The sun is out again this morning and it is threatening to be another hot day. Walking down the garden and fighting my way through the growth in the veg patch it seems a shame, in some ways, that we are going away next week end for two weeks.

After months of looking as if they were going to fade away the six courgette plants have gone bonkers. There are dozens flowers and courgettes most of which will be ready next week. We will be able to have some before we go but most of them will be turning into watery monsters whilst we are away.

Behind the courgettes and up next to the greenhouse a great bank of nasturtiums have grown up from the seeds that were deposited last year. They have taken over the salads that were planted in that bed. I know that I should clear them away and plant something we can eat but they look so good and the flowers will brighten up the salad we will be eating this evening.

It is a Friday night and youngest daughter is the only company at home. She has pizza and is sat in front of the television  She cannot be tempted by lamb, mint, chilli and garlic burgers wrapped in flat bread and covered in salad, chilli sauce and yogurt. She will not know what she is missing.

I think I have now worked out the secret of a good burger. The first thing to do is make sure that you add some breadcrumbs. The second, and important part, is to add your flavourings as you make your breadcumbs. So this evening the mint, garlic and chilli went into the chute of the Magimix as the blade went round pulverising the stale bread. This way the flavourings are half mixed in before you start to get your hands dirty.

Cooking them on the barbeque helps as well, just as night falls.

Looking in the fridge last night there was a punnet full of the remains of the strawberries picked on Sunday, a pot of double cream seven days pasts its use by date and two egg whites.

There would have been a temptation to leave it all for another day but I knew that if I did that it would probably all go to waste.

So I spent tem minutes whisking up the egg whites to soft peak stage, mixing in the only white sugar we had in the house before spreading it all on a mixing tray and putting it in a low oven for an hour and then leaving it to sit there overnight.

It was still a bit sticky when I came to cream it up this evening but that didn’t matter by the time I came to mixing it up with the strawberries and double cream.

It went down well with the children.

There has been a box of mangos on the side in the kitchen for the last week and a half. Somehow we have just not got round to eating them. I took a peek at them last night. They were still smelling good but the skins were starting to wrinkle and they needed eating up.

We also had the leftover chicken from last night to finish. Left to myself I would have turned them into a version of coronation chicken but I knew that would not go down well with the kids. So I decided to make of thick quick quick chutney with mangos and the adults could eat that and the kids could eat up the chicken with their tomato ketchup and roasted potatoes.

Having sliced the mangos I added half a finely chopped red onion, some garlic, red chilli, the juice from a lime, salt, pepper and olive oil and a good handful of chopped coriander. It needed some spice so I ground up some coriander seeds and mixed  those in as well.

It was almost too good to go with the chicken.

Having finished the meal I went down to the basement and found that I am starting to build up another good collection of mango boxes. There must be something I can do with them all?