8 February - salmon with spinach and lentils

After a jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn mayo for lunch, it was more fish for supper, with a couple of wild salmon fillets. To go with them I used a Jamie Oliver idea for spinach with puy lentils, herbs and a drizzle of yoghurt. It's always a good combination and with the hearty lentils, you don't need any other carbs.

26 January - thai salmon curry

I tried out another recipe from the leaflet that came with the slow cooker today - for Thai salmon curry. It doesn't seem like an obvious candidate for slow-cooking, but I thought I'd give it a go. Again, you just put all the ingredients together in the slow cooker - salmon chunks, spring onions, peas, sugar snaps, carrot and red pepper, along with Thai green curry paste (I made my own) mixed with coconut milk and a dash of fish sauce - then put on the lid and pop it in the oven for an hour.

It came out pretty well and because of the steaming effect, the veg stayed nice and crunchy. I have to say, I'm still not completely convinced about fish curry though. As a technique though, maybe with prawns or chicken, I'd definitely try it again.

29 December - salmon with coriander pesto

It was another HFW recipe for lunch - chachouka is a mix of slow-cooked onions and peppers with tomatoes and spices, then an egg cracked in the top. I added a few chickpeas that were in the fridge and they went pretty well for a hearty lunch.

When I bought fresh coriander for yesterday's curry, the smaller packets were looking a bit yellowy, so I ended up getting a big bag. To use it up while it was still green and perky, I made up a batch of coriander pesto made with garlic and pistachios. I teamed it up with some plain salmon fillets and a pile of fresh veg; carrots, green beans and tenderstem broccoli. The pesto was really tasty and looked great against the pale pink of the salmon.

7 December - baked salmon and rhubarb cakes

I picked up some rhubarb at the supermarket this afternoon and without much work on, I spent a bit of time pottering in the kitchen, making up a batch of rhubarb upside-down cakes. And now I know why my cakes always come out pointy - apparently, it's to do with cooking them in a fan oven.

Tonight's dinner started off with the cavalo nero still left from Friday's vegbox. I went for some simple baked salmon fillets with a dollop of minty creme fraiche on the top, then I cooked the cavalo nero up with some bacon and we had it all with some new potatoes. Simple, but tasty for a midweek supper.

14 September - pork with creamy chanterelle sauce

We're off on holiday at the end of the week, so I'm trying to make the most of the last few veg on the terrace. Lunch was another couscous salad, with some smoked salmon flakes and homegrown beans and tomatoes.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so in-between chores, I wandered up to a nice veg shop in Clifton that I'd spotted the other day had lots of wild mushrooms. I came home with a bag of yellow chanterelles and a tall spike of cavalo nero that poked out of the top of my backpack and raised a smile in Ruby & White on my way home getting some pork loin steaks.

I fried the pork steaks until nice and brown on each side, then popped them in the oven to finish off. I then used the same pan to gently fry a shallot, added the chanterelles, followed by a glug of white wine. I bubbled it down a bit, added some double cream, bubbled a bit more and poured the sauce over the pork. With some potatoes and the cavolo nero, it tasted wonderfully autumnal.

1 September - chicken soup and soy baked salmon

For lunch I tried out a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe from the Guardian magazine from a couple of weeks ago for chicken and buttermilk soup. It was meant to be a cold soup, but did say you could heat it up if you were really careful not to let it curdle. Rather frustratingly though, after lots of messing about and then being super-careful, it still curdled and tasted rather nasty and sour ... still, if you don't try ...

Thankfully, dinner was rather more successful. I was wandering round Sainsburys at a complete loss for ideas and was so uninspired, I ended up in the ready meals section ... yes, I know! I did spy some crispy seaweed (actually crispy shredded greens) though which gave me an idea. I got some salmon fillets and pulled out a really old recipe for soy-baked salmon. You marinate the salmon in c.100ml mirin, 80ml soy sauce, a good chunk of grated ginger and a couple of star anise, in the fridge. The original recipe said for 6 hours, but I only had a couple of hours today, which still did the trick. Then you bake the whole lot (the salmon in the marinade in an ovenproof dish) for about 15 mins at 200C. Served with the crispy seaweed (yes, I did succumb), some purple sprouting broccoli and a bit of boiled rice, it came out great, with just a bit of the sauce drizzled over the top.

28 August - baked mushrooms and supermarket salmon

We got more nice big mushrooms in the vegbox on Friday, so for lunch I cooked them up Jamie Oliver style, baked with garlic, thyme, oil and lemon. It's always a good recipe but today somehow the balance of flavours was just perfect. With a bit of parma ham and some saute potatoes, they made a yummy lunch.

After lunch though, I spent the rest of my Sunday working, so Tris cooked dinner again - a simple, supermarket "cheat" - salmon en croute from Waitrose. Despite getting stuck together in the packaging and being cooked upside-down, they didn't come out too badly.

16 August - being cooked for

Tuesdays are my busiest teaching day, so last night I made up a packed lunch; saffron rice salad with dill and broad beans. I was intending to have it with a splodge of yoghurt, but then discovered this morning there was none left in the fridge. I'd feared it might be a bit dry, but was actually spot on for a quick lunch break.

Tris was cooking this evening, quite nice to just sit down and have my dinner put in front of me for a change - salmon wrapped in proscuitto with spinach and lentils - a Jamie Oliver recipe and tasty as always.

16 June - broad bean salad and miso salmon with noodles

Lunch today was both beautiful and tasty - a whole supermarket bag of broad beans, podded, briefly boiled then slipped out of their skins, with some chopped tomato, then some chorizo briefly fried with some sliced garlic and parsley, all mixed together with a bit of oil and vinegar. Great colours and a really good lunch with a few new potatoes on the side.

I've had a pot of leftover sweet white miso paste in the fridge since almost the start of this blog. So I did a bit of online searching and came up with a recipe for salmon marinated in miso paste on the BBC Food website. I'd put a couple of salmon fillets in to marinate in the miso paste (I had about 150g left), c. 100g sugar, 100ml sake and 100ml mirin yesterday evening. You take the fish out and wipe off the marinade (which seems a terrible waste, but it's done its job). Then you simply place it on an oiled baking tray and pop it in the oven (180C) for about 10 mins, turning it over halfway through.

When it comes out, it looks fairly unexciting, but the flavours have definitely worked their way in and make a really tasty, but not overwhelming dish. I served it with some udon noodles, a pile of fresh peas and asparagus and a slice of lime, which worked really well squeezed over the salmon and noodles.

11 June - a fjordside barbecue

Our last day at Hardangerfjord today and thankfully, it was a brighter evening, so we were able to eat outside again for a barbecue of salmon and fantastic lamb with rosemary – tender and really tasty.

Rupert examines the wine bottle, while Pat gets on and drinks it!

Sadly, it only came with a salad of mostly lettuce and raw spring onion which I passed on, because raw onion disagrees with me. As interesting and tasty as the food’s been since I’ve been here, I’m really looking forward to getting home to some decent amounts of veg!

7 June - salmon and lentils

Right now I'm sitting in a Cafe Opera in Bergen, killing time after getting off the train from Oslo and waiting for the pick-up for the next part of my trip. I've got four hours to wait, so I was quite pleased to find a cool little, studenty sort of cafe with free wi-fi and good food. I just had baked salmon with stewed lentils and a creamy garlic sauce - hearty, tasty and just what I needed after seven and a half hours on a train on a rather grey, murky evening in Bergen.

6 June - raw salmon and reindeer

After expensive lunch and dinner over the past couple of days (practically double the price of the UK), we go for just sandwiches for lunch, plus a few coffee and cake stops as it’s turned rainy. Tris has a fancy for some reindeer before he leaves tomorrow, so we find a traditional Norwegian restaurant for dinner – the oldest in Oslo apparently; Engebret café. It’s old and dark, with a very different vibe to the trendy waterfront, but the service is excellent and the food just what we’re after. I start with a selection of raw, marinated salmon done in various different and delicious ways and Tris has the pickled herring he’s been wanting. Then we both have reindeer tenderloin with a rich red wine and berry sauce; a great end to a foody weekend in Oslo.