Simply take some strawberries, and vegetables!

I do promise that this is NOT turning into a food blog - it is just a brief blip on my horizon. 
How could I resist these locally grown strawberries? H and I are enjoying the apricot jam made last week - these cheaply priced strawberries were just crying out for me to make some more French style jam enabling us to savour the summer flavours after the season has passed.  A kilo of strawberries for jam, and a few extra ones for us to eat raw with ice cream. 

Halve and quarter the strawberries and macerate as per the apricots with 750g sugar but for 10 hours.

After macerating add the juice of three lemons and cook as per apricot jam. My lemons were very large, so I just used two.

The strawberries have now released all of their juice, lemon juice added, and are ready for cooking.

This is less set than the apricot jam but is delicious with yogurt, ice cream, cakes and on scones too.

As a family we are not big meat eaters and a dish  that goes down really well with all of the family, grandchildren included, is Lasagne made with vegetables instead of meat.

Simply roast a good selection of chopped vegetables in olive oil sprinkled with a twist of black pepper, some torn basil leaves, and a scattering of chilli flakes. Roast until they are turning a rich brown, which gives more flavour. Suggested vegetables are - tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions, garlic, aubergine, courgettes (zucchini), butternut squash, whatever you have or like.

Then make your lasagne in the usual way replacing the meat with the roasted vegetables.