Gin. Perfect served over ice with a slice of lemon and tonic, and a true companion on a summer’s day. I tend to default to gin when the weather gets hot, so when Sainsbury’s sent me a bottle of its award-winning Taste the Difference Blackfriars London Dry Gin, it was time for me to step away from the tonic and experiment. The weather demanded something cold and fruity that would keep my thirsty friends happy whilst the sausages were sizzling on the barbecue. I came up with a blend of gin, white tea and Sainsbury’s Apple and Raspberry juice. Was it delicious? Indeed it was. But there’s more. This tasty new drink needed a name, and not just any old name, but a great name. And so, the G and Tea was born. Do you see what I did there?

Serving this drink in jam jars with floral-printed straws is, of course, optional, but does look very pretty. And, it’s the only time that I’ve ever been able to say, “My straw matches my dress.”

I realise this is quite a bold statement, but I’m going to go ahead and say it anyway: I’m about to change the way you look at pancakes forever. No longer will you reach for the sugar and lemon or syrup or jam. But what you will do is make sure you always have Nutella and chopped hazelnuts in the cupboard and eggs and Alpro hazelnut milk in the fridge.

My love affair – who am I kidding, it’s full blown marital bliss – with Nutella, leads me to slather it on everything. It just makes things so much better. Consequently, it’s also my favourite part of eating a Ferrero Rocher. There is only one way the Ambassador would approve of you eating a Ferrero Rocher and that’s by biting it in half, eating the hazelnut and then licking the Nutella from the shell, before devouring the rest. Swooning from a box of delicious chocolate-hazelnut goodness, I had a Ferrero Rocher-inspired epiphany, which begged the question, how good would Ferrero Rocher pancakes be? They might just be the best thing ever. But don’t just take my word for it. Rustle up a few of these and see for yourself.

Depending on the size of your cup, this recipe normally makes around six pancakes. Now all you need to do is sit back, enjoy and prepare yourself for the inevitable, which is whipping up another batch.

What do you think? My favourite picture is of the beautiful yellow and purple flowers – it reassured me that spring is on its way, and the dark mornings will soon be a thing of the past. All in all, it was a very good Sunday.

I am sincerely thankful that Edinburgh has not been plagued by the arctic-esque scenes recently witnessed south of the border. Despite this, we have experienced a particularly chilly few weeks, where gloves, hats and scarves have become must haves in order to brave the great outdoors.

Being somewhat forgetful at the best of times, I recently failed to pack my woolly companions for my 40 minute walk home from work. Oh how I missed them. Teeth chattering, I knew that in order to defrost thoroughly, something more potent than tea would be required. A thick, hearty soup of lentils and sweet potatoes was born.

Soup is something I regularly marvel at. Quite a strong statement I realise, but there are so many positive things to say about soup. It’s versatile, it’s healthy and alongside being delicious, it’s very cheap to make. In the winter months, I make a large pot of soup every Sunday. This decants perfectly into daily portions for lunches at work. But I’m not in any way averse to eating the same thing for lunch five days in a row – if you are, my delicious money saving method could prove a little difficult.

Today’s soup is spiced with chilli and cumin, and really did the trick when it came to warming me up. You might like to tone down the spice (those of you that know me well are used to my love of chilli), or try my recommended recipe – it will certainly leave you with a warm glow. I enjoy the chunks of sweet potato through the soup, but it is also delicious blended. This recipe serves eight.

Winter has very much arrived. As I slid through Stockbridge earlier today, I made peace with the fact that my brogues had tread on their last leaves of the year, and it was now time for my Uggs to provide me with a safer form of transport.

What has proved to be a particularly tiring few weeks, led to my plans today going slightly askew. An early rise to watch the Santa run was replaced with scrambled eggs on brown toast and a cup of Earl Grey, with a knitted blanket to keep me warm. When I finally braved the streets, the men with red hats and white beards had returned home, having accomplished something on this second Sunday of December. My lack of achievements today soon subsided when I decided that giving myself a hard time for doing nothing was somewhat pointless. We’re all allowed a day now and then when we do absolutely nothing, aren’t we?

On this sort of day, when it’s cold inside and out, only certain sorts of dishes will do. My lack-lustre attitude to the day itself resulted in a desire to produce a meal with minimal effort and attention: something hearty and warm, where the oven did most of the work – beef, cooked slowly in red wine, infused with sage, onion and garlic. This proved to be the one thing I achieved today, and the three hour wait allowed me to flick enviously through the pages of Vogue, whilst my dinner took care of itself in the oven.

I devoured two servings of this stew with the remaining wine, and some delicious fresh bread. With Elf on in the background, I finally felt a sense of satisfaction about how I’d spent my day. Little was accomplished, but a delicious meal was eaten, and full red bodied wine was drunk – isn’t that what Sundays were made for?

It was a day for denim and tweed, coffee and pancakes. With the sun shining so brightly, and the threat of snow later on this week, I took to the streets of Stockbridge with the aim of finally acquainting myself with the Stockbridge Market. Positioning themselves at the crossroads with Saunders Street and Kerr Street proved to be a shrewd move for the marketeers, as there were plenty of hungry customers leaving the market with many a delicious offering. Of course, I bought some olives, which I intend to enjoy thoroughly with a beautiful glass of red on a less modest night of the week.

And now onto the subject of the pre-market pancakes. Whipped up this morning, with fresh raspberries and vanilla, these fluffy helpings prevented me from eating an awful lot more than I did at the market.

Serve your pancake warm, with fresh raspberries and vanilla yoghurt. I’m biased towards using Rachel’s Organic Vanilla Yoghurt  – I’ve yet to find a better alternative.

After a day of fighting with iTunes, my excitement over the arrival of my shiny new white iPhone soon disappeared. A further kick in the teeth was the realisation that it’s merely a stone’s throw from the start of the Monday to Friday hum-drum. But there are some things to smile about today. My lamb has been marinating in the fridge since 9am this morning (in rosemary, garlic and red wine), my Nouvelle Vague album arrived yesterday and has kept me in sincere company, alongside Vogue and Ideal Home.

Since the only things not to fail me this weekend seem to have been the trusty items in my kitchen, I decided to seek further comfort through making some flapjacks. I use honey, rather than golden syrup to bind my recipe. There aren’t any particular reasons behind this, other than I usually have honey in the cupboard, where as golden syrup doesn’t last much beyond pancake day in my house.

Here’s my interpretation of the delicious flapjack. Not only is it a wholesome treat come breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but it can also double up as granola. Simply break the mixture up as soon as it comes out of the oven for granola, or leave it to cool and set for flapjacks. Two recipes in one – it doesn’t get much better than that.

I cut my flapjacks into bite-size pieces, so this mixture usually makes around 15 small flapjacks. The granola tastes absolutely delicious with some yoghurt for breakfast, especially Rachel’s Organic Vanilla Yoghurt – my favourite!