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.

3 September - steak and homegrown tomatoes

We grabbed a quick lunch on our way out to do stuff at Rocotillos, a great little diner nearby. We had a simple bacon sandwich and one of their fantastic milkshakes - banana, made with real bananas, of course!

The tomatoes from the terrace are coming thick and fast now and tasting really great, so dinner tonight was planned around a big warm tomato and basil salad. Served with fillet steak and rosemary roast new potatoes, the tomatoes were just perfect!

24 July - haddock chowder and fillet steak

I'm not always convinced about fishy soups and stews, but there's something romantic-sounding about a chowder. This recipe for haddock and sweetcorn chowder is roughly based on a couple of different ones I found online and came out pretty well:

• Fry half a chopped onion and a few cubes of pancetta.
• Add a couple of new potatoes peeled and finely diced.
• Then add about 200ml vegetable stock and 225ml milk and simmer for about 5 mins.
• Add the corn from one fresh corn on the cob and simmer for another 10 mins.
• Finally add one small smoked haddock fillet cut into chunks and simmer another 10 mins.
• Season with parsley and cives to serve.

Dinner was fillet steak with some baked portobello mushrooms that came in the vegbox with garlicky buttered spinach and some chunky chips.

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!