Floret. The best a man can get.

I've been awfully busy lately and busy often means little time to cook or eat out. I haven't had many particularly noteworthy food experiences for a while.

This evening, though, I stumbled upon an unexpectedly delicious find. A recipe in Waitrose Food magazine caught my eye and I did my usual adaptation jobbie.

I love cauliflower, so I'm always tempted by cauliflower cheese. But this had the added bonuses of broccoli and bacon lardons too.

So, steam some broccoli and cauliflower florets (fairly small ones) for 3 or 4 minuted - or longer if you prefer vegetables a little bit mushy, like I do. In the meantime fry bacon lardons for a few minutes until they start to brown. Drain the vegetables and put them in a big ovenproof dish with the lardons and plenty of black pepper. Pour over some cheese sauce (you could make the sauce, but it isn't really a particularly rewarding thing to make and shop-bought ones are pretty good). Top it all with some breadcrumbs mixed with loads of parmesan shavings. I sprinkled even more parmesan on top as well, because I was in a cheesy mood. And that's it - stick it in the oven for 15 minutes.

I ate it with a roasted chicken breast, but I bet it goes well with loads of things. Ok, I know it isn't haute cuisine but it was completely delicious - try it!

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Moussaka for cattle farmers

Traditional Greek readers may wish to look away now.

A few weeks ago I had a sudden fancy for a moussaka. I didn't really know what one was and had never even it before, but saw a delicious-looking picture in Gordon Ramsay's World Kitchen.

Much to my disappointment I discovered it contains lamb mince, not a favourite in our house. But once I had the idea in my head I wasn't to be stopped and decided to try making one with beef instead.

The first stage is very similar to making a lasagne. I fried steak mince with chopped red onions, tomato puree, a dash of red wine, roughly chopped fresh tomatoes and loads of black pepper. At the same time I fried some thin slices of aubergine on the griddle pan, with very little oil.

At this stage I should explain how to make a delicious white sauce, but life really is too short. I bought a carton of fresh cheese sauce instead.

Then comes the fun bit: layer the aubergine, mince mixture then cheese sauce in a large ovenproof dish, finishing with the cheese sauce on top. I followed Gordy's suggestion of grating some cheddar on top too before putting it in the oven for about half an hour.

The result is probably woefully unfaithful to Greek cuisine, but delicious and warming. I served it with some focaccia and green salad, and lashings of red wine. It goes down perfectly on a rainy evening with plenty of quiz shows on TV.

Just brie!

It works just as well without the bacon, too. Just brie and the cranberry sauce. I'm just quality-checking it as I type!

I can't remember anything by The Cranberries

I can't be alone in my cranberry sadness. Every time I open the kitchen cupboard in January (sometimes even February and March) I look glumly at a languishing half-full jar of cranberry sauce, collecting dust.

I can't not buy it for Christmas dinner - roast turkey just wouldn't be the same with one trimming missing - but what does one do with it afterwards?

Well, never fear: I've discovered the delights of a brie, bacon and cranberry panini. Slice up some brie, add small pieces of cooked smoked bacon and smear on a dollop of cranberry sauce. Toast the whole thing in a sandwich or panini toaster and chomp it up! If you don't have a sandwich toaster, you could have the same filling in a baked ciabatta or just a sandwich.

And if you haven't got any leftover cranberry sauce? Make your own - it's incredibly simple. Put two handfuls of fresh or frozen cranberries into a saucepan with the juice of half an orange and one dessert spoonful of caster sugar. Heat it until the cranberries burst and it starts to look 'saucy'. Let it cool down a bit, then have a taste and add as many squirts of honey you need to make it sweet enough.

In fact this whole blog post has been a sham: I made my own cranberry sauce last Christmas and I don't even have an abandoned jar in the cupboard. But I can still sympathise with my former, cranberry-sad self.

New year, new treats

I have tasted some wonderful things over the past few weeks, some of which I craved all last year. So one of my resolutions is not to save absolutely every treat for Christmas.

High on my list is the fabulous Brussels sprout, one of my favourite vegetables. Sprouts taste amazingly right with a traditional Christmas dinner, followed a very close second by the taste of a sprout in my Boxing day bubble and squeak. These are both meals, however, with close equivalents in my year-long repertoire; I think I will certainly start buying sprouts to eat with roast chicken or with sausages and mash, too.

Mince pies are lovely little things. I tend to start eating them at the beginning of December and indulge until January when, for some reason, they disappear completely from our shops. It's still winter in January and February, and I see no reason not to enjoy the seasonal spicy flavours. What better way to combat the early-February blues than with a yummy mincie and a warming glass of mulled wine, after all? If I can't find them in shops I shall make my own.

Chestnuts - there's another one. They'd be great in a salad or with pasta, so i'm going to keep them in mind all year round as an alternative to walnuts, which I tend to stick in everything without even thinking.

Finally, the whole ethos of Christmas eating is something I don't want to lose. I like cooking a huge lunch and making it the focal point of the day. It brings a family together, frees up whole afternoons and evenings and makes some use of our dining tables! I also like the idea of having odds and ends around to graze upon, whether it's nuts, satsumas, cheese and biscuits or the odd chocolate. It doesn't have to be unhealthy: substitute the salted nuts for natural roasted ones, swap the Quality Street for good-quality dark chocolate and go easy on the cheese. But retain the no-guilt, non-scheduled, celebratory, healthy attitude to food - go on, treat yourself!

Comfort food

Yesterday a colleague advised me to "just go home and have some beans on toast". So I did (almost) exactly that!

I had three slices of toasted white bread with baked beans on top (Branston baked beans are the best - far nicer than Heinz!). I normally splash a bit of worcestershire sauce into the beans as I'm cooking them, just for a laugh. I topped it with some grated cheddar and some black pepper.

Ok, so you don't need a recipe for beans on toast and it's not exactly tricky or fancy, but it was delicious comfort food and it goes really well with Scrubs repeats on TV!

Salad days

Today's lunch recipe:

I saw a nice-sounding packaged salad in Tesco and thought I'd buy the ingredients and copy it, rather than spend a fortune on it.

First of all I sliced an apple fairly thinly and placed it into a dry frying pan (no oil or butter). I blasted it (blast - ha ha!) on the hob for a minute or two before transferring the whole pan to the grill for about five minutes. See, I'm all smug now I have a gas hob and can actually heat something intensively like that at the drop of a hat. I don't know whether I'd have employed a different technique if I'd been using an electric hotplate.

So - on with the salad. Along with the apple I tossed some walnuts, red grapes, sunflower seeds, mixed lettuce and chunks of Wensleydale.

I added a very tiny amount of a variation on the usual dressing (lemon, olive oil, wholegrain mustard - without the honey on this occasion) on the if-it-ain't-broke basis. But really, just a very tiny amount because otherwise it wilts the lettuce and makes the cheese go mushy.

That's all. Yum!

No such thing as a free lunch

I had lunch bought for me today, because I have been on a training course. My colleagues and I were taken to The Eagle pub just off City Road*, having been given the chance to choose our lunch earlier in the morning so that it was all ready when we arrived.

I chose a chorizo and stilton salad, mainly because I was intrigued by the combination! I just couldn't imagine how they would go together because both have quite a strong flavour. I normally expect stilton to be served with green vegetables or with pastry because of the excellent way it melts and adds a certain tangy, cheesy saltiness.

I have to say, though, it was a good combination. It was served with mixed leaves and new potatoes, which both balanced the saltiness. The chorizo was a little on the chewy side but was very nice - not too garlicky. All in all I was only slightly jealous of my colleague's fish finger sandwich!!

But I have had to sit through a fairly boring and inappropriate training course to get this lunch, so ...!

*Apparently this pub appears in the nursery rhyme 'Pop Goes The Weasel', interestingly enough.

What's your favourite cheese?

It was a cheese day today! My lunch consisted of some of the leftover walnut oat digestives from the picnic, a few slices of gruyere, a slice of jarlsberg and some Canadian cheddar. Oh yes, and some Tesco Finest caramelised red onion relish.

I find gruyere a little bit hit and miss, really. It certainly does have a 'processed cheese' texture about it, similar to some of the worst Spanish cheeses. The jarlsberg, though, was very satisfying and rich. All in all, the spot of 'favourite Swiss cheese' hasn't been snatched from emmental just yet but I'm glad to have tried a couple of new contenders.

The cheddar was a bit too strong and crumbly for my liking, but was a perfect match for the biscuits and relish.

And still room for a carrot cake with butter icing, dusted with cinammon: quite possibly the best cake in the world! Me gusta la canela!