peter gordon's fried halloumi topped with chilli, spinach, water chestnut, hazelnut, orange and sun-blushed tomato salad & beth's lemon and thyme drizzle cake

It's book club, but luckily our recent dalliance with Peter Gordon means we don't have to go through the usual "what shall we give the ladies" conversation. The question is though, which salad? Ana vetoes the courgette and chick pea one because she's bored of it, and the chorizo, olive and potato salad gets the elbow due to the presence of the spuds. Naturally in the end she throws her tiny weight behind anything involving halloumi.

As I've said before, the only issue with these dishes is the fact they involve a fair bit of construction, which should be fine, but I get distracted by wine and a discussion on breast enlargement, and take my eye off the ball whilst the cheese is grilling. Consequently it's slightly crisper than I'd like.

To balance the healthy first course, Beth comes up trumps with an amazing thyme and lemon drizzle cake, and we supply a massive punnet-load of raspberries from our super-abundant bushes. We even have real mint tea - crikey, it's like The Good Life, with Kendra in the Margot role of course...

sources
fried halloumi topped with chilli, spinach, water chestnut, hazelnut, orange and sun-blushed tomato salad - Peter Gordon, Salads: The New Main Course, p65
lemon and thyme drizzle - Mrs Bethany Gilbey, she's aces