26 December - simple pasta

After a lunch of cold turkey and salad, we headed home this afternoon. Oddly, despite all the mounds of food on offer over the past couple of days, I didn't feel as if I'd actually eaten much and got back quite hungry and craving something simple and tasty. Pasta with a creamy mushroom and bacon sauce did the trick nicely!

25 December - turkey and the trimmings

More in-laws and another roast dinner - today it was turkey and the usual trimmings ...

24 December - roast goose and a spread

The first of two Christmas meals with the in-laws today was a bit full-on and over-indulgent for my tastes, so I'll hold back from commenting in detail. Let's just say that lunch involved roast goose and an excess of rich accompaniments.

Supper (as if we needed more food!) was a cold spread and a mountain of cheese!

23 December - tuna ceviche and venison with figs

With a weekend at the in-laws looming, I wanted to have a pre-Christmas meal that contained lots of nice flavours but without lots of rich stodge. I went for another couple of Nigel Slater recipes from Simple Cooking, both adapted a bit. I turned his sweet and sharp sea bass into a tuna ceviche - thin slices of fresh tuna marinated in citrus juices (passion fruit, lime and orange) with some red chilli and a scattering of coriander. I made it first thing and left it in the fridge to "cook". The whole lot nearly went in the bin after Tris texted early evening to say he was going to be late ... I was not amused! I gave him until 7.30 and he walked in the door just in the nick of time for a few sharp words, but the food still on the plate! The tuna was really good and the sharp and sweet juices worked really well. The slices could have perhaps been a bit thinner to make it a bit more delicate, but I'm not sure any of my knives would've been up to it!

To follow, I pan-fried some venison fillets with red onions, then threw in some halved fresh figs to caramelise right at the end and some port and balsamic vinegar to make a sauce. The Nigel Slater recipe called for 3 times as much vinegar as port, which I think could be a misprint. It came out very sharp and I ended up adding more port to balance it out. The final result was good though, the venison perfectly pink, the caramelised onions and figs piled on top and served with a big pile of spinach.

22 December - caprese salad and smoked haddock chowder

Although I love salads through the summer months, I generally want something warm at this time of year. Today, I compromised by combining a simple Caprese salad (tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil) with a little pile of saute potatoes. Chips and salad - mmm, can't beat it!

I was watching Nigel Slater's Simple Christmas last night and was quite inspired by several of the recipes. Tonight, I made up some smoked haddock chowder roughly based on his recipe. I missed out the swede, cauliflower and mussels and added some new potatoes and a bit of leftover sweetcorn. It came out as a very chunky stew rather than a soup, but tasty.

21 December - asian meatballs and ravioli

There was a very small amount of mince left in the fridge from the other night's Italian-style meatballs, so I made it up into some tiny Asian-inspired meatballs for my lunch. I mixed the minced beef with chopped garlic and a very finely sliced lime leaf. I fried them and plopped them into some broth (veg stock flavoured with a lime leaf and ginger) with some sliced leeks and pak choi. Fresh and tasty.

Tris was out this evening, so I went for some simple mushroom-filled ravioli from the supermarket, with creamy sauce poshed up with a dash of truffle oil - fantastic aftertaste all evening!

20 December - bristol brew and chicken stew

I stopped off at a new-ish tea shop in Clifton this morning - Lahloo. I'd tried their breakfast tea before, but this time I spotted they had a Bristol Brew blend, which is apparently designed specifically to suit the water in Bristol. It seemed too good an idea not to try so I bought myself a tin. I also picked up a savoury tart for my lunch while I was there.

I had in mind to cook a version of my sausage and kale stew this evening, but using chicken instead of sausages. When I got to Sainsbury's though, they were clean out of kale! Thus I ended up making sausage and kale stew without the sausages or the kale!!

• I fried chicken thigh fillets in some good olive oil to brown, then added some sliced garlic, chopped rosemary and a chopped red onion.
• Once the onion was soft, I added some sliced carrots, chunks of leek and a tin of flagelot beans, along with some chicken stock (c. 400ml).
• I bubbled it away for a good 20-25 mins, then stirred in a dash of cream at the end.

A nice warming bowl with plenty of flavour.

19 December - meatballs

There were some rather unripe, out-of-season tomatoes to be eaten up, so I whizzed them up and made them into a sauce to go with some meatballs. I used beef mince with some garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs, parmesan, pine nuts and egg - fried up then bubbled in the sauce and served with linguine.

18 December - omelette and roast veg

When I asked Tris what he fancied for lunch today, he suggested an omelette. It was a chunky, sort of Spanishy affair, with some cold boiled potatoes, red pepper and a couple of mushrooms, plus six eggs and a handful of parsley - still going on the terrace. I cooked it in a big frying pan then popped it under the grill to finish off and it came out looking good and went down nicely with a good dollop of homemade sweet chilli and tomato jam.

We were out socialising early evening, but after working all weekend, I was knackered, so I came home early. Having expected to eat out, I hadn't really got anything in, so supper was cobbled together from leftovers. I still had some rather sad-looking roasted squash and beetroot, which I heated up in the oven together with some fresh red onion and garlic. I piled the veg on top of some couscous and scattered over a few bits of goats cheese and fresh coriander and the result was really quite good.

17 December - singapore noodles

After a couple of days of eating out, we go for something simple and a bit lighter for dinner with some singapore noodles. Tonight's ingredients include; prawns, spring onions, a red pepper, a handful of mushrooms and some pak choi, along with ginger, chilli, turmeric, oyster sauce, soy sauce and rice vinegar ... oh yes, and the noodles. I find cooking with chilli a constant balancing act and today, I went a bit over-the-top and the heat rather drowned out all the other lovely flavours - d'oh!

16 December - waiting in and going out

Today I was waiting in for a delivery - which frustratingly, never arrived!! - and having been down in London yesterday, there was nothing much in the fridge for lunch. The best I could come up with was the old student cupboard standby - tuna and sweetcorn mayo with pasta.

Tris had managed to get us a rare Friday night booking at Prosecco, a great local Italian, with lovely food and a really nice atmosphere. We started, of course, with a glass of Italian bubbly and I had bruschetta with roasted wild mushrooms and parmesan - delicious! We both went for venison fillet for our main - and although it was quite good, it was a bit too peppered for me which meant I ended up leaving the sauce that came with it, which was a shame. It was served with polenta chips and the most fantastic crispy cavalo nero - I'm not sure exactly how it was cooked, but it was in whole long leaves, but had the kind of taste of Chinese "crispy seaweed" - salty and sweet and very moreish!

15 December - Blueprint cafe

I had a lovely day out in London today with my parents. We met at the Design Museum to go to the Terence Conran exhibition and had lunch in the Blueprint cafe. It's a great space with fantastic views up the river - Tower bridge and the gherkin in one direction and Canary Wharf the other way. The food was pretty good too - I started with a lovely smooth chicken liver pate, followed by more liver (!) - thin slices of calves liver cooked with shallots and sage - really delicious! It was great lunch and a grand day out.

14 December - a slow food day

I'm still full-on with work and we were heading down to London this evening, so lunch was a quick bit of leftover chilli and supper was half a chicken sandwich on the train.

13 December - squash salad and the Pump House

Last night, I roasted the whole squash, but only used half in the risotto. I also roasted some beetroot while the oven was on. So lunch today was squash and beetroot salad with a couple of slices of parma ham and few new potatoes. Great colours on the plate and really tasty too.

This evening, my creative writing group met up for meal at the Pump House. I went for hake - on the principle of choosing something I wouldn't cook at home. I wasn't totally convinced about it as a fish - a little bit chewy and not very flavoursome - but it came with a big pile of chard, smooth mash and creamy white beans, which made it still a very good meal. After we'd eaten, we read out our "homework" based around the theme of an office Christmas party. My piece was entitled "sprouts"!

12 December - leek and parsnip soup and squash risotto

I was going to make leek and potato soup for lunch, but then I found a parsnip at the bottom of the fridge, so decided to substitute it for the potato. The resulting leek and parsnip soup wasn't bad, but it was a bit too thick and rather like semolina again!

I've had a beautiful bluey-green crown prince squash that came in the vegbox weeks ago sitting on the windowsill looking decorative (they last for ages!) and finally cooked it up this evening. I made squash risotto based on a Jamie Oliver recipe where you roast the squash with a spice rub (salt, chilli and cinnamon), then add it in chunks to a basic risotto. Today, I stirred in a bit of soft goats cheese at the end and topped it with crispy sage leaves - always good.

11 December - eggs again and Tris's chilli

It was eggs again for lunch today, but this time poached on toast with a bit of spinach - kind of eggs Florentine, but without the hollandaise.

After huffing a bit this week about doing all the shopping and cooking, Tris made chilli for supper this evening with a bit of rice and guacamole. It's always good and all the better for not having to cook.

10 December - easy food

I was having to do a bit of weekend working today, so food was simple again. We had the bit of leftover leek tart with some salad (spinach, beetroot and roasted red pepper) with small jacket potatoes.

Then we were out to a friend's Christmas party in the evening, so inspired by the pasta my mum used to feed me before I went out drinking as a teenager, we had a bowl of pasta with bacon, mushrooms and cream.

9 December - boiled eggs and pie at the lounge

There's something very satisfying about the simplest of meals and today's couple of boiled eggs were no exception ...

Work's suddenly got busy this week and I'm still feeling sniffy and woolly-headed and I just generally couldn't be bothered to think about shopping and dinner, so we just headed out to the Lounge and grabbed some food. I had a great chicken and gammon pie with creamy leeks and chips - tasty and easy and just what was needed, along with a couple of glasses of wine.

8 December - a bacon sandwich and a leek and bacon tart

Lunch today was a good old bacon and avocado sandwich with some proper smoky bacon from Ruby & White - mmm!

Perhaps inspired by yesterday's successful baking, I decided to use the leeks still sitting in the vegbox in a tart. It was sort of a made up recipe, roughly as follows:

• I made up some basic pastry and lined a tart tin - chilled it for a bit, then baked it blind for about 15 mins @ 200C.
• I sweated a couple of chopped leeks, then mixed them in a bowl with c.100g soft goats cheese, c.50ml double cream, one whole egg and one egg yolk, plus a bit of chopped fried bacon.
• I poured the mixture in the pastry case and put the whole lot back in the oven for about half an hour at 180C.

We had the tart with a salad of spinach and beetroot - tasty and warming, but not too heavy.

7 December - baked salmon and rhubarb cakes

I picked up some rhubarb at the supermarket this afternoon and without much work on, I spent a bit of time pottering in the kitchen, making up a batch of rhubarb upside-down cakes. And now I know why my cakes always come out pointy - apparently, it's to do with cooking them in a fan oven.

Tonight's dinner started off with the cavalo nero still left from Friday's vegbox. I went for some simple baked salmon fillets with a dollop of minty creme fraiche on the top, then I cooked the cavalo nero up with some bacon and we had it all with some new potatoes. Simple, but tasty for a midweek supper.

6 December - leftovers and no moussaka

Considering this cold seems to have killed my appetite, I'm not doing a bad job of "feeding" it! I decided to use up a few leftovers for lunch and somehow ended up with a huge plateful. There were a couple of sausages and some cold cooked cabbage that I made into bubble and squeak. It looked like it might be a bit dry, so a chucked in what I thought was just a small spoonful of leftover mushroom stew as a kind of "gravy". It was way more than I'd usually have for lunch, but very tasty and I managed to munch my way through the whole lot over my lunchtime crossword!

This afternoon I managed to talk the nice man at Ruby & White into doing me some lamb mince to make the moussaka which didn't get made at the weekend. I cooked up the meat sauce and left it to bubble, but then when I cut open the aubergines, both were brown and soggy inside.

They'd arrived in the vegbox on Friday and been in the fridge since, so not great. With organic veg, you expect the odd slug and blemish, but it's no good when it's completely inedible, especially when you're already halfway through a recipe! I added a bit more tomato to make the meat sauce a bit more "saucy" and we had it with some pasta instead.

5 December - a mushroom stew

A regular combination for lunch today of fresh beetroot (roast while cooking yesterday's pork) with goats cheese and a baked potato.

There were some huge Portobello mushrooms in Friday's vegbox, so I got some lovely wild mushrooms and a few chestnut mushrooms to go with them in a warming stew. The pale purple wild mushrooms looked so beautiful, it almost seemed criminal to cook them up!

The recipe is sort of a combination of Yotam Ottolenghi's warm mushroom salad and a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall mushroom stew - with most of the ingredients of the former, but the stock/sauce of the latter. We had it with mixed potato and parsnip mash for which I tried out the rather faffy HFW method (cooking the parsnips in milk which you then use in the final mash) - don't think the result's any better than my usual boil-it-all-together-and-mash-it technique. With a blob of creme fraiche on the top, it all tasted great though - a great winter warmer supper.

4 December - roast pork belly

We headed round to the Deco Lounge for brunch today - lounge eggs (poached eggs on toasted muffins with hollandaise) with smoked salmon for me.

I'd planned to make moussaka to use the aubergines that came in Friday's vegbox, but when I got to the butcher's, they didn't have any lamb mince. Lacking any other inspiration and not feeling up to trudging off to find it somewhere else (still very coldy), I had to come up with a quick change of plan. I got a piece of pork belly, which I slow-roast simply with some carrots and onions thrown in the roasting pan towards the end. We had it with some simple boiled cabbage and some gravy made from the pan juices. It wasn't bad, but although the pork was nice and tender on the inside, it was a bit too crunchy on the outside for my liking and just generally not really what I'd been in the mood for.

3 December - very spicy parsnip soup and sausage and kale stew

Still trying to blast through my cold, I made up a batch of spicy parsnip soup for lunch. I went a bit heavier than usual on the chilli, so it came out really very spicy! Also feeling a bit woolly-headed and not concentrating, the final result was rather thick and looked more like semolina than soup! I'm feeling so unfussed about food at the moment though, it actually went down okay.

Having got some lovely cavalo nero in the vegbox yesterday, I used it to make up some sausage and kale stew. Always good and great comfort food.

2 December - couscous salad and an orange supper

Cold's still in full force and tastebuds difficult to tempt. I tried to break through with a bit of chorizo in a warm couscous salad for lunch; giant couscous with chorizo, cherry tomatoes, beans and sweetcorn.

This morning's vegbox had a bit of a festive feel as I'd ordered a few bottles of bubbly along with the regular veg. They're all organic (a champagne, a prosecco and some rose sparkling) and have gone into the wine cellar ... okay the garage! ... ready for a bit of seasonal sparkle once my tastebuds are back. Will report back on what they're like ...

Tris was out this evening, so I bought myself a pork steak for supper. I simply fried it and made a bit of sauce to pour over (Marsala, parsley and butter) and had it with some braised cabbage with carraway seeds and mixed carrot and parsnip mash. It made a rather yellowy-orange plate of food, but lots of good, comforting flavours.

1 December - jerusalem artichoke soup and a thai curry

Today the cold is in full force and food is the last thing I feel like. I bought some Jerusalem artichokes yesterday though, so I went ahead and made the soup I'd got planned for lunch. I only discovered Jerusalem artichokes quite recently and I think they've got a lovely nutty, sweet flavour. They're also incredibly simple to make into soup. I just peel and chop them and sweat them in some oil with a chopped onion, a bay leaf and some fresh thyme for about 10 mins. Then I add some chicken stock and bubble for another 10-15 mins, before removing the herbs and blending the whole thing. I stir in a bit of cream at the end and then serve with a drizzle of truffle oil. And today it was that strong truffle flavour that just managed to break through the cold.

Keeping up the theme of strong flavours, for supper I made a Thai chicken curry with plenty of chilli and ginger. Looking for some veg to go in the curry, I made the mistake of getting some green beans from Africa. I usually avoid out-of-season veg imported across the world just on eco principles, but actually taste is a much greater motivation for avoiding it. The beans were rather pale, watery and completely tasteless - absolutely no comparison to the lovely green, silky, melt-in-the-mouth beans I was growing in the summer.

30 November - an omelette and tapas at the lido

I peeled and chopped too much potato for last night's curry, so I cooked the excess and used it for a lunchtime omelette along with some chorizo and cherry tomatoes.

A bit of a tickle in my throat yesterday has turned into a full-blown cold, but I still went out to meet a friend at the Lido for the evening. It perked me up no end to get out and have a bit of a chat and a giggle, but my tastebuds have gone on strike and I don't have much appetite, so picking on a bit of tapas was about as much as I could manage.

29 November - bakery closed!

Disaster this morning - I pottered down the lane to Hart's Bakery to get some bread for my lunch, only to be faced with a notice saying it was closed for relocation. It turns out that Laura's had to leave her current premises and hasn't got a new place to go to yet. Such a shame as it's such a great little business - fantastic products and clearly really popular - keeping fingers crossed she finds somewhere new soon (preferably nearby!) and normal yummy bread/custard tart service is resumed before too long!

With the bread plan scuppered, I ended up with a couple of small jacket potatoes (for speed) for lunch to go with my fresh figs and goats cheese.

After all the rich, meaty Roman fare over the weekend, I went for a tasty but fresh veggie curry this evening:

• Whizz together in a blender some chopped fresh chilli (usually green, but red today), half an onion, a couple of cloves of garlic and about the same amount of fresh ginger.
• Heat some oil in a large pan, add a tsp cumin seeds and half tsp turmeric, stir around then add the puree and fry for a minute or so.
• Add a chopped tomato, a squeeze of lemon juice, 3 cardamom pods, 3 cloves and about 150ml veg stock.
• To this add a small cauliflower broken into florets and a medium potato peeled and cubed - simmer for 20-25 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through.
• Either stir in a good splodge of natural yoghurt or drizzle it over the top, together with a good handful of fresh coriander.

28 November - a final pizza and fishcakes

We just had time for a trip across the river to explore the narrow streets of Trastevere this morning. We really needed to be on the train for the airport by 2pm, so went for an early lunch at Dar Poeta, another recommendation, this time for pizza. I don't generally eat pizza, but gave it a try anyway. I have to say, I wasn't converted, but Tris managed to get through his quite happily even though we were looking at our watches and had to cut our last Roman lunch rather short.

We got back to Bristol early evening and stopped off at Waitrose on the way back to grab some easy fishcakes for dinner. Not quite up to the weekend's culinary excellence, but with a big pile of fresh peas and leeks, not bad for a simple, pasta-free supper.

27 November - icecream and lamb alla romana

After a morning at the Roman Forum, we headed for another recommended restaurant nearby for lunch. Unfortunately, it was all booked up and I was desperate for a sit-down, so we just plumped for a tourist joint round the corner. The food was actually perfectly passable, but it did highlight just how good all the hotel's recommendations had been in steering us away from dull tourist fare.

In the afternoon, back on message, we headed to Giolitti's, an icecream parlour and apparently a bit of a Rome institution. It's down a little alley, but not difficult to find with the buzz of the crowd outside. I don't much like icecream, but Tris ventured in to brave the crowd. He came straight back out describing the five-deep scrum at the counter rather like a city pub on a Friday night! I assured him I was happy to wait and sent him back in. He finally emerged some time later with what I have to admit, even to non-icecream lover, was a great icecream, well worth the effort.

For our final evening in Rome, we went to Grappolo d'oro Zampano, more traditional Roman food, but with a bit of a younger, funkier feel. I went for lamb alla romana, really slow-cooked lamb on the bone which just fell apart, served on a pile of greens with some crunchy cubes of roast potato on the side - great again! Finishing off with tiramisu and a couple of glasses of grappa, we needed the walk back through the city to walk it off.

26 November - Armando's and slow-cooked veal

After a morning's sightseeing, we headed for Armando's, a small trattoria recommended by both the hotel and various websites. It's an unassuming little doorway, just a stone's throw from the Pantheon, and is apparently popular with politicians. We weren't too hopeful about our chances of getting a table on a Saturday lunchtime, but we seemed to arrive at just the right time and bagged the last unreserved table. It lived up to its billing, with a great atmosphere and people-watching and amongst the best pasta I've ever eaten. I had ravioli filled with ricotta in a creamy mushroom sauce, which sounds simple, but was just delicious.

By the end of the day, with aching feet, we opted for dinner right next door to where we were staying at Colline Emiliane, which does traditional Bolognese food. After antipasti of salami and a caprese salad, Tris went for the tagliatelle alla bolognese - well, you've got to give it a try! - which was good, but not remarkably different from mine, to be honest. I had slow-cooked veal with mashed potato, which was great, real melt-in-the-mouth stuff.

25 November - saltimbocca in Rome

Today, we arrived in Rome for a long weekend and started our culinary tourism with some traditional Roman fare at Hostaria Romana, a restaurant recommended and booked by the super-helpful staff at our hotel. It initially looked a bit like a conventional tourist haunt, but the food was great and as the queue, of both locals and tourists, grew outside the door, you could see why it was popular.

We started with a mixed antipasti del casa - a massive plate of cold meats, grilled vegetables, mozzarella and seafood. I then went for saltimbocca; veal escalopes with prosciutto and sage and a lovely sharp sauce. All washed down with a bottle of house white, it was a great start to the weekend.