The sun shone! All weekend! It was great while it lasted, it’s Tuesday and it’s raining, normal weather has resumed it seems.

We definitely made the most of the sunshine though. Saturday started with a trip to the market to buy food for the week, with at least one BBQ in mind for over the weekend. We got home and after a change into some shorts, oh yes I got my legs out, the barbecue was going and I was sat in the garden chopping veg.

Last year we used the barbecue quite a lot and got into trying different things on it. This weekend was a return to that slightly experimental barbecuing, two afternoons of sitting in the garden with a beer, cooking!

We did the old favourite of corn on the cob, which I love so much just simply with butter and seasoning. A favourite from last year was barbecuing loads of veg and sometimes halloumi and stuffing it all into a wrap or flatbread with some salad and chilli sauce, so that made another appearance this weekend.

Inspired by DJ BBQ’s book, we tried some new recipes too, jalapeño poppers are one of my favoutite treats, I’d never thought of making my own, especially on the BBQ. They were simple to make, delicious and I’ll definitely make them again. I just stuffed them with some cheese but I reckon next time I’ll experiment and put in some herbs or something. Another first was barbecuing potatoes! I parboiled them and then covered them in oil and a bit of salt and let them cook slowly, they went charred and crispy and were good, I reckon I need to be a bit braver with the seasoning though next time.

A great weekend of cooking and eating in the garden. Just can’t wait for the sun to come back out to try some more new ideas.