february

Chicken livers with black papper, nutmeg, stock; sprout tops, onion, tomato purée, sherry vinegar; pasta

Chocolate cake, cherries, cream

Ate out

Lunch: Spag with bacon-peas-chilli-onion-fennel seed-stock

Dinner: Sirloin steak with breadcrumb and horseradish crust; sauce of meat juices, stock, red wine, cream; spinach, lemon, garlic; baby potatoes boiled then stewed in olive oil

Chocolate cake, morello cherries, Kirsch, jersey cream

Lunch: Ate out

Dinner: Split pea and chorizo soup, avocado oil

Roast partridge, blackberry and chestnuts, gravy; roast parsnips and roast potatoes

Waitrose Thai soup, with prawns, mushrooms, more chilli

Pork burgers, Thai sauce, pak choi, jasmine rice

Salad of little gem, blood orange, mint, hazlenuts, feta, couscous, chilli, avocado oil

Salmon, mustard, dill cream sauce; sautée of courgettes, swede, potato

Chorizo, olives, tomato-cilantro salsa

Kidney beans in sauce of tomato-chipotle-smoked paprika-sesame-cumin-chocolate; sweetcorn with chèvre, cream, mint; corn tortillas

Lime, chilli, white chocolate mousse

This was lovely. Make a custard with : juice of 1 1/2 limes, 1/2 Thai green chilli, 2 tbs cream, 2tbs milk, 1 tbs sugar, 1 egg yolk. Melt 1/3 of a 100g bar of white chocolate and mix this into the custard. Soak 1 leaf gelatine and dissolve that in the custard, let it cool a bit. Whip the egg white into peaks and stir it in carefully. Decant into glasses. The flavours are a good balance though we didn't detect the chilli. It’s a little on the firm side (but still ok) but next time I might use less gelatine.

Mushrooms on toast

These were big local field mushrooms that they had in Robert Young’s

Roast aubergine with pesto; red pepper and courgette, red quinoa

Ate out

Lunch: Courgette, carrot, smoked tofu with Thai sauce; fine rice noodles

Dinner: Chicken with leeks and morels, cream, truffle oil; celeriac sauteed, potatoes

Baked apricots with cream, apricot brandy, amaretti

Lunch: Spag with red pappers, chilli, tomatoes, cream

Dinner: Cod, fennel, tomatoes, chorizo, potatoes

Christmas pudding and cream

Aubergine slices, grilled, with anchovies-pine kernels-olives-tomato

Saffron risotto with overdried tomatoes-red pepper; fennel

Tartiflette, salad

Blood oranges, chilli, vodka, raspberry vinegar, cream/yoghurt

Smoked salmon, potato pancakes, cream-lemon-wasabi-mirin, seaweed flakes, fake caviar

Scallops, tiger prawns, red-papper-shitake-spring onion-chilli-ginger-garlic-oyster sauce; egg noodles

Soppy St. Valentine’s Day stuff, but it’s also Chinese New Year. I don't think in previous years we used to do anything special in the soppy line, but this year we felt we should make use of any excuse to drink fizz. The starter looked fab but the digital camera wasn’t in the mood, so you just have to use you imagination.

Carrot, celeriac, lentil, tarragon soup

Chicken livers, dusted with spiced flour, fried, with stock; savoy cabbage, wheat kernels

The soup was a bit boring. I was using up veg in the fridge. The spices with the livers were: black pepper, allspice, coriander, cinnamon, cloves.

Smoked salmon, watercress, horseradish cream

Fillet steak, pieds de mouton (fresh) and porcini (dried), brandy, cream; spinach and rocket salad, gnocchi

Lunch: Dhal, rice, lime pickle

Dinner: John

Crab risotto with scallops and Onuga

Chinese marinated duck, pak choi and spring onions, soba noodles

The marinade is from Sybil Kapoor’s Taste and it is unfailingly delicious

Chocolate and coriander tart, lexia raisin and rum ice cream

..and attentive readers will have spotted that this is the second appearance of this, from David Everitt-Matthias’ Essence. This too is unfailingly delicious. We told John about the lime-chocolate-chilli mousse and he looked slightly dubious, so that's what he is getting next!

Keen’s cheddar, Cashel blue

Lunch: Spag with the leftover duck

Dinner: Roast butternut squash with cumin; celeriac gratin; spinach and rocket

Pineapple and banana in rum and chilli syrup

Borscht

Pork paprikash, green beans, tagliatelle

Sauteed yellow pepper, artichoke hearts, fried hazlenuts, fried halloumi, bulghar wheat; rocket with oil-pomegrante-garlic

Pancakes with morello cerries, sauce of chocolate-cherry syrup-Kirsch; creme fraiche

Carrot, celeriac, lentil, tarragon soup

This time with more tarragon, cream, sherry, which improved it

Denhay pork sausages, savoy cabbage with kalonji and black pepper, sautéed potatoes

Cauliflower with fried halloumi

Chickpeas, smoked tofu, purple sprouting, soba noodles in a soup of toasted, ground sesame, garlic, chilli, soy sauce, mirin

I must confess I was dreading Colin's reaction : "broccoli! tofu! How you do spoil me" but it was delicious. In any case Colin was late back from work. Not that I mind Colin being late, since the rule is that every 5 minutes Colin is late, I can pour myself another glass of the cooking sherry

Ate out

Lunch: Spag with artichokes and toasted hazelnuts

Dinner: Goose leg, flageolet beans, caramelised chicory with balsamic, ciabatta

Quince, syrup, cream

Lunch: Gratin of Savoy cabbage, sauté potatoes

Dinner: Smoked mackerel, pineapple-chilli-shallot-couscous

This was going to be with beetroot and horseradish but I'd mentioned to Colin ‘mackerel’ and ‘pineapple’ in consecutive sentences and he’d assumed I was doing mackerel with pineapple. It’s not as crazy as it sounds and the more I thought about it the more feasible it seemed.

Saddle of hare in cream, green beans, gnocchi

Lanes’ very occasionally has hares; they say their rabbit man gets a few by mistake. Hares are for the Real Cook and not for the squeamish. I spent a good part of the afternoon dealing with this one. The saddle was for tonight, the legs casseroled for Simon on Wednesday, the giblets made into a sauce for pasta, and a pot of stock too. We almost always use the same recipes for the saddle and legs, from Joyce Molyneaux’ book.

Champagne risotto with smoked salmon, tiger prawns, mushrooms; peas and onion

Pineapple, banana, chilli, rum, coconut milk

Waitrose chickpea and chorizo soup

Chicken with saffron, tomatoes, oil; courgettes with cumin and chilli; couscous with preserved lemon and pine nuts

Simon

RWS salad, pomegranate dressing, beetroot, Sussex Slipcote ewe’s cheese, toasted pine nuts

Hare with candied peel, chocolate; tagliatelle

Amelia liked the tagliatelle. Amelia’s granny has written "Amelia is a very naughty girl who doesn't eat all her dinner" – apparently.

Yorkshire blue!

Yorkshire pink! That is, rhubarb from the famous Yorkshire triangle, in a crumble with ginger, and with cream