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.

31 October - cheese on toast and beef chilli

With fresh Turkish figs still in season, I bought a lovely crusty sourdough loaf from Hart's this morning to make some goats cheese on toast with figs on the side for lunch.

There was a chunk of beef from yesterday in the fridge which I somehow fancied slow cooking. I stopped in Smith's on my way to the supermarket to flick through Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Simple. I really ought to buy a copy, but for today, I settled for just memorising a recipe for beef chilli. It's a pretty long list of ingredients, but I think I managed to get home with them all still in my head it more or less the right proportions and order!

• Blend an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic.
• Brown a chunk of beef on all sides in a pan- I used about 150g topside - and remove.
• Fry some chopped cooking chorizo in the same pan, then add the onion and garlic mix.
• Add a tsp cumin and a tsp allspice, a few cloves, a cinnamon stick and a bay leaf.
• Stir in a couple of chopped red chillis, a few bits of jalapeno (from a jar), a splash of balsamic vinegar, a squirt of tomato ketchup, some dried oregano and half a tin of tomatoes. Stir it all around to cook for a while, then return the beef and top up with about 150ml water.
• I transferred the whole lot to a casserole, covered it with foil and popped it in a low oven (150C) for a couple of hours.
• Towards the end, stir in half a tin of borlotti beans.
• When you take it out, break up the beef with a fork into shreds.

The result wasn't particularly photogenic, but it tasted absolutely fantastic! All the flavours came together wonderfully to create a real 'surround-sound' kind of taste that lingered long after the last mouthful! Rather than rice or tortillas, I served it with some cubes of roast sweet potato and a blob of guacamole.

17 October - sweet potato soup and shepherd's pie

The week has started using up what's in the fridge. For lunch, I had the last of the sweet potato and red lentil soup. As well as a dollop of soured cream, I scattered a few fried lardons on the top and had a couple of slices of soft, fresh bread from Hart's.

I ummed and erred about what to do with the leftover lamb mince (from yesterday's burgers), coming up with lots of different options - meatballs, moussaka, stuffed peppers - but in the end, I went for some old-school shepherd's pie. I cooked up all the mince and came up with a bit more than a single helping, so it looks like I'll be eating leftovers for a while yet!

10 September - fresh figs and a lamb curry

I got some lovely big, fresh, Turkish figs in the supermarket this morning. So lunch involved some fresh bread from Hart's Bakery (@ Ruby & White) with the figs, some bresaola and a tomato and basil salad.

We fancied a curry, so I flicked through Madhur Jaffrey and cooked up some lamb do piaza with some spicy green beans and rice. As usual, the sauce rather curdled, but it was still tasty.

• Fry one and a half finely sliced onions until starting to brown. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.
• Put a cinnamon stick, 3 cardamom pods and 3 cloves in the same oil.
• Add about 250g cubed lamb to brown, then remove.
• Fry 1/2 finely chopped onion, then add some garlic and ginger paste (made from a couple of cloves of garlic and a lump of ginger, both grated and mixed with a little water).
• Add 1 tsp coriander and 1/2 tsp cumin and stir.
• Gradually add 2 tbsp yoghurt and stir to incorporate. I never manage this without it curdling, even taking the pan off the heat.
• Return the meat with a cup of water, a pinch of cayenne pepper and some salt. Then bubble away gently for an hour or so.
• Return the fried onions and half a tsp of garam masala.

17 August - double lunch and kedgeree

We have a staff meeting on a Wednesday lunchtime. I knew I wouldn't make it through to after the meeting without something to eat, but I hadn't been organised enough to get anything in for a packed lunch, so I stopped off at Hart's on my way in this morning and picked up a courgette and feta danish. It made the perfect savoury snack just to get me through. It wasn't quite enough to last through the rest of the afternoon though, so after the meeting I went into Chandos Deli for a goats cheese and red onion tart which I had when I finally got home at about 3.

Dinner was another quick favourite, kedgeree with smoked mackerel, spinach and peas. I think I've complained before that my kedgeree hasn't been as good since Sainsbury's changed their smoked mackerel. Tonight, I used some new curry powder though, from Steenbergs, which gave it just the right amount of kick and flavour. I think it went some way to making up for the less flavoursome fish.

29 June - fig salad and quick pasta

A few days ago, I bought some peaches to make a peach and mozzarella salad I'd seen when I was flicking through a Jamie Oliver book. Sadly though, they're still rock hard - never believe all this "ripen in bowl" nonsense! So instead, I used a couple of figs. There were some pea shoots, the figs, mozzarella and a couple of slices of bresaola, drizzled with a bit of simple lemon and olive oil dressing. To go with it I had a couple of slices of fabulous fresh wholemeal and sesame bread from Hart's. With hindsight, the dressing was perhaps a bit too sharp, but otherwise a great combo.

I was out early evening, so dinner was late, some quick pasta; orecchiette with fresh broad beans, some fried pancetta and mascarpone, seasoned with just a little finely grated lemon zest. It's one of my favourite types of pasta, shame it's so difficult to get hold of.

23 June - nice bread and a misunderstanding with a waiter

My parents were visiting today and it being a rather busy mid-week, I opted for a simple lunch of fresh bread from Hart's Bakery (a fabulously tasty sourdough loaf) with some cold meats and fresh figs. Nice and easy, but it went down well as a slow help-yourself lunch to chat over.

In the evening, I'd booked a table at the Lido, one of our local favourites and somewhere that's relaxed and easy, but has some interesting food too. Unfortunately, although most of the meal was well up to the usual standard, a misunderstanding with the waiter over a couple of our orders meant that me and my mum ended up with rather boring main courses that weren't really what we thought we'd ordered. I went for roast pork that came with "salsa mojo" - when I asked the waiter about it, he said it was a basically a mix of garlic, oil and herbs, which sounded great, but when it turned up, the main ingredient was actually green chilli and it was way too strong for my taste. My mum went for roast poussin with peppers, aubergines, yoghurt and flat bread, but because she was having flat bread with her starter, she asked if she could substitute it for some potatoes instead. The waiter, whose English wasn't great, misinterpreted her request as being for just the chicken with potatoes - thus missing out all the nice veg and yoghurt, which were what really made up the dish. He did apologise about his mistake with my sauce and offered us a free drink, but he wouldn't back down on my mum's, I think because he still didn't really understand when I tried to explain the mistake. It was a real shame, as it did slightly mar what would've otherwise been a great meal. I've got nothing against foreign waiting staff - who, to be honest, often have a better feel for what good service should be - but it's no good if their English isn't good enough to understand the customers.

4 May - bread & cheese and chicken noodles

A few months ago a new bakery opened just a few doors down from us tucked away on the little back lane the runs along one side of our house. It's called Hart's Bakery and it's a one-woman operation run by baker, Laura Hart. I don't eat a huge amount of bread, but I like to support local businesses, so I ventured in and I've been trying to go back regularly because the bread and the pastries are really good. This morning, I got a wonderful wholemeal and sesame sourdough loaf and had a couple of slices for lunch with some melted goat's cheese and a bit of salad on the side - yum!

For dinner I used up the last of the cold chicken along with the remaining spring greens in an Asian noodle soup.

• Simmer c. 750ml chicken stock with a smashed stalk of lemongrass and half a chopped red chilli.
• Then add the shredded chicken and season with a dash of dark soy sauce, a small splash of Thai fish sauce and a small squeeze of lemon juice.
• Boil some noodles as per packet, then drain and stir through a dribble of toasted sesame oil.
• Steam the finely shredded greens.
• Pile the noodles in the bottom of deep pasta bowls and pile on some of the greens.
• Stir in some chopped mint, coriander and Thai basil into the "soup" and pour it over the noodles and greens.

It could perhaps have done with a bit more 'soup', but it was wonderfully tasty and fresh.