutes, just until they begin to soften.  Mix together with the courgettes.  Stir in the yoghurt mixture.  Drain the pasta, reserving several tablespoons of the cooking liquid.  Add the drained pasta to the pan with the courgettes and tomatoes. Toss gently to combine.  Add the pasta liquid a tablespoon at a time, if necessary to thin the sauce to your desired consistency.  Season to taste.  Divide amongst four heated pasta bowls.  Top with some freshly grated Parmesan, if desired, and serve immediately.

Take your chicken breasts and using a sharp knife, cut a pocket into the thickest part.  Cut the Parmesan cheese into six equal sized sticks, each about 3 inches in length and 1/2 inch thick.  Wrap the sticks in two basil leaves and insert one wrapped piece into each pocket of the chicken breasts.  Secure shut with wooden picks.

Heat the oil in a skillet with an oven proof handle which is large enough to hold all six breasts, over medium heat.   Cook the garlic paste in the pan for a few seconds until fragrant.  Season the breasts with salt and pepper and place them presentation side down in to the hot pan.  Saute until they are golden brown on both sides, turning once and cooking them for about 5 minutes.  Pop them into the oven and cook for five minutes.   Put the dish with the berries into the oven and cook both the berries and the chicken for a further 12 to 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the berries have softened nicely.   Remove from the oven.  Remove and discard the wooden picks.  Place the breasts onto a large serving platter.  Spoon the melting berries over top and scatter with the chiffonade basil leaves.  Serve immediately.

Rich and chewy.   Moreishly delish!

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups soft light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2 large free range eggs
1 tsp baking soda, dissolved
 in 1/4 cup boiling water
2 cups plain flour
2 cups oatmeal (not the quick oats)
1 cup of Belgian chocolate covered raisins
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.   Line a 9 by 13 inch pan with foil, leaving an overhang to lift the bars out with when baked.  Butter the foil.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.   Beat in the vanilla, lemon and eggs.  Beat in the soda water. This will look curdled, but don't worry.   Whisk together the flour and oats and add.  Mix in thoroughly.  Stir in the raisins and chocolate chips.  Spread the mixture into the prepared pan, leveling it off as best you can.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until set, glossy on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Don't over-bake if you can help it.  Delicious!

 

I am a woman of simple tastes and desires. I eschew anything which is complicated, although from time to time I do enjoy a bit of a challenge.  This delightfully simple cake pleases me on many levels . . .



It's very easy to throw together, and quick as well.  It's moist and buttery.  You can't beat that . . . those are the things I love in a cake, don't you?  (I like to dust un-iced cakes with a bit of icing sugar . . . I think it is a nice touch and prettifies them a bit without going over the top!)



At the same time it is a bit complicated, but in a very easy way.  It has a delicious syrup composed of lemon and lemon grass, which you create while the cake it baking and then spoon over the hot cake as it comes out of the oven and continue to spoon over whilst it cools.

 

The end result is a moist cake with subtle flavours of lemon grass and lemon . . . not sticky . . . but a moist kind of sticky, if you know what I mean.

 

It is the perfect cake to delight your friends with on a sunny summer afternoon, with the bees humming as they flit from flower to flower . . . as you sit there and enjoy copious amounts of ice cold lemonade or sweet tea . . . and nibble on thick slices of this wonder . . .

 

With or without berries.  Tis a bit early yet for my strawberries and other soft fruits . . . they are still becoming what they become, and so today I made a simple sauce using half a cup of blueberry preserves whisked together with the juice of half a lemon.

 

It worked perfectly.  Have I told you how much I love blueberries?   I thought so . . .
Enjoy!

3 large free range eggs
1/2 tsp lemon extract
Delicious with fresh summer berries!

National Picnic Week is coming of the week of the 17th to the 23rd of June!  Nobody does picnics better than the British!  When the weather turns nice we just adore packing up a tasty lunch, hopping into the car, or on a bus or a train and high tailing it out and into our stunningly beautiful countryside to enjoy some good food and outdoor delights!

We are a nation of picnic-ers and for the last nine years we have been celebrating our love for the outdoors and outdoor lunches with a National Picnic Week!

A picnic can be as grand or as simple as you desire . . . a moveable feast which pleases all of the senses.   I can remember a picnic when I was a girl which consisted of nothing more than a bread bag filled with peanut butter sandwiches and a thermos filled with coolaid.  (A North American powdered drink which you re-constitute with water, much like the British squash)  A friend and I biked half a day up the South mountain back home and enjoyed our picnic resting on a grassy knoll overlooking a church graveyard.   The sun was hot.  The drinks were refreshing and the sandwiches were every bit at delicious as delicious could be!

Another memorable picnic was one which I enjoyed after I had grown and had a family of my own.  Rained out, we spread a blanket on the floor in the living room, where we enjoyed our sandwiches and treats  and each others company as thunder cracked and lightening light up our big picture window.   It's not so much the food you eat, or the location as it is the company that you keep!  And of course the spirit which you bring to the occasion!

I was recently sent a delightful picnic hamper from Unilever and challenged to come up with a new recipe for the upcoming National Picnic Week!  You know I do love a challenge and I do love picnics so the hardest part for me was narrowing it down to one recipe!



Let me say first of all the hamper was absolutely gorgeous.  A lovely white wicker basket filled to the brim with an assortment of lever  products . . . Hellman's mayonnaise's, Coleman's sauces, a variety of mustard's and every thing else you could need for a successful picnic . . .

 

. . .  a cooler bag to keep your salads cool, plates, salt and pepper shakers, forks, knives, spoons etc.

 

In short, everything that anyone could possibly need to take four hungry and adventurous people on a picnic!!



I can tell you that we will sure be getting good use of this (I'm being optimistic here!  We can't have three bummer summers in a row can we???   I sure hope not!)  We do love a good picnic here at Casa da Rayner!



The Toddster is a potato fiend!  He just loves potatoes.  I love them too.  In this house it's not a perfect day unless some potatoes are involved and so I decided to create a delicious potato salad to take on our picnic and to help celebrate National Picnic week!



I love potato salad.  This is something which all too often is done very poorly though . . . over gloppy and cloying . . .  stogged far too full of mayonnaise, with potatoes that are either under cooked and hard . . . or over cooked and falling apart.



Store bought ready made potato salads are always  a HUGE disappointment to me!  Lacking in flavour, they just never quite reach the mark of what a good potato salad should and can be.



My salad has a lovely light dressing that is neither cloying or gloppy, flavoured lightly with a touch of horseradish, lemon and dill . . . sweet and oniony spring chives . . . the merest hint of mayonnaise . . .a dollop of extra virgin olive oil . . . the peppiness of mustard cress . . .

 

Add to that the delightful crunch and colour of spring beans and petit pois . . . crisp slices of red radishes . . .

In short the perfect picnic potato salad!  I call it Better than Grandma's Potato Salad!  Not because it's better, but because I'm cheeky!   My gran made the best potato salad ever, and so did my mom.   But this is good too, very . . . very good!  Happy National Picnic Week!



Whisk together the dressing ingredients and pour them over the vegetables.  Season with some sea salt and black pepper to taste.  Allow to cool.   Add the radishes, chives and cress, folding together gently.   Serve at room temperature.



Many thanks to the people at Unilever for sending me this delightful hamper and for challenging me to come up with something new!

Now, get out there and have a picnic!  Go on . . . you know you want to!



Note:  All artwork and photographs for this post are copyright owned by myself, the artist and photographer.