Fly me to the moon

Among the lovely goodies in my stash is a very old pad of K & Company 12 x 12 papers, and this space themed paper is one of the sheets from it. I've cut and torn various elements from the paper, including the countdown, the "to the moon" sentiment and the tiny rockets, and combined it with some blue spotty corrugated kraft because why not, and a stamped sentiment using bits snipped from a Dylusions one that originally said "You are about to exceed the limits of my medication".

And then I had the bright idea of blinging it up a bit with tiny peel off stars. Have you any idea what absolute @*!@*s those peel off stars are to pick up, even with a pokey tool?

I'm popping back to the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers for a second entry into the O is for Outer Space challenge.

So long, and thanks for all the fish......

Unless you are a Douglas Adams fan, you probably don't have a clue what I'm talking about! "So long, and thanks for all the fish" is the title of one of the books in his Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy series, in which the dolphins, who have been trying unsuccessfully for years to tell the human race that our planet was going to be destroyed in order for the Vogons to create an Intergalactic Superhighway, finally decide to leave Earth behind. "So long, and thanks for all the fish" is their parting message.

I think it would make an excellent sentiment for a Bon Voyage card, perhaps a retirement card for an office  team to send to a colleague or, if the recipient is also a Douglas Adams fan, a 42nd birthday. However there doesn't appear to be a rubber stamp of it. So I made my own on the computer - the font, if you are interested in such things, is Mister Sirloin BTN Rare (which sounds rather more meaty than fishy).

I've teamed it with some papers from a Stampin Up pas called Going Places, a stamped dolphin image which uses a very old anonymous unmounted stamp I got in a grab bag, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Promarkers, and a selection of stars and dolphin embellishments from my stash.

Sorry the photo's a bit skew-whiff, I must have been leaning to one side when I took it!

I am sharing this with

C.R.A.F.T. Challenges - Animals
Sweet Stampin - Seeing Stars
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - O is for Outer Space  

Clean and Simple at Cardz 4 Guyz

This week we have a Clean And Simple challenge for you at Cardz 4 Guys - so we want to see an uncluttered card with lots of open space on it.

For my card, I've used a lovely set of feather dies from Spellbinders and teamed them with a paper from the Stampin Up "Going places" pad and some coordinating washi tape. I was lucky enough to rummage in my bits box and find find snippets of card that were a really good match for the colours in the paper, so they were perfect for my feathers, tied together with a little twine that matches the washi tape.

If CAS is your "thing" you'll be in your element with this challenge - if it isn't, why not pop over to Cardz 4 Guyz and take a look at what the rest of the DT have made? There'll be lots of great inspiration for you.

I would like to share this with

Pixie's Snippets Playground - week 235 
Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Fab'n'Funky - Men/Boys  
Creative with Stamps - Manly/Masculine

RECIPE: Sausages with semi dried tomatoes, potatoes and pesto

Apologies to anyone wondering where all my craft posts have disappeared to - at the moment I'm not at home very much and when I am, I'm working on a rather complex project that is taking up just about all my crafting time.

However, we still need to eat, and when you're busy it's great to have a dish up your sleeve that doesn't take too much attention  - so this dish, that I rustled up yesterday, fits the bill perfectly, because the tomatoes look after themselves for an hour to leave me free to do something else (in this case, copious amounts of die cutting). Our fridge is at that stage of running it down before a holiday where you end up having mystery meals or a plain omelette every day - this is a mystery meal that I'll be repeating in future.

I planned the dish to serve 2, but in fact there would have been plenty for three.

Ingredients:

6 good quality pork sausages
250g new potatoes
1 medium onion
4 small tomatoes
150g baby button mushrooms
2 tbs basil pesto
1 tbs olive oil, plus more for spraying/drizzling
salt and pepper

Fist of all, prepare the tomatoes - this can be done in advance. Heat the oven to 140 C (120 fan, 275 F, gas mark 1). Cut the tomatoes into 6 wedges each and arrange spread out on a baking sheet. Spray with olive oil spray, if you have some, or drizzle with a tiny amount of oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook in the pre-heated oven for around an hour, until the wedges have shrunk and are semi-dried. Set aside for later.

Halve the sausages. Peel the onion and cut into 8 wedges, leaving the root end intact. Heat the oil in a lidded sauté pan on a high heat and fry the sausages and onions briskly until browned on all sides. While doing this, halve the potatoes (no need to peel). Add the potatoes to the pan, stir well and cover. reduce the heat to low and cook for around 15-20 minutes, stirring and turning from time to time so the potatoes brown evenly. When the potatoes are almost done, wipe and halve the button mushrooms and stir them into the mixture. Replace the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Remove the lid and stir in the pesto and tomatoes. Mix together gently and heat for another minute or so to warm the tomatoes.

Serve with a green salad.

This was just knocked together out of odds and ends, apart from the sausages - and even top notch sausages are a pretty cheap form of protein. But oh my goodness it was good, it tasted just like summer! The potatoes absorbed all the lovely sausage oniony juices and the pesto and tomatoes gave everything a zing. The mushrooms? Well to be honest they were just there because they needed using, I think the dish would be just as tasty without them.

I am sharing this with

Credit Crunch Munch at Lovely Appetite, Fab Food 4 All and Fuss Free Flavours

 

 

No Waste Food Challenge at Utterly Scrummy 

 

 

Kitchen Clearout at Madhouse Family Reviews 

 

  

 



A Salad Day

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a competition from the publishers Kyle Books. The prize was a place on the Sensational Salads - Love Your Leaves class at Caldesi's Kitchen in Gerards Cross, and a signed copy of the book Around The World in Salads - 120 Ways to Love Your Leaves by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi.

The book arrived almost immediately, and was crammed with delicious sounding recipes very much in tune with the way we like to eat, since we have so many lovely seasonal vegetables, herbs and salads in the garden, so I was really looking forward to the day.

The class took place in the kitchen of Katie and Giancarlo's house, where we were made to feel very welcome and at home. Cookery days I have been to before have included lots of formal teaching with participants working, singly or in pairs, at separate workstations, following step by step demonstrations, but this course was much more relaxed and informal - the nine participants and Katie worked together around a large table, creating all the dishes together. So one person would be shredding cabbage while another was skinning chicken and another making mayonnaise. I loved the relaxed atmosphere of the day that gave us lots of opportunity to chat and to share our passion for food.  We also had the chance to try some rather more unusual kitchen gadgets, such as Vietnamese cabbage slicer and vegetable shredders, and an American lime press (apparently essential for making margheritas) so I've added a few ideas to my wants list!

The session ended with us sitting down together and enjoying the dishes we had created, along with a glass or two of wine for the non-drivers. Those dishes were

Sea Bream, Grape and Celery Ceviche

 

Vietnamese Shredded Chicken and Cabbage Salad

 

Romaine Caesar salad with candied walnuts

 

Baby cress and toasted almond salad with buttermilk dressing - ooops, I forgot to take a photo of this!

 

Whole lettuce salad with gorgonzola dolce and hot bacon vinaigrette

 

 

Chicken shawarma, lettuce and coriander salad with lemon crème fraiche

 

Roast black fruit salad with amaretto and cashew lime cream

 





 

 

Every morsel was delicious, and better still for me, every single dish was suitable for me as a diabetic. I'm looking forward to re-creating these dishes at home - and to making many more of the recipes from the book. 









Rudolph Day again

Do you realise that today we are halfway to Christmas? Have you got half of your cards made yet? Well, if you join in with Rudolph Day over at Scrappymo's, you'll be sure of making at least one card a month! It's my final month on the design team, although as  I'm not  one of the ladies featuring on the blog this time, but next month I'll be back to joining in as normal.

The challenge starts on the 25th of each month and runs through to the end of the month and there is always a chance to win a great prize.

This month's card has seen me resurrect some very old stash - the reindeer and sentiment came from a Hunkydory kit that must be at least 10 years old! If you squint really hard you will see that the off-white card it is mounted on is a delicately texture Bazzill card, the texture doesn't show up very well on the photo.

 

 

I am sharing this with Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Use a Sentiment

 

Aztec papers from Quick Cards Made Easy

I was one of the readers invited to try out the papers printed in the centre of the Quick Cards made Easy July Issue before it went on sale this week. My cards weren't shown in the magazine but will be on their  website soon. The papers - and many others from previous issues - can also be downloaded from www.cardmakingandpapercraft.com so you are not constrained to just the quantity that comes in the magazine. I love the fun, hot pastel colours and chose black to make them really stand out.

Lizard and leaves

I've been playing with my lovely new Uniko stamps again, this time combined with stamps from a couple of old Woodware sets.  The solid and outline leaves are from my latest purchase, and the lizard and sentiment from old and much-loved sets.

First I stamped the lizard  and sentiment in Memento ink, then masked him with a stamped image cut from a Post-it note  and stamped over and around him with the leaves, using a Kaleidacolor Fresh Greens pad.

The lizard is coloured in with Promarkers and the finishing touch is a googly eye!

I am sharing this with

Addicted to Stamps and More - Clean and Simple
AAA Cards - Googley Eyes
 
Inkspirational - Masking 

Silent Night

Today's Christmas card is a scene I have created using a mixture of stamping and die cutting. The card base is cut with a Spellbinders Labels die, overlapping the edge to make a hinge, with a separate full sized die cut on top of it to form the card front.

For the scene, I cut a smaller label in blue card and then used a Clarity Stamps trees stamp to stamp right the way across, embossing them with a very old embossing powder called "Wild natural - Jungle" by a firm called Enchanted Creations. I don't know whether it is still available but it is great for fir trees as it is a blend of different shades of dark green and a little brown.

While the embossing was still warm, I overstamped it all in white, using a speckled background stamp for snow, and embossed that with white embossing powder. Doing it while the green was warm meant that the trees picked up a little of the white powder in places, giving them a snow-dusted effect.

I used an X-cut scene die for the houses in front of the trees. I wish I had the patience to cut a second one in another colour to fill in all the doors and windows using the waste, but I'm afraid that just isn't for me at all!

Finally a little Studio G stamped sentiment, and a little matching ink around the edge of the die cut layer.

I am sharing this with

Sweet Stampin - Shaped Cards
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Christmas landscapes
Crimbo Crackers - Anything Goes  

At the Movies at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's time for our latest challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz, and this week our theme is At The Movies.

My choice of movie may sound like an odd one for a masculine card - Mary Poppins - but who could forget Dick van Dyck's terrible cockney accent in the old 1960s film of the story? And what part did he play? A chimney sweep, of course! I printed this chimney sweep decoupage from La Pashe's CD "Something for everybody" and combined it with a red brick backing paper from "The best of La Pashe 2012",

I've added some umbrella printed paper from a K & Company pad, as umbrellas are another thing I associate with the film. And the good luck sentiment is there because sweeps are traditionally a symbol of good luck - so much so that when I was a child, people would sometimes pay the local chimney sweep to attend their wedding! So this card would make a great good luck card for a man.

We'd love to see YOUR interpretation of our At The Movies theme.

Inspired by buttons

This week I stocked up on Christmas embellishments from It's Sew Gorgeous who sell through their Facebook page. They have a great selection of unusual buttons, and I think a lot of my Christmas makes are going to be inspired by them from now on.

I immediately picked out two very pretty buttons in pink and turquoise, rather unusual colours for Christmas, which go beautifully with a Craft Asylum pad of VERY un-Christmassy papers that I've not used for a while and was due for an outing. To make it all a bit more festive, I stamped a topper using stamps from a Christmas Special of one of the craft mags from a few years ago, and used Promarkers to colour it to go with the papers and buttons.

I am sharing this with

Just add ink - Stripes
Fantasy Stampers - Teddy Bear's Picnic
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Cute or Anything Goes
Glitter 'n' Sparkle - Anything Goes  

Mark's Veg Plot

The current challenge at Allsorts is "How does your garden grow?". Well, as most of you know, my husband is very keen on growing vegetables - this is what our garden looks like

 

One of his star crops is carrots, bought ones seem so tasteless by comparison! So here is a card made with Sheena Douglass stamps from the Home Life collection, that celebrates the beautiful carrots he grows. I'm rather regretting the "brainwave" I had of saving myself from having to colour in the carrots by stamping them on orange card, they would have looked MUCH better with white showing through the fronds rather than orange!

The carrots, basket, sign and trowel were all stamped on snippets and assembled on the card, so I'm also popping over to the Snippets Playground with this.

Butterfly and blooms

The latest challenge at Butterfly Challnege is Butterflies with Oval and/or Olive. Olive green is one of my favourite colours which means that when I have anything that colour in my stash, it tends to be used up really quickly, but I managed to collect together a couple of old Anna Griffin papers and some dark olive  Core-dinations card.

The fancy oval is cut with a Spellbinders die, then because I don't have a large enough oval die to fill the centre, I used the inner rim of the die as a template to cut my cream card. I stamped the image three times, once on the oval and twice on scraps of the same card, and then cut out the butterfly, postmark and flowers from the extra images and used them to layer up to give dimension to the finished card.

Happy Birthday Lara

Today is the 7th birthday of Lara, our oldest granddaughter. She's off on a beavers trip for the day, so her party and family visits were last weekend - like having a birthday that spans two weeks! Lara loves crafting with me, so I wanted to make her a card in a style she wouldn't have seen before, so I've made my very first pop up box card.

The papers are from my stash and the balloons are cut with a Spellbinders set.

I am sharing this with
Fab'n'Funky - Shaped Cards 

Coffee, Tea or Me at Twofers

Our latest challenge at Twofers has just gone live and this fortnight it is Coffee, Tea or Me.

Now, despite being a tea lover, I have practically no tea or coffee themed craft stash, and only one stamp even remotely suitable, this Crafty Individuals stamp of a bird balanced precariously on a pile of vintage tea cups. I had a good old rummage through my stash and found a piece of teapot  backing paper and these printed teacup images - also from Crafty Individuals - but how to pull it all together?

Then I remembered the conversations my parents used to have on family days out.

Dad: "Shall we stop for a tea or coffee?"
Mum: "Whatever."
Dad: "Would you like to stop now or later?"
Mum: "Whenever"

It was the same every time we went out, and has become permanently associated with the question "Tea or coffee?" in my mind. I had the perfect stickers for it, too, so a bit of collage with the images and a doiley and some lovely crinkle ribbon, and I was good to go.

Do please join in with us at Twofers - Zoe and I are feeling very lonely over there as we get so few entries, and that means few chances to enjoy your lovely work. Any style or technique is welcome as long as your work fits the theme and uses some stamping and no digis. As you can see from my card this time, it doesn't need to be ALL stamping!

I'm sharing this with

A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes
Classic Design Team Challenge - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - June    

Sparkling Scottie

If you're thinking "I can't keep up with all these posts!" relax, I've had a lovely time crafting recently but by the end of next week I'll be back to the normal business of  dashing hither and thither and only posting once a day or so. I am trying to boost my stocks for a charity sale at the moment, which is a great motivator!

Anyway, here is my third (and final) post for today - a Christmas card made with an X-cut die set. The name of the set isn't given anywhere on the pack, I'm afraid, and it was one they sent me to apologise for a set I bought being faulty, so I don't know what it is called, but it doesn't appear to be designed as a particularly Christmassy design. However I thought with the addition of a wreath on the door (two circle dies cut together and a few gems) and a scatter of frosty glitter, it would be perfect for the occasion. 

The little scotty dog must have been out rolling in the snow as he seems to have picked up some of the sparkle, even though I didn't put any glue on him.

I am sharing this with

Addicted to Stamps and More - Holiday 
Winter Wonderland - Add Some Sparkle
C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas

On yer bike

A very quick and CAS card today - with a suitable sentiment it would be ideal for a last minute fathers day card. Just some washi tape, a die-cut bicycle and a stamped sentiment, all on kraft card. Simple, masculine and my card for this week's CAS-ology where the theme is Masculine.

Aloha!

If you saw the pile of goodies I've bought this week in one of my posts yesterday, you may have spotted  that among them were the new releases from Uniko Studios along with the hummingbird set that is a previous release that the new sets are designed to work with. I just couldn't wait to get them inky!

I got the graduated colour effect on the hummingbird by randomly dabbing it onto a Kaleidacolor pad - yes, I did have to clean the pad afterwards, but I think it was worth it!

I am sharing this with Addicted to CAS where the code word this time is ALOHA

Vrooooooom!

The latest challenge at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is  V is for Vroom! - in other words, anything involving a motorised vehicle with two or more wheels (and, of course, a certain amount of snark).

I've used a pre-printed image of a crazy motorcycle stunt being performed, the image is from a Kanban sheet, and teamed it with silver card, embossed with a docrafts texture folder, a wonderful sentiment stamped with a Rubber Dance stamp and a couple of acrylic pennants (you can't see it on the photo but the black one has a textured finish to match the embossing) from an NBUS pack that I accidentally bought when I dashed into a shop to get out of a heavy rainstorm. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it....

I'm also popping back in to Naughty or Nice challenges for another entry into the Man Up challenge since this man is quite literally up!

And talking of accidental shopping, well, I keep telling myself I don't really buy craft stuff any more, apart from basic consumables like card and adhesives, because I already have so much. Then I stopped and thought about what I've bought so far this week......

Ooops! And I've just remembered that doesn't include the rather lovely paper stack I bought at the weekend......

SnapCat

No, not SnapChat, that's one aspect of social media that I've not dabbled in (yet). A snap as in a Polaroid snap - of a cat.

This card was actually inspired by the ribbon, that was part of a goody bag I won. Isn't it gorgeous? Shiny silver paw prints on a turquoise-blue background. So my "photo" is of the cat that must have left those pawprints, I had intended to make the whole Polaroid as a single layer, colouring in the blue background, but I thought this scribble-style cat could end up looking messy if I tried to colour around it, so I stamped and embossed it onto some card that matches the ribbon instead.

The backing paper is a downloaded Coosty Creations design. The cat stamp is a very old UM, I can't remember where it came from, and the sentiment is a Studio G stamp.

I am sharing this with

Shopping Our Stash - Let me Take a Selfie
Show Us Your Pussies - Furrything Goes

England v Wales

This afternoon I believe the English and Welsh football teams are playing each other in Euro 2016. Neither of us follows football, but I reckon it's a pretty safe bet that, unless the result is a draw, the winner will be a British team! And that gives me a great excuse to play with my new Union Jack style ribbon from Crafty Ribbons.

I've combined it with appropriately coloured butterflies, die cut using a Spellbinders die (can't recall the name of the set but there is a butterfly and a heart, each with matching corner/confetti dies.

I am sharing this with

CAS on Sunday - Butterflies 
Dies R Us - Butterflies
The Paper Players - Red, White and Blue

No image or photo

OK, if you've looked at the thumbnail you may be puzzled as there IS a photo - unless, of course, you already knew that the latest challenge at CD Sundays is No Image or Photo. On the card, not in the blog post!

For my card I have used a selection of papers printed off from the Funky Hand CD "Funky Daze" - this is among my oldest craft CDs and still a great favourite, yet each time I use it I fond something new. I'm pretty sure I have never used any of the papers in this particular colour group before.

In place of an image, I've used an acetate sentiment from a very old Hot Off The Press kit, which I've stuck to white card and die cut. A couple of die cuts to pick up the pink of the stripes and the swirls on the teal paper finish the card off.

London Fog

This month's challenge at One Layer Simplicity is STENCIL. Now I don't have many stencils, so I decided to make one using a die from the X-cut Build-a-scene London set.

First of all I stamped and embossed the postbox and greeting, then masked them and also masked off an area in the middle of the card, taped down the die cut negative and sponged grey ink into it. The finished effect is of a traditional pillarbox with a foggy London skyline in the background.

I know this card is going to go down well with my competition loving friends - especially those in the LONDON Competitors Club, as we all love postboxes - after all, most of our exciting prizes come through the post!

Splish, splash, splosh

It's one layer week over at Less is More and the challenge is one that really strikes fear into my heart - SPLATTERS. I'm really not good at splashy, splattery stuff. I now have rejected practice pieces all over my craft table, and as friends who saw my Facebook status last night will know, orange fingers. In the end I decided to cheat and use stamped splatters - the dainty little splatters are an old Anita's stamp, and the splodge is from a Rubber Dance sheet, the same sheet as the sentiment - which even has numbers splattered all around!

A quick Christmas card

This card was very quick and easy to make, using a topper from an old kit (Kanban?) with a die cut layer, scraps of grey and black card and some embellishments from my stash.

Simple but, I think, effective. I am sharing it with

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Silver
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Black, white, silver and grey

Music at Cardz 4 Guyz

This week's new challenge is just starting at Cardz 4 Guyz, and this week the theme is MUSIC.

The background card I have used is the very last sheet* of a gorgeous pack of card I bought many years ago, at the Eden Project in Cornwall of all places! The wonderful swirly effect is made with coffee grounds embedded in the fabric of the card. The sheet music is a Kanban stamp and the collage and sentiment are from a sheet of clear stamps I bought from Create and Craft, sorry, can't remember the name or manufacturer. I coloured it with a mixture of Promarkers, pencils, distress ink and a gold metallic gel pen.

It all looked a bit too brown, and the stamped pieces threatened to merge into the background, so I added music and lattice die cuts in black - the lattice picks up on the diamond patterned area of the collage.

*last minute update - Happy Dance! I was looking for some card for another project and I found another sheet of this gorgeous card, so it's not all finished yet after all!

I would like to share this with:

C.R.A.F.T - inspired by a film (bit of a cheat, really, as the film Beethoven is really about a dog - but the name's the same!)
Addicted to Stamps and More - Make your mark
Sweet Stampin - 3 or more layers
Craft Rocket - For a man/boy
Alphabet Challenge - H for Hand Coloured Image

RECIPE - Lemon and Thyme Scones with Lavender Butter

You can buy lavender jelly from farm shops and garden centres - or substitute a herb jelly of your choice!

For the scones (makes 6):

200g self raising flour
50g butter
½ teaspoon salt
1 lemon
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
water to mix

for the lavender butter:

50g butter, softened
3 teaspoons lavender jelly

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C, 400 F, gas mark 6. Line a baking sheet with non-stick paper.

Place the flour in a large bowl, stir in the salt and add the butter, cut into small pieces. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture is like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the finely grated zest of the lemon and the chopped thyme.

Stir in the lemon juice then gradually add water until the mixture forms a soft dough - the amount of water you need will depend on how juicy your lemon is.

Pat the dough out on a floured surface to about 1.5 cm thick and use a 6cm cutter to cut out the scones - the mixture should make around 6 scones.

Place them well apart on the prepared baking sheet and cook for 12-15 minutes in the pre-heated oven until they are well risen and a light biscuit colour.

They will not brown as much as a traditional scone because they don't contain any sugar and have not been glazed with milk or egg. Leave to cool on a wire rack while making the lavender butter.

Beat the softened butter until very soft and creamy, then blend in the lavender jelly a little at a time, beating well between each addition.

Split the scones and serve spread with the lavender butter.

The scones and butter can be eaten on their own as a snack, or served with cold meats, cheeses or fresh, light summer soups.

I am sharing this with Cooking with Herbs for tea Time Treats at Lavender and Lovage  and The Hedgecombers 

 

RECIPE - Chipotle Burgers

Actually, these burgers needn't be Chipotle ones - this is a really neat way of using up that half bottle of  any kind of BBQ sauce that's sitting in the fridge because the weather turned wet just after you started it (that's the British summer for you!) - what really matters is that you make your mayo mixture with the same sauce you grill the burgers with, so you get the flavour running through every bite! For the sake of the photo I've gone topless (ooh madam!) so you can see how beautiful it looks all stacked up before you squish the top of the bun onto it and take that first glorious bite.....

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 burger buns (being flashy, I used home made onion bread rolls)
2 burgers (also being flashy, I used Wild Boar and Apple burgers which I found on a freezer dive)
4 tablespoons chipotle flavoured barbecue sauce
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 torpedo shallot, finely chopped
1 lime, juice only
2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
a pinch of salt
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1 small avocado
30g Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated

Brush the burgers with 2 tablespoons of the barbecue sauce. If you have time, leave them for an hour or so to absorb the flavour of the sauce. Heat the grill.

Make the Chipotle mayo by simply mixing 1 tablespoonful of the Chipotle barbecue sauce with the mayonnaise (bottled mayonnaise is fine for this recipe). There will be more mayo than you need - use the rest as a dip for chips or crudités.

Make the salsa by mixing together the shallot, tomatoes, salt and lime juice. If you like fresh coriander, you can add some - I can't use it as Mark is allergic to it.

Grill the burgers until done to your preference, brushing the remaining barbecue sauce over when they are half cooked. Slice the avocado and halve the rolls while they cook, and spread the rolls with some of the Chipotle mayo.

Serve a burger on each roll topped with sliced avocado, salsa, grated cheese and spring onions.

This is my entry to #KitchenClearout at Madhouse Family Reviews - the perfect place to share ideas for all those odds and ends left in the fridge and cupboards