26 March - lamb's lettuce and chilli

I've had some lamb's lettuce growing under fleece all winter, but with the recent burst of warmth and sun, it's really started flourishing, so I thought I'd better start picking some.

I mixed it into a hot salad of new potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, chorizo and a poached egg.

While I was away over the weekend, Tris had made up a big pot of chilli which meant that I didn't have to worry about shopping and cooking for this evening, which was really nice as I was completely wiped out after my week away and had a load of other stuff to sort out.

18 March - a Mexican brunch and chicken stew

I had a bit of a Mexican-Irish brunch today! It consisted of some fresh spicy tomato sauce, tinned refried beans, a poached egg, some yoghurt, but all on top of an Irish soda farl! Not bad, but the soda farl didn't really go ...

Tris was out for the day, so I made myself a quick and easy supper using leftover roast chicken. I cooked up an onion, some chestnut mushrooms, then added the chicken in some chicken stock (made from the chicken bones, of course) and a bit of cream. It could have been a pasta sauce or a pie filling, but I served it with some garlicky mash and called it a stew!

11 March - a warm salad and more chicken

Lunch today was a nice warm, tasty salad of potatoes, spinach, tomatoes, red pepper, a bit of chorizo and a poached egg.

I had the usual issue with cooking/shopping for one - I got yesterday's chicken thighs in a pack of four, so I was left with chicken again for supper. Trying to come up with something that would be quite different, I made some chicken and chickpea stew with spring greens. It's a Sophie Grigson recipe that involves putting some of the greens in the stew itself, then frying up a few leaves finely shredded to go on the top. It's a bit of a faff, but the crunchy topping is quite fun and less tricky with such a small amount.

7 February - egg on toast and sausage pasta

Sometimes the simplest things are best. Poaching is one of my favourite ways of cooking eggs, but it can be a bit hit-and-miss. I've tried various gadgets for poaching eggs, but have reverted to just dropping them into a pan of gently boiling water. For me, the key to getting a nice, neat poached egg is having the water boiling just enough but not too vigorously. Today they came out just perfectly and were great on a couple of slices of malty brown toast.

I was out early evening, so I made up some quick sausage and pepper pasta sauce before I left that was quick to heat up with some pappadelle when I got in.

16 November - a mexican-inspired lunch and cod with roast tomato risotto

Lunch today started off with the packet of corn tortillas I bought earlier in the week. I had a small tin of refried beans in the cupboard, so it was a Mexican-inspired lunch of warm tortilla with the refried beans, a couple of poached eggs and a blob of soured cream.

When I'd asked Tris last night what he fancied for dinner today, he'd said "fish", so I headed to Fishminster this afternoon to see what they'd got. I'd started off thinking of scallops with pea risotto, but they didn't have any, so I went for a big piece of cod instead and changed the accompaniment to roasted tomato risotto - inspired by a HFW recipe I saw a little while ago. I roasted a whole pile of halved tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, some chopped garlic and fresh rosemary for nearly an hour. When they were done I whizzed them up in a blender and stirred about half the resulting sauce into a plain risotto with some whole basil leaves. I trimmed the messy edges off the cod (and cooked them up in a bit of milk to use tomorrow), then popped the two resulting neat pieces in an oven dish with a little drizzle of oil and a squeeze of lemon and popped them in a hot oven for about 15 mins. The final combination was warm and tasty, but still quite light and fresh, definitely one to repeat.

30 May - a rescued hollandaise and lamb with mint sauce

I had a fancy for a proper bank holiday brunch, so made up a batch of hollandaise sauce to go with poached eggs on toast and asparagus. Making hollandaise can always be a bit stressful, but using Nigel Slater's Appetite recipe as my guide, I usually get through. I use the yolk of one egg in a Pyrex bowl over a pan of gently boiling water, then whisk in about 60g cold butter, a few cubes at a time until it's all melted into a thick yellow sauce. I add a squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of salt and cover until needed. The problem usually comes when the eggs are cooked and the toast toasted ... when I go back to uncover and stir my sauce, it can, as it did today, split into a nasty-looking, curdled mess. Nigel's solution of adding a splash of cold water and whisking again, worked a treat as always! Unfortunately, all that rich sauce and eggs seems to have given me indigestion for the rest of the day ... probably serves me right!

Dinner started off with the jar of homemade mint sauce still in the fridge from the week before last, which I thought I ought to use up, so it called for lamb, again. I quickly sealed a couple of chunky, Welsh rump steaks in a frying pan, then popped them in the oven for about 8 minutes to cook through. I did some braised, French-style veg - a leek, some fresh peas and broad beans, softened gently in some butter with a sliced clove of garlic and some chopped mint, then I added a slurp of white wine and let them cook gently, covered for about 15 mins. Together with some new potatoes - briefly boiled, then squashed and roasted with some sea salt and chopped rosemary - and of course, the mint sauce. Spot on. Sorry, it's a bit of a blurry photo, but I was eager to dig in!

11 April - asparagus & miso chicken

Today saw a classic combination for lunch and a new recipe for dinner. With the arrival of English asparagus in the shops, I couldn't resist a Spring lunch favourite; asparagus with parma ham and a handful of new potatoes. On a busy working day, I didn't really have the time or patience to make any fresh garlic mayonnaise to dip in or hollandaise to pour over, so I went for a simple poached egg on the top instead. Trouble is I was so busy arranging the ham and asparagus on the plate ready for a photo call, I slightly overcooked the egg and the yolk didn't quite ooze as it should. Note to self, don't let keeping a record get in the way of the cooking or eating!

For dinner, I was tempted to go for another old favourite, but prompted by what I said in the intro to this blog about trying new things, I opted for a recipe I'd spotted in Saturday's Guardian magazine for dinner - Yotam Ottolenghi's miso chicken. I was a bit surprised to find the key ingredient, sweet white miso paste in my local Sainsbury's and the whole thing was pretty easy to make - just mixing up the marinade mid-afternoon and then leaving the chicken until the evening and bunging it in the oven. I didn't go for the accompanying Asian slaw, because I'm not really a fan of raw cabbage, so we had it instead with a few boiled new potatoes and some wilted spinach.

The verdict - well, as someone who doesn't eat chicken skin, I rather missed out on some of the miso coating, but what I managed to scrap off was very tasty and Tris gave it a thumbs up. So it might be one to go for again, perhaps with a variation on the Asian slaw next time to add a bit more punch. Now I've just got the rest of the packet of sweet white miso paste to use up in something else ...