On the way to work the other day, I was sat at traffic lights when I was aware that there, in the hedge surrounding a piece of common land, were several small golden globes.

I suddenly woke up to the fact that I was, in all probability, looking at a quince bush.

There was a slight possibility that they were apples, but either way they required further inspection.

So, when I left for home, I had a quick peep and sure enough they were quince.

It didn't take very long at all for me to pick them and pop them into a bag (I always carry a plastic bag, just in case of foraging bounty!) and away home they came.

Now - what to do with these? I had found all kinds of savoury uses for quince, but wanted to explore using them in a sweet context.

They are quite tongue-curlingly sour, so my mind began to travel down the lemon route. After all, lemons are equally sour yet we use them in lemon tarts, lemon drizzle cakes - all kinds of sweet contexts.

I had a recipe for lemon drizzle muffins, which fitted with the ingredients I had to hand. However, I felt that the quince alone might not have enough "oomph" to stand up to the relatively rough handling that a muffin mix receives, although there would certainly be enough sugar involved.

So I remembered my recipe for carrot & apple muffins. Quince goes admirably well with apple, they have a certain similarity in flavour. Hence, the Quince, Carrot & Apple Muffins were born.

A tip for grating quinces - don't cut them into quarters and try to remove the core (as I began to do), instead just grate them down to the core (which is so hard, it doesn't grate easily by hand anyway), turn and grate again, turn and grate again, until the quince is done.

The muffins are truly delicious, with a light fluffy texture that retains the moistness of the fruit & carrot content and a very definite flavour of quince that lends them a mysterious air. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

You’ll find the recipe for them (as it contains rather too many ingredients to set out here), as with the Kabanos dish that follows below, on my Jenny Eatwell’s Rhubarb & Ginger Blog

The next dish I’d like to share with you is the Creamy Kabanos Pasta. I chose this recipe for Saturday because it appeared to be simple to prepare, didn't make much washing-up and could be eaten whilst sitting in an armchair watching Strictly Come Dancing. *chuckle*

As it was, it fitted all those requirements admirably.

It is a Rachel Allen recipe, which I have tweaked slightly to appeal to our taste in tomato sauces - which is that a tomato-based sauce should taste of tomato.

Regarding the Kabanos sausage, we are fortunate in that Bournemouth Asda stocks a good range of Eastern European ingredients (Indian, too!) and in their delicatessen range are these Kabanos.

Asda used to stock their own version, but replaced it with what I assume is a much more authentic type.

They are a very dry, smoked pork sausage with quite a coarse texture and without the paprika that makes the chorizo what it is.

They differ from chorizo in another area, which is that they are only around 0.5mm in diameter.

I found that 250g was fine quantity-wise, for the dish for three of us and even hubby – who was concerned at what appeared to be a lack of meat – was satisfied.

If however, you can't find Kabanos in your locality, do not despair as Chorizo would do just as well, as would Kielbasa.

In fact, we've got our eye on some of the Polish Kielbasa (known as "Hunter's Sausages") for a dish next week.

For this recipe, you are required to melt some butter in a pan and allow garlic and rosemary to infuse for a while, then add a tin of tomatoes and a touch of sugar.

Once the tomatoes have cooked down, you add some single cream and chilli flakes, some chopped parsley and seasoning.

Now, I was a teensy bit worried about how the cream would amalgamate with the tomatoes without a) splitting and b) tasting disgusting, but in fact it mixed in without a problem and turned what was beginning to be a quite aggressive tomato sauce into an amazingly flavoursome toothless tiger of a sauce (but not in a derogatory way!).

Once you add the sausage and it has bled its flavour into the surroundings, the whole thing comes together in a delicious amalgamation that was right up there in the flavour stakes, but without any of the tummy-curling acidity that can sometimes come with tomatoes and chillies in the same spoonful.

You just then add the cooked pasta, stir to combine and Bob’s your uncle, dinner is ready.

I served it with garlic bread, which went with it very well.

Definitely a do-again – which is a vote of supreme confidence, if ever there was one!