10 January - soup and a winter stir-fry

I got jerusalem artichokes in Friday's vegbox, so today I made up a batch of soup for lunch. I think I added a bit too much stock, so it was a bit watery, but otherwise tasty, esp. with a dribble of truffle oil.

For dinner, I tried out a recipe from River Cottage Veg for a winter stir-fry with spring onion, carrot, parsnip, mushrooms and spinach, flavoured with chilli and garlic and a sauce of soy sauce, rice wine and five-spice. The recipe suggested 50g noodles for two, but as I drained them, I realised there was nowhere near enough, so everything was put on hold while I quickly did some more. I wasn't sure about the idea of stir-fried parsnip, but it actually came out okay. I was less convinced by the squeeze of lime juice that went on at the end - it completely overpowered all the other flavours.

4 January - mushroom soup and kippercakes

More shiitake mushrooms had sprouted and were growing almost by the minute, so lunch was a simple mushroom noodle soup. Annoyingly, I burnt my tongue with my first slurp, so I'm not really sure if it tasted good or not!

Completely out of ideas for supper, I turned to the Kitchen Diaries, starting off with today's date and browsing back and forth. I came across what were described as "kipper patties", but somehow became known as "kippercakes" in the cooking! Really they were just pretty straightforward fishcakes made with kippers, potato and a bit of dill. The recipe suggested serving them with dill mayonnaise, but I had some creme fraiche in the fridge, so used that instead with some dill and a crushed clove of garlic. They were a bit soggy and went a bit squishy in the frying, but the smoky kippercakes with the fresh, cooling creme fraiche were a great combination, along with a pile of steamed leeks, beans and carrots.

24 November - spicy beef and noodle salad

After a week of rather uninspired and disappointing food, tonight I definitely got my culinary mojo back. I still had a pomegranate in the fruit bowl and somehow fancied it in some kind of spicy salad. With some spicy beef noodles I had at a roadside cafe in Phnom Penh in mind, I got a fabulous piece of beef fillet from Ruby & White - probably a bit bigger than intended and definitely a bit more expensive - but it turned out to be well worth it. I made a noodle salad of rice noodles with carrot, cucumber and spinach and a spicy Thai dressing from Jamie Oliver (of olive oil, sesame oil, lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, red chilli and fresh coriander). I fried the beef fillet in one piece and served it sliced on top of the noodle salad with pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the top. The beef was spectacularly good, really tender and tasty and with the cool noodles, sweet pomegranate and spicy dressing, it was exactly the combination I was after ...

... in fact, it was plate-lickingly good!

8 November - couscous salad and chicken noodle soup

Lunch recently seems to have alternated between something toast-based and pasta, so today I went for some couscous to mix things up. Yesterday I picked up a pack of little mini peppers in the supermarket, mostly because they looked neat. I roasted them this morning to mix in with the couscous and rather wished I'd just gone for a normal pepper because they were a bit too thin and tricky to peel. Mixed in with a bit of fried chopped chorizo and all it's nice paprika juices, they tasted fine though.

This morning I also cooked up the chicken carcass to make some stock, then used some of it this evening to make chicken noodle soup - dead quick and easy after being out early evening. What I chuck in the 'soup' varies, but today I used a chopped red chilli, which gave it quite a punch, some lemongrass, ginger and a star anise, together with some of the leftover chicken, some pak choi and the noodles, it was really tasty and warming, but fresh and light too.

23 October - Sunday lunch and a ramble

Anticipating more nice weather, we'd booked a table for Sunday lunch at the Bear & Swan pub in Chew Magna (no link as their website doesn't seem to be working) - it's just over half an hour's drive south of Bristol. I'd been there before a couple of years ago and remembered it as being good. And it didn't disappoint - I had overnight roast belly of pork with apricot stuffing. The meat was meltingly tender and there was a nice chunk of crispy crackling and there were nice crunchy roast potatoes, a dollop of apple sauce, rich gravy and a dish of fresh veg. A yummy modern version of a classic Sunday lunch. We didn't have any space to go for pudding, but coffee came with a couple of elegant chocolate truffles. Now that's my idea of how to end a good meal!

To walk our lunch off, we went for a walk through the fields down to Chew Valley Lake. It wasn't quite as a sunny as the day before, but the sun did break through occasionally and it was nice just to be out in the fresh air. At the lake, we managed a mid-afternoon tea stop - not quite as sophisticated, but a good cup of tea and a great view across the lake.

After such a meaty lunch, I made some vegetable noodles for supper; mushrooms, spring onions, garlic, red chilli, sweetcorn, cabbage, chicken stock, lemongrass, a splash of soy sauce and some noodles. It could've done with a bit more chilli , but it was fresh and cleansing to end the weekend.

5 October - meatballs and malay chicken korma

I used up the little bit of leftover turkey mince for lunch, making it into some Asian-influenced meatballs. I mixed the mince with some chopped lemongrass, red chilli, garlic and fresh coriander and fried it as little meatballs, which I then dropped into a bowl of broth (veg stock with the rest of the chilli, a couple of lime leaves and more herbs: mint, basil and coriander) with some noodles in the bottom. A yummy, fresh, tasty lunch:

My parents are coming to visit at the weekend, so I'm making up some curries for my Dad. He loves curry, but my Mum hates it, so periodically I make him a batch to put in the freezer. He can then take them out and heat them up when my Mum's not home, both satisfying his curry urge and getting round the fact that he's not much of a cook! This evening I made up a big batch of chicken curry - a recipe I hadn't tried before for Malay chicken korma (from Madhur Jaffrey) - so that we could have half for dinner and I could pop the rest in pots for my Dad.

It was quite a long-winded recipe - which is I why I'm not going to bother typing it up here! - but the result was probably worth it. It's a very mild creamy curry - with both yoghurt and coconut milk - and as it contains potatoes and carrots, we decided to have it as a meal on its own without any rice. I'm not sure how well it's going to freeze and whether it's going to curdle when it's heated up again, but I'll pass a couple of pots onto my Dad and see what he makes of it.

9 September - the lounge and post-film noodles

I managed to eat out twice today. It was the end of my summer teaching stint, so we went for an end-of-course lunch at the Lounge. They did pretty well with a big group and mixed tapas starters came out really quickly and went down very well. Mains took a bit longer and came out in dribs and drabs, but as we were all nattering, it didn't really matter. I had a goats cheese salad - the actual goats cheese on toast was nice, but the salad was full of things I'm less keen on - my fault for being fussy rather than theirs!

We went out to the cinema in the evening and stopped off for some quick noodles on the way back at Tampopo, right next to the cinema at Cabot Circus. We just went in to grab a quick bite, but the noodles were actually really good - definitely a place to stop off after a film again.

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.

13 July - spicy pork noodles

With pork mince left over from yesterday, I looked up a recipe I'd used before in an old Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine for spicy pork noodles. Whilst pulling the various ingredients out of the cupboards before I got started, I noticed that the sweet chilli sauce was looking a bit worse for wear and when I checked the best before date, it said March 2009 - oops! It normally goes in the sauce with the oyster and soy sauces, but I substituted some fresh red chilli at the beginning and a spoonful of sugar to the sauce.

• Stir-fry a few chopped spring onions, some chopped red chilli and some grated fresh ginger.
• Add about 250g pork mince and fry until browned.
• Mix together a good tablespoon oyster sauce, the same of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar, then mix in with the mince. Stir and simmer for a couple of minutes.
• Mix a good teaspoon of cornflower with a couple of teaspoons of Chinese cooking wine to a smooth paste. Add it to the mince and stir to thicken.

I served the spicy mince with a small pile of noodles and some tenderstem broccoli - lots of nice flavours in the mince with the simple noodles and clean-tasting broccoli worked well together.

6 July - homegrown tomatoes and chicken noodle soup

I've been holding out until a proper handful of tomatoes were ready to pick and today I harvested six cherry tomatoes (a mix of red and yellow), which definitely constituted a handful! So they went in a salad for lunch with some beetroot, new potatoes, goats cheese, bacon and pine nuts.

For dinner I used up the last of the cold chicken together with a decent picking of mangetout with some noodles in a soupy broth made from the rest of the stock, flavoured with chilli, lemongrass, ginger, soy sauce and Thai fish sauce. Tris was late home from work again, so it was made in two batches. I'm definitely not going to keep this up for much longer!

28 June - Thai green prawn curry with noodles

Tris is working late quite a bit at the moment, so my challenge is to come up with dinners that I can cook and eat at the normal time (before I fade away!), but can then sit happily for him to reheat when he gets in. Last night's pasta worked well and tonight I decided to go for a Thai green curry. The mangetout are growing by the day, so I wanted to include some, but didn't want to overcook them. So I made the curry, adding half of the picked mangetout right at the end. When I served up my half, I fished out all of the cooked mangetout, leaving the remaining uncooked ones in a bowl for Tris to add to the rest when he heated it up. A bit of a palaver, but worth it to appreciate precious home-grown veg at its best!

The recipe I use for the curry is based on one from Nigel Slater's Appetite. When I was buying some of the ingredients for the paste, the girl behind me in the queue commented on what exciting shopping I had. I explained that I was making Thai green curry, to which she exclaimed "What! You make the paste from scratch?!". It's actually really not that difficult, you just bung everything in a blender and I think it tastes so much better than ready-made paste. being a bit of a chilli-wimp, it also means I can control the heat - a bit less chilli, lots of other lovely flavours coming through.

Thai Green Prawn curry
For the paste, blend together:

• two cloves of garlic
• a knob of peeled fresh ginger
• a stick of lemongrass (soft centre bit only)
• some fresh red chilli (I used about 1/3 a big one)
• a big handful of fresh coriander leaves
• a few coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• a little groundnut oil (1-2 tbsp) - enough to make a paste

1. I fry a few chopped spring onions in a little oil in a big wok-like pan, the add the paste and stir it about a bit.
2. Add about 100ml chicken stock and a tin of coconut milk. Simmer gently for about 5 mins.
3. Add a handful of fresh peas - simmer another 5 mins.
4. Cook the noodles (50g per person) in boiling water (according to the packet) and drain under cold water.
5. Add the prawns and the mangetout to the sauce and cook for just a couple of minutes till the prawns turn pink.
6. Season with a squeeze of fresh lime juice, a pinch of salt, a tsp of Thai fish sauce and some fresh mint leaves.
7. I pile the noodles in a deep bowl and pour over the curry.
8. Eat carefully without flicking the sauce because of the bright yellow turmeric!!

16 May - leftover lamb and chicken noodles

The last chunk of Saturday's lamb was still in the fridge, so for lunch I cooked up some rice and peas, friend an onion and mixed it altogether with the cold lamb and a few spices. Not very attractive, but very tasty.

This evening's stir-fried chicken noodles were loosely based on a recipe from Ching-He Huang's Chinese Food Made Easy.

• Boil some dried noodles with some fresh peas - 5 mins.
• Stir-fry some chopped spring onions, half a chopped red chilli, some grated fresh ginger, a sliced chicken breast (just one for two people), half a sliced pepper, some quartered mushrooms and half a teaspoon turmeric.
• Add the drained noodles and peas, add a pinch of dried chilli flakes, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp rice vinegar and stir together.

4 May - bread & cheese and chicken noodles

A few months ago a new bakery opened just a few doors down from us tucked away on the little back lane the runs along one side of our house. It's called Hart's Bakery and it's a one-woman operation run by baker, Laura Hart. I don't eat a huge amount of bread, but I like to support local businesses, so I ventured in and I've been trying to go back regularly because the bread and the pastries are really good. This morning, I got a wonderful wholemeal and sesame sourdough loaf and had a couple of slices for lunch with some melted goat's cheese and a bit of salad on the side - yum!

For dinner I used up the last of the cold chicken along with the remaining spring greens in an Asian noodle soup.

• Simmer c. 750ml chicken stock with a smashed stalk of lemongrass and half a chopped red chilli.
• Then add the shredded chicken and season with a dash of dark soy sauce, a small splash of Thai fish sauce and a small squeeze of lemon juice.
• Boil some noodles as per packet, then drain and stir through a dribble of toasted sesame oil.
• Steam the finely shredded greens.
• Pile the noodles in the bottom of deep pasta bowls and pile on some of the greens.
• Stir in some chopped mint, coriander and Thai basil into the "soup" and pour it over the noodles and greens.

It could perhaps have done with a bit more 'soup', but it was wonderfully tasty and fresh.