Not a food blog...

As most of you know, I'm not the world's most enthusiastic cook. Sure I can cook, fairly decently if I'm honest, but I prefer not to. Still, Tuesday was a good day for me. Jake had a friend over to play after school and I made them fish fingers with some crisps, a little cucumber, tomato and a few grapes.

The kids got busy playing and I wasn't feeling lazy, so started getting things ready for dinner. Jake has grown the most beautiful aubergines, which are hellishly expensive at the moment, so we were going to have them for dinner. The weather was gorgeous - the kind where you don't feel particularly hungry and we all felt like a light dinner.

Anyway, I'm getting distracted - I just wanted to share my tzatziki recipe with you, I'm not sure if any one's ever made it for themselves, but it's so easy and so much better value (and quality) then the ready made ones you get in the stores. Plus, I had my camera on the counter while I was making it, so have a few photos to share. We made and ate this literally every day while we were in Greece, so it always reminds me of that trip in 2006.

So, first you take a cucumber, grate it, sprinkle it with salt and leave it in a colander to drain. I'm usually too impatient to leave the cucumber to drain, so I end up just squeezing the juice out. Makes no difference to the end result...

Then you take some fresh garlic and grate that too. We don't have a garlic press, so I just use the grater - much easier then chopping. I normally use 3 - 4 cloves (yes, you will STINK after eating this)...

Toss the garlic in with the cucumber...

Add your yogurt - I used about 500ml, but I was also using fat free yogurt, which is thinner then extra thick, creamy, rich Greek yogurt, so you use less. Just keep adding until it looks right...

Add about a tablespoon of olive oil...

A tablespoon of white vinegar...

A little salt - just a teeny bit, the garlic adds peppery flavour and you want to taste the cucumber and yogurt. And then you're done...

So, once the tzatziki was ready, I got going with the aubergines. We had four that Jake had grown. I cut up very thinly, rubbed them down with olive oil and topped with Dukka (an Egyptian spice blend that I am in love with). I lay them flat on a baking tray and baked them at 220 deg C for about 15 minutes. I think, in all fairness, that I needed to bake them a for little longer - I wanted to get them a little crispier. Still they were delicious with the tzatziki...

And then you have to have one of these for dessert! We eat them all the time and they're divine. There's an art to eating them though - if your biscuits break, it gets really messy. You kinda have to squash the marie biscuits as you go and lick the ice cream around the outside as it squishes out. Tons of fun and so, so yummy. Oh, this one was made with banana split flavoured ice cream. Totally divine...

Enjoy!! XXX