20 mins prep. time

What you need:

• cherry tomatoes
• 1/3 cup feta cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 garlic clove - minced
• salt and pepper to taste

This is one of the amazing things ever made!  And so easy to make too.

First things first.  Chop off the tops of the cherry tomatoes and take out the insides of the tomatoes.

To make the filling put the feta cheese, basil, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix together well.

Stuff the tomatoes with the filling and you have your quick scrummy snack.

What you need:

• 375g plain flour
• 275ml warm water
• 4 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 sachet yeast

I usually make my own bread from scratch.  However, I was given a breadmaker and it would be rude to not try it out.

I put in the water and oil in first (wet ingredients first), then sprinkle the flour on top of the water to form a seal.  I then put in the salt and sugar.  I created a small well in the dry ingredients and poured my yeast into the well.

Now for the easiest bit, select bread from the menu (there are a number of options, including scone, cake and french), press the start button and let it do it's thing!  My breadmaker has a little timer on it and it takes about 3 hours....I'm sure it doesn't take that long without the bread maker, but this is for ease.

10 mins prep. time
30 mins cooking time

What you need:
Apples
Caster sugar
Butter

Making apple juice and apple sauce is surprisingly easy and, if you live by apple tress, unbelievably cheap.

I picked some apples from our local apple tree, skinned and cored them and cut them into quarters.  I put them in a large pan and put enough water in the pan to just cover the apples.  I put them on a low heat and left them.  I kept checking on them
When the apples because mushy I sprinkled on a generous amount of caster sugar, mixed in and heated for another 2 minutes.
Using a fine sieve, I sieved the mixture into another saucepan.  This is your apple juice.  The remainder of the pulp got put back in the original saucepan and reheat.
I continued to sieve at 5 minute intervals until no more juice was being produced.
After the juice separated cooled I stored in a bottle.

To drink add lemonade - it tastes better than with water.

Now, the apple sauce.  Add butter to the remaining pulp until it reaches a consistency that you're happy with.  Now you've made apple sauce ready to go with your pork roast!

3 min prep. time
3 min cooking time

What you need:

• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons self raising flour
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
• chocolate chips (optional)

I was craving chocolate cake and decided to make this little gem.  I have no idea where I learnt this recipe, but is one that was clearly worth memorising.  Add it come in nice easy steps.

Firstly put all the dry ingredients in the mug you choose to make your cake in and mix well.  Add the egg and mix well making sure that there are no pockets of dry ingredients - usually flour gets missed in the bottom of the mug.  
Now add all your wet ingredients and mix well until you can no longer see any butter blobs.
Put your mug in the microwave at the highest setting for 3 minutes.  Watching the magic happen is my favourite thing to do, especially as you begin to thing "I can't eat all of that".

After the bing, you should be able to pour the cake out of the mug, if it get stuck just get a knife to the edges.  Goes well with custard or cream.

30 mins prep time
30 mins cooking time
180°C (375°F) / Gas Mark 4

What you need:

• Apples
• Blackberries
• 100 g butter
• 2 cups plain flour
• caster sugar

Preheat your oven.

As you can see I actually didn't go about measuring how many apples and blackberries I used.  I went picking that day and filled a box with berries and carried back as many apples as I could.

Many people remove the skins from their apples when they do this, I didn't.  I cored and quartered the apples.  I then put them in a saucepan on a low heat.  After ten minutes I added the berries and sprinkled caster sugar generously on top.

I personally like things crunchy and not so mushy, so when the fruit mix reached a consistency I like I removed from the heat and let it cool.

Whilst the fruit was cooling, I made the crumble.
Add the flour to the butter and mix together, preferably with your fingers, until it resembles breadcrumbs.

I then poured my fruit mix into a baking dish, sprinkled the crumble on top and then sprinkled some more sugar.  I put the crumble into the oven and waited until it was golden on top.

I made up some custard and scoffed i down after dinner....scrummy!

Makes 4
1 hour 20 mins prep. time
45 mins cooking time

The main part of the recipe I will be taking you through is to make the calzone dough, the filling is really down to personal choice.

Put your water in a mixing bowl.  Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water, stir and wait a few minutes until it has puffed up a little.  Sprinkle salt and olive oil over the yeast water mix.  Slowly add the flour.  I do this by adding one cup of flour, stir, add another cup of flour, stir, add the final 1/2 cup of flour and stir.  To make sure that it is all mixed in use your hands.  Put your sticky dough mixture on a floured surface and knead until it is no longer sticky.  This will take about 5 minutes.

Once it is kneaded enough, form it into a ball and place in a bowl.  Cover with a tea towel and leave for one hour.

While you're waiting for the dough this is the perfect opportunity to clean up any mess and make your filling.
Here's what I put in mine:
I fried up one onion and added mince meat to the frying pan.  When the mince meat was cooking I added two tins of chopped tomatoes.  Whilst it was simmering in the frying pan I added 1 tablespoon of mixed herbs, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.  Once this was cooked I took off the heat and left on the side.
I chopped up salami into quarters and put 12 meatballs in the oven - following the packet instructions.
Finally I grated some cheese.

Once the hour is up, take a peek at your dough.  It should have doubled in size.  Roll into a ball and cut into quarters.  These quarters are going to be the base of your calzone.

Roll out each ball into a circle, roughly 8 inches in diameter.  If like me you've lost your rolling pin, I found a wine bottle works perfectly well.  Once rolled out place your filling in one half of the calzone, making sure that it is quite far from the edges.  If you use sauce, leave some behind to drizzle over the top.  Fold the half of the dough without filling over the half that does and use the edge you've made to seal it up.  To do this you push them together, fold up and press.  Beat the egg and brush it over your calzone.  
Put your calzone in the oven on 180°C for 45 minutes, or until golden.

Makes 2 litres
10 mins prep. time
50 mins cooking time

What you need:

• 5 rashers bacon (chopped)
• 2 tablespoons virgin oil
• 1 onion (diced)
• 5 garlic cloves (minced)
• 3 tablespoons thyme
• 3 cups tomato sauce/ketchup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 3 tablespoons ginger (ground)
• 1 tablespoon cumin (ground)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (ground)

Put some cooking oil in the bottom of a saucepan and saute the bacon until crispy.  Remove the bacon from the saucepan and drain off all of but 2 tablespoons of fat.  Keep the 2 tablespoons of fat in the saucepan.

Add the virgin oil to the saucepan. Add the onion and garlic.  Saute for approx. 4 minutes.  Stir in the thyme and saute for an additional 2 minutes.

Add the bacon and all other ingredients.

Simmer on a lo heat for 30 to 40 minutes.  If you want the BBQ sauce smoother than what is left in the pan put it in the blender and blend until you reach your desired consistency.  I liked mine at the consistency in the saucepan so jarred it and stored it.

This sauce would go lovely on ribs on the BBQ.  Has a nice kick to it!