october

Lunch: Ate out

Dinner: Roast Partridges, blackberries and chestnuts; cabbage and juniper, mashed potatoes

Timbales of roasted red peppers, chevre, spinach, hazelnuts; risotto with cherry tomatoes

Figs in syrup of lemon, coriander, sichwan; rosewater, pomegranate, creme fraiche

Dolmades, almonds, olives

Squash, in tandoori marinade, roasted; beetroot with sesame, pomegranate molasses, sumac; feta, mint, thyme, rosemary, garlic, oil; bulghar

The squash works very well, if you roast it so it’s caramelised and crunchy outside, fudgy inside. Beware of using too much pom molasses – it can dominate.

Ate out

Potato-partridge-chestnut cakes; partridge gravy; black-and-white rice; red pepper-chilli-onion-garlic-tomato-cilantro

Plums in ginger syrup, toasted brioche, cream

Steak and kidney, mushrooms; cauliflower, cream, cheese; mashed potato

1lb steak and kidney, 6 large flat mushrooms, 1-2 onions, garlic, bay, coriander, allspice, slug of thai oyster sauce and a slug of Worcester sauce, 1 dried chilli, 1 icecube stock. Dust meat in flour and fry. Cooked very slowly for 3 hours. This makes enough for 4. Strained off the liquid and reduced it as hard as I dared. This was very, very good. Colin says if I'd served 5 times the amount, he could have eaten it. Meat was from Graig Farm – great flavour.

Baklava

Lunch: Noodle things with cauliflower and sauce of tomato puree, red pesto, pine kernels, sultanas, anchovies.

Dinner: Cod chowder (the Alistair Little recipe), ciabatta, cos lettuce with ovendried tomato dressing

Fried bananas and rum. No cream!

Lunch: tracey dined out at Norman's cafe, Cowbridge

Dinner: Beetroot soup (Waitrose)

Chilli sausages (Waitrose), stirfry of sugarsnaps with onion and ginger, mirin, soy, chilli; potato rosti

Aubergine slices, roast pepper, mozzarella, pesto (Annie Bell recipe); rocket, ciabatta

Quince and cream

We had 8 quinces on the tree; one is absolutely perfect and weighs a magnificent 580g

Confit de canard, flageolets with bacon, breadcrumbs, stock, juniper; broad beans, garlic shallot cooked in duck fat; ciabatta

You can tell it's the hillclimb season, and I'm on a diet

Ate out

A sort of gazpacho, with pesto

Bacon, puy lentils, onion, ciabatta slices.

Colin left for a conference and left me in charge of oven-drying the tomatoes he'd left growing mould on the windowsill. I liquidised and sieved the discarded middles, used some for this soup, but it was a bit pathetic. The rest I reduced down. The tomatoes I left in a low oven while, er, I went boozing round at David's, or as much boozing as I'm allowed before the Bristol South Hill Climb, ie none at all. Some of the tomatoes were all right. I have since bought some more.

Spinach soup with lemon, Indian spices, yoghurt

Tandoori chicken, dhal with the tomato puree and cream, rice

Lunch: spag with a sauce made from the most burnt of the oven-dried tomatoes

Dinner: Sweetcorn and chilli soup with bacon

Chicken in spicy peanut sauce, creamed spinach, quinoa

Sauce was onion, garlic, cumin coriander chipotle, some of the tomato puree.

Dinner: Watercress and bacon

Rump steak; porcini, mushrooms, onion garlic stock cream; sautée potatoes

Red pepper, onion garlic chilli; sautée potatoes, salad, quinoa with australian bush tomato, avocado oil

Pork spare ribs with Thai curry paste: ginger, garlic, chilli, lemongrass, lime leaves, nampla, muscovado sugar

Lunch: some sort of salad with whatever was left in the fridge

At Winifred's : stuffed peppers

Ate out

Ate out

Broad bean risotto (Winifred); Chicken in herbs, garlic, lemon, olive oil

Broad beans straight from Winifred's garden – sublime

Chicken in mole sauce, flour tortilla wrap; kidney beans, avocado, tomato

Melanzane Parmigiana

Pork fillet, chorizo, red pepper, paprika, tomatoes; sautée potatoes

Winifred, Charlotte, Louise, Steve

Spinach soup

Tandoori squash; sugar snaps, onion, mint; dhal; rice

Saffron rice pudding

At Dionne and Sally's

Hamburger with gorgonzola and cream sauce

Colin's back at home; Tracey is on a plane again

Pear, watercress, gorgonzola, walnut salad

Pheasant breast

Tracey is on a jolly this week

Red pepper stuffed with chèvre, hazelnut, rocket; ciabatta

Fried pear with Poire Williams

NCG crab and bacon chowder

Hamburger with vaguely Hungarian sauce of tomato, red pepper, white wine, chilli, paprika, cream