31 March - a day out in Bath

We had a day out in Bath today. It being a busy Saturday, I didn't expect to get into the petite Cafe Shoon, so was pleasantly surprised when we got a table. I had a delicious serano ham, fig and mozzarella salad - three of my favourite ingredients on one dish!

After a hard afternoon's shopping, I wasn't feeling like doing much cooking, so we picked up some lamb with mint and balsamic crust from Waitrose - you can't go wrong with some garlicky spring greens and rosemary roast new potatoes.

10 August - a packed lunch and more splodge

I'm teaching at the university for the next few weeks, so I'm not always at home for lunch. Today we had a lunchtime staff meeting, so I made myself a quick packed lunch last night to keep me going; a pot of salad - new potatoes, beans and tomatoes from the garden, some mozzarella, basil and olive oil.

Tris is away again for a few days and there's some of last night's vegetable splodge left over. I'm not very excited about having the same thing two nights in a row, but I know if I leave it in the fridge, I probably won't get round to eating it. At least it's quick after a busy day.

30 July - melon & mozzarella and spicy meatballs

The weekend started with another trip to Ruby & White for some more meat - I think it's going to prove quite difficult to resist! Lunch was a lovely, summery salad of canteloupe melon with parma ham and creamy mozzarella, scattered with a few basil leaves and dressed with a little olive oil and lemon dressing.

For dinner, I made meatballs based on a Nigel Slater recipe:

• Mix 300g pork mince, a handful of lardons, a chopped shallot, some chopped lemongrass, chopped red chilli and a handful of fresh chopped coriander. And shape into small (walnut-sized) balls - today I made 10.
• Gently fry a few mushrooms with some sliced garlic and chilli in a wok.
• Add about 500ml chicken stock and a bashed stalk of lemongrass. Throw in a good handful of fresh peas and simmer.
• Fry the meatballs in vegetable oil for a few minutes until cooked through and nicely caramelised on the outside.
• Boil a few noodles. Add some chopped mint, coriander and basil to the broth.
• Serve a pile of noodles in the bottom of a large bowl with the meatballs on the top and the broth poured over.

The first time I came across the idea of meatballs in soup, it seemed a bit odd, but it's actually a really good combination - substantial (with the meatballs and noodles), but fresh and herby too.

27 July - salad and lemon polenta cake

I've had some peashoots and a second sowing of spinach growing on the terrace and today there was just enough for a first picking. Together with some tomatoes, also homegrown, some green beans, broad beans, new potatoes and a bit of mozzarella, it made a great lunchtime salad.

This evening was Book Club and I was providing pudding, so I tried out the lemon polenta cake recipe I brought back from my cookery workshop.

It seemed to go down well, even with the girls who weren't meant to be doing pudding!

18 July - a warm tomato salad and chorizo & broad bean "paella"

There was another handful of tomatoes ready to pick today, so I used them in a favourite warm tomato and basil salad. I have to admit that the home-grown tomatoes have been slightly less impressive than the other veg, with slightly thick skins and not quite as flavoursome as I'd hoped. This treatment just softened them slightly and brought out their sweetness perfectly. I warmed a good pool of extra virgin olive oil in a small pan and gently fried a couple of chopped spring onions (I usually use a shallot, but didn't have any), with some thinly sliced garlic. Then I added a squeeze of lemon juice, a splash of vinegar (I used raspberry vinegar today) and a pinch of salt, followed by the tomatoes - chopped in half - and a few shredded basil leaves. Just stir them around for a minute or so and then tip onto a plate with a few new potatoes and some mozzarella - yum!

For dinner, I cooked up some chorizo and broad beans with paella rice. Just a chopped onion and a couple of cloves of sliced garlic fried gently with some sliced cooking chorizo so it releases its red-orange juices, then a cup of paella rice stirred in with a few threads of saffron. I gradually added chicken stock until the rice was cooked, adding a few peas and chopped green beans (literally just a couple from the garden), then a nice big pile of broad beans and some chopped parsley. Simple, tasty and comforting on another damp evening.

29 June - fig salad and quick pasta

A few days ago, I bought some peaches to make a peach and mozzarella salad I'd seen when I was flicking through a Jamie Oliver book. Sadly though, they're still rock hard - never believe all this "ripen in bowl" nonsense! So instead, I used a couple of figs. There were some pea shoots, the figs, mozzarella and a couple of slices of bresaola, drizzled with a bit of simple lemon and olive oil dressing. To go with it I had a couple of slices of fabulous fresh wholemeal and sesame bread from Hart's. With hindsight, the dressing was perhaps a bit too sharp, but otherwise a great combo.

I was out early evening, so dinner was late, some quick pasta; orecchiette with fresh broad beans, some fried pancetta and mascarpone, seasoned with just a little finely grated lemon zest. It's one of my favourite types of pasta, shame it's so difficult to get hold of.

12 May - roast veg salad and garlicky chicken

When I was making the pasta last night, I bunged some bits of pepper and courgette that I wasn't using in the sauce in the oven to roast and I had them as a roast veg salad for lunch today, combined with some cherry tomatoes and served with some new potatoes and a few slices of mozzarella.

For dinner, it was another Nigel Slater favourite; chicken thighs browned in a frying pan with a little butter and some oil, then turned down, covered and cooked very slowly over a low heat for about 30-40 mins with some whole cloves of garlic and some thyme leaves. Then I took out the chicken, poured off most of the fat, put the pan back on a high heat and poured in a good slurp of white wine. I let it bubble, scraping up any bits from the pan and squashing the soft garlic cloves. Usually, I add a bit of butter at the end to make a really rich sauce, but today, still on a health drive, I just added a squeeze of lemon juice and poured it over the chicken - less rich, but lovely and sharp and garlicky. No potatoes tonight either, just a plateful of veg; spring greens (from the vegbox), asparagus and a few green beans.