Half of June has been marked by heat like in southern Europe. On days like these in my kitchen and fruit vegetables are king, unless my son asks me for dumplings or broth  I have already made dumplings in this heat, and today I would like to share with you the recipe for the most summery soup I know, i.e. cold soup. This time I made it differently. My cold soup was made with fruit and not with vegetables or natural yoghurt and kefir. The watermelon-strawberry cold soup is gentle, light and refreshing, and the feta cheese and lemon pepper change the fruit cocktail into a yummy and interesting soup.

Ingredients:
1kg of watermelon
0.5 kg of strawberries
a few leaves of peppermint
a few leaves of basil
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of honey
100g of feta cheese
lemon pepper

Recently I started to like risotto. I love the creamy texture of the rice. Plain to begin with, the dish has a lot of potential. You can prepare it with vegetables and parmesan, with meat or seafood and fish. I like risotto with asparagus spears. Today I would like to recommend risotto with chard. It is slightly sweet and beautifully pink. My son said that it is risotto for girls, but he ate and liked it. He especially enjoyed the small caramelized beetroots.

The idea for this dish comes from the Lidl on-line culinary book.

Ingredients:
200g of rice for the risotto
100ml of dry white wine
500ml of vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of parmesan
1 bunch of chard
1 tablespoon of honey
4 tablespoons of almond flakes
lemon
1 shallot
1 clove of garlic
salt and pepper

Every year for the beginning of the holiday I prepare a yummy homemade dessert. I do it to have a nice start to the relaxation and lazy time. I said relaxation? Ok, at least at the beginning of the holiday, let's pretend to believe in it.

Today I prepared strawberry tapioca pudding with white chocolate. The beginning of the holiday was excellent, because my children love tapioca pudding. I have already prepared many versions of this dessert: vanilla, coconut, and chocolate. Every time it is really great. Many types of fruit go well with this dessert, but especially slightly sour ones.

Ingredients:
60g of tapioca
420ml of milk (any kind of milk)
half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
50g of white chocolate
500g of strawberries

Popcorn – some people love it, others don't. I'm somewhere in between. I don't eat it at home, but at the cinema I always eat a small bucket of popcorn. It is a habit. My children love popcorn. They like to watch how the small yellow seeds change into white popcorn. I don't buy popcorn for the microwave. I heat a bit of oil, add the dry corn seeds, spice it up with salt and cover quickly. I need to stir every so often to heat the seeds steadily, and then we can watch the popping seeds.

For some time at the cinema we have been able to buy nachos with spicy red sauce. I have never bought any, but recently when I planned a movie night I decided to change our habit and made some nachos. I served the yummy paprika triangles with horseradish-avocado sauce and tomato-basil salsa.

The recipe for home nachos comes from the on-line Lidl cookery book.

Ingredients:
200g of cornmeal
100g of wheat flour
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of oil
warm water
sweet or spicy paprika
oil for frying

Muffins are the nicest cakes. Everybody likes them, especially children. They are excellent for lunch, afternoon tea or for a school integration party. You can bake them all year round. In the summer you should have them with fresh fruit. In the winter add spices. They will warm you up with a nice Christmas fragrance. Muffins also have other advantages. They are swift: a few uncomplicated ingredients, which you only need to stir and put in the oven. We like cake like that, don't we? The only problem is whether to make a double serving at once?

A few days ago I bought some apricots and peaches. Although they look nice, they are sour and my children didn't want to eat them. Fruit are excellent ingredients of muffins. The muffins were moist and nicely sweet-and-sour. They were great in the warm summer afternoon.

Ingredients:
225g of flour
180g of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 banana
150ml of milk
175ml of oil
a pinch of salt
1 peach
2 apricots
caster sugar