22 December - caprese salad and smoked haddock chowder

Although I love salads through the summer months, I generally want something warm at this time of year. Today, I compromised by combining a simple Caprese salad (tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil) with a little pile of saute potatoes. Chips and salad - mmm, can't beat it!

I was watching Nigel Slater's Simple Christmas last night and was quite inspired by several of the recipes. Tonight, I made up some smoked haddock chowder roughly based on his recipe. I missed out the swede, cauliflower and mussels and added some new potatoes and a bit of leftover sweetcorn. It came out as a very chunky stew rather than a soup, but tasty.

24 July - haddock chowder and fillet steak

I'm not always convinced about fishy soups and stews, but there's something romantic-sounding about a chowder. This recipe for haddock and sweetcorn chowder is roughly based on a couple of different ones I found online and came out pretty well:

• Fry half a chopped onion and a few cubes of pancetta.
• Add a couple of new potatoes peeled and finely diced.
• Then add about 200ml vegetable stock and 225ml milk and simmer for about 5 mins.
• Add the corn from one fresh corn on the cob and simmer for another 10 mins.
• Finally add one small smoked haddock fillet cut into chunks and simmer another 10 mins.
• Season with parsley and cives to serve.

Dinner was fillet steak with some baked portobello mushrooms that came in the vegbox with garlicky buttered spinach and some chunky chips.