The 2 best pizza toppings, guaranteed. (Spinach, asparagus & ricotta/ Parma ham & fig)

So the World Cup has kicked off (literally) with full force, and like my pal at work says, you certainly cannot beat them, so you may as well join em.

Personally, I quite like the World Cup. I never watch football and support no team really (I am one of the few lucky ladies in England who is not a football widow, Will has no favourite team) but every 4 years I like to make an exception. I think a lot of my love - well maybe that is too strong a word, let's say "contented tolerance" - of the World Cup bonanza comes from my Dad, and his clever scheme to get a house full of women not interested in sport into the world cup.

A recipe for sausage stuffed pumpkins...and a mid Autumn dinner party menu

I do not know how all the fancy bloggers and instagrammers manage to throw a pretty and delicious dinner party without all their guests getting hangry about posing for photos and not tucking in, but it was not on the cards for me on Friday night. Actually, I do know, 1) they can probably persuade their friends to pipe down one sec when it is their actual income (rather than this teeny tiny side hustle this blog is for me) and 2) they probably are less full of malbec at their dinner party photo taking time than I was, and therefore can feign greater commitment to the blogging cause.

Anyway, I am sorry but the only evidence you have of my (I think rather great) tea light, copper fairy light and jam jars of dahlias Autumn "tablescape",plus that I roasted some squash and pumpkins stuffed with sausagemeat , sage and cheese is the slightly dark photo above, which arguably is mainly of plates. So you will just have to take my word that these squash looked delicious and tasted delicious and therefore you should make them and serve them too. (Maybe for Thanksgiving if you are serving this stateside? Or just any day and every day if you are from this side of the pond cos Autumn so pumpkins so).

Pumpkin spiced waffles

Hi. I hope you are all feeling more sprightly today than I do. Apparently, now I am 29, drinking 3/4 of a bottle of wine and 1 cocktail when out for dinner is enough alcohol to make the next day feel like there is a goblin in my head scratching his nails on a blackboard before taking a break to bulldoze into my grey matter.

Yesterday morning, when I was living my best life hangover free making pumpkin pie waffles in my pjs whilst listening to my favourite spotify playlist (which is a wonderful mix of Frank Sinatra and Justin Bieber), feels like a far away dream. But it did happen. These waffles did happen, as these blog friendly photos of me pouring maple syrup over bacon and them prove. Hmm bacon. Do you know what goes well with bacon. Pumpkin. Whether that pumpkin is stuffed with bacon and cheese and roasted (YUM) or pureed and popped in waffles, pumpkin and bacon is a dream team, so you should make these waffles y'all.

Tuscan style bangers and mash

So a disclaimer: when I say "tuscan style" this isn't actually a recipe passed to me by a homely Italian woman, or something I enjoyed in a little trattoria in the countryside outside Pisa and have tried to replicate.

When I say Tuscan style what I mean is I cooked something I envisage a homely Italian woman might, if she too had left over sausages from her Sunday fry up, bags of tomatoes left over from her birthday pizza party, limited cooking skills and only enough energy after a Monday at work to do about 3 mins and 42 seconds worth of food prep.

Padella inspired spicy sausage, mascarpone and parsley pasta

Lols that the week following my PS where I promised I was back on the "I'll start posting every Sunday again" wagon, I only went and didn't post on a Sunday. My excuse was going to be that I am horrifically jet lagged following my trip to New Orleans, Miami and central America and I am still on Eastern standard time, but if I am on Eastern standard time it would just mean I am posting this only 43 hours late, rather than 48 so, yeah...

Anyhoo here is a "recipe" (I use that word loosely, as this thing is so damn easy to make you can do it even when you have just basically stumbled off a plane and into your kitchen, and are mainly only looking for a vehicle to transport parmesan cheese into your mouth). It was inspired by a bangin' (yes I said that) meal I devoured in Padella in Borough. The queues are long, but the fettucine is all the a-ok hand emoticons. Top tip, go on a rainy Monday at 5 to get a table and it will be the only time you don't have to wait in line.

Happy Galentine's day! A pink and red brunch menu

(Which is also pretty much dairy free if you are into it).

Reader, today I am sick. Yesterday in Leslie Knope style I threw a Galentine's brunch (although unfortunately lacking gifts of handmade mosaics of my friends faces a la Knope). Turns out, if you have what I would call a moderate cold, don't feed it all the pink alcoholic drinks and all the pink, red and beige food which whilst being delicious are not nutritious. But if you are not fighting a cold, and fancy a little Valentines - nay Galentines - themed get together with your pals, then take a peek at this little set up:

Christmas morning waffles

(or Boxing Day morning, or New Year's day morning, or one of those weird mornings between Christmas and New Year, as it is sort of ok to be late for work because you were having waffles for breakfast when it is the twenty something-th of December)

These waffles are a twist on one of my go to waffle recipes - A Beautiful Mess' Sour cream and caramelized banana waffles.

But I've added a teeny bit of booze to the sour cream, the left over cranberries you didn't need for your sauces and some Christmassy spices and huzzah. Christmas Waffles, perfect with a glass of bucks fizz to start off your big day.

Quick! 2 barbecues to squeeze in before summer ends (and a recipe for a chilli tequila cocktail)

Those bacon skewer things have scallops in the middle of them.

So a large part of the reason I have fallen off the blogging band wagon again is because this summer with the help, blood and sweat of my generous and long suffering parents my boyfriend and I have replaced the deck in our garden. We had one before, but it was rotten with nails sticking out of it and bits you couldn't stand on for fear of falling through and the NHS advised you have an extra tetanus shot before walking on it, so it was not the place to host barbecues and citronella candle lit al fresco soires. But now, 45,640 metres (not the real figure) of decking and 1000 screws (genuinely the real figure) later, boom chacka lacka lacka boom, I have a new deck. And I am the first person to write boom chacka lacka lacka boom in text, probably.

Peach melba salted caramel ice cream sliders

Catchy name ey?

Hope you are all having lovely weekends (and this is posted on the weekend as I don't know how much I trust my old computer's ability to schedule posts). I am off at Glastonbury festival daaaaarling, so I hope for all our sakes it is ice cream sandwich weather in the UK.

Cos yes, despite the lengthy title and pretentious use of the word "slider" this is less of a recipe and more of instructions about how to assemble a good ice cream sandwich. A really good one.

Rhubarb and strawberry granita

British summertime is up to its usual tricks and toying with us at the moment - sweaty sunshine days on a Monday, and then slightly nippy rain all weekend. Thanks a bunch June, I am hoping you pull your act together pre- Glastonbury.

Anyway, on those days when the sun does finally show its face, I have been munching on this. And to be honest even on the days it doesn't, under a blanket whilst watching Once upon a Time on Netflix (my most recent Netflix addiction, don't judge me).

4 great birthday cake recipes, to make for people who don't like birthday cakes

The Easiest Ever Ice Cream cake by A Beautiful Mess

Happy Sunday-but-really-like-a-Saturday-morning! I hope you are enjoying the long weekend. Mine is being a little laborious at present, as we are attempting to paint our white lounge white, but we're making it up to ourselves with plenty of homemade aperol spritzes in the sun, and takeaways in front of the telly once we've finished for the day.

So anyway, birthday cakes. Most of my friends birthdays seem to congregate around summer, don't ask me, must have been something in the water in the winter months of the late 1980s. Despite my humungous addiction to sugar, I am not the biggest fan of birthday cake. All the butter cream icing and the dense rich cake, it is just too much.

3 ways to brunch with baked ricotta

Raspberry meringue baked ricotta (recipe 3 below) with wholemeal seeded waffles and maple syrup

Happy Sunday!

I hope you've had a lovely weekend so far, and are in for a lovely lazy day today. I am gearing up for a day of pottering, after having spent some of yesterday at Quaglino's near Green Park enjoying a bottomless prosecco brunch with some of my old school friends. I am really into the bottomless prosecco brunch thing (I have one next weekend too!) and am sort of tempted to put together a post on my favourites, but it would just be all the ones I've ever been to, as I don't think anywhere has given me limitless prosecco and I've decided I don't like it!