We’ve been away in Cornwall all week, so there has been no cooking for me since Saturday. We’ve been in Mawgan Porth, stopping off in Somerset on the way down. The weather has been largely sunny, and we’ve done lots of toddler-friendly activities, including time on the beach, and walking around a boating lake, waving at the ducks. It’s been nice to be waited on, cooked for, and cleaned up after for a few days.

Recipes:

• approximately a Nigella spatchcocked chicken with lemon and rosemary from Forever Summer, with diced, roasted potatoes, green beans and carrots

Without a recipe:

• Mushroom and tomato pasta, using up the last of the Jennifer Perillo mushroom bolognese.

Other things we’ve been eating:

• a really nice asparagus soup and Caesar salad at the Salutation Inn in Topsham, near Exeter
• Slow-roasted duck with pommes Anna and wet garlic at Bedruthan Steps hotel
• Mackerel crudo with grapefruit at Riverford Field Kitchen
• a lot of clotted cream 🙂

Reading:

• How to recreate a Shake Shack burger – the Epicurious lowdown on how they are made, and the Smitten Kitchen recipe
• Orangette on Thomas Keller’s roast chicken
• A lovely, nostalgic post from Miss Foodwise about cherries and cherry tart
• Bea Wilson on deviating from recipes: “When a recipe has good bones, you can dress it in many ways”
• Alice Medrich makes a chocolate fudge sheet cake that’s gluten free.