My mate Annie told me about a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe for a Cauliflower broccoli blue cheese pie that she and Andy love, so I decided to look it up and give it a try. But as I only had half the ingredients, wanted to make something with chicken and had a guest who doesn’t like blue cheese, a whole nother pie was born!

This dish is always a surprise to people as most people don’t associate cucumber within a cooked meal. But every single person who has tried this (and I know many a picky eater) just loves it. And to top it all, it’s so quick and easy to prepare, you’ll be a hero without any effort at all!

This photo needs no explanation and depicts me enjoying the sunshine. Okay, so I (mostly) sit in a slightly more ladylike fashion, but there‘s nothing like warm sunshine on a full tummy.

My mate Anja (her blog is called reisenundspeisen.com for German speakers) loaned me her South African cookbook so I could get homeland feelings. And it worked! There was a recipe for Guinea fowl maafe, but I had never heard of the word or the dish. If you have, let me know please!

I adore spicy food and when I worked as a rep in the restaurant industry a hundred years ago, I used to have ½ a extra hot peri peri chicken for breakfast on Thursdays when I visited Nandos in Sea Point. It's the perfect way to start the day if you ask me.

I adapted this recipe from one by Ina Garten (aka The Barefoot Contessa) and have made it slightly quicker to prepare. It is deelicious (anything bad I simply don't tell you about!) and well worth trying. I forgot to take photos, so I'll have to make it again and post photos then.

Today's recipe: Thai Chicken Green Curry

The summer was filled with lots of activity and Nynke’s Terrific Thai meal was one of the highlights. We had Agathe (that’s her on the left in the photo with Nynke), a wonderful French student staying with us, and although the French do not traditionally eat spicy foods, she was really cool and tried everything. I basically had to be tied to my chair not to lick the plates after the meal. Thairrific.

I forgot the starter! I was so excited about the Herbed Crown Roast of Lamb that I forgot to tell you about the starter. We are now into Day 4 of Laura Praise. My other friends are going to start getting annoyed at all the attention she’s getting. My mate Em is also a great cook and I have tons of dishes of hers yet to post – we’re having dinner at theirs on Saturday so I’ll be sure to get more material to post sooooon. But back to LLL Starter.

(Today’s recipe: Balmoral Chicken)

I've heard my Scottish friends talk of Burns Night, but I never actually knew what it was and did not want to show my complete stupidity by saying, “what dat den?” So when Sam invited us for a Burns Night Supper, I had to be brave and say, “what dat den?” She very kindly explained that it had nothing to do with Guy Fawkes (come on, burn, fireworks, how could I know), but with Scotland's most famous poet. (And in my defense I even know one of his 559 poems, so there.)

We’ve recently met a charming Canadian woman, Vanessa, who has asked me to post some cucumber recipes as she fears she will lose all her friends if she gives them any more cucumbers!! We have the same problem with zucchini / summer squash, but as always, you will have to be patient and zuke recipes will be posted soon. For today’s blog, I will be featuring the very prolific and yummy cucumber.