How to make your own butter

At The Simple Things, we think that sometimes it's worth putting a little extra effort in to make something everyday a little more special.

With that in mind, take a peek at this recipe for homemade butter at Longest Acres. The instructions require no specialist equipment and are so simple, they made us wonder why we'd never tied this before.

We're planning on having a go at this when we next have a free hour. We're daydreaming of toasted English muffins spread with butter made with our own fair hands, eaten tucked up in bed on a lazy weekend morning. Totally idyllic.

Illustrated Bites

When Heather Diane's herb illustrations popped up on our Pinterest feed earlier this week, we instantly fell in love. Californian artist Heather combines her love of food with her talent for drawing to create quirky illustrated guides to all of her favourite foodstuffs.

Our favourites are her latest edible flower design and super-pretty herb guide . Check out heather's website for more illustrated loveliness.

Vegetable of the month ... courgette

Champion of the veggie patch this month is the courgette. Join us as we round up our fave recipes for you to get stuck in to...

Kicking off our collection is Gourmande in the kitchen's raw courgette ribbon salad which we'll be trying out while there's still a little summer warmth in the air.

This salad was born when garden-less blogger Sylvie offered to help take some home-grown courgettes off her friends' hands - what a good Samaritan! We love that it requires barely any ingredients. A little dressing, some crunchy pine nuts and crumbled goats' cheese are all that's needed to make the courgette shine.

When the weather starts getting a little chillier, Cafe Johnsonia's spicy courgette wedges will be just the thing to warm us up. Blogger Lindsey 'made this up as she went along' and assures us that we can do just the same. We're thinking cumin, garlic and a little paprika...mmm...

Finally, we had been hunting out courgette cake recipes for this post, but when we came across this beautiful harvest cake on Roost we just had to share it with you. This recipe combines courgette with apple and carrot, and is sweetened with honey and vanilla cream. We think it'll taste as wonderful as it looks.

Do you have any favourite courgette recipes? Share 'em below!

Remember to check out the rest of our vegetable of the month series.

Book launch : The Sprouted Kitchen

For a little while now, the top food blogs have been buzzing with excitement over the latest cookbook to hit the shelves - The Sprouted Kitchen, by blogger / author Sara Forte and her talented photographer husband Hugh.

The Sprouted Kitchen has a very similar attitude to food as The Simple Things - in their own words, the book collects together 'ideas for cooking with seasonal produce, and simple, tasty, wholesome dishes for family and friends'.

If you want a bit more a vibe of that it's about, check out the Happy Yolks blog, where there is an absolutely gorgeous little video to accompany the book.

Pesto 3 ways

Hands up who's got a jar of pesto in their fridge? We've definitely guilty of this one. Pesto is one of those things which is SO good home-made that we're not sure why we buy it. Plus, it's incredibly easy to make - seriously, it's barely more complicated than opening the jar!

We were chuffed to find this pesto recipe post on Love & Lemons, in which foodie blogger Jeanine has provided us with a whole load of alternative pesto recipes . Mix up your basil with roasted red pepper, swap pine nuts for walnuts or add some honey or balsamic vinegar to shift the sweet / sour balance. Pop over to Love & Lemons to find out more!

Plum jam recipe

There's something wonderfully homely and comforting about jam made from scratch. Plums are at their best this month so now's the ideal time to boil up a batch of sticky plum jam.

Blogger Yossy from Apt 2b baking has provided us with two plum jam recipes - one for small sugar plums, and a spiced plum jam flavoured with vanilla, cardamom and cinnamon.

If you feel a little odd about using such Christmassy spices in the middle of August, remind yourself that your jam will last well into December and beyond, when there is not a plum in sight. Sometimes a little forward planning pays off!

Book launch: How to Bake

Back in the day, Delia taught us How to Cook. A little later Nigella shared her expertise on How to Eat. Now, Paul Hollywood's helping us all learn How to Bake.

One of our top two Great British Bake Off judges (sorry Paul, but we really, really love Mary Berry) has brought out a new cook book to help us all master the art of perfect home baking. The son of a baker, Paul's natural expertise is clear for all to see. If this book helps us produce a loaf of bread that's half as good as his, we'll be well chuffed, basically.

Vegetable of the month ... lettuce

All different types of lettuce hit their peak in the balmy summer months, ready to coincide with the days when we're craving a crunchy, crispy salad. Don't you love it when mother nature does that? We've rounded up our top lettuce recipes for you to enjoy.

Proving first off that lettuce can be the star of the dish, is this garlic scape dressing recipe from The First Mess. Blogger Laura thinks a dressing can make or break a salad, and this is her fave (psst... don't worry if you don't have any garlic scapes, regular cloves will do just as well).

Once you've mastered a top-notch dressing, you can go crazy with the extras. If you're having trouble awakening your inner Jamie Oliver, check out Emma's  five favourite summer salads on A Beautiful Mess for some inspiration.

Next we've got something a little different. Sprouted Kitchen's rustic goats' cheese pizza is scattered with a generous handful of dressed lettuce once it's out of the oven. A thin, crispy base and crunchy salad leaves make this pizza light, fresh and perfect for summer evenings.

Finally (and you'll notice we're getting gradually less and less healthy here), we couldn't have a lettuce round-up without featuring everyone's top sandwich, the BLT.

You'd be right in thinking you don't strictly need a  BLT recipe - the acronym pretty much covers everything. However, if you're interested in elevating the already-mighty sandwich to something even more special, click over to Not Without Salt. A touch of slow roasting, a spoonful of basil and ... oh, we'll let Blogger Ashley share the rest. We can't wait any longer, we're off to make one.

P.S. Click to check out the rest of our vegetable of the month posts!

Poppyseed lemon pound cake

Lemon is one of our favourite summer flavours. It's fresh and zingy when we're feeling hot and bothered. This lemon pound cake recipe pairs citrus-y sponge with crunchy poppy seeds and sharp lemon icing, and it's making our stomachs very rumbly indeed.

Click over to Desserts for Breakfast for the recipe. In true recession spirit, master baker Stephanie has gone for a two-for-the-price-of-one recipe post and thrown in a ricotta and chocolate pound cake recipe for free.

Book launch: Tart it Up!

Tart it Up! is the latest offering from dessert legend and pâtissier extraordinaire Eric Lanlard, and this time he's turned his attentions to pies, flans and, that's right, tarts.

The cookbook contains a whole section dedicated to explaining the secrets behind perfect pastry, as well as a selection of quick bakes using ready-roll pastry for busy days.

We're most excited about the dessert tart section, though, which is filled with such treats as Exotic Fruit Meringue Crumble Pie and Apricot, Honey and Pistachio Tart. They don't call him Cake Boy for nothing, you know.

Roasted strawberry and coconut milk lollies

Wow. When we found this recipe for roasted strawberry and coconut milk lollies we were instantly smitten.

A little while ago, Sprouted Kitchen taught us how to make roasted strawberry ice cream. Kimberley from The Year in Food has gone one better and come up with a lolly version (or popsicle, if you'd rather), which eliminates the washing up and means we can eat these pretty much anywhere. Which is what we're planning on doing.

Whichever version we choose, we predict this recipe will be featuring heavily in our freezers this summer.

Rosemary olive oil cake

We're always up for sampling unusual flavour pairings. How else are we supposed to find new favourites? This recipe for rosemary and chocolate olive oil cake from The Flour Sack definitely falls into the 'experimental' category, and we can't wait to try it out.

Baker Brooke says that this is the perfect snack cake. We always like to have a home-made cake tucked away in a tin ready for any unexpectected visitors or a nibble with a cup of tea in the afternoon, and this recipe has us sorted for this week.

Vegetable of the month ... cucumber

Maybe it's because we're so used to just bunging them in green salads. Maybe it's because they're simply not that photogenic. Whatever the reason, when we started hunting out cucumber recipes for July's vegetable of the month, we had much more trouble than usual. Thank goodness we persevered, though, because we've turned up some delicious new cucumber recipes for you to get excited about.

Kicking off our round up is this frankly beautiful cucumber salad from Epicurean Mom. Blogger Katie's recipe uses crunchy veggies and a light, zingy dressing, then makes it all a bit special with edible flowers.

Secondly we have tzatziki from Pinch My Salt. We're not sure how to pronounce it and we had to check the spelling twice, but we are very happy eating it. Tangy and creamy, it's the perfect dipping partner for toasted pita bread and mouthwatering spooned over barbecued meat in a Greek-style wrap.

To finish off, we thought we'd share some cucumber drinks with you. For health-conscious readers, check out Cafe Johnsonia's cucumber, melon and kiwi juice recipe. It's blogger Lindsey's favourite drink, and boasts an ingredient list that takes care of all of your five-a-day in one fell swoop. Impressive.

For those of you that are less well behaved, we're also intrigued by Cookie + Kate's cucumber cocktails. Choose between Cucumber Caipiranha and Cucumber Cooler with watermelon (we're aware of the excessive amount of alliteration going on in this last paragraph) for a refreshing end to a summer picnic.

Nibble on a fresh berry tartlet

Berry tartlets are a wonderful, simple way to use fresh fruit. We found these little beauties on Little Upside Down Cake (well worth a peek - the photography alone was enough to get all our stomachs rumbling).

Follow blogger Sanda's example and make up the pastry cases and creamy mascarpone, then let your picnic-mates assemble their own tartlets, tumbling a mixture of berries and crunchy chopped pistachio on top for a relaxed but delicious end to your meal.

Try the perfect lemon curd

On her way home, The Novice Chef blogger Jessica got distracted by an elderly gentleman selling fruit from his truck. Said gentleman (in red braces) sweet-talked her into buying '39 million lemons'. And so, the resourceful Jessica came up with this recipe for lemon curd.

Because we're suckers for a cute story, and because Jessica calls it 'simply perfect' and because the sunny yellow colour makes us smile, we're sharing her recipe with you.

Mix up your tea break

We're firm believers that there are very few problems that can't be fixed by a good cup of tea.

Even though nowadays there seem to be more types of tea than there are days in the year, our interest was still piqued when we stumbled upon a beginners guide to tea mixology at Yellow Bird Yellow Beard.

Like chamomile? Love mint? Well, now there's no need to make that agonising choice, because we can have both together! Guest blogger Lauren from The Perfect Pear has done all the leg work for us and shared the best combos so we can avoid a nasty oh-that-really-doesn't-work surprise, but we still can't wait to get experimenting for ourselves.

Cool off with raspberry elderflower granita

What Katie Ate is one of our all-time favourite foodie blogs. Recipes that make our stomachs rumble plus utterly gorgeous photography equals the perfect blog, in our opinion.

Recently Katie posted up an American retro food special, and this raspberry elderflower grantia recipe  inspired by a New York Cocktail caught our eye (actually, most of the recipes did, but we're trying to be a little more focussed!).

We'll be serving this vibrantly-coloured granita as a refreshing desert on a balmy Summer evening. Pop over to What Katie Ate to see how it's done.

Treat yourself to nectarine honey cake

Mmm ... its been a while since we posted a yummy cake recipe on here, hasn't it? We love a sweet treat, and the latest addition to our 'to bake' list is this nectarine honey cake recipe from Good Things Grow. Soft and juicy nectarine, honey-sweet sponge and a hint of crunch from the brown sugar topping - we think this is the perfect summer pud. Baker Jacqui is convinced she could eat this cake all summer long, and we're inclined to agree.

Dry your leftover herbs

With a little luck, your window boxes should be exploding with fresh herbs any day now.

We’re expecting to be inundated with more herbs than we know what to do with (best to start the summer with a positive outlook), so this year, we’re going to dry our extras to make them last through the colder months.

If you’re wondering how to dry fresh herbs, pop over to Design Mom, where Lindsay of Café Johnsonia has guest posted a great guide. When the weather turns chilly, we’ll be following her example and harvesting our leftover herbs, hanging them out to dry in our kitchens and then tucking them away into our store cupboards ready for the winter.

Join in the Slow Food UK Week

News has reached our ears that next week is … Slow Food UK week! If you haven’t heard of the Slow Food movement, where have you been?

For those that have come to the party late, Slow Food is a non-profit, member supported organisation which reconnects people with where their food comes, so we can all make better choices about what to put on our plates.

This year, Slow Food has been creating links with chefs to champion local, sustainable ingredients, and that is what this year’s Slow Food UK week is all about.

From Monday 18th – Sunday 24th July, Slow Food invites you to feast on special menus from top UK chefs, get inspired by vibrant talks, or attend the first ever Slow Food Crawl. We’re definitely up for that last one (we’re assuming it doesn’t involve actual crawling).

Pop over to the Slow Food website to find out what’s going on near you.