may

Salad with bacon

Osso buco with lemon zest and capers; chard with onions and balsamic; polenta

Cooked the osso buco slowly, in stock, with bay, orange zest, onion, garlic, black pepper. I ate the marrow – it’s like a savoury panna cotta.

Cucomber gazpacho with wasabi

Wasabi doesn’t go with cucumber

Pasta with lemon, olives, serrano ham, cream, stock

Salad, Osso buco, as monday

Colin ate out with his office; I preferred to ride the evening time trial. Where Don Muir said "But who will have the most sense of satisfaction?" Unfortunately I knew this would be Colin.

Hummus and pitta; then to Phillippa’s party

Lunch: pasta with red peppers

Dinner: Rolf

Asparagus risotto with serrano ham

Pork belly slow cooked on fennel, garlic, herbs; butter beans; pointy cabbage with smoked bacon and roast garlic purée; rosemary focaccia (homemade)

Quince with syrup, cream

Cheeses from last saturday, plus an Italian goats cheese, Toma Brusca

Lunch: focaccia with various things found in the fridge: hummus, red peppers, cucumber in mint and yoghurt; courgettes fried with cumin

Dinner: Duck breasts with peach and vodka, green beans, rösti potatoes

we used the fat rendered from the duck in the potatoes

Lunch: pasta with asparagus and cream

Dinner: Yorkshire Provender Carrot, fennel, orange and dill soup

Chorizo, pinto beans, ovendried tomates, olives; salad; ciabatta

Dhal and rice, lime pickle

Ate out

Serrano ham, olives, salsa of melon, garlic, chilli, shallot

Pork belly, beans, cabbage; sautéed courgette, ciabatta

Sautéed courgette with cumin, bulghar wheat

Quince and cream

Ate out

Ate out

Dinner: mushrooms with ginger, chilli, sichwan pepper; cabbage with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, jasmine rice

Cauliflower florets, tomato, olives, capers, garlic, lemon juice, oil

Venison sausages, salad of watercress, beetroot, pickled walnuts, roast garlic dressing, Cornish new potatoes with avocado oil

Risotto with cauliflower and petits pois

Melon with syrup of lime juice, chilli, vodka

Haricot and onion soup

Chicken with shallots, tarragon, sherry vinegar; Cornish new potatoes; round lettuce

Gazpacho (waitrose)

Chicken stuffed with mushrooms and truffle oil, leeks, gnocchi

Salad of fried sweet potatoes, red peppers, sesame seeds, brie, rocket; ciabatta

Mango with grenadillo and white rum

Grenadillo does not taste of anything much

Dinner: Vichyssoise (Ferrer)

Fillet steak, sauce of red wine, horseradish, cream; rösti potatoes

Ate out

Haricot bean and onion soup, cream of garlic

3 cloves of roasted garlic, 3 fat cloves of fresh, softened in butter then simmered with water, then puréed

Chorizo and black pudding; pointed cabbage and onion; pearl barley

Moroccan carrot salad, pitta

Mutton braised with chilli, onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, ground ginger, fennel, cinnamon, 4 prunes, 1 dried lime; couscous and peas

Pasta with tomatoes, basil, cream

Melon and rosewater

Sweet pepper soup

Risotto, tomatoes and fennel; red pepper stuffed with rocket and cheese; rocket salad

Moroccan carrot salad, pitta

Cheese and onion quiche (Waitrose), little gem, new potatoes

On holiday in the Garfagnana

Lunch: Ate out

Dinner: Bresaola and salad

Risotto, peas and ham

Lunch: Farro tagliatelle, wild boar sausage; string beans and tomatoes

Dinner: Ate out

Stuffed peppers, bresaola, stuffed courgette flowers

Courgette flowers stuffed with breadcrumbs, lemon, pine kernels, then roasted, basted with chicken juices. The stuffed peppers were the little peppadews, bought from the SMA shop

Roast chicken, farro, sautéed courgettes

Farro is spelt, a sort of wheat. It’s a speciality of this region and it’s tasty. I think it is possible to get hold of it in this country as spelt seems to be a sort of wheat that people who are gluten-intolerant can eat.

Stuffed peppers, olives, bresaola, salad

Sausages, farro with onion, string beans with garlic and lemon

Wild strawberries, syrup, wild mint and mascarpone

Ate out

Risotto with radicchio

Chicken legs, lentils, wild boar sausage

Pecorino from Garfagnana

Strawberries and mascarpone