This is a really really bastardized version of a Jamie Oliver recipe - basically so I could use up left over roast chicken from Sunday without making curry again.

You will need:

• left over roast chicken meat
• half a box of mushrooms
• 250ml double cream or just over
• garlic
• 150g parmesan cheese
• 250g or more of linguine or spaghetti
• a glass of white wine or Noilly Prat vermouth
• basil

(Made enough for 2 adults and 3 small children).

Cook the pasta. Put the grill on.

Thinly slice the mushrooms and fry in a little oil with the chopped garlic. Add the cooked, diced chicken and fry for a bit to warm it through. Turn up the heat and throw on the wine or vermouth. Inhale deeply. Reduce the wine a bit then pour on the cream and brink to the boil. Add some salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper.

Take the pan off the heat. Stir in most of the grated cheese and the chopped basil. Mix in with the pasta in an oven dish sprinkling some parmesan on top. Zap under the grill until golden brown on top.

2 out of 3 of my children wanted seconds.

This comes from my Mum, who got it from a magazine or newspaper before Christmas.

- 1 block of puff pastry.
- Enough sausage meat to feed your family.

Pre-heat your oven to 180C

Roll our the pastry into a square sheet.

Using your hands mould the sausage meat into a cylindrical shape, and place it in the middle of your pastry sheet. Wrap the sausage meat up in the pastry, and place your giant sausage roll seam-down on a baking tray. Trim off excess pastry from the ends and cut a few lines into the pastry on the top side of the roll. Brush milk over the pastry and slam in the oven for about half an hour.

…to obesity and beyond!

I can’t remember where this one came from. It might have been on the side of a tin of Campbell’s condensed soup. But it might not have.

- 1 block shortcrust pastry - taken from the freezer about 3 hours ago and now thoroughly de-frosted.
- 1 tin Campbell’s condensed chicken soup.
- 2 chicken fillets - diced.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C

Fry the diced chicken in a knob of melted butter.

Grease the inside of a pie dish or oven-proof plate. I use a shallow pyrex bowl which is very un-glamorous, but quite effective.

Roll out two sheets of pastry. Put one on your plate to form the bottom of the pie.

When the chicken’s cooked take it off the heat and stir in the condensed soup. Ladle this mixture into the pie and cover with the top sheet of pastry.

Trim the pastry so it’s nice and tidy round the outside of the pie, seal the edges by pressing down with the tines of a fork all the way round the rim. Cut a slit in the top of the pie and if you’re feeling creative make a few pastry leaves to decorate the top of the pie. Brush or sprinkle with milk.

Put it in the oven until the pastry’s cooked.

Lovely with roast potatoes and some veg or just some chips!

This recipe comes from my Mum.

Lancashire Hotpot is traditionally made with lamb, but this hotpot variation calls for beef.

- Some diced stewing steak. About 500g.
- Potatoes - loads.
- One onion.
- Half a pint of red wine.
- Veggie stock cube (optional).

Preheat the oven to 170c.

Peel the spuds and cut them into chunks about the same size as the pieces of your meat.

Coarsely chop the onion.

Throw the meat, potatoes and onion into a large pot.

Pour in the wine and top up with boiling water. Add the stock cube if you want.

Put the lid on the pot and leave in the oven for three hours. I usually take it out and give it a stir once an hour, but there’s really no need to!

Serve while piping hot. You can garnish with beetroot, and it’s also really good with some biscuits of shortcrust pastry to help mop up the juice.

I think it’s a great dish for this time of year. It’s lovely to put on before going to see a fireworks display. When you come back home the delicious smell will meet you at the front door, and the meal will warm you all up again. If there are any left-overs it’s just as good reheated in a saucepan the next day!

I like make a chicken go as far as possible - typically we get a Sunday lunch, sandwiches the next day and a chicken pie out of one bird. Occasionally I make chicken stock but that can tend to get left unused in the freezer, so I tried making soup instead. Worked rather well.

• leftover roast chicken
• onions
• carrots
• celery
• garlic
• drop of white wine or vermouth
• small pasta (such as ditali lisci 58)
• spoon or two of double cream

Get all the meat off your chicken carcass and set aside - make a pie or sandwiches with most of it, but hold some back for your soup.

Make stock out of the carcass - put it in a saucepan, cover with water. Add a chopped onion, carrots, celery etc and a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Simmer for a couple of hours, skimming any scum or excess fat off the top.

When the stock tastes good, strain off the chicken bones and vegetables and discard.

Fry an onion and some garlic in another pan. When they are nice and soft chuck in some white wine or vermouth - I used a capful of Noilly Prat, but will be using rather more next time!

Add the stock and a couple of handfuls of small pasta and simmer to cook the pasta. Skim off any excess fat, but not all of it - I think you want this soup to be a little bit schmaltzy. Add salt and pepper to taste.

For a basic soup you could stop here, but I wanted to give this to one of my children in his packed lunch, so I added some chopped chicken breast and a spoon of double cream at this point, and whizzed it up in the blender. The little pasta pieces were pleasingly untouched by the Magimix blade, but the chicken meat was shredded.

I thought it was delicious and Henry drank every drop for school lunch the next day.

Jerk chicken but with the emphasis on flavour rather than just being hot.

• 1 Large dried red chilli
• 1 Tablespoon dried Oregano
• 2 Teaspoons Cumin seeds
• 1 Teaspoon Coriander seeds
• 5 cloves of Garlic
• 1 Teaspoon ground Turmeric
• A couple of pinches of mustard
• A good dose of Olive Oil
• Packet of Sainsbury’s Free-Range Chicken (about 8 thighs and drumsticks)

Break the chilli open and chuck all the seeds away. You could leave them in but don’t expect the kids to eat their tea if you do! Put the chilli, oregano, cumin and coriander seeds in a coffee grinder or pestle and mortar and grind them finely.
Put the garlic, turmeric, mustard and olive oil in the blender. Add the ground up herbs and spices. Blend ’till sludgy. Is there enough sludge to cover all the chicken? If not add more olive oil. Now add some salt and ground pepper.
Get a shallow-ish roasting tray and pour the sludge into it. It should be big enough for there to be a single layer of chicken but not so big that there are big spaces in between the pieces. You’re pouring the sludge in first so that you don’t have to keep washing your hands after you handle the chicken.
Open the chicken packet, add the pieces to the sludge and then marvel at how much packaging you’re about to throw away. Work the sludge into the chicken pieces, getting it under the skin as much as possible. Arrange the pieces so that each one has a bit of space around it - you want the skins to be crisp.
Cook in the oven at 180 degrees if it’s a fan assisted oven, more if it’s not. They’ll need 30 to 45 minutes but it’s hard to over-cook them so be generous with the time.