We had 6 slightly over-ripe figs. We cut off the 'stalk' end and then cut the figs in half, before arranging them in a buttered dish. Next, they were sprinkled with demerara sugar and baked them in for gas mark 6 for 15 minutes. The original recipe said to sprinkle extra sugar on top and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes but we tasted the juice which had run off and it was sweet enough on its own, so we simply basted the figs with the juice before returning them to the oven for the final 5 minutes.

For the topping we stirred some vanilla essence into a few tablespoons of mascarpone.

The photo might not look terribly appetising but the figs and mascarpone were delicious. The combination of flavour, sweetness and creaminess was almost perfect.

Earlier in the year I bought a 'mexican garden' seed kit from the Woolworths closing down sale. I never managed to get the oregano to germinate but I have several tomato and chilli plants. Most of the chillies and tomatoes are still green and unripe but we have had 5 small red tomatoes (not enough for a pizza sauce) and one red chilli so far.

I finely chopped one of the chillies and sprinkled it onto one of tonights pizzas. The other toppings were: red pesto, salmon, red onion and cheese. It was a very tasty pizza.

The chillies were fairly strong when I tasted one on its own, but there was a slightly unripe or possibly just a raw flavour. By the time they had cooked on the pizza they were fine.

There are many more green chillies on the plant so hopefully we will have a good supply for the autumn.