For breakfast, I made myself scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, plus wholemeal toast and strawberries. (One of the perks of my new freelance status is being able to nip to the kitchen at 9.30 – which is much better for breakfast than, say, 7 – and rustle up something...

Supper tonight was a lemony pasta dish I have made many times before. It is quick to make, but the key is to prepare all of your ingredients while the pasta is cooking, because everything goes in right at the end. While the (wholewheat) fusilli cooked, I grated a...

I like most cheeses and eat more of the stuff than is good for me. I like the English hard cheeses, and was pleased to see them making a comeback. Their sales were reported up last year, at the expense of some foreign ones. Alain Guilpain, Tesco’s cheese buyer,...

Breakfast this morning consisted of two Weetabix, of which I am quite fond, with some semi-skimmed milk. Lunch was a sandwich from Boots in Charing Cross station. I normally stay away from packaged sandwiches, as they’re almost always full of junk, but I was en route to a meeting...

Sunday April 23rd St George’s Day. Somehow my usual porage with maple syrup (first breakfast) and croissant with cheese and blueberry jam (second breakfast) didn’t seem to do it justice. I found a place with roast beef and Yorkshire pudding on the lunch menu. It was M A Potter’s,...

For Sunday lunch, I made pasta with clam sauce. I’d never cooked with clams before; in fact, I’m not 100 per cent positive I had ever eaten clams before this afternoon. Something to do with having grown up on the beach and being sickened by the quivering wet masses...

Tonight I tried to make a curry that would approximate chicken tikka masala, yet another glorious product of British imperialism. Except I was trying to be a bit healthy about it, so didn’t want to use any oil or cream or coconut milk in the production. While I managed...

Saturday April 22nd The meal started with maple-smoked trout, for which I made a whisky-based horseradish sauce. For the main course I roasted chicken legs the easy way, by wrapping them in greased foil and cooking for about 35 minutes in a hot oven, then opening the foil for...

Friday April 21st The barbecue went well. Cambridge was prickling with light rain as it started, but we guessed correctly that it wouldn’t last. This time there were jumbo franks, and instead of the rather doughy finger buns, we used fresher and lighter mini-sub rolls. Once again, French’s mustard...

I was working from home today, which meant that I had an experience which is (lately) unusual for me: cooking, and not once, but twice. I love to cook, but with crazy working hours and a mother-in-law-to-be who loves to feed us, I haven’t done much of it for...