20 March - a skinny burger and a long evening

It was the first day of the conference today and after a morning of sessions and meetings, I realised that I had two publishers' "do's" to go to in the evening and decided to take a tactical afternoon break. Typical conference evening do's tend to involve drinks and a few tiny nibbles, so I used my break to have a good solid lunch to carry me through the rest of the day. The conference centre food options were pretty limited so I headed back into Glasgow city centre and just went for one of the first restaurants I came across - Darcy's in the Prince's Square shopping centre. I went for a "skinny burger" - not as healthy as it sounds, just a burger served without a bun, perfect for me as I never eat the bun anyway. It came with chips and salad and I had a side order of beetroot and humus to go with it. The burger was a little bit 'plastic' and unexciting, but the chips were good and the beetroot (roast with thyme, I think) was really delicious. So all round it did the job pretty well. I'd arrived fairly late and by the time I'd finished, it was getting on for 3pm, by which time it seemed that most of the staff had knocked off!! I'd intended to follow up with a coffee, but after nearly 20 mins of trying to get someone's attention, I gave up and had to go up to the bar to ask for my bill - needless to say, I didn't leave a tip!

As predicted, my evening of schmoozing involved drinks but little in the way of nibbles, so I was glad I'd stocked up earlier. By the time I headed back to the apartment around midnight, it was too late to think about eating, but I did pick up some eggs from a late-night corner shop ready for a decent breakfast to satisfy my grumbling stomach when I woke up!

22-25 February - The Florida Keys

As we cruised down to the Florida Keys for our last few days, the emphasis was definitely on seafood. We ate conch fritters (a bit chewy) at the Key Largo Conch House followed by some really good blackened hogfish with avocado salsa - a fairly meaty fish but still white and flaky. Then we went for surf'n'turf at the Big Chill. It was the lobster that I'd been really looking forward to, but it was actually the steak that was the real stand-out - fabulously tender and packed with flavour.

Then after a brunch of eggs and bacon with grits (a kind of corn mash that tasted a bit like rice pudding to me) at Mrs Mac's Kitchen, we headed right down to Key West. We'd heard a lot about key lime pie, but after lots of huge meals, we never quite made it to dessert. So we went for an afternoon stop instead and I think we chose a good one. It's rather like quite a tart lemon cheesecake - yummy and not too sweet.

Then for our final evening out, we went to BlackFin, a classy bistro on the otherwise rather tacky Duval Street. We started with the most melt-in-your-mouth sauted calamari in parsley butter with walnuts and some goats cheese croquettes with red onions. Then I ticked off the last thing on my list with a burger with goats cheese and mushrooms, all washed down with a cold beer.

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.

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.

18 August - homegrown tomatoes and a rabbit burger

The tomatoes on the terrace are ripening nicely and I'm now picking a good handful every couple of days. They've been building up a bit, so today I had a nice big Nicoise salad for lunch with lots of tomatoes, some green beans and some fancy tuna from a jar instead of a tin. The tuna was quite nice; a kind of halfway house between tinned and fresh.

This evening, we had an easy meal out at Deco Lounge, just round the corner. They always have good specials and today they were even more interesting than usual. I had a rabbit and pancetta burger! I have to say it tasted more porky/bacony than it did really of rabbit, but it was still really nice and a bit different.

24 June - a customised burger

A busy day didn't allow time for any food shopping. Lunch was made up of some of the cold meat from yesterday, the remaining corn on the cob that was in the fridge and a few new potatoes. I couldn't magic anything more out of the fridge for dinner, so we decided to go for take-away. We got burgers from a really good little place round the corner called the Burger Joint. You get to choose what you want in the way of filling and sauces to go with one of their decent, chunky burgers, plus chips, of course. Today somehow none of the many options seemed to appeal to me though, so I went for a lamb burger with nothing on it and customised it at home with some spinach, beetroot and melted goat's cheese ... mmmm!

5 June - halibut with the beautiful people

After a late start and a longer-than-expected walk to find the Munch Museum via the opera house, it gets to almost 3 by the time we’re heading for lunch and I’m feeling wobbly and grouchy and desperate for some food, so we just go into the first place we find and I opt for burger and chips! Not very Norwegian, but actually quite tasty and once the food starts to filter through and my mood improves, not a bad spot to sit.

It’s another beautiful sunny evening, so we opt for seafood again, this time on the other side of the harbour in a really cool restaurant called Solsiden; which translates rather aptly as ‘sunny side’ as it catches the evening sun. More beautiful people and a really nice vibe in what’s essentially just a dockside shed, but feels wonderfully light with the sun streaming in through the huge open windows and the light sparkling on the water reflected on the white ceiling.

I go for the fish of the day, which is halibut with a lobster cream sauce with creamy mashed potatoes with spring onions – really good. Then we share a dessert; chocolate mousse on a chocolate brownie base with passion fruit sorbet. The rich chocolate and sharp passion fruit are a perfect combination.

21 May - a pub lunch and homemade cake

A morning walk through the most beautiful bluebell woods justified lunch in the village pub; the Pitcairngreen Inn - a very passable burger and chips. After a long lunch, we dashed back home through the showers for tea and a slice of Jo's yummy home-made banana and walnut cake.

7 May - burgers and rhubarb cake

A rather rainy day saw me pottering around doing a bit of cooking. After a fairly meat-free week, today I fancied something meaty and what could be meatier than homemade burgers.

• Fry a small chopped shallot gently in a little olive oil with a teaspoon of caraway seeds - cool slightly.
• Mix together c.300g lamb mince (for 2) with the shallots and caraway seeds, some chopped mint and salt. Shape into two burgers.
• Fry the burgers gently - c.10 mins altogether.
• Put a slice of goats cheese on each burger and either grill or pop in a hot oven to melt.

Served with homemade chunky chips, a beetroot and broad bean salad and some homemade tomato and chilli relish - lots of favourite flavours all on one plate!

The rhubarb cakes come from a recipe my mum sent me years ago, cut out of a magazine. I'm not a great cake baker, but this is more like a fruit sponge pudding, so doesn't need to be quite so light and fluffy. The recipe is for one big cake, but I make it in muffin tins to make individual little cakes. The first two are served warm with a splosh of cream, the rest go in a tin to go with a cup of tea over the next few days.

100g butter
100g caster sugar
1 tbsp demerera sugar
1 egg
100g self-raising flour
a pinch of cinnamon
25g ground almonds
c. 300g rhubarb
splash of orange juice - the recipe calls for orange zest, but I didn't have an orange today

• Lightly butter a 6-hole muffin tray (I use a silicon one) and sprinkle a little bit of demerera sugar in the bottom of each.
• Chop up enough rhubarb to give a single layer in the bottom of each hole - about 3-4 pieces. Chop the rest of the rhubarb into 1cm pieces and mix with c. 20g of the caster sugar.
• Cream together the butter and the rest of the caster sugar, then add the egg.
• Fold in the flower with the cinnamon, a pinch of salt and the ground almonds.
• Mix in the rhubarb sugar mix, then a slurp of orange juice to make the batter a bit smoother/runnier.
• Dollop the mix into the muffin tray and bake on 180C for about 30-40 mins.