4 April - a kitchen gardener's tantrum

I had a bit of a kitchen gardener's tantrum this morning, when I went out onto the terrace to find that a cat had poohed in my tray of lamb's lettuce, digging up most of the lovely little plants in the process of trying to cover it up! Of all the places it could've chosen ...

After initially throwing my hands up in despair, I steeled myself to rescue at least some of the lamb's lettuce and after giving it a really good wash, added it to a warm salad of roasted squash and mushrooms.

Supper was a slightly odd combination of tuna steaks with some lime mayo, French-style peas - cooked with butter and lettuce - and a few saute potatoes. Not a classic, but actually not too bad.

2 April - goats cheese with figs and porotos granados

Rather inspired by the figs in my salad the other day, I had one of my favourite combinations for lunch today; goats cheese on toast with some fresh figs ... I just never get bored of it!

As I knew I was going to be out early evening today, I actually made up a pot of 'stew' for supper yesterday afternoon that could just be reheated when I got in. I tried another recipe from HFW's River Cottage veg every day - a kind of soupy vegetable stew called porotos granados. It's made up of pinto beans, squash, french beans and sweetcorn, along with stock and flavourings, and as the name suggests, it's South American (Chilean actually) in origin. Well, I'm not sure if perhaps I just didn't put in enough paprika, but I found the result a bit bland. The veg were tasty enough, but it did just taste like a bowl of boiled veg without much else to tie them together - definitely something missing in this one.

7 January - prego and a hot chicken salad

It actually wasn't raining for a change, so we headed out for a bit of fresh air and walked up to the Downs, then on to Prego for Saturday lunch, an Italian place we'd talked about trying, but which is usually just a bit out of walking distance. We were a bit thrown by the menu initially - we'd both had in mind something light, maybe a salad, and everything was looking a bit big and heavy. We both went for pasta though and by the time it arrived, happily tucked in. I had ravioli filled with ricotta and served with beetroot tops and hazelnuts - really delicious and fantastic subtle flavours. Whilst the food was excellent though, the place was so full of families with young children, it felt like trying to eat in the middle of a nursery! I'm not sure if the restaurant is actively family-friendly (it did have a kids menu) or whether we were just unlucky with our timing, but with small kids screaming, often in stereo, as soon as we'd finished our food, we just asked for the bill to escape and went somewhere a bit more peaceful for our post-lunch coffee.

As we didn't get our salad at lunchtime, I cooked a hot chicken salad for supper instead. I marinated some strips of chicken in yoghurt mixed with some ras al hanout for a while, then cooked it on a hot griddle pan. With it we had roast beetroot and butternut squash on a big pile of spinach (to make it a salad!) and I drizzled over a dressing made of more yoghurt mixed with lemon juice and a bit of cumin. The chicken rather stuck to the griddle pan, but once I'd got it off, it tasted really good and with the dressing, it all went together really well. I also roasted a whole garlic while the oven was on which we had on the side - a bit messy to get out of their skins, but wonderfully soft and sweet.

1 January - leftover lamb and thai curry

2012 started with leftovers ... we had cold lamb for lunch with some home-made tzatziki and a salad of the leftover squash and onion with some chickpeas. Not a bad spread for a picky lunch.

One of our more unusual Christmas presents was some grow-your-own mushrooms. I'd started off the shiitake mushrooms a couple of days ago and there were already some huge cups sprouting. Really impressive!

So dinner was a Thai chicken curry with the mushrooms and a few green beans. The curry paste always comes out a bit different and tonight it was pleasantly sharp (from the lime and a big blob of fresh ginger) with just the right amount of background chilli hum.

30 December - bruschetta and slow-roast lamb

When I had the oven on to cook the salmon yesterday, I popped some peppers and squash in to roast at the same time. I had both today on some bruschetta for lunch with a bit of goats cheese - mmm!

For dinner, I decided to try out a slow-roast lamb recipe I'd seen in the Guardian magazine a few weeks ago where you coat the lamb in yoghurt spiced with ras al hanout (the Moroccan spice mix usually used in tagines) and cook it long and slow with red wine and sliced onions. I slightly miscalculated my timing and put it on earlier than it should've been - I didn't think it'd matter too much with a 4-hour cooking time. Towards the end, I probably should have checked it a bit more, but was distracted by other things and was rather annoyed to find when I finally took it out that it'd completely dried out, so that the onions had shrivelled and burnt and there was no sauce left in the dish to pour over the meat. So all in all, the meat was a bit dry and disappointing. We had it with some couscous and a bit of roast aubergine and pepper and some extra yoghurt on the side. Not bad, but not as tasty as it should've been.

20 November - lamb tagine with pomegranate

I got a couple of pomegranates in Friday's vegbox, so today I made a lamb tagine (using my usual recipe) and instead of figs or dates, added the final sweet touch with a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds. It was a bit messy getting the seeds out - and I ended up with bright red stains all over my white t-shirt! - but the final result looked great and tasted pretty good too.

I remembered to put the tagine on well ahead of time and let it bubble for almost two hours, so the result was meltingly tender and with some roasted squash and peppers and a pile of couscous, it was a great way to end the weekend.

14 November - pasta and baked squash

I picked up some out-of-season fresh peas in Waitrose this morning for a lunch of pasta with bacon, peas and cream - a bit against my usual seasonal principles, but sometimes you've just got to go with what you fancy!

Lacking inspiration, I was flicking through my folder of old recipes I've collected over the years and plumped for baked squash and corn with goats cheese by Jane Baxter from Riverford (who I get my vegbox from) I think cut it out from an old Guardian magazine. The baked squash is quite straightforward - just roasted cubes of butternut squash mixed with sweetcorn, garlic, chopped chilli and some goats cheese - but it's the pumpkin seed dressing that makes it worth digging out the recipe. You blend together:

• 40g toasted pumpkin seeds
• 1 clove garlic
• a chopped tomato
• a handful coriander leaves
• a chopped green chilli
• a splash of good olive oil

Served with corn tortillas, with the dressing drizzled over the veg mix, it's a really different, tasty supper with quite a kick.

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!

5 July - squash risotto

The chicken and spinach pie was just as good second time around for lunch today. The beans are just starting to appear on the French beans on the terrace, but as with lots of veg, the first couple appear and then get quite large before there's enough to pick for a proper serving. So I picked my first three beans, blanched them very briefly and mixed them in with some tomatoes to make a bit of salad to go with the pie. As with the other home-grown veg, it's the wonderful silky texture that stands them apart from the stuff you get in the supermarket, or even the vegbox.

Although I love all the summery green veg, I fancy a change, so dinner tonight is butternut squash risotto - a bit out of season, I know. It's adapted from a recipe in Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie. I don't follow his rather long-winded way of making risotto, but the method of cooking the squash works really well.

• Crush a few shards of cinnamon (from the bottom of the jar) together with some salt and dried chilli flakes in a pestle and mortar. Cut a small butternut squash into quarters and remove the seeds. Coast the squash in olive oil, then rub in the salt and spice mix. Roast in a hot oven for 30-40 mins.
• Fry a chopped shallot gently in butter. Add a couple of large handfuls of risotto rice and stir to coat. Pour in a good glug of white wine and let it bubble for a minute or so.
• Add chicken stock a slurp at a time to the rice, letting it gently bubble and be absorbed. I'm not sure how much stock I use, I just keep going and testing the rice occasionally until it feels nearly cooked.
• Scoop out the flesh of the cooked squash into the rice, stir it in and finish off cooking. Taste and season - home-made stock is less salty than stock cubes.
• Stir in a small knob of butter and a handful of parmesan at the end.
• Serve with crispy fried sage leaves and a couple of slices of pancetta. The sage is so good, I must remember to do more next time!