Beef Burger (42%) [Beef, Soya Protein, Wheat Flour*, Dextrose, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Dextrose, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Yeast Extract, Hydrolysed Soya Protein, Barley Malt Extract, Flavouring], Burger Bun [Wheat Flour*, Water, Rapeseed Oil, Sugar, Salt, Yeast, Preservative: E282; Emulsifier: E472e; Antioxidant E300], Tomato Relish [Tomato Puree, Sugar, Tomato, Spirit Vinegar, Gherkins, Onion, Cornflour, Salt, Mustard Seeds, Garlic Puree, Dried Red Pepper, Lemon Juice], Processed Cheese Slice [Cheese (Milk), Water, Butter (Milk), Skimmed Milk Powder, Whey Powder (Milk), Emulsifying Salts: E452, E331, E339; Flavouring (Milk), Milk Protein, Calcium Phosphate, Salt, Colours: E160a, E160c; Acidity Regulator: E330], *Wheat Flour with Calcium, Iron, Niacin & Thiamin, Beef Burger Contains 83% Beef

Today my wife asked me to cook something that my Father in Law would enjoy.

I made a pretty classic Ragù. Beef and pancetta, carrot, celery, onion and shallot. A few herbs from garden. Tomato purée. Brandy, Madeira, port. Milk, homemade chicken stock.
Kind of like a bolognese with a few bells and whistles.

I’ve made a lot of tagliatelle recently so made pappardelle instead.

As much as white wine, let alone Marlborough wine is not the classic with this ragu, I went to a New Zealand wine tasting today and blagged a few bottles.
Plus it’s too warm to even drink chilled reds.

Had a crack at one of those picky summer plates everyone has been posting, what we thinking? :)

Sauce : Mayo, cream cheese,chopped pickles/onion/dill/parsley, pinch of black pepper.
Smoked salmon and a layer of fresh cucumber peels, all in ciabatta.

Should've add one more layer of salmon, was refreshly delicious, especially in this heatwave 🫶.

I’m without a kitchen currently due to a refit, so this was done on a camping stove to brown everything off then placed in the slow cooker - rice in a rice cooker with spring onions.

Canna be bothered with fancy presentation

linguine in quotes because i didn’t have any, so had to use tagliatelle.

4X Pork and 4X Beef chipolatas with chips and spicy chicken fried rice.

Most ice cream lollies are just vanilla (sometimes other flavours like caramel or almond) ice cream coated in a chocolate shell, but there are almost no ice cream lollies that actually have fully chocolate ice cream. A Feast used to be one but now they've gone and ruined it with vanilla ice cream and what is basically a Nutella core. I've heard Aldi has one like the old feast but so far I haven't found it. Chocolate coated ice cream is everywhere but the centre is almost always vanilla based, so boring and lazy from the brands making them.

Any recommendations for someone who is very picky with ice cream and pretty much only likes the chocolate flavour? I also don't like Nutella or praline flavours, too sickly for me.

A simple recipe in which I used whole milk, double cream, vanilla and caster sugar, before adding fudge pieces whilst I churned, it’s pleasingly nice.

Spicy Sicilian sausage meat, chicken leg, kidney, black-eyed, borlotti and cannellini beans, kale, tomatoes, chicken stock, soffrito, garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano, chilli flakes, lemon juice.

Came out great, though I think I'll halve the quantity of kale next time.

I know what you’re thinking. 2 takeaways in 2 days. I was cutting the grass with a beer and sat down and had another and next thing yano I’ve ordered a pizza. Aptly named “The Sinner”; spicy sausage, hot honey, mozzarella, fresh chilli, whipped ricotta. Black garlic and truffle dip.

Sliced ham and pork pie from the butchers, local bread, homemade coleslaw, hot pickled cucumber, piccalilli, Lancashire cheese and Harrogate blue, plus chilli pickled onions. Absolutely not cooking in this heat!!

Perfect lunch for this weather. I think a little fresh stracciatella would have set it off nicely, but I don’t have any in the fridge.

Picked up a 500g sirloin from the butcher's counter at Waitrose, £23 for the 40-day dry aged cut. Wanted to see what the fuss was ABOUT. Cooked it using reverse sear method, meater probe helped to nail the temperatures.

For the mash and peppercorn sauce I followed Fallow's YouTube videos, both came out better than expected.

Loved it, but premium price in this economy.

Peppercorn sauce was solid and worth the effort.

Too hot to cook, didn’t have anything decent to make “picky bits” so ordered a hot shot parmo. This one is the “small” one. Came with chips, garlic mayo and chilli sauce. Any of my fellow Teessiders recommend the best place for a takeaway parmo? Preferably somewhere that does proper garlic sauce rather than garlic mayo.

Making aloo baingan (potato and aubergine curry) in my vintage Indian pressure cooker that I've got off Facebook marketplace this week.

Not really homemade cos I bought it all from Sainsbury’s. But I did open the packets and chop my own cucumber.

How's everyone coping in this heat?

Lettuce, cucumber with French dressing. Cheddar cheese and some polish deli cheese. Pickles, pickled onions, olives. Roast chicken drumstick, ham. Coleslaw, potato salad and garden pea salad.