Another delicious salad that I love, and that is the perfect accompaniment to barbecued meat, is a beetroot salad I’ve been making for years (if not decades!). This recipe was originally shared with me from the wife of a very good friend’s cousin.
Back when we were teenagers with driving licences and too much time on our hands, my friend Helen and I would race around the country on a whim, visiting wherever we thought was a good idea on that day! One day we decided to go and visit (unannounced – I now realise how irritating we must have been!) Helen’s cousin and wife in Southend-on-Sea. They were so welcoming to two crazy teenage day-trippers and gave us a meal that included one of the most delicious salads I have ever tasted. I LOVE beetroot, and it also includes cheese (which is something of an addiction for me) and garlic – yes please! Helen’s cousin had married a Russian lady and she said she’d brought this recipe with her from Russia.
What is so great about this salad is that its really yummy the day after, spread thickly on a piece of crusty baguette. The only thing is, it’s so delicious it may not last until the day after!
Grate equal parts of cooked beetroot and cheese (I like to use a mature cheddar) and mix with a couple of spoonful’s of sour cream and crushed garlic (I’d suggest two cloves of garlic for every four cooked beetroots). It really is that simple!
At the weekend I got a really bad craving for homemade potato salad. I have no idea why, but something in me wanted homemade potato salad and so that’s what I was going to have! So I based my whole meal around the potato salad and I didn’t let myself down. 
It was so hot I decided to enjoy said potato salad with tuna steaks and a salad of lamb’s lettuce, radishes, cucumber and tomatoes dressed in olive oil and the juice of the other half a lemon. 
For pudding I wanted something equally as summery, indulgent but also not horrifically naughty. So I made a raspberry Eton mess with meringue (yes, shop bought. I can’t bake and make everything all the time!), fresh raspberries and organic raspberry yogurt. It didn’t last long!
The wine I chose to enjoy with this meal was – and please note that I am no exceptional wine connoisseur, just someone who likes what she likes as long as it falls in budget – a white rioja. I’ve been drinking white rioja for a few years now and picked up a bargain bottle in Lidl for just under £4. What a bargain! 
Sweet Clare 