22-25 February - The Florida Keys

As we cruised down to the Florida Keys for our last few days, the emphasis was definitely on seafood. We ate conch fritters (a bit chewy) at the Key Largo Conch House followed by some really good blackened hogfish with avocado salsa - a fairly meaty fish but still white and flaky. Then we went for surf'n'turf at the Big Chill. It was the lobster that I'd been really looking forward to, but it was actually the steak that was the real stand-out - fabulously tender and packed with flavour.

Then after a brunch of eggs and bacon with grits (a kind of corn mash that tasted a bit like rice pudding to me) at Mrs Mac's Kitchen, we headed right down to Key West. We'd heard a lot about key lime pie, but after lots of huge meals, we never quite made it to dessert. So we went for an afternoon stop instead and I think we chose a good one. It's rather like quite a tart lemon cheesecake - yummy and not too sweet.

Then for our final evening out, we went to BlackFin, a classy bistro on the otherwise rather tacky Duval Street. We started with the most melt-in-your-mouth sauted calamari in parsley butter with walnuts and some goats cheese croquettes with red onions. Then I ticked off the last thing on my list with a burger with goats cheese and mushrooms, all washed down with a cold beer.

12 October - pasta and a steak

Leeks, bacon, cream and cheese are a classic combination and today they made a great pasta sauce for lunch - warm, tasty and comforting on rather a grey, drizzly day.

Tris was away this evening, so I was looking for a supper for one and feeling a bit uninspired. The butcher's does meat already marinated and packaged. I've often looked at it, but generally, I prefer to add my own flavourings. Today though, I picked up a steak in teriyaki marinade to give it a go. I flash-fried it - accompanied by quite a bit of smoke and lots of smell - and had it with some homemade chips and a few carrots and beans. The steak came out with a promising caramelised coating, but it was rather thin for my liking and, to be honestly, a bit disappointingly bland. I wonder if it might have been better sliced and stir-fried instead.

26 August - quick paella and a chewy steak

Looking at the ingredients in the fridge, I came up with a kind of quick paella for lunch, with mushrooms, a bit of pancetta, fresh sweetcorn and paella rice. A sort of posh savoury rice, but really tasty.

We went out for a Friday night dinner at Cote in Clifton. We'd been before and it didn't seem bad for a chain, but sadly, this time it was distinctly disappointing. I had a really nice tuna carpaccio to start, but things went downhill from there. We'd both gone for sirloin steak with Bernaise sauce, but when they arrived, the steak was cold, chewy and pretty tasteless and the cold pot of sauce was more like mayonnaise from a jar - it certainly didn't melt into the buttery sauce it should be when dolloped on the steak. The waitress made the usual perfunctory enquiry about how our food was, but when I told her what I thought, didn't really have a reply. She said she'd tell the manager, but no one ever came to speak to us and nothing more was said. Even when we asked for the service charge to be removed from the bill, no comment was made and certainly no apology was forthcoming. I did think of making a fuss, but didn't want to end the evening on even more of a sour note, so let it pass. A poor steak is disappointing (especially at almost £20!), but such rubbish service is unforgivable ... don't think we'll bother going back.

29 May - fried haloumi & steak and mushrooms

There were various bits and pieces in the fridge, but it took me a while to decide how to combine them for lunch. In the end, I went for fried haloumi cheese based on a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe cut out from an old Guardian magazine - I used his haloumi coating and salad dressing which do complement each other perfectly. The haloumi is simply sliced and then coated in a mix of flour and paprika and fried very briefly - less than a couple of minutes each side - so simple, but the slight crispy coating really works. The salad dressing mixes a tsp of honey, the juice of half a lemon, a crushed garlic clove and some olive oil, whisked together. Our salad was some lamb's lettuce and pea shoots, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and sweetcorn. The salty haloumi and sharp lemony dressing taste fabulous together!

Dinner matched some portobello mushrooms from the vegbox with fillet steak - another great combination! The mushrooms were baked according to the Jamie Oliver recipe I did the other day, but without the goat's cheese this time. So the mushrooms are coated in a mix of thyme, garlic, chilli, lemon juice and olive oil, with a few more slices of garlic stuck into the top, dotted with butter and baked for 15 mins. Served with simply fried fillet steak, some spinach and potatoes.