It’s been a mad week! So mad that I start the new week as if I’m running to catch up with the week just gone – dealing with last week’s e-mails before I take a look at those that have arrived today, tired from the week just gone and looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight… you get the picture.

As I prepare my supper I find myself savouring the visit that Lisa made, daughter of my treasured friend Cora Hartmeier. Lisa spent her first (ever) five days in England with me last week. There’s a reason why making supper stimulates my sense of fun and laughter. For the reputation – justified or otherwise – that English (or is it British?) food has around the world is not always a good one. Only yesterday, as we ate lunch in a very traditional English pub before Lisa caught her train to Oxford, she described this strange thing her brother had told her about following his own first visit to the UK and which I recognised as Yorkshire pudding. Do people really choose to eat (enjoy eating even) this thing made of flour and egg and water – with beef?

When it came to cooking Lisa a traditional English supper the first (and only) thing that came to mind was bangers and mash. Before I knew it I’d committed to making bangers and mash whilst also dispelling a few myths about English food. Thank heavens for Saint Delia! (Lisa, that’s Delia Smith). I know from experience that the recipe for venison sausages in her winter cookbook is divine. And even though I couldn’t find any venison suasages in my local supermarket (and never did find any juniper berries) I decide that this is the way to go.

As for the mash, it didn’t escape my attention recently when David, my nephew, told me that my mother makes the best mash in the world. Of course, when I shared this with my mother she deftly batted away the compliment, though not before she’d shared that she uses only butter (no milk!) So that was my mash – with a few peas and leeks stirred in.

Did Lisa enjoy her supper? That’s a question for Lisa and only Lisa to answer. (And I wonder – what culinary delights would you offer a first-time visitor to the UK?) I know I did – and also Lisa’s visit. To watch a friend embark on the journey of parenthood and to watch her children grow into young adults – such delightful young adults – is a treat indeed.