Traditional Greek Salad

With just a handful of fresh ingredients, this vibrant salad will transport you to the Mediterranean. It's quick and easy to prepare, requires no special ingredients and needs just the best olive oil, red wine vinegar and a sprinkle of oregano to serve. The perfect salad on a sunny day.

1 medium red onion

4 medium tomatoes or about 12 cherry tomatoes.

For maximum flavour, use vine ripened tomatoes

1 cucumber

1 green bell pepper

50g pitted Kalamata black olives

1 block Greek feta cheese

3 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1½ tsp dried oregano

sprinkle of sea salt

Red Onion - Peel and halve the red onion and slice thinly. Put the onion slices into a bowl of iced water, add a teaspoon of red wine vinegar and leave to soak for 10-15 minutes. This will mellow the onion's raw taste.

Tomatoes - If you using medium sized tomatoes, simply cut them into wedges. For cherry tomatoes, cut them in half.

Cucumber - Score down the skin with a fork or partially peel so the skin has a striped pattern. Then cut in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into 1cm slices.

There are a few ways to deseed a cucumber - if you leave it whole. cut off a length and stand it on its end, you can use an apple corer or if you cut it in half lengthwise, you can run a teaspoon down the length to scoop out the seeds.

Green bell pepper - slice thinly across the pepper, removing the seeds as you go.

Black olives - any good quality black olives will do, but try and get Greek Kalamata olives for their authentic flavour.

Feta - again, a good quality feta cheese is best and it should be the star of the show sitting on top of the vegetables. Cut into cubes or tear into larger chunks.

Dressing

Olive oil and a dash of red wine vinegar - no need to whisk.

Once you've assembled everything, sprinkle with the dried oregano and sea salt, then add the dressing. Lightly toss and top with the feta cheese. Sprinkle a little more dried oregano and sea salt over the top before serving.

Classic Waldorf Salad

Waldorf Salad originates from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City and was created in 1893 by the maître d'hôtel Oscar Tschirky. The hotel website tells us the original dish was made with 'apples, celery, grapes and walnuts tossed in a mayonnaise-based dressing and served on a bed of lettuce'. Some say that the grapes were added later and in fact, I've left them out of the recipe below. Others use the original as a 'base recipe' and add raisins, dried cranberries, seeds, herbs and even cooked chicken.

A musical note - Cole Porter lived in a suite at the Waldorf Towers for many years and in 1935, Waldorf Salad featured in the lyrics of his song 'You're the Top'.

Serves 4 as a starter

3 celery sticks, washed and thinly sliced

2 green apples (I recommend using crisp Granny Smiths which are not too sweet)

50g walnuts, toasted and chopped

Dressing

3 tbsp mayonnaise

3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt

juice of 1 small lemon

Romaine or Little Gem lettuce to serve

Chops the walnuts and toast them either in a dry frying pan for 3-4 minutes, or in a 180ºC oven for 8-10 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on them and shake the pan occasionally so they don't burn. Then set aside to cool.

Core the apples and cut into cubes or batons. Put into a bowl and toss with a splash of the lemon juice. This will stop them from going brown. Slice the celery straight across or on the diagonal.

In a large bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, Greek yoghurt and the remaining lemon juice. Add the chopped celery, apples and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine making sure everything is coated in the dressing. You can now refrigerate this for an hour or so before you're ready to serve. (It will also keep in the fridge for a few days as long as you keep the walnuts separate)

Now simply arrange your lettuce leaves onto a serving platter, or four individual plates, and spoon on the salad mixture. Sprinkle with the toasted walnuts before serving.

Marmalade muffins

These delicious muffins are a great breakfast treat and so light in texture that you should really allow yourself more than one. I've used my Seville orange marmalade which gives a tangy orange flavour without being too sweet.

This recipe was saved from a weekend newspaper although I have tweaked it slightly by increasing the amount of marmalade. It also helped to finish up the final jar from last year's batch of marmalade which had been languishing at the back of the fridge.

I think Paddington Bear would approve!

2 medium eggs

100g caster sugar

75ml sunflower oil

190g marmalade

200g plain flour

50g oats

(plus extra for sprinkling on top before cooking)

2½ tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Grease your muffin tins or use muffin liners. This amount makes six muffins with a small amount left over, or you can make 12 cupcake size 'muffins'. Be careful not to overfill the cases or they will overflow when cooking. (I am talking from experience here!)

Measure out all the dry ingredients and mix them together in a bowl or measuring jug. In a separate bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, eggs and marmalade until light and fluffy. Then add the dry ingredients and continue mixing until combined.

Spoon the mixture equally between the muffin tins or cases and sprinkle a few oats on top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on the size of your tins. Serve warm with fresh butter.