A splendid Sunday lunch at home.

It's been a weekend dominated by today's lunch. Planning started way back on Wednesday when mum was over for supper and we hatched a lunch. It's wasn't big on catering standards, but we were expecting to be eight and that's actually quite a lot of work when you cook every little thing yourself. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm a great believer in that if you invite people to your house for food that you should make an effort and cook for your friends, you don't have to spend days or a fortune, but generosity, good seasoning and plenty of wine with generally do the trick. Here's what I cooked and what it looked like.

Lamb Koftas in progress

Lamb Koftas

Chicken with mint, garlic, chilli and lemon

Couscous Salad

Harissa

Tzaziki

Roast vegetables with feta cheese

I cooked the roast vegetables on Saturday so that they would all mix together nicely overnight. Yesterday I also skinned and boned a pile of chicken thighs and marinated them in their tasty marinade and mixed up the koftas. This morning, I added the feta cheese to the roast veg and made it look pretty, made the kofta mix into little balls and cooked in the oven, cooked the chicken in batches in the wok, made the tzaziki and the harissa and chopped a forest of herbs for the couscous. Then everyone arrived and we ate. It was delicious and I've enough couscous left to last me for days!