Burbs Bargain 2 - Salads

The humble salad, the boring salad, the mundane salad - lettuce, cucumber and a few tomatoes.

No, No, No, Not here, Not anymore!

Your salad can be the centre piece to your BBQ extravaganza or a delicious accompaniment to the beautiful hot/cold food you have created. For me the perfect salad is getting the balance right with the textures and colours. It needs to be bright, cheery and an explosion of colour in the bowl, also as you take each mouthful you tastebuds will be sent wild with excitement as crunch through the different layers of flavours and textures. There is so much good quality Britsh produce available to us from our local shops.

When you first think of salad most people think of lettuce and tomato.
I like to make salads from different things like rice, pasta, cous cous along with some more tradtional ingredients like:



Why not print off my 'Salad Box' and shade in the ingredients that work for you to create the perfect tailormade salad. You could even use different shades for different salads. Add different ingredients to the box and let me know what I'm missing, I'd love to hear from you.

Green Fingers For Sure

Back in May I announced Sarah and I were going to try our hand at growing something, well I don't think we are ready just yet to take on the Great British Farmers but what a result, we have big flourishing tomato plants, more basil than than your average Italian kitchen, some healthy looking pea plants and a good scattering of radish.

We have learnt a few things over the past couple of months and its been a great learning curve that has all been worth it, I can't wait to tuck into the produce that we have loved and nurtured since May. It's not been all plain sailing there have been a few casualty's along the way, like the sun roasted pepper plants and seeds that didn't work(well that's our excuse!).


It has been a rewarding journey and has taught us patience and a great way of getting away from work. We picked up tips along the way by reading books, websites and gathering information from our Twitter Buddy's. There are some strange ideas out there for gardening excellence but the one that has worked most of all for us is growing things together that actually go together when you eat them. For example Tomato and Basil grow well together.


The next time you will see our produce will be about 30 seconds before I eat it, so the thinking cap is on what to make with tomato, basil, pea, rocket and radish.

TO BE CONTINUED>>>>>>>