A hearty salad with colour and flavour galore. What better way to welcome back the Summer?

Our friends, James and Kate Mackenzie, know how to tempt palates. At the Pipe and Glass Inn in Beverley, East Yorkshire, they've won awards for their food and hospitality. We asked them to serve up a salad worthy of a British summer.

'Salt beef is a good old-fashioned meat, but very under-used. We use the brisket which is brined and then boiled for hours; treat it as you would a joint of gammon. Using the brisket with its nice fat content gives the beef a moist and tasty texture. The salad of salt beef uses green beans, radish, Lincolnshire poacher and quail eggs. A simple and colourful dish which could be a starter or a main course.'

The weather wants us to stay indoors, but we've got our Wellies and our pac-a-macs and we're not afraid to use them. Especially when this weekend sees the first instalment of our Special Summer Pubs pull-out in The Times Weekend section (9th and 16th June).

they weren’t so hyped, star-struck, money-drenched and over the top. Give me the original games in Greece, with naked men competing for honour and a bit of fun – not a square inch of designer-kit for the sponsors. Or the first Games after the war when the athletes had to pay for their own food and doss down wherever they could find a bed.

A quick cast around the office for stories linking us with the royals revealed some surprising - and, yes, sometimes tenuous - connections...

The Westleton Crown in Suffolk recently looked after Wills and Kate on their first anniversary. You can stay in the Swan Room from £90 a night.