Try this delicious recipe from Annabel Karmel’s new book, Top 100 Pasta Dishes.

Ingredients

200g fusilli
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
100g orange pepper cut into strips
100g broccoli florets
1 medium courgette (150g) sliced and the then cut into semi circles
250g salmon fillets
200 ml fish stock
150g crème fraiche
200 ml vegetable stock
150g tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and cut into chunks
75g parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Cook the fusilli according to the directions on the packet.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy based saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic for three minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the orange pepper broccoli and courgette and sauté for 6 to 7 minutes stirring occasionally until tender. Meanwhile cut the salmon into chunks.

Put into a saucepan cover with fish stock and poach over a gentle heat for 3 to 4 minutes or until cooked. Remove from the pan , strain and set aside.

Stir the crème fraiche and vegetable stock into the cooked vegetables and bring to a simmer.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes and chunks of salmon and simmer for two minutes, then stir in the parmesan cheese and season to taste.

Toss the drained fusilli with the sauce taking care not to break up the chunks of salmon

Makes four portions.

Find out more about Annabel on the Annabel Karmel website.

Find out more about Top 100 Pasta Dishes

Lynda Bellingham talked to a sell out crowd at Redbridge Literary Festival yesterday (an event organised with Newham bookshop) to promote her autobiography Lost and Found. The packed venue was Wanstead Library and Lynda had us all entertained with stories from her autobiography Lost and Found and lots of gossip from behind the scenes at Loose Women! Lynda will be heading off to Ireland to promote next and then we have a summer of literary festivals and events ranging from the Good Housekeeping Literary Lunch at Hay Festival; Harrogate Literary Lunch and Lincoln Book Festival to name but a few. Lynda will be touring in Calendar Girls again in the autumn.

Sarah - Publicity Director

Find out more about Lost and Found

Watch Lynda talking about finding yourself

It was amazing, unreal, over so fast and totally exhilarating. The instructors were excellent and made me feel so safe that I didn’t really feel scared. My tandem partner Mike was one of the co-owners of the Hinton Skydiving Centre and had done over 4,000 tandem jumps.

There was a moment of nerves as we climbed past 10,000 feet and a definite feeling that it was unnatural to allow myself to fall from the open door of the plane at 13,000 feet. Falling at around 120 miles per hour in freefall was incredibly loud and well, fast!

I spent the whole time with my mouth open in amazed silence. There was just time to look around and take it in before Mike showed me that his altitude watch was at 6,000 feet and he pulled the parachute chord. Then everything slowed down and became much quieter and I could hear Mike. He showed me how to move the parachute left and right and pointed out my home town and a few other landmarks. It felt like I wasn’t really there and before I knew it we were landing.

Would I do it again? Yes! And there are some photos below to prove I didn’t dream it.

Thanks for all the support and if you meant to sponsor me but were waiting till pay day, now’s the time to do it. The current total is £925 but it would be wonderful to make £1000 before I hand it all over to Kids Company.

You can also look into booking your own skydive here: www.skydive.co.uk

Hannah - Publicity Manager

When I first put my name forward to do a charity tandem skydive I didn’t really think it would actually happen. ‘Just put your name down while you think about it’ I said to myself. The next thing I knew I was an email in my inbox entitled ‘CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO COMPLETE A SKYDIVE OR PARACHUTE JUMP TO RAISE MONEY FOR KIDS COMPANY’. Oops.

Fear took over and I instantly decided I definitely wasn’t going to do it. I mentioned the idea to my mum. I could hear her turn white over the phone (unsurprising really as she has a fear of heights and of flying) and she told me not to be so silly. So that was it, I was too scared and my mum said I couldn’t do it. Except that when I vocalised these reasons to a friend his response ‘you’re a grown woman, you don’t need your mum’s permission’, I had to think again.

Despite a natural laziness where anything even slightly sporty is concerned I have had a hankering to jump out of a plane for a while now. In his younger days my father liked to go pot holing and hang gliding, perhaps a bit of him had rubbed off on me. So I made the decision to step a long way outside my comfort zone and well, here I am on the eve of the jump.

The other challenge I set myself was to give up alcohol from the 1st April, at least until I did the jump but with the target deadline of the end of the month. In the first week I felt amazing, the second very grumpy and now I’m pretty used to drinking lime and soda but definitely looking forward to a celebratory glass of wine or two. The main advantage has been that concentrating on not drinking has kept my mind off the fact that I will soon be falling thousands of feet through the air, putting all my faith in the bloke attached to me to get me to the ground safely.

Thanks to all the lovely people who have sponsored me already, and to my wonderful friends in the office who made these cakes and biscuits which we sold to raise extra funds. I have promised to get a video of the jump as proof in return (if possible). Think of me at 1pm tomorrow!

Hannah - Publicity Manager

The charity I am supporting is called Kids Company. They provide practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children and young people. Many of the 14,000 children they support have experienced severe and multiple trauma. Often these are ‘lone children’ living in chronic deprivation, with little or no support from the adults in their family. Visit their website to learn more at www.kidsco.org.uk.

If you would like to sponsor me please go to my Virgin Money Giving page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/HannahRobinson. Virgin Unite are kindly donating the cost of the tandem skydive so all proceeds go directly to Kids Company.

Recipe from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi.

This month has seen the return of the massively popular Atkins diet. Since its US release in 1972 the Atkins diet has been a weight loss phenomenon and we published an updated version, New Atkins for a New You, earlier in March – with the book hitting the top of the bestseller lists on its debut week and riding high ever since. A streamlined version of the classic diet it is simpler, more versatile and more sustainable than ever before. For the first time the programme contains more vegetables, can be adapted to suit the needs of vegetarians and vegans, includes small quantities of caffeine and also makes the transition from one stage to the next smoother. So you no longer have to think about eating steak, butter and cheese all day, but can incorporate most of the foods you love.

Now we want to hear from you about what you think about the diet. Are you a veteran Atkins fan – and do you have a brilliant weight-loss story to share? Or does the new Atkins sound tempting to help get you in shape for the summer? If so, we have 10 copies of the new book to send out if you would be willing to try out the diet and let us know how it worked for you.

To win a copy, tell us why you want to try the New Atkins diet in the comments section below before May 3rd, and we’ll choose our 10 favourites to win a copy.

Caroline - Deputy Publicity Director

I’ve always enjoyed gardening and for the past few years have been growing tomatoes, courgettes and peppers. This year Alys Fowler’s new book The Edible Garden has inspired me to raise the bar and branch out into potatoes, garlic, salads and strawberries. I’ve also started a herb garden.

Because I rent my flat all my edibles have to be grown in pots but that doesn’t mean they have to look boring. I’m growing Night Scented Stocks amongst my salad leaves and will be planting Lobelia in with the garlic.

I’ve already used some of the herbs in cooking and can’t wait to harvest the rest.

Have you planted anything out yet?

Hannah - Publicity Manager

Find out more about Alys Fowler’s The Edible Garden

For the first time Colin Fry narrates his own experiences of the afterlife on audio.

In this wonderful recording, featuring extracts from his book Secrets from the Afterlife, Colin himself takes you through some of the most moving moments of his time as a medium, and how connections with those who have passed on have helped his own life, and could also help yours.

Secrets from the Afterlife is now available on iTunes