16 March - a new scrubber and wild food

Today's new addition to the kitchen was a new vegetable scrubber. I'd been using a very cool wooden and bristle brush that I got while in Berlin a few years ago, but it was really on its last legs. I've gone for something completely different this time, with a much more modern plastic version. It doesn't look quite so classy next to the sink, but when I tried it out on a lunchtime carrot, it came up clean and shiny in no time, which I guess is the real test! It was a variation on a student staple for lunch, tuna and pasta, bit with some grated carrot, sweetcorn and a honey and mustard dressing.

We were booked for dinner at the Pump House - a bit of a late birthday dinner for Tris. We'd eaten in the bar before, but it was our first time in the restaurant and it didn't disappoint. They focus on local, wild and foraged food with a modern twist and clearly know what they're doing. I started off with baked duck egg with wild garlic, wood blewits and brioche - the wild mushrooms were fabulously woody and made a simple egg something special. Then we both went for venison - actually roast saddle of Mendip fallow deer - served on a stained glass window style plate of different sauces - a green wild garlic sauce and an orangey meribelle plum one, then there was spicy red cabbage on the side. The venison was rare, tender and tasty and the whole dish worked really well ... yum!

15 March - chickpea salad and pasta with salmon

Along with some leftover couscous from last night, I made up some chickpea and pepper salad for lunch with a bit of soft goats cheese on the side.

Tris often says that we don't have much pasta for supper, mainly because it tends to be one of my lunchtime staples. So this evening I consciously went for a pasta dish - smoked salmon and leeks in a cream sauce.

1 March - courgette pasta

Sometimes the simplest, made-up dishes are the best and today's lunchtime pasta was one of those. Courgette, bacon and a small blob of cream stirred into some penne pasta ... yum!

This evening, I was out with friends at the Lounge. I went for the chicken and chorizo salad, mainly because it's usually not very salady - chicken, chorizo, peppers and potatoes. It was clearly a different chef on tonight though because it arrived as a huge dish of rocket (which I hate!) with a few bits of chicken and chorizo on the top - very disappointing :(

22 January - not fish pie

We were out again for lunch today, making the most of a bit of brief sunshine at Mud Dock. I was feeling a bit sicky after painkillers for a really sore back, so I didn't really appreciate my scrambled egg with smoked salmon, but it was a still a nice place to hang out on a Sunday lunchtime.

I'd got the ingredients to cook fish pie for supper, but I was feeling too pained and horrible to be bothered with the faff. Instead I used the prawns I'd got to go in the pie with some mushrooms in a simple creamy sauce with linguine. Easy and tasty and a good base for more painkillers.

16 January - better pasta

Today was a bit of a frustrating day - rain, a leaking ceiling and hassle over a hire car - so I never really managed any proper lunch, just a few snacks grabbed along the way. I did, however, manage to get some onions, garlic, olive oil and butter in the dinky little local shops this morning. There seem to be quite a few of them, all tiny and all apparently stocking a similar mix of tins and dried stuff. I think for inspiration around here you really need to go to a market - apparently, tomorrow's market day, so I'll report back. Anyway, with the rain battering down and lots of restaurants apparently closed on a Monday, I had another go at some homemade pasta for supper in the cool little kitchen of my rented apartment.

This time was distinctly more successful - a fairly passable sauce of onion, garlic, courgette and tomato. Now curled up next to the heater for the evening with another glass of Malti wine and a big bar of Dairy Milk!

14 January - a veggie lunch and crap pasta

Staying around Vittoriosa today, I went out for lunch, this time choosing easy over adventurous - an outside table at Tate, a vegetarian cafe on the waterfront. A good spot for people-watching and a table in the sun, but an initially uninspiring menu. Feeling like I hadn't had much veg over the past couple of days, I ordered a falafel salad. It turned out to be a good choice - freshly cooked falafels with a yoghurt dip, warm pitta and humus and a huge pile of salad - mainly lettuce but with enough bits of carrot, tomato and cucumber plus a herby dressing to make it interesting. I'd had pudding in mind when I sat down, but after munching my way through all those falafels, I was distinctly stuffed.

I'd bought some pasta and a tin of tomatoes yesterday and I'd intended to get some olive oil, onions and garlic to cook up a simple pasta sauce this evening. Unfortunately, although the blurb at the apartment said that local shops were open morning and early evening Mon to Sat, when I went out at 6, everything was distinctly closed! I did try just pasta and some heated tomatoes, but it was so watery and tasteless, I didn't even bother finishing it. Now I'm curled up under a blanket (the apartment's unheated and really chilly of an evening) watching old Doctor Who reruns on BBC entertainment, with a glass of wine and a box of After Eights ... not exactly a healthy supper, but I don't feel too bad after my super-healthy lunch!

12 January - going solo in malta

It's years since I travelled alone and I'd forgotten just how daunting it can be to go out for dinner on your own in a strange place. I arrived in Malta at lunchtime for a week's winter sun and had a bit of a wander around Vittoriosa - one of the "three cities" that ring the harbour opposite Valletta, the capital. Later, back at my funky little rented apartment, I realised I hadn't eaten anything since a mid-morning prawn sandwich and although I've got a little kitchen, I hadn't had the chance to get any food in. I'd spotted a row of promising resturants on the waterfront, so I headed there. The most interesting-looking was intimidatingly empty at quarter to eight, so I carried on until I came across Sottovento; a bistro with more of a cafe atmosphere - wooden tables with several groups of women clearly out for an early supper and a natter.

Having committed and sat down at a table in the corner, the menu revealed a rather unexciting choice of pizza and pasta. The huge plate of tortellini in creamy sauce with mushroom and bacon that arrived was unadventurous, but tasty and filling and went down well with an equally large glass of local white wine! Determined to try something more local tomorrow ...

26 December - simple pasta

After a lunch of cold turkey and salad, we headed home this afternoon. Oddly, despite all the mounds of food on offer over the past couple of days, I didn't feel as if I'd actually eaten much and got back quite hungry and craving something simple and tasty. Pasta with a creamy mushroom and bacon sauce did the trick nicely!

19 December - meatballs

There were some rather unripe, out-of-season tomatoes to be eaten up, so I whizzed them up and made them into a sauce to go with some meatballs. I used beef mince with some garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs, parmesan, pine nuts and egg - fried up then bubbled in the sauce and served with linguine.

16 December - waiting in and going out

Today I was waiting in for a delivery - which frustratingly, never arrived!! - and having been down in London yesterday, there was nothing much in the fridge for lunch. The best I could come up with was the old student cupboard standby - tuna and sweetcorn mayo with pasta.

Tris had managed to get us a rare Friday night booking at Prosecco, a great local Italian, with lovely food and a really nice atmosphere. We started, of course, with a glass of Italian bubbly and I had bruschetta with roasted wild mushrooms and parmesan - delicious! We both went for venison fillet for our main - and although it was quite good, it was a bit too peppered for me which meant I ended up leaving the sauce that came with it, which was a shame. It was served with polenta chips and the most fantastic crispy cavalo nero - I'm not sure exactly how it was cooked, but it was in whole long leaves, but had the kind of taste of Chinese "crispy seaweed" - salty and sweet and very moreish!

10 December - easy food

I was having to do a bit of weekend working today, so food was simple again. We had the bit of leftover leek tart with some salad (spinach, beetroot and roasted red pepper) with small jacket potatoes.

Then we were out to a friend's Christmas party in the evening, so inspired by the pasta my mum used to feed me before I went out drinking as a teenager, we had a bowl of pasta with bacon, mushrooms and cream.

6 December - leftovers and no moussaka

Considering this cold seems to have killed my appetite, I'm not doing a bad job of "feeding" it! I decided to use up a few leftovers for lunch and somehow ended up with a huge plateful. There were a couple of sausages and some cold cooked cabbage that I made into bubble and squeak. It looked like it might be a bit dry, so a chucked in what I thought was just a small spoonful of leftover mushroom stew as a kind of "gravy". It was way more than I'd usually have for lunch, but very tasty and I managed to munch my way through the whole lot over my lunchtime crossword!

This afternoon I managed to talk the nice man at Ruby & White into doing me some lamb mince to make the moussaka which didn't get made at the weekend. I cooked up the meat sauce and left it to bubble, but then when I cut open the aubergines, both were brown and soggy inside.

They'd arrived in the vegbox on Friday and been in the fridge since, so not great. With organic veg, you expect the odd slug and blemish, but it's no good when it's completely inedible, especially when you're already halfway through a recipe! I added a bit more tomato to make the meat sauce a bit more "saucy" and we had it with some pasta instead.

26 November - Armando's and slow-cooked veal

After a morning's sightseeing, we headed for Armando's, a small trattoria recommended by both the hotel and various websites. It's an unassuming little doorway, just a stone's throw from the Pantheon, and is apparently popular with politicians. We weren't too hopeful about our chances of getting a table on a Saturday lunchtime, but we seemed to arrive at just the right time and bagged the last unreserved table. It lived up to its billing, with a great atmosphere and people-watching and amongst the best pasta I've ever eaten. I had ravioli filled with ricotta in a creamy mushroom sauce, which sounds simple, but was just delicious.

By the end of the day, with aching feet, we opted for dinner right next door to where we were staying at Colline Emiliane, which does traditional Bolognese food. After antipasti of salami and a caprese salad, Tris went for the tagliatelle alla bolognese - well, you've got to give it a try! - which was good, but not remarkably different from mine, to be honest. I had slow-cooked veal with mashed potato, which was great, real melt-in-the-mouth stuff.

22 November - uninspired

After spending an uninspired five minutes hovering in front of the supermarket fresh soup section trying to choose something for lunch, when I got my pot of soup home, I didn't really fancy it. I decided to fall back on tuna and sweetcorn mayo with pasta, but once the pasta was cooking and I'd opened the tin of tuna, I realised the jar of mayo I had in the fridge was one I'd decided I didn't really like because it was too vinegary and not very creamy... extra sweetcorn just about covered up the taste.

Equally uninspired about dinner, I went for fishfingers with mixed carrot and potato mash and some homemade beans (a tin of cannellini beans with some onion, garlic, tomato and herbs). All rather orange and okay, but it didn't really hit the spot.

18 November - Culinara

There was some of the roast tomato sauce from earlier in the week in the fridge, so lunch was a quick dish of orecchiette pasta with the sauce and a bit of added bacon.

There aren't many Bristol eateries that we haven't tried, but until now we hadn't got round to visiting Culinaria - just 10 mins walk away. It's a small bistro with a short menu of carefully chosen food and interestingly, is only open over the weekend (Thu-Sun). It has a lovely atmosphere with friendly, interested staff, which was a great start. We both went for the fillet of brill with leek and saffron sauce, served with spinach, beans and new potatoes and it was, well, brill! To go with it we had an English wine by Limney - one we hadn't tried before but comes from Horsmonden, a village in Kent not far from where I grew up. Much like Chapel Down (from the same area), it was a lovely light wine with quite an elderflowery feel. I don't often go for a dessert, but having skipped a starter I finished off tonight with a lovely rich chocolate mousse. Culinara will definitely be added to the list of regular haunts.

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.

4 November - pasta and a service station sandwich

We were driving over to Cambridge this evening, so it was substantial bowl of pasta for lunch. I chopped up a leftover portabello mushroom from last night and cooked it up with a bit of bacon and cream - can't go wrong!

Dinner was less exciting - a sandwich and a packet of crisps from a motorway services.

3 November - pasta and stuffed mushrooms

There was some roast tomato puree leftover from last night's curry, so I cooked it up with a bit of chopped bacon and a spoon of mascarpone to make a really delicious pasta sauce for lunch.

Inspiration for dinner came from another TV cookery programme, this time, Nigel Slater's Simple Cooking. I'm usually a big Nigel Slater fan and his style fits very much with my taste and style of cooking, so it's unusual that I don't get on with one of his recipes, but tonight I tried out his chestnut stuffed mushrooms and I can only say, they were horrible! As I was going along, it didn't seem to be working out well - the mushrooms I found were a bit too flat to really stuff and the stuffing came out very dry and crumbly, so just sort of got piled on the top like 'rubble'. The recipe said to cook it for an hour, but after about 30 mins, it was looking so dry and burnt, I couldn't face leaving it any longer. Maybe it was the 'too-flat' mushrooms and maybe it was the sausages I used that somehow had the wrong consistency, but the final result was very dry and unpleasant. Won't be doing that one again!

Yes, there are some mushrooms under there somewhere!

28 October - pasta and fish @ the Kensington

To eat up the last bit of smoked salmon, I made up a quick pasta lunch with a sauce made of leek, the smoked salmon and mascarpone.

I was feeling a bit woolly-headed and achy all day as if I was coming down with a cold, so I didn't feel much like going out, but Tris had booked a table at the Kensington Arms for dinner (another website not working!). I didn't really have much of an appetite, so we shared a starter - a fantastically smooth chicken liver parfait with toast and onion jam - then I chose fish as a lighter main. I had pan-fried sea bream with crushed potatoes and carrots - simple but delicious and well worth the effort of going out.

27 October - scrambled eggs and dinner at jamie's

There wasn't much in for lunch today and I had a fancy for eggs, so I nipped out and got some smoked salmon to make scrambled eggs into lunch. Lovely on some toast with some garlic chives snipped over the top.

This evening I was meeting up with a friend, but the place we planned to meet was closed for a private do, so we ended up in Jamie's Italian again. I went for chicken liver tortellini, which was quite nice, if a little dry, but my friend had Osso Bucco, which was so fatty and horrible, it actually made her feel physically sick! It's a shame that the food's so hit and miss (especially the meat so it seems), because otherwise it's a really nice place to hang out. With plenty of other good spots in Bristol with much better food though, I don't think I'll bother again.