I love my brother, not 100% of the time you understand, well I suppose I always love him but then there are those times when I am exasperated by him (as he is frequently with me and not without cause) but all in all, we do ok as siblings and as compardres.

We are very different cooks, but I am a bit in awe of him, because he is one of those natural cooks and inventive as well. Anyway, in amongst all the other things that tie us together, he is very foodie.

A few weeks ago Karl-Heinz was cooking and we went by with some other friends to enjoy a tasty supper and generally to laugh at each other…. A favourite past time.

It kind of reminds me of the first time we met my sister-in-law ‘The Minx’ when she arrived at our old flat as our friends of ‘hundreds’ of years standing were mid flow through supper…. It must have been daunting but all the more so because Rocket repeatedly and inexplicably called her by the wrong name for the whole evening…and the name in question was that of a former amour of my brother, which caused so much suppressed hilarity that our friend, The Canary, blew bubbles out of his nose. I finally called Rocket to the kitchen to underline his error…after which he cheerfully and tenaciously persisted in his mistake for the remainder of the night.

Back to the tale…

My brother and his wife had, last year, holidayed in Iceland (yes the Country!) and waxed lyrical about the food over there as well as the funky bars and nightlife scene in general – which means it’s now firmly on my list of places to visit.

So it was that we were served a scrumptious meal that was preceded by some home made bread with the most delicious butter and some fresh crab. Karl-Heinz had made the soda bread and we polished off the lot in very quick time, being a group of people who seemingly adore butter more than all else.

Karl-Heinz explained that this butter had been whipped with a little milk, to make it light fluffy and creamy, then sprinkled with good Icelandic salt. It was delicious and when we lunched together again last week, Karl-Heinz obligingly made a lovely loaf and brought along the whipped butter to accompany our spring salad.

At this time of year I do start to crave more veg and lighter, spring like dishes. I had bought these beautiful blood oranges in the market and made a cake via a post I had seen on: http://eatlikeagirl.com/blood-orange-hazelnut-cake-easy-recipe-baking-dairy-free/

For the starter, I made a heritage beetroot salad (some pickled and some baked in a little salt) with Welsh curd cheese, a little cider vinegar, rapeseed and elderflower cordial dressing, some Parmesan crisps and some beetroot crisps for texture. I had been going to make a beetroot and horseradish relish, but then I spied one in the market, whilst standing with an armful of beets….I thought it was a sign, so snapped it up.

We demolished the salad alongside my brother’s fabulous bread and butter.