28 January - montpellier chapter, cheltenham

We'd planned a grand day out to give us something to look forward to amongst the January greyness. We got the train to Cheltenham and had booked for lunch at a trendy hotel, the Montpellier Chapter. The restaurant, which has Simon Hopkinson as an advisor, got a good write-up in the Guardian, so we had high hopes for a cool, buzzy atmosphere and some good food. When we arrived at 12.30 though, there were only two other couples in an otherwise completely empty restaurant and we were all stuck in a corridor-type area rather than in the main body of the restaurant, which looked like it was set up for a big group. I was a bit disappointed to be sat in a rather unappealing corner in a draught, but expected that things would perk up when 'the others' arrived, possibly for one. I had some nice scallops to start, although the orange zest in the topping was a bit over-powering for my liking. By the time our mains arrived, the other couples had left and I'd overheard from one of the waitresses that they were actually gearing up for a big group for afternoon tea later in the day - leaving us as the lone diners in the corner of a completely empty restaurant - chilly, soulless and distinctly uncomfortable!! Our main was very good, we both had pork fillet and pork belly with creamy mash, red cabbage and apple sauce - all very well cooked and delicious. We chatted a bit to the waitress at the end of the meal and she apologised that we hadn't caught them on the best of days. I guess it was just bad luck and there wasn't an awful lot they could have done about it - except perhaps seated us in a slightly comfier spot. Thankfully, we had a great afternoon's shopping afterwards though and a good stop for tea and cake at the Swallow Bakery before we headed home.

In the evening, we didn't really need a proper meal, so I made up a few tapas-style dishes to pick on instead - warm tomato and basil salad, beetroot with toasted walnuts and some fried potatoes topped with chorizo and sliced red pepper.

27 January - eating out

It turned out to be a day of eating out today. I was out for lunch with a friend in Thornbury (just outside Bristol). We went to Meze - which unsurprisingly, has a menu of lots of small dishes. I actually went for two dishes that made more of a standard meal, with Moroccan chicken tagine and couscous. It was very tasty, although the tagine was oddly creamy and a bit more like a curry than anything Moroccan. A good spot though and perfect for a good old natter.

When we'd planned to go out for Friday night supper, it hadn't occurred to me I'd be out for lunch too. So I was a bit less hungry than I'd have liked when we headed to the Thali Cafe in Clifton. The food was excellent as usual, although my lamb koftas in curry sauce were right on the edge of my spicy tolerance level! As the name suggests, the food arrives in lots of little bowls rather than as a single dish. As well as my koftas, there was rice, dahl, a yoghurty dip, a salad and another bowl of something saucy. They all look deceptively small and you work your way through, chatting away happily, then suddenly it hits you that you're absolutely stuffed! We were both glad of the 10-minute walk home to walk everything down a bit.

26 January - thai salmon curry

I tried out another recipe from the leaflet that came with the slow cooker today - for Thai salmon curry. It doesn't seem like an obvious candidate for slow-cooking, but I thought I'd give it a go. Again, you just put all the ingredients together in the slow cooker - salmon chunks, spring onions, peas, sugar snaps, carrot and red pepper, along with Thai green curry paste (I made my own) mixed with coconut milk and a dash of fish sauce - then put on the lid and pop it in the oven for an hour.

It came out pretty well and because of the steaming effect, the veg stayed nice and crunchy. I have to say, I'm still not completely convinced about fish curry though. As a technique though, maybe with prawns or chicken, I'd definitely try it again.

25 January - warm squash and chorizo salad

I really must get round to buying Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Simple ... I found myself in Smiths again today trying to memorise a recipe! In the end, I actually picked a recipe from the Channel 5 website instead for hot chorizo and squash salad. I pretty much followed the recipe, with spiced roast squash, red onion and cherry tomatoes, mixed with cooked pinto beans, chorizo and spinach leaves, then coriander dressing and a few slivers of parmesan on the top. I did a few cubes of sauted potato too, but to be honest, the salad would have been substantial enough without them. A really tasty, filling, but healthy-feeling supper - yum!

24 January - fish pie

Today, I got round to making the fish pie postponed from the weekend. It was a bit basic - just some haddock in a white sauce with a couple of boiled eggs, topped with mash. Sadly, I think the rather tasteless supermarket fish needed a bit of something to add flavour - possibly the prawns that got used the other night. It was okay with some leeks and carrots, but not the most exciting of suppers.

23 January - polenta and beef stir-fry

I was at a bit of a loss what to have for lunch today. I'd had eggs and pasta yesterday - two lunchtime staples - and after a late-morning swim, I didn't have time for a jacket potato. I had rice planned for dinner and didn't really fancy couscous, so I settled on a different carb base in polenta. It's not something I've really cooked much, but a dish of simple soft polenta topped with a creamy sauce of mushrooms and bacon actually worked really well. I think it might become part of my lunchtime repertoire.

This evening, I used up the last chunk of the beef fillet, slicing it wafer thin and stir-frying it really quickly with spices (dried chilli and toasted, ground cumin), some soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine, then stirring in some spring onions and lots of fresh coriander at the end (a recipe from Ching-He Huang's Chinese Food Made Easy). There wasn't a huge amount of beef, so I served it with a big pile of rice and some stir-fried green beans with sesame seeds. It was really tasty, especially with the wonderful melt-in-the-mouth beef - just wish there'd been a bit more!

22 January - not fish pie

We were out again for lunch today, making the most of a bit of brief sunshine at Mud Dock. I was feeling a bit sicky after painkillers for a really sore back, so I didn't really appreciate my scrambled egg with smoked salmon, but it was a still a nice place to hang out on a Sunday lunchtime.

I'd got the ingredients to cook fish pie for supper, but I was feeling too pained and horrible to be bothered with the faff. Instead I used the prawns I'd got to go in the pie with some mushrooms in a simple creamy sauce with linguine. Easy and tasty and a good base for more painkillers.

21 January - fillet steak and thai dressing

We were in town at lunchtime today so stopped off in Carluccio's for a bite to eat. I didn't want anything too big, so I choose a starter - aubergine rolls - plus some potatoes on the side. The rolls were thin slices of aubergine stuffed with a mix of breadcrumbs, tomatoes, pine nuts and cheese, served warm with a tomato sauce - really nice and just the right amount.

We picked up a really expensive piece of beef fillet from Ruby & White this morning. I couldn't quite justify cooking the whole piece for dinner, so I chopped off about two-thirds and we had it with spicy, herby Thai dressing (from Jamie Oliver), on a bed of spinach, beans, carrot and red pepper and some roasted cubes of sweet potato. The steak was a bit rarer than even I normally like it and the dressing a little bit spicier, but it was still a really tasty combination and the steak was lush.

20 January - lamb stew in a new slow cooker

I cooked up an extra couple of chicken thighs last night, so for lunch today I used the meat from them to make a creamy chicken and leek soup for lunch - chunky and warming.

As a welcome home present, Tris had bought me a really funky new slow cooker - it's kind of two earthenware dishes, with one fitting snuggly on the top of the other like a lid. You just put all your ingredients in, put it in the oven and let it cook, long and slow.

It came with a little recipe booklet, so tonight I tried out a variation on their stew recipe. You start off by soaking the slow cooker in cold water while you prepare the ingredients:

• Fry c. 200g diced lamb coated in flour just to brown it, then remove from the pan.
• Next fry a small onion, a chopped courgette and some chopped carrot in the same pan.
• Add a tbsp tomato puree, 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 500 ml water and stir well to combine.
• Put everything in the slow cooker, stir, add a bay leaf and cover. Then put it in a cold oven - turn it on to 175C and leave for 2 hours.
• When it's ready, add some chopped olives and parsley. Season and serve.

It was a bit of a leap of faith to just leave everything for two hours without being able to check what was going on, but it came out fantastic. The meat was lovely and tender and the sauce was rich and delicious. Served with some roast new potatoes, it was a real triumph. Can't wait to try my new toy out some more!

19 January - back to my own kitchen

I travelled back from Malta today - picking up a rather odd "pea pasty" for my lunch at the airport. It's been really good for the soul to have a break and a bit of sunshine - it felt horribly grey under the drizzly tupperware sky on the bus back from Bristol airport. But it's good to be back home to central heating and my own kitchen!

Tris was out this evening, so I cooked myself a simple supper of garlicky chicken thighs with a creamy sauce, new potatoes and a big pile of spinach - definitely my favourite comfort food!

18 January - prawns in the sun

Today I drove to Marsaxlokk, a picturesque fishing village known for its colourful fishing boats and its seafood restaurants. I went with the recommendation of the flat owner for lunch on the harbourside in the on-off sun at Carrubia. My prawns were very good, if a bit messy, but the accompaniments - a dry salad of lettuce and unripe tomatoes and a pile of frozen veg - went uneaten. It was a great spot to soak up some rays though and wander along the front with my camera snapping away.

As this is my last night here, supper this evening involved using up what was left in the fridge - a sort of tomato bruschetta with mozzarella and the last of the parma ham. I have to say that whilst I have had some memorable meals while I've been here, I am looking forward to getting back to my own kitchen and familiar shops.

17 January - adventurous solo dining

This morning's market didn't prove very helpful on the food front - mostly knocked-off trainers and tat, with just a few basic vegetable stalls of the onion and carrot variety - no fresh bread or pastries or other solo self-catering treats. On my way back to the flat, I dropped into one of the tiny shops for at least some 'plastic' toasting bread, only to see the bloke in front of me buying the last loaf of fresh local bread ... the shopkeeper explained apologetically that you have to get there early for it!

It was another chilly day, so I headed to Mdina, the ancient walled city in the centre of the island, with the intention of having a bit of a wander then warming up over a nice, long lunch. I got there though to realise - thankfully, before I'd gone into a restaurant - that I'd left my purse in my other bag back at the flat!! Thus, I wandered around a bit more until I was really too cold, then drove back to the flat for a late lunch of couscous, tomatoes and some parma ham. It's definitely been a challenge to self-cater for one without just eating the same thing all week.

This evening, I decided to try out Sugo, the little restaurant just across the street from the apartment that gets rave reviews in the visitor's book for Maltese cuisine. It turned out to be my most adventurous solo dining experience yet! When I arrived at 8.15, I was the only person there and was presented with a choice of tasting menus!! My first reaction was to move on, but the really friendly chef persuaded me to stay, offering a simpler starter + main combination and to my relief, five minutes later more people turned up, so it wasn't completely private dining! The food was pretty good - more bigilla as an appetiser, then some really tasty baked rice to start (with onions, tomatoes, pork mince and liver), apparently a traditional Maltese dish. For my main, I had beef stew which was in a lovely rich gravy, although to be honest, the meat was a bit chewy. All accompanied by a couple more glasses of really good local wine - I'll definitely be taking some Maltese wine home with me if I can fit them in my Ryanair baggage allowance!

Sadly, being in a similar old stone building, it was just as chilly as the flat, so despite all the warming, wintry food, it didn't do much to warm me up. At least it's not just me though - the other two female diners didn't even take off their jackets and scarves!

16 January - better pasta

Today was a bit of a frustrating day - rain, a leaking ceiling and hassle over a hire car - so I never really managed any proper lunch, just a few snacks grabbed along the way. I did, however, manage to get some onions, garlic, olive oil and butter in the dinky little local shops this morning. There seem to be quite a few of them, all tiny and all apparently stocking a similar mix of tins and dried stuff. I think for inspiration around here you really need to go to a market - apparently, tomorrow's market day, so I'll report back. Anyway, with the rain battering down and lots of restaurants apparently closed on a Monday, I had another go at some homemade pasta for supper in the cool little kitchen of my rented apartment.

This time was distinctly more successful - a fairly passable sauce of onion, garlic, courgette and tomato. Now curled up next to the heater for the evening with another glass of Malti wine and a big bar of Dairy Milk!

15 January - sunday lunch in the sun

Having failed in my shopping yesterday that included butter for toast, it was muesli for breakfast - not my favourite - so I felt justified in going out for a proper Sunday lunch. After a fantastically hot, sunny morning sitting on the roof terrace wishing I'd brought shorts, by the time I wandered down to the waterfront for lunch, it was clouding over. Undeterred, I opted for the terrace of Don Berto - apparently a popular spot for family Sunday lunches.

I started off with some garlic bread to compensate for the lack of toast for breakfast. Then for my main, I had the most fabulous, falling-off-the-bone lamb shanks, slow-cooked in a rich sauce with carrots, peppers, courgette and aubergine, topped with vegetable crisps and with a whole roast garlic on the side - the discretely snapped picture really doesn't do it justice!

Certainly solved the problem of having nothing much in for supper - it was more than enough to keep me going!

14 January - a veggie lunch and crap pasta

Staying around Vittoriosa today, I went out for lunch, this time choosing easy over adventurous - an outside table at Tate, a vegetarian cafe on the waterfront. A good spot for people-watching and a table in the sun, but an initially uninspiring menu. Feeling like I hadn't had much veg over the past couple of days, I ordered a falafel salad. It turned out to be a good choice - freshly cooked falafels with a yoghurt dip, warm pitta and humus and a huge pile of salad - mainly lettuce but with enough bits of carrot, tomato and cucumber plus a herby dressing to make it interesting. I'd had pudding in mind when I sat down, but after munching my way through all those falafels, I was distinctly stuffed.

I'd bought some pasta and a tin of tomatoes yesterday and I'd intended to get some olive oil, onions and garlic to cook up a simple pasta sauce this evening. Unfortunately, although the blurb at the apartment said that local shops were open morning and early evening Mon to Sat, when I went out at 6, everything was distinctly closed! I did try just pasta and some heated tomatoes, but it was so watery and tasteless, I didn't even bother finishing it. Now I'm curled up under a blanket (the apartment's unheated and really chilly of an evening) watching old Doctor Who reruns on BBC entertainment, with a glass of wine and a box of After Eights ... not exactly a healthy supper, but I don't feel too bad after my super-healthy lunch!

13 January - calamari in valetta

I ventured into Valetta today, determined to have some proper Maltese food for lunch. The places with tables out in squares were tempting, but despite the sun, I was feeling a bit too chilly to sit outside. So I fell back on my guidebook and sought out Rubino, a restaurant recommended for modern Maltese cuisine. It was a bit tucked away and difficult to see in from the street, But I just took the plunge anyway. It was full smartly-dressed businessmen taking clients out to lunch - a good sign - and the waiters were welcoming.

I went for just a main from the menu scribbled on a blackboard in a mix of English and Malti. As I waited for my calamari, I was served with bread and little crackers to dip into some bigilla - a Matli dip made of spiced crushed beans - tasty and quite moreish. When my squid arrived, it was huge - three whole grilled squid with a herby sauce and spicy roast potatoes. It was very good and great to have some fresh seafood. I didn't quite manage to clear my plate though and needed a good strong espresso before I went off to spend the afternoon exploring the city!

While I was out, I managed to gather a few bits and pieces of food, so supper back at the apartment consisted of some couscous already mixed with Mediterranean spices, some fried courgette, cherry tomatoes and a bit of mozzarella. After a filling lunch, it was all I needed and with more Maltese wine ended the day pretty well.

12 January - going solo in malta

It's years since I travelled alone and I'd forgotten just how daunting it can be to go out for dinner on your own in a strange place. I arrived in Malta at lunchtime for a week's winter sun and had a bit of a wander around Vittoriosa - one of the "three cities" that ring the harbour opposite Valletta, the capital. Later, back at my funky little rented apartment, I realised I hadn't eaten anything since a mid-morning prawn sandwich and although I've got a little kitchen, I hadn't had the chance to get any food in. I'd spotted a row of promising resturants on the waterfront, so I headed there. The most interesting-looking was intimidatingly empty at quarter to eight, so I carried on until I came across Sottovento; a bistro with more of a cafe atmosphere - wooden tables with several groups of women clearly out for an early supper and a natter.

Having committed and sat down at a table in the corner, the menu revealed a rather unexciting choice of pizza and pasta. The huge plate of tortellini in creamy sauce with mushroom and bacon that arrived was unadventurous, but tasty and filling and went down well with an equally large glass of local white wine! Determined to try something more local tomorrow ...

11 January - easy lamb

I'd intended to cook fish pie, but as I was in Waitrose looking at the fish, nothing really took my fancy and I didn't feel like all that fish pie faff. So when I spotted their lamb in mint and balsamic crust in the same chiller cabinet, I decided to opt for the easy pre-prepared option instead! We had the lamb with kale and mixed mash (potato, parsnip and jerusalem artichoke) and it was as good as usual.

10 January - soup and a winter stir-fry

I got jerusalem artichokes in Friday's vegbox, so today I made up a batch of soup for lunch. I think I added a bit too much stock, so it was a bit watery, but otherwise tasty, esp. with a dribble of truffle oil.

For dinner, I tried out a recipe from River Cottage Veg for a winter stir-fry with spring onion, carrot, parsnip, mushrooms and spinach, flavoured with chilli and garlic and a sauce of soy sauce, rice wine and five-spice. The recipe suggested 50g noodles for two, but as I drained them, I realised there was nowhere near enough, so everything was put on hold while I quickly did some more. I wasn't sure about the idea of stir-fried parsnip, but it actually came out okay. I was less convinced by the squeeze of lime juice that went on at the end - it completely overpowered all the other flavours.

9 January - spicy chicken with dates

This one-pot dish was in the Saturday Guardian magazine - you cook the chicken with rice, lentils and spices, adding dates towards the end. I added a sliced red pepper at the beginning to give it a bit of built-in veg and it went quite well. I used four dates each, which I think was perhaps a bit much as they're quite sweet - I'd be inclined to use fewer dates and maybe chop them up if I did it again. It was a bit tricky to get the rice cooked through without it sticking, but otherwise, it was pretty easy and a really tasty super.

8 January - beef stew

We had some simple baked potatoes for lunch today with some leeks from the vegbox, cooked up gently with some bacon and then mixed with a bit of creme fraiche - a classic, comfort-food combination.

For supper, I did a slow-cook beef stew. The recipe idea came with the vegbox and was originally for beef and squash stew. Having had squash yesterday though, I substituted it for some parsnip.

• Brown c. 450g diced beef in an ovenproof pan and remove.
• Add a sliced onion and cook until softened, then add a clove of chopped garlic.
• Return the beef to the pan and add 250ml red wine and the same of water (a bit more if the beef isn't covered), plus a sprig of rosemary and bay leaf.
• Cover with a lid and put in the oven at 150C for two hours.
• Add a couple of peeled and chopped parsnips and cook for another 10-15 mins - checking there's enough liquid in the pan - I had to add a bit more at this point as it was drying out.

It came out smelling great, but looking a bit grey and watery. It could have done with some nice juicy greens on the side, but the only thing I had was some more leeks. It did taste really good - the beef was melt-in-the-mouth and the sweet, nutty parsnips were great mashed into the gravy. If I did it again, I think I'd find a way of thickening the sauce a bit, maybe just a bit of cornflour stirred in at the end.

7 January - prego and a hot chicken salad

It actually wasn't raining for a change, so we headed out for a bit of fresh air and walked up to the Downs, then on to Prego for Saturday lunch, an Italian place we'd talked about trying, but which is usually just a bit out of walking distance. We were a bit thrown by the menu initially - we'd both had in mind something light, maybe a salad, and everything was looking a bit big and heavy. We both went for pasta though and by the time it arrived, happily tucked in. I had ravioli filled with ricotta and served with beetroot tops and hazelnuts - really delicious and fantastic subtle flavours. Whilst the food was excellent though, the place was so full of families with young children, it felt like trying to eat in the middle of a nursery! I'm not sure if the restaurant is actively family-friendly (it did have a kids menu) or whether we were just unlucky with our timing, but with small kids screaming, often in stereo, as soon as we'd finished our food, we just asked for the bill to escape and went somewhere a bit more peaceful for our post-lunch coffee.

As we didn't get our salad at lunchtime, I cooked a hot chicken salad for supper instead. I marinated some strips of chicken in yoghurt mixed with some ras al hanout for a while, then cooked it on a hot griddle pan. With it we had roast beetroot and butternut squash on a big pile of spinach (to make it a salad!) and I drizzled over a dressing made of more yoghurt mixed with lemon juice and a bit of cumin. The chicken rather stuck to the griddle pan, but once I'd got it off, it tasted really good and with the dressing, it all went together really well. I also roasted a whole garlic while the oven was on which we had on the side - a bit messy to get out of their skins, but wonderfully soft and sweet.

6 January - the clifton sausage

I spent all morning waiting in for the vegbox. It usually arrives at around 11, but today, with a different driver, it didn't turn up until mid-afternoon. That meant there was very little in for my lunch, so I ended up making my version of the Greek dish "gigantes" - big white butterbeans cooked up in a tomato sauce with a few onions and some oregano. I had the beans with a few boiled potatoes and the rest of the parma ham - an unlikely combination, but not too bad.

In the evening, we went to the Clifton Sausage. As its name suggests, the menu's heavily sausage-oriented. I started with potted pork with spiced pear chutney, then as I'm not a big sausage fan, I went for the specials , which today included one of my favourites, brill. It came on a big pile of spinach with a creamy saffron sauce - mmm!

5 January - a jacket potato and a burger

For lunch, it was a jacket potato with some roast red onion, goats cheese and a couple of slices of parma ham. Then this evening, we were out at the Lounge meeting a friend. I wasn't inspired by any of the specials so after lots of deliberation, I went for burger. Lounge burgers used to be fantastic, wonderfully juicy, but recently, they seem to have gone downhill and become rather dried out, burnt offerings. I was hopeful that they might be back on form, but sadly, it was rather dried and disappointing. I won't bother trying again.

4 January - mushroom soup and kippercakes

More shiitake mushrooms had sprouted and were growing almost by the minute, so lunch was a simple mushroom noodle soup. Annoyingly, I burnt my tongue with my first slurp, so I'm not really sure if it tasted good or not!

Completely out of ideas for supper, I turned to the Kitchen Diaries, starting off with today's date and browsing back and forth. I came across what were described as "kipper patties", but somehow became known as "kippercakes" in the cooking! Really they were just pretty straightforward fishcakes made with kippers, potato and a bit of dill. The recipe suggested serving them with dill mayonnaise, but I had some creme fraiche in the fridge, so used that instead with some dill and a crushed clove of garlic. They were a bit soggy and went a bit squishy in the frying, but the smoky kippercakes with the fresh, cooling creme fraiche were a great combination, along with a pile of steamed leeks, beans and carrots.

3 January - lamb "kedgeree" and salmon teriyaki

I was trying to decide what to do with the last little bit of leftover roast lamb for lunch and after rummaging in the bottom of the fridge, came up with some curried rice - kind of a cross between kedgeree and biryani! I cooked the rice with some cardamom pods, then fried up an onion and some courgette, added some curry powder and stirred in the rice and lamb. Sprinkled with a bit of coriander, it made a really rather yummy plate of lunch.

Tris picked up a bottle of teriyaki sauce while we were in the supermarket the other day, so for dinner I made some salmon teriyaki. I gently heated 3 tbsp teriyaki sauce, a tbsp honey, a clove of chopped garlic and half a tsp ground ginger to make the glaze. I spread it over a couple of salmon fillets to marinade for a few minutes, then popped them in a hot oven for 10 minutes. We got some rather odd green rice for Christmas, so I cooked up some of that along with some steamed pak choi and a few green beans to make a rather oddly green and pink plate of food!

2 January - espresso cupcakes and pork with leeks and beans

I bucked the New Year's detox trend this afternoon, making up a batch of espresso cupcakes. The only downside was waiting for them to cool down enough to ice!

With an extra Bank Holiday, Tris cooked dinner. He'd found a Jamie Oliver recipe for fillet steak with creamy leeks and white beans. Unfortunately, with the butcher's closed and no fillet steak in Waitrose, we had to go for pork steaks instead. It was still a good combination though - really tasty and definitely one to try again when I can get some proper fillet steak from Ruby & White.

1 January - leftover lamb and thai curry

2012 started with leftovers ... we had cold lamb for lunch with some home-made tzatziki and a salad of the leftover squash and onion with some chickpeas. Not a bad spread for a picky lunch.

One of our more unusual Christmas presents was some grow-your-own mushrooms. I'd started off the shiitake mushrooms a couple of days ago and there were already some huge cups sprouting. Really impressive!

So dinner was a Thai chicken curry with the mushrooms and a few green beans. The curry paste always comes out a bit different and tonight it was pleasantly sharp (from the lime and a big blob of fresh ginger) with just the right amount of background chilli hum.

31 December - minestrone and new year's supper

I made up a big pot of chunky minestrone for lunch -red onion, leek and carrot sweated in oil, plus some bacon, courgette, garlic, diced potato and about 500ml chicken stock simmered for 20 mins with a handful of orzo added for the last 10 mins. More of a veg stew really than a soup, but really tasty with the leftover pesto stirred in.

We went round to a friend's for a New Year's Eve supper. I made the starter, a bit of a copy of yesterday's bruschetta, but this time as tartlets with sweet onion, squash, goats cheese and toasted walnuts. They ended up being put together in a bit of a rush and could have done with a bit more filling, but they still went down okay.

Followed by some good, warming shepherds pie and plenty of bubbly, we saw in the start of 2012.

30 December - bruschetta and slow-roast lamb

When I had the oven on to cook the salmon yesterday, I popped some peppers and squash in to roast at the same time. I had both today on some bruschetta for lunch with a bit of goats cheese - mmm!

For dinner, I decided to try out a slow-roast lamb recipe I'd seen in the Guardian magazine a few weeks ago where you coat the lamb in yoghurt spiced with ras al hanout (the Moroccan spice mix usually used in tagines) and cook it long and slow with red wine and sliced onions. I slightly miscalculated my timing and put it on earlier than it should've been - I didn't think it'd matter too much with a 4-hour cooking time. Towards the end, I probably should have checked it a bit more, but was distracted by other things and was rather annoyed to find when I finally took it out that it'd completely dried out, so that the onions had shrivelled and burnt and there was no sauce left in the dish to pour over the meat. So all in all, the meat was a bit dry and disappointing. We had it with some couscous and a bit of roast aubergine and pepper and some extra yoghurt on the side. Not bad, but not as tasty as it should've been.

29 December - salmon with coriander pesto

It was another HFW recipe for lunch - chachouka is a mix of slow-cooked onions and peppers with tomatoes and spices, then an egg cracked in the top. I added a few chickpeas that were in the fridge and they went pretty well for a hearty lunch.

When I bought fresh coriander for yesterday's curry, the smaller packets were looking a bit yellowy, so I ended up getting a big bag. To use it up while it was still green and perky, I made up a batch of coriander pesto made with garlic and pistachios. I teamed it up with some plain salmon fillets and a pile of fresh veg; carrots, green beans and tenderstem broccoli. The pesto was really tasty and looked great against the pale pink of the salmon.

28 December - potato salad and aubergine curry

I tried out another recipe from my new cookbook for lunch - well, more of an idea than a recipe really, just a bit of a twist on a potato salad. You roughly chop a boiled egg into a simple dressing of oil, vinegar and mustard and slightly mash it in so that the yolk mixes a bit with the dressing. Then you add cold, boiled potatoes and cherry tomatoes. The slightly thickened yellowy dressing coated the potatoes and made it a nice simple lunch with a bit of mozzarella on the side.

We had another one-pot veg dish for supper, this time an aubergine Thai curry from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, with aubergine, mushrooms and tomatoes in a spicy coconut sauce. It's a recipe I've done before with several variations and always comes out tasty - you can't beat aubergine for soaking up lots of lovely spices!

27 December - squash and chickpea stew

We had a wander down to the harbourside for a bit of lunch in Bordeaux Quay. It was really busy and as we walked in, we didn't think we'd get a table, but the waitress said we could sit at one of the tables by the bar to eat. It was a bit of a mistake though as they'd clearly let too many people in for the kitchen to cope with. We waited an age for just our coffees, then nearly 45 mins for our eggs (it was a brunch menu). I'd gone for eggs Florentine, which arrived as two muffin halves with spinach, but with a very undercooked egg on one and a splodge of uncooked egg white on the other - yeuck! Tris's wasn't much better - clearly the result of a very rushed kitchen. I took it back to complain and they promptly offered to replace it, but I have to say the second plate wasn't that great either. Definitely a case of poor management.

For Christmas, I got Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage veg every day. I've already been using recipes from the TV series, so I knew I already liked it. This evening, I tried out the North African squash and chickpea stew - very substantial and pretty tasty.