Often, on the weekends, I'll make crepes for the Smalls. My favorite is the classic variety, sprinkled with lemon juice and sugar, but my kids adore Nutella.

This weekend we had friends for dinner, and I made a mille crepe cake - layers and layers of crepes sandwiched together with cream, although I used my whipped honey ricotta for a slightly less sinful version. We have a family tradition of this cake for birthdays, always ordered from Lady M cakes in New York, and I will confess that although mine was good, it wasn't quite as ridiculously sublime as the cakes from Lady M.

On Monday I suddenly realised that I might be able to match the sheer divineness of the Lady M cakes, by making a version with Nutella, whipped into a heavy cream. I checked the giant Nutella jar in the fridge, and as I suspected, it was almost all gone. Nutella was a special treat for me as a child. We only ever bought it when we were at our house in France, and it was always the giant jar that my father would try to hide at the top of a very tall cupboard.

I always found it, usually late at night, and would guiltily slide fingers in, sucking the sweet creamy chocolatey deliciousness straight off my finger. It seems several of my Smalls have had the same idea, and I am beginning to realise that Nutella cannot be in the house for long. It's just against the laws of nature.

For those who don't know, it's a hazelnut, chocolate and sugar cream, and if you haven't tried it, I strongly recommend you do. For the crepe cake, I made my own Nutella, folding spoonfuls into whipped cream to lighten it up, before layering the cake. I cheated slightly by using a jar of Hazelnut "butter" from Whole Foods, which is just pureed hazelnuts. You could absolutely do it yourself, using 2 cups of whole raw hazelnuts, toasting them for 15 minutes in a 350 oven, then remove the skins by rubbing them with kitchen paper, then add just under 1/4 cup vegetable oil to thin out...but really? Who can be bothered?

It would absolutely be fine to use the jarred Nutella, but if you want to make the entire thing from scratch, here goes. My only warning: this cake will be gone in seconds. Just ask the Smalls...

Nutella Crepe Cake

for Nutella:
2 cups hazelnut butter or the whole palaver of the fresh hazelnuts toasted and the oil etc etc
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
vegetable or nut oil if necessary

Process all in food processor until mixture is creamy. If it is too thick, slowly drizzle oil in until easily spreadable. Place in fridge to chill and firm for 1/2 hour minimum.
Leftovers will keep in the fridge in an airtight jar for one to two months.

For crepes:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
5 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup and 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Additional Ingredients:
Small carton of heavy whipping cream
cocoa powder for dusting

Directions
Sieve the flower into a bowl, making a well in the center for the eggs. Whisk together, gradually adding milk, water, salt and butter. Beat until smooth.

Heat a flattish round pan over medium high heat. Ladle the batter on, tilt the pan quickly in a circular movement to cover the base of the ban evenly with the batter. Cook for around two minutes, then, using a spatula, turn over and cook the other side. Set aside in a pile until ready to assemble the cake.

When done, let pancakes cool, and while doing that, whip 3/4 of the carton of whipping cream until stiff. Taking tablespoons of the Nutella, fold into the cream. I used approximately half of the Nutella, leaving the rest in the fridge for later, but it is according to taste.

Place crepe on a cake plate, and using a knife or spatula, spread a heaped tablespoon of Nutella until it covers the entire crepe. Cover with a second crepe, and repeat until all the crepes are used.

The final layer should be a crepe, dusted with cocoa powder through a sieve. Place in the fridge for at least two hours to chill and firm before serving.

Ten years ago, when I first moved to the United States, I noticed something peculiar about entertaining. Every time I invited someone for lunch, or dinner, or a barbeque, they brought food with them. It was, at the time, utterly bewildering. ‘Do they think I can’t cook?’ I would whisper to my then-husband, as I placed their apple pie on the counter, wondering what I should do with the chocolate mousse I had slaved over all afternoon.

In England I was used to bringing things to dinner parties, but not food for the actual party itself. Flowers, wine, or chocolates, which were likely to be brought out as an after-dinner treat. And suddenly I was inundated with food that wasn’t on my menu. One weekend I cooked an Indian feast, and my guests arrived with platters of shrimp cocktail and chicken wings.

Looking back, I realise that when I first moved here I was still learning how to be a grown-up. I was newly-married, a youngish mother, and I was doing the things I thought newly-married youngish mothers were supposed to do, and those included throwing dinner parties. I was doing the things my mother did, not realising that we are no longer living in the age of “Mad Men”, and it really isn’t necessary to seat guests awkwardly round beautifully-laid tables in formal dining rooms, serving them fine French food in order for the evening to be deemed a success.

Ten years on, I no longer have formal dinner parties. Ever. I will set the table beautifully, but in the kitchen, or on the deck. I love my guests bringing food, and more, love when they grab a knife and start chopping vegetables for the salad.

Entertaining, for me, is all about comfort and ease. It is about creating a beautiful environment, but one in which my guests will instantly feel at home. Nothing makes me happier than people kicking off their shoes and curling up on one of the sofas with a big glass of wine, moments after they’ve arrived.

And I love them bringing food. If I am preparing something special – a Thai meal, or Middle-Eastern – I will request they bring nothing, or perhaps just hors d’oeuvres, but mostly, in the Summer, we are throwing food on the grill, accompanied by huge tomato and basil salads, and fresh corn succotash.

Last weekend we over-cooked. I was left with a bucket of barbequed chicken, and the next day removed the skin to make chicken salad, adding grapes for sweetness, and my secret ingredient: celery salt, which I then brought to a party on Sunday. It was a huge hit, and that, of course, is the other great thing about bringing food: the perfect way to get rid of leftovers.

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/8 cup sour cream
1/8 cup Greek Yoghurt (optional. If not using, increase sour cream to 1/4 cup)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 scallions, sliced fairly thin
2 cups chopped, cooked chicken meat
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
Medium bunch of grapes, halved.
1 teaspoon celery salt
Salt and Pepper to taste

I realise I have become somewhat Americanised when I start thinking about pies, pies and more pies for desserts during the Summer.

Which is all well and good, except I don't very much like pies. I LOVE crumbles, but only if there's tons of crumble and not a lot of fruit, and the crumble should be moist and crunchy at the same time, and have oatmeal in it, and...oh goodness. Getting hungry.

But the one thing I do love, is meringue. And Pavlova. Unfortunately I seem to be rubbish at making it, but last week, with three barbecues to go to at which I had offered to make dessert for each, I decided to go back to my roots and make good old Eton Mess.

I'm not sure who brought it back into vogue - it is a dish traditionally served at the annual cricket match between Eton and Winchester, but up until a few years ago only those who actually came up through the ranks of the highest public schools in England knew about it. All of a sudden, Eton Mess was everywhere. I had never been particularly impressed by the mixing up of whipped cream, meringue, and strawberries, and hadn't bothered making it.

But faced with pies last weekend, or the rather easier Eton Mess, I opted for Eton Mess, and I have to tell you, the combination of the three, with some added sugar and Pomegranate juice, was almost ridiculously sublime. I'd like to say everyone loved it just as much as me, but they hardly got a look in. I went back for seconds, thirds, and then I stopped counting. Also, do continuous giant heaped spoonfuls count as thirds? Or eighths? Shall I go on?

I also cheated, because I didn't have time, nor the nerves, to make the meringue. I ran up to Trader Joe's and bought a carton of their vanilla meringues, and bashed them up with a meat mallet, which I highly recommend if you're in a bad mood.

And so, it was the easiest dish I have ever made. Here I give you a recipe, some of which has been artfully pinched from Nigella Lawson, only because she rather innovatively adds the pomegranate juice which I think is genius, and I have added the recipe for the actual meringue should you be tempted to try the whole thing from scratch.

As an aside, a purist would not use Pomegranate Juice but would puree half the strawberries and drizzle that in. I suspect it would be even better...

Ingredients
• 4 cups strawberries
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons pomegranate juice, or (purist version) separate 2 cups strawberries from above and puree them in a blender to a juice.
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 packet individual meringue nests

Method

Hull and chop the strawberries quite roughly, place in bowl and add sugar and pomegranate or strawberry juice, leaving to macerate.

Whip the cream in a large bowl until thick peaks form. DO NOT OVERDO OR YOU'LL HAVE BUTTER. Roughly crumble in 8 of the meringues nests, large chunks and small.

Fold together with strawberry mixture, reserving some juice and a handful of chopped strawberries to decorate individual servings in small bowls.

If you are tempted to make the meringue from scratch:

3 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
Pre-heat oven to 300

Whisk the egg whites in a cold, clean bowl until you have soft peaks. Add the sugar, VERY SLOWLY SO AS NOT TO ATTRACT MOISTURE, tablespoon at a time, and whisk until all the sugar has been mixed in properly.

Drop dessertspoons of meringue on a baking sheet, place in oven on center shelf, turn the heat down to 275 and leave for 1 hour.

Then turn the oven off, leave the meringues in the oven to dry out overnight, or at the very least, until the oven is completely cold.

There is an old saying that if you want anything done, ask the busiest person in the room...

I think, right now, I may qualify. I am in midst of finalising arrangements for my book tour, am gearing up for the Smalls end of school and the endless celebrations that seem to come with that, building a house, organising a fundraiser in Westport on June 15th to launch Promises to Keep, the new book, going to London next week for the UK publicity tour, and...and...oh GOD! I'm getting palpitations just writing it.

Yesterday, we were invited to a neighbor's for one of those tremendous last-minute impromptu supper and drinks with kids nights - which, by the way, I love. I didn't want to show up empty-handed, and so yesterday afternoon I stopped everything and started baking. God only knows where I found the time, but I loved it - it felt almost meditative to stop running for an hour or so and simply work with my hands.

I started with a recipe for almond-apricot tart from Martha Stewart's current magazine, but I didn't have any apricots, nor amaretto, and I don't like using corn syrup, which I sort of think is the root of all evil, so I adapted it into a rasberry almond tart, and it came out beautifully. I didn't have fresh rasberries, so used frozen, which wasn't ideal. The juice ran everywhere, and I'd recommend covering the entire top with plump fresh rasberries. However, it didn't affect the taste terrifically - I loved it because the filling is fairly thin, so you don't feel horrendously guilty. After I'd made it, I found a bag of coconut flour, and I wish I had used that for the pie crust, or added some finely shredded coconut, because I think that would have made it sublime.

Speaking of coconuts, I also decided to make some coconut meringues with the leftover egg whites from the tart. I took the photograph before I drizzled chocolate over the top, but these were shockingly good. Crisp on the outside, and dense and chewy on the inside. I actually made them for the kids, but we adults ploughed through them in record time.

Almond rasberry tart

For the crust:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup blanched almonds, toasted
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1 large egg yolk
salt

For the filling:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 large egg yolks
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, stir, bring to boil, then simmer for 20 minutes)
3 tablespoons light-brown sugar
2 teaspoons almond essence
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilly extract

Top with fresh rasberries. Alternatives are baby apricots, halved and pitted, or peach slices, arranged in a circle.

Preheat oven to 325

Make the crust: pulse flour and almonds in a processor until fine. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer until pale and fluffy, about five minutes. Add flour mixture, yolk and pinch of salt. Mix until dough comes together. Press into bottom and up sides of a greased tart pan with removable base. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Make the filling: Heat butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat until browned, 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Beat egg yolks, syrup and sugar with a mixer for 3 minutes. Mix in browned butter (with bits), almond and vanilla essence, and cream.

Pour filling into tart shell, and bake until crust is golden brown and crisp, and center is set. 40-45 minutes. Let cool.

Press fruit into tart in a circle, and dust with confectioners sugar through a fine mesh sieve. Serve with whipped cream.

Chewy Coconut Meringues

6 egg whites, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated sugar
3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chocolate chips, semi-sweet

Beat egg whites with vanilla, cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, about 1 tablespoon at a time. Beat until very stiff peaks form. Gently fold coconut into the meringue. Drop mixture from a tablespoon 1 1/2 inches apart onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in preheated 275-degree oven for 30 minutes or until set. Immediately remove cookies to cooling rack.

When cool, melt chocolate chips VERY slowly and carefully in a microwave. Check after every 30 seconds until melted - you do NOT want to burn the chocolate. When melted, pour into small baggie, and snip a tiny corner off so it becomes an icing bag. Drizzle chocolate in a fine zig zag pattern over each meringue...

Reading the New York Times the other week, I was mesmerised by a piece about roasting radishes with a bagna cauda sauce. When roasted, it seems, radishes become very similar to turnips, which would be altogether dull, but paired with a bagna cauda sauce - a garlic, anchovy and cream dip from Piedmont in Italy - it becomes positively gorgeous.

On Saturday night we were joined for dinner by lovely friends. The novelist Eileen Goudge and her husband, Entertainment Reporter Sandy Kenyon (if you've ridden in the back of a New York cab, you'll know, in a New York minute, who he is...), and photographer Sandi Haber Fifield with her architect husband, John.

I decided to roast the radishes - perfect for this time of year, together with fennel. I made a potato, Gorgonzola and sage bread, combining a couple of recipes to come up with a loaf that was pretty damn good, and served it with extra sauce for dipping.

Afterwards we had Asian steamed bass, which is the EASIEST and MOST delicious sweet and sour fish you will ever have in your life. You steam bass, sprinkle it with salt and sugar, pile it up with julienned ginger and scallions, then pour sizzling oil and soy sauce over the top. And that's it.

Eileen, as well as being a wonderful novelist, is a master baker, which was intimidating to say the least. I let her cook a sumptuous rasberry and mascarpone pie, and made ginger ice-cream to have on the side.

Let's just say this. I fell off the wagon with a big bump that night. Too much food, too much wine, and too much deliciousness all in one place - a perfect evening with food you have to try... (serves around 6, with leftovers).

Roasted Radishes with Bagna Cauda Sauce

Remove leaves and tails of radishes, wash and toss in olive oil and kosher salt. Slice top and bottom of fennel off, then cut into slices, and toss with olive oil and salt. Spread on roasting tin, and roast on 425 for 1 hour.

Thoroughly peel a large head of garlic (with 10-12 cloves) and cook with enough milk to cover all the cloves for 20 to 30 minutes. Add a tablespoon of heavy cream or butter. Rinse five salty anchovy fillets and add them to the mix, cooking them slowly for 4-5 minutes. Stir the mixture gently, add a ½ cup of olive oil to the mix to make the sauce more liquid. Puree with a blender until smooth, making sure it's still warm, then drizzle over radishes and serve.

Potato, Gorgonzola and Sage Bread.

I love baking bread. When I lived on Middleduck Farm in the country, I became Mrs Walton, making jam and baking bread every day. There is nothing like the smell of fresh-baked bread, and somehow living in the middle of nowhere on a very old farm with leaky roofs, I felt it would have been, well, bad form really, not to have baked bread.

But, unlike serious bread bakers, I still have no idea how it works. I know about making a starter, and letting it prove (rise) before punching it down, etc etc, but I don't really understand it. I do quite like experimenting with bread - adding caramelised onions, honey, maple syrup, nuts - and am perfectly happy to chuck it out when it doesn't work.

I had tried to make this bread before, but the recipe didn't have yeast in it. Unsurprisingly, the bread was flat and heavy. Bread with potato tends to be stickier anyway, and so this time I added 2 teaspoons of dried yeast, fermented in 1/4 cup warm water for 20 minutes until bubbly and yeasty-smelling. I know, I know, I didn't know what yeasty-smelling meant either, but once you smell it, you won't forget it. It's sour and...well...yeasty.

With the addition of the yeast, the bread came out perfectly. Even better toasted, I should imagine, with dollops of leftover bagna cauda on top... (I will not be finding out as I am now firmly back on the wagon, and bread is not invited on with me until extra poundage after that dinner has gone).

1 1/3 cups mashed potatoes, either warm or cold.
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast
1 tablespoon Greek yoghurt
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Handful of finely chopped fresh sage.

First get the starter going. Mix the yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water, and set aside for 15 minutes until it starts to bubble and rise. Mix potatoes with 4 cups of flour, salt and yeast mixture in a Cuisinart bowl. Add yoghurt, then water, slowly. Using the dough hook, give it around ten minutes. It will be very sticky, so turn it onto a well-floured surface, and knead by hand, adding at least 1/2 cup of flour, until it is soft and elastic - around five to ten minutes. This is my favorite bit, when I do truly feel like I am living on Walton mountain.

When done, turn out into a well-oiled bowl (just coat with olive oil), cover with a damp dishcloth and put in a cold place overnight, or a warm place for an hour or two.

When the dough is doubled in size, heat the oven to 425, punch the dough down, add the gorgonzola and sage, and fold the dough over. Knead for a couple of minutes until cheese and herbs are evenly spread, then form into a round loaf. Set bread on a baking sheet, loosely covered with a damp dishcloth (keep the cloth damp or the dough will stick to it). After about half an hour the dough will be doubled in size.

Put the bread in the oven for 20 minutes, then turn temperature down to 375, and cook for another ten minutes, or until it's cooked through. You can tell it's cooked by knocking on the loaf's underside - when it's cooked, it sounds hollow.

Asian Steamed Clear Bass

I really don't even need to give you the recipe given that I explained it before, and that really is all there is to it, and once you make it, you will realise that you can change the proportions to taste...

Ingredients

2 lb. sea bass (preferably one fish if you can get it)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and julienned into very thin slices
8 scallionsspring onions, finely julienned in 2" lengths, green and white parts separated
6 tablespoons groundnut or corn oil
4 tablespoons soy sauce

Method

Rinse the fish and pat dry. Make 2–3 diagonal slashes on both sides of the fish.

Steam in a fish poacher or steamer over a high heat for about 8 minutes, or until the fish is cooked and flakes easily.

Remove the cover, turn the heat off, and Carefully place the fish on a serving platter and sprinkle with the salt and sugar.

Spread the ginger over the fish, then the green part of the scallionsspring onions, followed by the white part.

Heat the oil in a small pan over a high heat until smoking. Pour it little by little over the scallionsspring onions and ginger, which will sizzle and cook as the oil hits them.

Finish by drizzling soy sauce over the entire fish, serve with fragrant white rice.

Ginger ice cream

I went to my favorite new restaurant on Friday night - The Basso Cafe in Norwalk - and there had the most gorgeous ginger gelato. I was still obsessing on Saturday, and remembered that a hundred years ago, for my first wedding, I received an ice-cream maker. Given that I have no recollection of ever having used it, I was amazed that the ice-cream maker survived the journey from London to Westport, and then through five moves. But there it was! Forlorn in the cupboard!

I read a few ginger ice-cream recipes, and used them as the base, adding vanilla essence and candied ginger.

Ingredients:
3 cups heavy cream (this is not for the faint-hearted, although you could do 2 cups cream, 2 cups milk)
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup grated fresh ginger
pinch salt
teaspoon good vanilla essence
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup candied ginger, chopped into fine pieces.

Method:

In a heavy pan combine the cream, milk, grated ginger, salt, and vanilla over a medium heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale and frothy (at least five minutes). Ladle 1/2 cup of the hot cream mix into the eggs, and whisk to combine. Stir the egg mixture into the hot cream on the stove, and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly to make a custard. After about 3 to 5 minutes it should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Strain cream into a large bowl through a fine mesh sieve, pressing the pulp down to get as much liquid out as possible. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least three hours, and preferably overnight.

Pour custard into the bowl of the ice-cream maker, and turn on, according to manufacturer's instructions.

Enjoy!