Two of your five a day!

I've been in the midst of decorating, trying to sell the house, failing to buy a house, buying a different one, moving out and having to wait until the new house ( not our house yet, don't want to tempt fate) is ready! So with all that stress and spending on the credit card what can a girl do. In short, have a Gin and tonic.

I love a good G&T, it seems to make the world right, and with a hint of lime, cucumber and a little elderflower liqueur ( maybe a little overkill for G&T purists, but I can't get enough of the stuff) it makes you feel summery, even if in mid July you have to wade across a river to the car in the mornings. Just to clarify, if my manager is reading this, I don't have Gin and Tonic before work!

This probably isn't your kosher way of making a G&T but it was bloody good and frankly I don't care.

Gin - 1 bottle :-) I recently had 6 o'clock gin, which was very nice. Try to get a really interesting gin as it's flavour will shine through.
Tonic - again try and get one that's got a bit about it, apparently Fever Tree is good stuff.
Elderflower liqueur - optional
1 lime
A few slices of cucumber
Lots of ice

Put a load of ice into a shaker, you don't generally use a shaker but it makes you look cooler!
Cut a few slices of cucumber and chuck into the shaker, halve a lime, squeeze it in and throw it in too. Pour in a measure and a half of gin and just under a measure of elderflower liqueur. Shake, look cool!
Strain into a glass with lots of ice, a fresh slice of cucumber and lime and top with tonic water. If it's a bit strong, you've got it just right! In case of emergency add more Gin.

Tropical temperatures

Well not really tropical, but it has been really warm here all of a sudden so, having remembered that I had loads of egg whites in the freezer, I decided to do a tropical tasting pavlova. I tend to use this recipe from the BBC food web site and it works really well, giving a nice marshmallowy meringue. 

After making the meringue and allowing to cool, toast a handful of desiccated coconut in a dry frying pan and leave to cool. Take 250g of mascarpone and the same of yoghurt and put into a bowl. It doesn't matter what yoghurt, but nothing too thick as the mascarpone is very thick. Add the zest of a lime a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar and about 50ml of dark rum (or malibu would also be nice to give an extra coconut flavour) and mix well. Spread the mixture evenly all over the meringue and top with 1 ripe mango cut into chunks and finally the toasted coconut. Then sit out in the sun with a fork and a large wedge of meringue on your plate.