Birthday fun

Cake to celebrate

Storecupboard dinner

Udon noodles in a chilli chicken broth, with some stir fried courgettes and coriander

Simple supper

Wholewheat pasta with pesto, basil, pine nuts and parmesan

Pork fillet

A creamy, mustardy pork fillet and mushroom dish

Croutons

Served with a green salad

Cakes aplenty

Nigella's carrot and walnut cupcakes

Sunday lunch for two

Peppered duck breasts

Served with goose fat fried potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli and a cassis and red wine jus

Butternut squash soup

The butternut soup from uearlier, blended then pushed through a sieve until silky smooth, and served with fried sage leaves and parmesan croutons

Improvised lunch

Making an oilive oil dough for flatbread

Lamb neck fillet in Ras el hanout seasoning, griddled

Flat bread on the flat griddle

Served with lettuce, coriander, mint, yoghurt, roasted red peppers and paprika

Cooking for the weak ahead

Making soup for the week ahead, with some tasty butternut squash

Fried somesage in olive oil, and added celery, red onion, carrot, garlic and rosemary

Then the squash

And a couple of litres of chicken stock

Midweek gnocchi

Started by using up some over-ripe avocados in a quick guacamole

Followed by gnocchi baked in a rich tomato and cheese sauce, served with a dressed green salad

River cafe star recipe

Slow cooked sausage pasta from the first River Cafe cookbook

Sunday lunch for two

A small loin of pork on the bone

Served with cabbages and roasted new potatoes in rosemary

Cabbage

A good looking cabbage

Winter Stew

An improvised stew, with bacon chunks and stewing steak; celery, onion and carrots; red wine and beef stock; and lots of herbs

Delicious with some buttery mash

Vegbox

Lettuce, courgettes, peppers, potatoes, red onions, beetroot and broccoli

Snow Food

Spicy butternut squash soup with croutons

Sunday lunch

Mackerel and horseradish fishcake, served with a mustard-dressed green salad and some heated up dauphinoise

Friends for dinner

Started with rocket, parma ham and balsamic

With homemade crostini with pesto; mozzarella and chilli; goats' cheese; and elk pate

Grilled aubergines, tomatoes and mint, roasted with rack of lamb

The lamb was local, and very tasty. Served with the tomatoes and aubergines, and also with some dauphinoise potatoes.