In the summer months our eating and drinking habits tend to change to reflect the warmer weather, with fruity cocktails, fresh-flavoured light nibbles and splashes of colour often injected into our culinary endeavours.

Entertaining guests with a summer barbeque? There’s no better way to kick proceedings off than with some cocktails and canapes to excite your taste buds – this week we show you how to create a refreshing Pimm’s cocktail and some smoked salmon bites!

Beginning with the canapes, add 100g of cream cheese and 100g of cottage cheese to a bowl, before adding a dash of lemon juice and sprinkling of lemon zest. Finally, roll some rings of sliced courgette, fill with the smoked salmon and cheese and top with some chive.

For the cocktail, add fresh strawberries, lemons, cucumber and mint to an iced jug, then add one part Pimm’s to three parts lemonade. Summer perfection!