2 March - the first asparagus and roast lamb

After the success of my chilli wrap earlier in the week, I went for another wrap today, this time grilled harissa chicken (just a grilled chicken breast brushed with harissa paste) with avocado, grilled red pepper and mayo. I made the mistake of popping the wrap under the grill to warm, because it was already on, but it just went crispy- d'oh! Thus it didn't actually 'wrap' very well, but still a tasty filling nonetheless.

I went into Ruby & White to get some lamb fillet for supper and while I was there spotted the first English asparagus of the season, from the Wye Valley. It was extortionately expensive, but as we were celebrating (a new work contract), I decided to go for it anyway. It was well worth it too ... a simple plate of lightly boiled asparagus with a bit of melted butter to start with a glass of bubbly was about as perfect as it gets! I used a Nigel Slater recipe from the Kitchen Diaries for the lamb, marinating it in a gloop of fresh mint, garlic, anchovy and olive oil, quickly roasting it whole, then slicing it thickly. We had it with some rosemary roast new potatoes, green beans and the rest of the champagne ... great start to the weekend!

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.

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!

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.

3 November - pasta and stuffed mushrooms

There was some roast tomato puree leftover from last night's curry, so I cooked it up with a bit of chopped bacon and a spoon of mascarpone to make a really delicious pasta sauce for lunch.

Inspiration for dinner came from another TV cookery programme, this time, Nigel Slater's Simple Cooking. I'm usually a big Nigel Slater fan and his style fits very much with my taste and style of cooking, so it's unusual that I don't get on with one of his recipes, but tonight I tried out his chestnut stuffed mushrooms and I can only say, they were horrible! As I was going along, it didn't seem to be working out well - the mushrooms I found were a bit too flat to really stuff and the stuffing came out very dry and crumbly, so just sort of got piled on the top like 'rubble'. The recipe said to cook it for an hour, but after about 30 mins, it was looking so dry and burnt, I couldn't face leaving it any longer. Maybe it was the 'too-flat' mushrooms and maybe it was the sausages I used that somehow had the wrong consistency, but the final result was very dry and unpleasant. Won't be doing that one again!

Yes, there are some mushrooms under there somewhere!

1 November - mackerel and bacon salad

Lunch on the run today was a rather dull M&S prawn sandwich. For dinner, we had a big bowl each of mackerel and bacon salad; new potatoes, smoked mackerel, bacon, spinach and French beans - still a nice combo.

With the dark evenings, it's getting more and more difficult to get good food shots, without lots of faff (and cold dinner!) to find the right light. Will have to try and figure something out over the winter.

Salad for dinner justified pudding - Nigel Slater's plum crunch with cream.

29 October - lunch in Bath, slow-baked sausages & new plates

It was another Saturday lunch out, this week in Bath. We went to check out the recently reopened Holbourne Museum - a funky bit of architecture, but not wildly excited inside. It's got a nice-looking cafe, but it was a bit full of kids, so we decided to head back to town for lunch. Just as we left though, it decided to tip with rain, so we just dived into the nearest place we could think of; the Riverside Cafe, a tiny little place tucked away under Pulteney Bridge that always does good, simple cafe food. I was still feeling a bit coldy and didn't have much appetite, so I went for some plain fried calamari and fries, just what I needed, and Tris had some really nice falafels with salad.

When we got home after a hard afternoon's shopping, I tried out a Nigel Slater recipe from an old OFM magazine for slow-baked sausages, with lots of onions and a sauce including dark beer. Came out quite nice served with some mash and cabbage. The evening's real culinary excitment though was all in the crockery, with beautiful new plates from Toast. It's not the most photogenic of dishes or the best light to show them off, but I'm sure they'll feature again soon ...

25 October - squash bruschetta and chicken with cider

Inspired by Hugh and his veg the other night, lunch today is butternut squash and goats cheese bruschetta. While I was cooking up the veg last night, I popped the rest of the squash and half a red pepper in the oven to roast. Today I warmed both through in a pan with a bit of melted butter, tipped them onto a couple of slices of nice toasted bread (from Hart's), added some crumbled goats cheese, a few chopped walnuts and popped it all under the grill to melt the cheese a bit. Well, worth a bit of forward planning!

There were still some mushrooms from Friday's vegbox in the fridge that needed eating, so I made up some chicken cooked in cider with mushrooms, potatoes and cream - based on a Nigel Slater recipe that's a regular favourite. Served with some plain boiled cabbage, the sauce is both creamy and tangy.

7 October - mackerel and bacon salad

The other day I was watching Nigel Slater's Simple Cooking and was quite taken with his mackerel and bacon salad, so I made up my own version for lunch. I mixed together some boiled new potatoes, with a smoked mackerel fillet, some crispy bacon, roasted red onions leftover from last night and a small handful of green beans from the garden. I turned it all over in a simple dressing of white wine vinegar, mustard and olive oil and sprinkled over some chopped chives. It was a really good combination and I think could become a bit of a lunchtime favourite.

I got a butternut squash in today's vegbox, so dinner was pasta with squash, sage and goats cheese. Unfortunately, the pasta took a bit longer than expected to cook, so the squash got a bit dry and overcooked, and I didn't really have enough goats cheese either, so not my most successful supper!

6 October - a jacket potato and a hot lamb salad

It's feeling distinctly autumnal now, so a nice hot jacket potato seemed perfect for lunch. I made an avocado left from the other night into a basic guacamole to dollop on the top and topped it with some bacon - proper bacon, that is, from the butchers, so there were nice crispy rinds to chew on too.

I'd bought a couple of big chunks of lamb neck fillet to make up another batch of curry for my Dad, but I had a bit more than I needed, so I cut off a length to have for dinner. I marinated it in some yoghurt with chopped mint and a squeeze of lemon juice, then grilled it and sliced it on top of a hot salad of spinach leaves, roasted cherry tomatoes and roasted red onion. I made up a yoghurty dressing to drizzle on the top (yoghurt mixed with some tahini). A really nice combination.

For pudding, I tried out a Nigel Slater recipe from the weekend's Guardian, some fresh figs baked with a drizzle of honey, then some ricotta mixed with yoghurt, icing sugar and fresh vanilla (that we brought back from Madagascar) dolloped on the top.

7 August - vegetable Thai green curry

There's so much veg floating around the kitchen today, it really has to be a vegetarian dinner. Lots of it seems to be green, which by a process of association leads me towards a green curry! I use a Nigel Slater paste as my base, mixing up in a blender:

• a stalk of lemongrass (centre bit chopped)
• a couple of cloves of garlic
• some galangal from a jar in the fridge
• a shallot
• half a green chilli
• a handful of fresh coriander
• a squeeze of lime juice
• a splash of fish sauce

I fry up a chopped courgette and a couple of spring onions, then add the paste, some veg stock and a small tin of coconut cream. Then in go some sugarsnap peas, green beans and some fresh sweetcorn (just to add a bit of yellow). It all comes out as a fairly tasty bowl of flavoursome green stuff and the sauce doesn't overwhelm the individual flavours of the veg.

30 July - melon & mozzarella and spicy meatballs

The weekend started with another trip to Ruby & White for some more meat - I think it's going to prove quite difficult to resist! Lunch was a lovely, summery salad of canteloupe melon with parma ham and creamy mozzarella, scattered with a few basil leaves and dressed with a little olive oil and lemon dressing.

For dinner, I made meatballs based on a Nigel Slater recipe:

• Mix 300g pork mince, a handful of lardons, a chopped shallot, some chopped lemongrass, chopped red chilli and a handful of fresh chopped coriander. And shape into small (walnut-sized) balls - today I made 10.
• Gently fry a few mushrooms with some sliced garlic and chilli in a wok.
• Add about 500ml chicken stock and a bashed stalk of lemongrass. Throw in a good handful of fresh peas and simmer.
• Fry the meatballs in vegetable oil for a few minutes until cooked through and nicely caramelised on the outside.
• Boil a few noodles. Add some chopped mint, coriander and basil to the broth.
• Serve a pile of noodles in the bottom of a large bowl with the meatballs on the top and the broth poured over.

The first time I came across the idea of meatballs in soup, it seemed a bit odd, but it's actually a really good combination - substantial (with the meatballs and noodles), but fresh and herby too.

25 July - hot chicken salad and plum tart

Dinner tonight's a Spanish-inspired hot salad; red onion, butter beans, green beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, new potatoes, a bit of chopped chorizo and some hot chicken.

We got some lovely English plums in Friday's vegbox that I didn't get round to cooking over the weekend, so I make them into a favourite tart - another Nigel Slater recipe, from Appetite, and one of the very few times I ever make pastry.

• For the pastry put 90g butter and 150g plain flour in a food processor and whizz to 'breadcrumbs'. Add an egg yolk, 2tbsp sugar and just enough water to make a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge.
• Make a caramel with 50g butter and 4 tbsp flour in a small ovenproof frying pan. Push the plums, cut in half and stoned, cut-side-up into the caramel.

• Roll out the pastry and lay over the plums, roughly tucking in the edges. Bake at 190C for about 45 mins.
• Leave to cool a bit in the pan before turning out.

It's sweet and naughty and even better served with a bit of cream!

21 July - scallops with minty peas and apricots with pistachios

I've just realised that I'm a whole week behind with this blog, so I thought I'd better sit down and have a catch-up! So, a week ago today ... Tris was out for the evening, so I bought myself a handful of scallops from the fish man, them pan-fried with a bit of pancetta and ate them on a pile of crushed minty peas ... you can't beat a classic combination!

I'm not generally a big fruit fan, but I'd seen some apricots the other day and I was drawn to pop them in my basket more by the lovely colour than anything else. This evening, I got round to cooking them up for pudding. I cut them in half and baked them, covered in foil, with a spoonful of sugar and a splash of orange blossom water. Then I had them with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and a few chopped pistachios scattered over the top. It was an idea borrowed from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries and proved really delicious.

21 June - Herman, parsley and harissa chicken

Today's been a bit of a marathon cooking day. A couple of weeks ago, we were given 'Herman' by a friend ... Let me explain. He arrived as a rather unpromising pot of brown, yeasty-smelling gunk together with some instructions. Over the course of about 10 days, we had to stir him as he gradually expanded, then at various points, we had to feed him. This involved stirring in quantities of milk, flour and sugar. Finally by today, he had expanded to fill a large mixing bowl and it was time to divide him up. The idea is to divide the mix into 5 and give four of the new little Herman's away to friends to start the whole process over again. You then use the fifth pot of mixture to make a cake by adding more ingredients (more flour, sugar, eggs, oil, flavourings, nuts and apple).

I've never been particularly good at baking and don't really own proper cake tins, so I poured the resulting mix into a loaf tin and popped it in the oven. After an hour (as per the instructions), it was still distinctly sticky in the middle so I left it a bit longer. When it finally came out, it was a probably a bit crunchier round the edges than it should've been. It didn't look wildly promising, but actually a slice with a cup of tea wasn't too bad. No idea who we're going to pass the remaining 'Hermans' onto though!

Next I cooked up some bulgar wheat. Along with the spinach, the parsley on the terrace is getting a bit out of control and the most obvious use for it was some tabbouleh. I'm not actually a big fan of too much parsley myself, but Tris loves it, so I made him up a big bowl to take to work for his lunch. I then had a bit of the plain bulgar wheat with some salad and the leftover, cold lamb for my lunch.
By the time it got to thinking about dinner, I was a bit out of culinary inspiration, so I turned to my usual favourite, Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries. For 21st June, he has a recipe for harissa chicken, which quite appealed, so I went with it. You mix up some yoghurt with harissa paste and a bit of olive oil, then use it to coat some chicken thigh fillets. Then you simply grill them and sprinkle over some mint. Very simple, but it came out great with a big pile of green veg (peas, broad beans and asparagus).

19 June - braised lamb shanks and gooseberry & apple crumble

I went to the supermarket yesterday with a rather vague "meat" written on my shopping list for today's dinner and I came home with a couple of lamb shanks. I knew I wanted to slow cook them, so I turned to Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries and found a recipe for braised lamb shanks with mustard. I browned the meat gently on the hob in a little oil, then added a couple of sliced onions, 3 peeled and squashed cloves of garlic, 3 bays leaves, some rosemary, 250ml stock and 250ml red wine. When it all came to the boil, I covered the whole thing with foil and a lid and popped it in the oven at 150C for a couple of hours. Halfway through I turned the meat over and added a good dollop of wholegrain mustard. It came out lovely and tender and went nicely with some simple boiled potatoes, green beans and spring greens. There was rather a lot of meat, so I pulled a few bits off before I put it on the plates, to keep for lunch one day in the week.

To use up the rest of the gooseberries while they're nice and fresh, I mixed them with some apple to make a crumble. My usual crumble mix is, again, based on a Nigel Slater recipe. I whizz together 90g plain flour with 65g cold butter in a mixer, then add 3tbsp caster sugar, 3tbsp ground almonds and a few chopped hazelnuts. I put the gooseberries and apple (one big Bramley) in a dish, sprinkle over a tbsp sugar, then tip on the crumble mix and cook the whole thing for about half an hour. Even with custard, the gooseberries still had a nice, tangy kick!

14 June - chickpeas with tomatoes and harissa

It was a lovely sunny day today, so both lunch and dinner were al fresco - hooray! It was a quick lunchtime favourite; peas and pancetta with linguine. Unfortunately, I wasn't really concentrating and undercooked the pasta.

This evening's dinner was from Sunday's Observer magazine; Nigel Slater's chickpeas with tomatoes and harissa. I roasted 8 medium tomatoes cut into 6 pieces each with a red pepper chopped into large chunks mixed with some olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar and a pinch of cumin seeds at about 200C. I left them to cook while I was on the phone and when I went back to check after nearly an hour, they were a bit charred around the edges - oops! I picked out some of the very blackened bits of skin and tipped the lot into a pan, added a splash more olive oil, a teaspoon of harissa paste and the chopped rind of preserved lemon and let it heat through. Meanwhile I cooked up some giant couscous that I came across in the supermarket the other day. Finally, I stirred some whole basil leaves into the chickpea mix. The stew was really tasty - the lemon and harissa really gave it a tang. I was a bit less convinced about the giant couscous; rather back to that frogspawn feel again!

30 May - a rescued hollandaise and lamb with mint sauce

I had a fancy for a proper bank holiday brunch, so made up a batch of hollandaise sauce to go with poached eggs on toast and asparagus. Making hollandaise can always be a bit stressful, but using Nigel Slater's Appetite recipe as my guide, I usually get through. I use the yolk of one egg in a Pyrex bowl over a pan of gently boiling water, then whisk in about 60g cold butter, a few cubes at a time until it's all melted into a thick yellow sauce. I add a squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of salt and cover until needed. The problem usually comes when the eggs are cooked and the toast toasted ... when I go back to uncover and stir my sauce, it can, as it did today, split into a nasty-looking, curdled mess. Nigel's solution of adding a splash of cold water and whisking again, worked a treat as always! Unfortunately, all that rich sauce and eggs seems to have given me indigestion for the rest of the day ... probably serves me right!

Dinner started off with the jar of homemade mint sauce still in the fridge from the week before last, which I thought I ought to use up, so it called for lamb, again. I quickly sealed a couple of chunky, Welsh rump steaks in a frying pan, then popped them in the oven for about 8 minutes to cook through. I did some braised, French-style veg - a leek, some fresh peas and broad beans, softened gently in some butter with a sliced clove of garlic and some chopped mint, then I added a slurp of white wine and let them cook gently, covered for about 15 mins. Together with some new potatoes - briefly boiled, then squashed and roasted with some sea salt and chopped rosemary - and of course, the mint sauce. Spot on. Sorry, it's a bit of a blurry photo, but I was eager to dig in!

28 May - chicken in cider

We had the rest of the vegetable tart for lunch with a few sauted new potatoes and a big dollop of mayonnaise - yum!

The recipe for dinner is based on another Nigel Slater, from an old Observer Food Monthly. I browned some chicken thighs in a pan with some oil and butter, until golden then removed them. I fried a handful of button mushrooms in the same pan, then added about 250ml of dry cider, returned the chicken and brought it to the boil. I turned it down, covered the pan and simmered for 30-40 mins. Then at the end, I added about 75ml of cream and a big handful of chopped tarragon. Served with a big pile of spinach cooked with some wet garlic and some asparagus. Really tasty!