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.

25 June - courgette & feta salad and fillet steak with Thai dressing

The theme for today was definitely "home-grown"! My first courgette was a bit small and misshapen, but I wanted to pick it to encourage more to grow. It wasn't quite worth eating on its own, so for lunch, I mixed it in with some shop-bought golden courgettes. I sliced them thinly and griddled them to make a simple salad, dressed with a little lemon juice and scattered with chunks of feta cheese and toasted pine nuts.

For dinner I wanted to do a favourite dish of beef fillet with a Thai dressing from Jamie Oliver's The Return of the Naked Chef. After visits to several butchers, I couldn't get the right-sized piece of beef fillet to cook as one chunk as I usually do, so I had to go for a couple of chunky ready-cut fillet steaks. I find that supermarket steaks tend to be a bit tasteless, but these ones from Waitrose were actually pretty tasty. The Thai dressing has a long list of ingredients, but they just need all mixing together and the result is well worth the effort:

• 2-3 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• pinch of brown sugar
• 1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
• some chopped red chilli (I only use about 1/3 a big one)
• lots of chopped coriander and mint

I made up a salad of freshly-picked spinach and the first of the home-grown mangetout (just very briefly blanched in boiling water), with some thinly-sliced, grilled red pepper.

I griddled the steaks for about 5 mins, then sliced each one, laid it on top of the salad and poured over the dressing. Served with a bowl of home-made chunky chips, it made a scrummy meal - such a wonderful combination of flavours and textures. And the spinach and mangetout really were completely different from those you buy in the shops, or even the stuff we get in the vegbox - just so much greener-tasting and absolutely melt-in-the- mouth tender!