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.

16 October - underdone burgers and leftover pork

For lunch today I cooked some homemade burgers - fried them for a few minutes each side, then popped them under the grill topped with mozzarella. I put them on the plate with a nice big pile of salad (lambs lettuce, pea shoots and beetroot). When I cut into mine though, I realised it was really underdone - not just 'rare', but completely cold and raw inside. Although it was really fresh mince, it was too underdone to be appetising, so I had to scrape the burgers off the plates and pop them in the oven for a bit to cook through. They came out a bit better, but I'd rather gone off the whole thing by then.

Tris headed off to London this afternoon for a week with work, so I had my first lone supper of a week of cooking for one. There was a chunk of cold roast pork from yesterday and some cabbage. For a bit of a change, I decided to braise the cabbage - cooking it long and slow in a bit of chicken stock with a knob of butter, tightly covered for almost an hour. It came out wonderfully nutty-tasting and made a lovely warming supper with the pork and the leftover gravy poured over the top.