13 March - soup and tapas

I finished off the rest of the carrot and coriander soup for lunch today, then was out with a friend this evening at the Lido. Lots of chat and laughter over a couple of glasses of wine and some tapas.

30 November - an omelette and tapas at the lido

I peeled and chopped too much potato for last night's curry, so I cooked the excess and used it for a lunchtime omelette along with some chorizo and cherry tomatoes.

A bit of a tickle in my throat yesterday has turned into a full-blown cold, but I still went out to meet a friend at the Lido for the evening. It perked me up no end to get out and have a bit of a chat and a giggle, but my tastebuds have gone on strike and I don't have much appetite, so picking on a bit of tapas was about as much as I could manage.

12 November - tapas and a huge pork steak

It was Saturday lunchtime tapas at the Lido again today - humus, squash and feta salad and some posh ham - a great relaxed start to the weekend.

For dinner I got some pork steaks from Ruby & White, which turned out to be absolutely huge. I did some cream and tarragon sauce and we had them with a small splodge of potato and parsnip mash and some spinach. As I was cooking them, and struggling to squeeze them both in a large frying pan, there was talk of leaving some meat to have cold tomorrow, but somehow we managed to clear our plates after all!

2 October - simple garlic chicken

Having come home to some unexpected late summer sunshine, we went out for lunch at the Lido. We sat outside, enjoying the sun and the atmosphere with cooling glasses of citron presse and a nice selection of tapas: humus, babaganoush, Greek salad and fried chorizo, plus of course, hunks of their delicious fresh bread. A great way to ease back in!

Usually when we've been away, we're craving some kind of food, often vegetables. This time though, we felt like we'd had a bit of everything while we were away and couldn't think of anything obvious that we'd missed. Being particularly tired after almost two days travelling back, I just opted for something simple - chicken thighs slow-cooked with herbs and garlic, with some new potatoes, creamy leeks and a handful of beans still just about going on the terrace.

23 June - nice bread and a misunderstanding with a waiter

My parents were visiting today and it being a rather busy mid-week, I opted for a simple lunch of fresh bread from Hart's Bakery (a fabulously tasty sourdough loaf) with some cold meats and fresh figs. Nice and easy, but it went down well as a slow help-yourself lunch to chat over.

In the evening, I'd booked a table at the Lido, one of our local favourites and somewhere that's relaxed and easy, but has some interesting food too. Unfortunately, although most of the meal was well up to the usual standard, a misunderstanding with the waiter over a couple of our orders meant that me and my mum ended up with rather boring main courses that weren't really what we thought we'd ordered. I went for roast pork that came with "salsa mojo" - when I asked the waiter about it, he said it was a basically a mix of garlic, oil and herbs, which sounded great, but when it turned up, the main ingredient was actually green chilli and it was way too strong for my taste. My mum went for roast poussin with peppers, aubergines, yoghurt and flat bread, but because she was having flat bread with her starter, she asked if she could substitute it for some potatoes instead. The waiter, whose English wasn't great, misinterpreted her request as being for just the chicken with potatoes - thus missing out all the nice veg and yoghurt, which were what really made up the dish. He did apologise about his mistake with my sauce and offered us a free drink, but he wouldn't back down on my mum's, I think because he still didn't really understand when I tried to explain the mistake. It was a real shame, as it did slightly mar what would've otherwise been a great meal. I've got nothing against foreign waiting staff - who, to be honest, often have a better feel for what good service should be - but it's no good if their English isn't good enough to understand the customers.

6 May - a vegbox and the Lido

Continuing my recent food supplier theme, today was my first organic vegbox delivery for a few weeks. I've been getting an organic vegbox delivered from Riverford every fortnight for about 6 years now. Generally, I think it's a really good idea and I do love my veg, but I do go through phases where I suffer from "vegbox fatigue". Although I like most vegetables, there are certain things I'm less keen on and sometimes I get boxes that I just feel like I'm just trying to "use up" rather than enjoying. Back around Feb/March time, I had a few particularly uninspiring boxes in a row - it isn't a great time of year for veg anyway - so as I was going to be away a lot through April anyway, I paused my deliveries for a while.

Sadly, today's box didn't quite rekindle my excitement. It contained asparagus, spring onions, peppers and rhubarb which are all good, potatoes (not new ones) and carrots, which are unexciting but okay. But then it contained a huge lettuce - now I don't eat lettuce at all, so poor Tris is going to be ploughing his way through salad for lunch for quite some time to use that one up! And then a big bag of spring greens ... I quite like greens occasionally, but having just ploughed my way through three servings of greens in the past week using up a big bag from the supermarket, this time, their arrival provoked a rather sinking feeling! I think I'm going to have to go back to making up my own box for a while - which requires a bit more planning and a minimum order, but ensures I don't get stuck with more stuff I don't really want.

Friday night often means a meal out and this evening we went to a local favourite, the Lido; as its name suggests, a swimming pool but with a great cafe and restaurant too. The food was fresh, different and delicious as usual. We both had wood roasted scallops with herby butter to start; a bit tricky to eat without splashing butter over yourself, but fantastic with some fresh bread to mop up the leftover butter. Then roast pork with a romesco aioli - a sauce made, I think, of nuts, garlic and peppers and then mixed up into a kind of mayonnaise - difficult to describe, but absolutely delicious!