Marie Cookpad

  Did you have a job picking local strawberries when you were a teenager?  I am pretty sure that if you lived in a fairly rural location you probably did.  Local strawberry growers depended on teens hungry for extra money back in the day! I did it for a few weeks every summer for a couple of years. It was a back breaking labour spending the day crouched low to the ground and in hot sun.  You picked long and hard for a few dollars a day, but we were grateful for the work. The farmers would actually send a truck to pick you up and take you to the strawberry fields.   I wonder if teens still pick berries for money?   Or do our farmers have to rely on immigrants.  I don't know.  You would have thought all that picking would have soured my taste for berries, but nope.  I adore strawberries above all other berries. I don't think there is a way I could ever not like them, and here in the UK we grow some of the best.   One thing we all real...

   Just as promised here I am today with Ten easy and elegant dessert parfaits!  Oh, I do so love to make dessert parfaits in the summer time!   For one thing they make great use of all of the fresh fruit that we have available and coming into season, especially berries!   Our strawberries are finished now, but you can still get good local ones in the shops.  There are also plenty of blueberries, raspberries and the blackberries are just beginning!   These Raspberry, Ice Cream and Brownie Parfaits are a real favourite and so easy to do.  Especially if you have some ready made brownies about.    The berries are sweetened with a bit of sugar and then layered in pretty glasses along with softened vanilla ice cream, crumbled brownies and milk chocolate chips!    What's not to like about that?  Nothing!  These are so simple to make and oh so tasty!    If you don't have brownies, you could use chocolate cookies, o...

  I am always on the lookout for a new macaroni salad. I love macaroni salads in the summer.  Why?  Because there are no potatoes to peel, you just boil the macaroni, prep any other ingredients, drain the macaroni and stir it all together with a dressing.  Easy.    I discovered this recipe the other day over on Simply Delicious Food and it intrigued me.  I often make a curried chicken salad and its fabulous.  I just love it!!    I had an interesting combination of colours and textures . . .  in the way of chopped red peppers and cucumber . . .  celery . . .  red onions  . . .  and chopped peaches!  Chopped Peaches???? Say what???  I'm in!  I love peaches!   I thought the creamy dressing was also a bit unusual.  It uses a small portion of sweetened condensed milk . . .  like the Borden's stuff. (Not evaporated milk, don't make that mistake.) I love sweetened condensed milk. I could e...