Calling Denmark - +45

And here we are at number 45! Just a few meals away from the big finish and my goodness am I starting to feel it! What a crazy year of cooking, digging through the deli, getting to know the local fish mongers, scratching our heads about strangely named ingredients and eating ourselves absolutely stupid on the most wonderful food ever to come out of our dear little kitchen! And this week is just as fabulous as any other, with our take on Kinda Sausage Cassoulet, Warm Broccoli Salad and Meringues.

Let's talk about this cassoulet. First word - yum. Second word - YUM. This is just one of those dishes that is amazing from start to finish. It actually is pretty easy too - I'm not sure if all of these meals are getting easier because I'm feeling so comfortable in the kitchen and with the format of the recipes now, or because it really is that easy. Perhaps a bit of both? Whatever it is, this meal was fairly simple to put together and tasted great. The sausages go so well with the passata and bacon flavours and the crust on the top just gives it a little extra something. This is a dish to feed the masses and I recommend it if you want to do something a bit fancy with the snags you didn't end up using at the BBQ on the weekend.

The broccoli looks spectacular on the serving dish, and I was so happy to photograph it. In fact, the entire meal this week ended up being delightfully photogenic and I'm so proud to share the photos with you! I love that something I made ended up looking so darn delicious! Broccolini is my current favourite vegetable and it served us very well in this recipe. The colour clash with the tomato and red onion purée is so cool, it makes the dish look almost restaurant quality when it was actually dead simple matter of boiling up the broc stalks and tipping some purée mess over the top. And it tasted awesome!

The dessert was truly beautiful as well, I will definitely be making these again! We used meringue nests from the supermarket and did exactly what Mr Oliver says to do - loaded them up with lemon curd, topped that with yoghurt/honey/berry mixture and then dropped a few extra berries on top, to make it extra special. This dessert is perfect for a group with a strong sweet tooth, but perhaps a bit much for those who aren't fond of a sugar overload. The servings are just small enough that you don't feel overwhelmed by the sugar rush afterward, but more than enough for me!

So there you go, a really simple meal that looks absolutely divine - its the cheats way to throw a dinner party, I think. And I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs to feed a group and wants to impress them all, without really trying too hard. And next week we'll be taking you through British Picnic, an amazing collection of dishes made up of Sausage Rolls, Mackerel Pate, Lovely Asparagus, Crunch Salad and Pimm's Eton Mess!

Til then - Bon Appetit!