4 August - leftover tart and roasted veg

For lunch today I had the leftover slice of courgette and goats cheese tart - just as good second time around with a pile of spinach wilted with some garlic and butter.

Dinner was a big pile of roasted veg; peppers, aubergine, beetroot and tomatoes (from the garden). I made up a bit of vaguely Moroccan-inspired sauce; a chopped onion, chopped garlic and red chilli fried up with some toasted and crushed cumin and coriander seeds. I then added some tinned tomatoes and a splodge of harissa. It seemed to work quite well along with a pile of herby couscous.

3 August - lamb with salsa verde

Another wonderfully sunny summer day meant dinner on the terrace; lamb and salsa verde (using a bit more of the still prolific parsley), with homegrown beans, carrots and new potatoes.

We also got a delivery of Camel Valley wine today, so it seemed only fitting to have a chilled glass of Atlantic Dry in the evening sun.

2 August - courgette and goats cheese tart

After finishing a big batch of work late afternoon, I had a bit of time to potter about in the kitchen, so I made a courgette and goats cheese tart from For Every Season. It's actually a combination of two of the recipes in the book. The courgette and goats cheese recipe contained both cream and creme fraiche, but I settled on just eggs and cream for my filling, as per another tart recipe. The pastry was super-easy to make, although quite tricky to handle as it was so crumbly, it completely collapsed on first attempt and I had to squidge it back together and try again.

• Whizz 110g plain flour with 55g cold butter (cut into chunks) and a pinch of salt together in a blender until like breadcrumbs. Then dribble in a tbsp of good olive oil through the hole in the top. It forms a lovely shiny ball. Wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge.
• Line a smallish flan case with the pastry and bake blind (filled with baking beans on a piece of greaseproof paper) for 15 mins at 180C. Remove the beans and cook for another 5 mins.
• For the filling, mix together 2 eggs, 2 egg yolks and 150ml double cream.
• Fry 2 small sliced courgettes in olive oil and add to the filling mix.
• Pour the filling carefully into the pastry case (I actually had a bit too much, so maybe one less egg and a bit less cream). Crumble 50g goats cheese over the top.
• Bake for 25 mins, sprinkling a few pine nuts over the top 10 mins before the end.

It came out looking fantastic. We had it with a salad of beetroot, broad beans, peas, mint and peashoots - back out on the terrace on another lovely summery evening. The crumbly pastry was just wonderful, well worth the challenge of getting it from board to tin!

1 August - goats cheese on toast and pasta with spinach

Another cheesy lunch today, this time goats cheese on toast with a pile of salad. And a quick supper of orecchiette with spinach, pancetta and a slurp of cream to make a simple sauce.

31 July - halloumi, curry and greengage jam

On a lovely hot summer Sunday, we lazed around and had a late lunch of fried halloumi and warm tomato salad.

Yesterday, Tris had brought back a big bag of greengages from the French market in town - part of the Bristol Harbour Festival. Unfortunately, lots of them turned out to be split, so needed using quickly. After a bit of online searching, I found a very simple recipe for greengage jam and decided to give it a go - having never made jam before.

• Put 750g of whole greengages in a large pan with 150ml water and a whole vanilla pod. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 mins until really soft.
• Off the heat, stir in 650g sugar and a tiny knob of butter (c.8g), stir and return to the heat.
• Boil hard for 10 mins and skim off the stones that have risen to the top.
• Keep boiling for about another 10 mins, remove the vanilla pod, allow to cool a little, then spoon into sterilised jars. This amount filled two standard size jam jars and two smaller jars.
  

I wasn't sure initially whether the final result was a bit runny, but once it had cooled properly, it had set to a nice jammy consistency and tasted really rather good. I'm not a big jam eater, so I might have to think about giving at least one of the jars away, but I'm sure we'll get through the rest.

Tris was in the kitchen this evening, cooking up a really good lamb curry from Anjum Anand's Indian food Made Easy. We had it out on the terrace with some beans from the garden cooked up with ginger and spices. A great end to the weekend!

30 July - melon & mozzarella and spicy meatballs

The weekend started with another trip to Ruby & White for some more meat - I think it's going to prove quite difficult to resist! Lunch was a lovely, summery salad of canteloupe melon with parma ham and creamy mozzarella, scattered with a few basil leaves and dressed with a little olive oil and lemon dressing.

For dinner, I made meatballs based on a Nigel Slater recipe:

• Mix 300g pork mince, a handful of lardons, a chopped shallot, some chopped lemongrass, chopped red chilli and a handful of fresh chopped coriander. And shape into small (walnut-sized) balls - today I made 10.
• Gently fry a few mushrooms with some sliced garlic and chilli in a wok.
• Add about 500ml chicken stock and a bashed stalk of lemongrass. Throw in a good handful of fresh peas and simmer.
• Fry the meatballs in vegetable oil for a few minutes until cooked through and nicely caramelised on the outside.
• Boil a few noodles. Add some chopped mint, coriander and basil to the broth.
• Serve a pile of noodles in the bottom of a large bowl with the meatballs on the top and the broth poured over.

The first time I came across the idea of meatballs in soup, it seemed a bit odd, but it's actually a really good combination - substantial (with the meatballs and noodles), but fresh and herby too.

29 July - a new butchers and a pork chop

Over the past few days, I've been watching as a new shop was fitted out just across the road and today I was very excited to venture into a new local butchers for the first time. It's called Ruby & White and it's a very classy-looking outfit - all Farrow & Ball woodwork and cool branding. It has a very impressive main meat counter, with just about everything from the usual pork, beef, lamb and chicken to venison, veal and pigeon. Then there's a deli counter with cold meats and cheese (although not a huge range), a bit of wine and things like marinades, spices and sauces. I've been losing interest in supermarket meat for some time and the other nearby butchers are neither very nearby nor often seem to have what I'm looking for. So this is quite an exciting development.

I was so overwhelmed by the choice, not to mention all the staff who were a bit overeager to tell me all about what they were doing, I played it safe with just a couple of pork loin chops to start off - all nicely wrapped in classy waxed paper - okay, so I'm a sucker for some nice packaging, esp. when it doesn't involve nasty plastic trays!

I fried them up with some chestnut mushrooms, took the pork out of the pan (to a warm oven) and added a good glug of pear cider, followed by some cream to make a sauce. Served with baby leeks and new potatoes, not only was the sauce tasty, but the flavour of the pork really shone through. A very promising start.