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.

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.

16 July - scrambled eggs and lemon and coriander chicken

After a grey, drizzly start to a Saturday morning, a comforting brunch of scrambled eggs with a few chunks of hot-smoked salmon mixed in, piled on a delicious thick slice of toasted sourdough bread was just perfect.

For dinner I fancied a curry, but something light and fresh. I tried out a Madhur Jaffrey recipe for lemon and coriander chicken which fitted the bill just perfectly.

• Brown four boneless chicken thighs in oil and remove.
• Fry 3 finely chopped cloves of garlic and add a good dollop of grated ginger mixed with a tablespoon of water.
• Stir in a large bunch of chopped coriander (about 100g, which is a very large bunch), plus 1/2 a chopped green chilli, a pinch of cayenne pepper, 1tsp ground cumin, 1/2tsp ground coriander, 1/2tsp turmeric and some salt.
• Return the chicken to the pan with about 150ml water and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice (c. 1-2 tbsp).
• Cover the pan, turn low and simmer for 30 minutes+, turning the chicken over halfway.

Served with some spiced rice and peas, it was delicious; tangy, green and with just the right amount of kick.

For pudding, I tried to recreate something like the fabulous 'savoury' dessert I had at Opus last weekend with some mini goats cheese and gooseberry cheesecakes. Sadly, the cheesecake mix came out slightly curdled and the (supermarket) gooseberries just weren't as tart as I'd hoped. All a bit disappointing, maybe one to come back to another time when better gooseberries are available.

10 July - scrambled eggs for breakfast

The trip to Birmingham was for an athletics meeting - the Diamond League meeting at the Alexander Stadium - in the afternoon/evening, so we knew we wouldn't really get a proper evening meal. As we were staying in a hotel (Malmaison), this made the perfect excuse for a big hotel breakfast to start the day. As someone who needs a decent cup of tea before I can think straight in the morning, I often find hotel breakfasts rather frustrating. Today though a pot of tea arrived reasonably promptly, so I was ready for a nice big plate of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. We also turned out to be sitting almost next to Steve Cram, and Tris spent most of breakfast watching various BBC sport folks to-ing and fro-ing, getting ready for the day over their toast and coffee!

Lunch was at Cafe Rouge - not for the food, which was just about passable, but just because it was a nice spot to sit outside in the on-off sunshine and watch the world go by before we headed off for a great evening of athletics.

8 June - home-smoked salmon by a fjord

For the next five days, I'm on a photography course, based in a fantastic wooden lodge right next to a fjord; Hardangerfjord. Our host and chef, Jarle (below), is cooking us three traditional Norwegian meals a day. Breakfast was a spread of bread, cheeses, jam and eggs, then lunch was hearty pea and ham soup.

For dinner, we were outdoors at a long wooden table in the lovely evening light. We started off with salmon that was home-smoked by Jarle's mum and had to be the best smoked salmon I've ever tasted. Served in lovely thick slices with soured cream ... mmmm! Then there was pollock cooked with loads of veg and served with boiled potatoes. And of course, a glass of Jarle's home-brewed cider to wash it all down!

22 May - Scottish smoked salmon

Another morning walk today took in woods, rumbling rivers and a hermitage, working up just enough of an appetite for lunch at Birnam Arts Centre; a really cool little community arts centre with a great cafe. My smoked salmon and cream cheese salad came with a huge pile of salmon and a really interesting salad; not just the usual dreaded lettuce, but tomatoes, cucumber, grapes, olives, orange ... and in a lovely, bright, airy foyer with a photography exhibition to mooch around after post-lunch coffees.