It actually turned out pretty well and wasn’t as difficult as I had thought it would be (though I appreciate that it must be a great deal worse when you are being filmed with ‘the eyes of the nation on you’).

My only real problem with it was that I had got about halfway through plaiting it (5 over 3 and under 6 etc. – a bit like a knitting pattern) when Schrodi jumped up on the counter to investigate. By the time I had grabbed him and excluded him from the kitchen, I had forgotten where I was and had to start over from scratch, which didn’t do much for the uniformity of the strands.

But it baked up well and tasted delicious so I will have to add that one to my repertory.

I haven’t tried eating them yet but they look super nice. Perhaps I should apply to be on the Bake Off next year (one of my favourite TV programmes).

I racked my brains a bit and came up with this…. Everything was home made (well nearly everything – there were some ryvita dipping crackers that were shop bought, plus I got the quinoa ready prepared in a pouch)

Starter – Vegan dips (humus, guacamole, salsa, bean and beetroot) with crudités, warm garlic and rosemary rolls and dipping crackers.
Main – Quinoa stuffed peppers in a rich olive and tomato sauce with mixed green veg.
Sweet – Raspberry ice ‘cream’ with fresh raspberries and/or banana cake

Humus – cooked chickpeas with a little of their cooking water, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and tahini – whizz in a blender until nearly smooth (but still with a little texture).
Guacamole – finely chop one red chili and some spring onions, mash in ripe avocados and juice of a lime
Salsa – finely chopped onion, red pepper, ripe tomatoes, chili and coriander
Beetroot – blend cooked white beans until smooth, add cooked beetroot (not in vinegar) and mint and blend smooth

Stuffed Peppers – Cut tops off peppers and remove seeds. Rub peppers and lids generously with olive oil and bake in medium oven until soft. Allow to cool. Make a tomato sauce by frying onions in olive oil and then adding a mix of cherry tomatoes and good tinned plum tomatoes (chopped up). Cook down for a while and then add lots of olives and fresh herbs. Finally add some tomato puree. Stuff the peppers with the quinoa (I used some ready to eat pouches which already had been flavoured with basil and sundried tomatoes – largely because I wasn’t sure if I would like it and didn’t want to be left with a huge bag of the stuff). Arrange in an ovenproof dish, pour the sauce over and cook (I covered them with tin foil) for about 30 minutes or until hot through. Serve with green veg (I did french beans and asparagus).

Ice ‘cream’ – take two cans of full fat (not light) cocoanut milk and put in a pan, retaining about 100ml. Gently warm the bulk of the milk and then add either sugar or sugar substitute to taste (I used powdered stevia leaf. Blend the retained milk with two tablespoons of cornflour until very smooth and mix in with the rest in the pan. Gently heat, stirring all the time unti the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon – be careful not to let it boil (you could add a vanilla pod but I didn’t have one). While this is happening, gently heat a punnet of raspberries and either add a bit of sugar, sweetener, or (as I did) home made jam (strawberry). Swirl the fruit into the milk mixture to make a ripple effect. Chill in the fridge until completely cold, and then either process in an ice cream maker (best way), or improve your arm muscles by taking it out of the fridge and beating it smooth every half an hour or so until frozen. The latter way it turns out a bit more like a granita, but it is still very nice. Even minus the sugar it is definitely not low calorie though.

Banana cake – mash three or four very ripe bananas until pulpy. Add 75ml sunflower oil and 100g unrefined caster sugar and mix through. Sift 250g flour with 3 heaped tsp baking powder and add to mix. Finely chop 100g of dried apricots and mix through. Bake in a loaf tin for about 40 minutes at 180C (my oven is quite hot).

As you can imagine all this took a bit of time to do, but it was worth it because it all turned out well, and was much appreciated. It makes all the difference when people really enjoy what you make. I am not sure R liked it much though. He wouldn’t admit it but I am sure he would have preferred a burger….

The obvious solution for many things is to use frozen, but I really don’t like ‘freezer food’ bought from the supermarket. Even putting to one side entirely the idea of thing like ready made pies and sausages which I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole, commercially frozen fish tends to have the texture of cotton wool, and vegetables (with the honourable exception of peas and sweetcorn) tend to be soggy and to over cook easily.

So I’ve taken to buying the fresh stuff from Costco (it is always of beautiful quality from there) in large quantities, preparing it myself and then stashing it away in the chest freezer in the garage. I blanch the vegetables briefly first, and then freeze them immediately in either foil trays (as pictured) or zip lock bags. Salmon I fillet and freeze as potions, same with cod (although it doesn’t need filleted). Again the quality is great and it comes out of the freezer actually tasting of something…

I made the pastry case, chilled it in the fridge for 10 minutes while the oven warmed up, and then baked it for 15 minutes at 200 degrees, and a further 15 at 180.

It tastes pretty good – but I think if I were on the British Bake off that Mary Berry would accuse it of being a bit ‘messy’ – partially because my smart china tart dish gave up the ghost last year and I had to use a metal cake tin.

So that is most of the apples eaten; I still need to walk out towards Ardentinny one of these days and see how the abandoned orchard is doing.

So for the ‘Egg’ component – I fried two medium onions and two large peppers (any colour) until soft and towards the end of the cooking time I added a couple of cloves of chopped garlic. I then added three large handfuls of cherry tomatoes and let them cook down for a few minutes. Finally I stirred in a can of bought ratatouille (I know this sounds a bit odd but I am a huge fan of this because it adds loads of healthy veg without having to obtain and prepare them all separately – a big bonus when you live miles from the nearest shop). This mixture goes into a casserole dish and should be thick enough to make some dents in the top with the back of a spoon. Make two dents per person (this would serve up to four) and carefully crack a large egg into each. Season well and put into a pre-heated oven at 180. The eggs take about 10 minutes to set – but keep an eye on them because they are not nice either over or under cooked.

During the meanwhilst (:)) make the chips. Take a couple of large potatoes per person, wash (don’t peel) and cut into thick chips. Put into boiling water and cook for about 10 mins until starting to get soft. Preheat the oven to max and put a deep baking tray into it with a couple of tablespoons of oil (olive is probably a waste for this so I just use the cheaper sunflower). Drain the potatoes and put in the tray – then toss with the oil, loads of paprika and some salt and pepper. Stick back in the oven and cook for about 15 mins until golden brown – turning once in the middle of cooking.

For the ‘slice’ make some flatbreads – I just make a batch of dough in my breadmaker – on the ‘pizza’ programme which only takes 45 minutes. Then I divide into four, and roll out into disks which I leave for about 15 minutes to rise again. Once they are a bit puffy I cook them on the griddle.

I’d have liked to have shown a picture of the whole meal but it went down so quickly I didn’t get a chance. Anyway – it was super-good and the picture attached is one of the flatbreads.

But last week when tidying the shed my mother found Grandma’s old griddle. This is a formidable affair – it must weigh at least 5lbs and is solid cast iron (not stainless steel). I’ve just spent the last half an hour getting all the rust off it and oiling it so that it stays that way.

Tomorrow I will make some griddle scones and see how they turn out. I’ll have to be sure not to drop it on my foot though as it would be a sure trip to casualty.

This is my recipe for Griddle scones…

8oz self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1oz butter
3oz raisins
1/2 oz caster sugar
8 fl oz buttermilk

Sieve the flour into a bowl with the baking powder and sugar. Rub in the butter then add the raisins. Mix in the buttermilk with the blade of a knife. The dough should be soft and sticky and it is important not to handle it more than absolute minimum. Roll out on a floured board to about 3/4″ thick (no thinner) and cut into rounds with a scone cutter. Rub the griddle with some oil (or lard!) and heat until hot but not smoking. Put the scones on the griddle and cook until firm and brown, flipping with a palette knife a couple of times. Wrap in a warm damp tea towel until all are ready and then eat while hot with butter.

The really important parts are not handling the mixture (treat it like pastry and that is how it will turn out), not rolling it out too thin, and moving quickly once the buttermilk has been added (it reacts with the baking powder to act as a raising agent and if you leave the scones lying about they won’t rise). They are much lighter with buttermilk than ordinary milk – you can make it from fresh milk by gently heating it with a little lemon juice.