make food: Nana’s chocolate chippies

My nana Bettie has been making these chocolate chip cookies for as long as I can remember. In fact, I think they were probably the first thing I learnt to cook. The mixture tastes great uncooked – just don’t eat too much. As it's nana's recipe I'm using imperial measurements.

Cream 4oz butter, 2oz caster sugar and 3 tsp condensed milk. Add a few drops of vanilla essence.

Sieve 6oz plain flour and 1tsp baking powder. Add to the butter mixture with 2oz (or more) of chocolate chips

Roll into small balls. Place on cold greased trays, flatten with fork.

Bake for 20min on 180'c till golden.

Leave to cool. Eat. Yummmmmmmm

make food: Tomato and red lentil soup

This is a delicious, quick soup to warm the cockles on a chilly autumn night – I’ve slightly adapted it from a Gordon Ramsey recipe featured in the Sunday Times.

• Take 1 large chopped onion, 1 large clove of garlic and two sticks of chopped celery and sweat in a little olive oil
• Mix in 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper or half a teaspoon of ground chilli powder and sauté or a couple of minutes
• Add a can of tomatoes, two handfuls of rinsed, dry red lentils and 850 ml vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
• Cook over a high heat for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lentils are soft.
• Remove from heat and blend until smooth.
• Serve with a dollop of natural yogurt and chopped flat-leafed parsley.
  Serves 4