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.

Graze skies

Thanks to the delivery of the latest delicious magazine (I received the subscription as a Christmas present - hurrah!) I found out about Graze.

It's based on a simple premise: we know we should snack on small portions of delicious, nutritious nibbles throughout the day but we're too busy, lazy or unimaginative to provide ourselves with sufficiently tempting snacks. This is particularly pertinent for office workers, although I find I'm just as bad when I'm at home, personally.

Graze sends you a box of goodies, divided into 'just right' portions. They're certainly delicious and nutritious, aiming to provide at least one serving of fruit alongside something a bit more decadent. There's a huge range of snacks on offer, and you rate what you've received online; the bit where you browse the website and mark which food you love, like or want to try is almost as good as the eating bit! I spent a whole lunch hour rating snacks last week. It's worthwhile when your box arrives at the office containing the likes of wasabi coated peanuts and fresh pineapple slices.

The good news is that they're currently offering a free trial box, followed by one at half price. You do have to sign up, but it's easy to cancel or suspend deliveries at any time. Visit the Graze site and enter the code GB6C7QT to take advantage of the offer. The even better news is that for every 'friend' I recruit using this code, Graze will donate £1 to the Rainforest Alliance on our behalf.

Start grazing - it's the future.

Calendar girl

I love January. It's so ... new. I'm still on a high from Christmas (the turkey and mincemeat takes a while to leave my bloodstream) and everything is 'new for 2010', or whichever year we're beginning.

I don't, you understand, love it in a 'fresh start, new resolution, clean slate, start over' kind of way, as magazines and TV adverts tell me I should. That sounds ghastly - having to start afresh. I can't think why I'd want a clean slate, unless the year before had been particularly horribilis, like the one the Queen had that time.

Rather, I like January because I get to do the same all over again. It's like last year ... again. There's another winter, Easter and spring are just around the corner, Pimms will be in fashion again soon enough. Even Christmas will be along again before we know it.

I'm particularly excited about all the food I can eat again. Sad to eat the last mince pie? Never mind - the season will be around again at the end of this year. Missing pancakes? Shrove Tuesday is coming right up. Didn't get a chance to try all those fantastic salad recipes last summer? Never fear - a new year is here.

I love the predictibility and sameness of a new year starting. I'll start digging out all my old recipes in date order and getting excited about the approach of asparagus season, not to mention my delight when autumn's apple day comes a-knocking!

All good things

Sadly, St Alban restaurant ceased trading over Christmas. This is a shame for me, because I really enjoyed it, and a shame for this blog because I never did get around to reviewing it!

It's also sad as a general fact. If a top-class, comfy, imaginative, well-run restaurant can't make a decent business in London, what's going on? Ok, it was a little expensive but you certainly got what you paid for. I'd be hard-pressed to think of anywhere in London with better service, a more satisfying wine list or better ham. Even the toilets were an exciting experience.

All good things must come to an end, I suppose. I'm just glad I managed to fit in a last trip before it closed to perfect that imam bayildi recipe!

Middle eastern delight

I spotted a dish I didn't recognise on the tapas menu in a restaurant recently. I'm quite nosy and inquisitive when it comes to food (well, when it comes to most things!) so it's unusual for me not to have at least some clue what's in a recipe. But in this case, I hadn't.

'Imam bayildi with Greek yoghurt and flatbread', it said - nothing more. So I asked what it was and the head waiter was sent over to explain. He described 'a middle eastern dish of aubergine cooked down with spices and dried fruit'. Well, that was good enough for me - put me down for one of your finest, good sir!

His description turned out to be accurate but he forgot to say it would be amazingly delicious and a teensy bit addictive! The next day I was online searching for imam bayildi recipes (of which there are many and varied) and it has now found its way into my repertoire. So here's my version, for your delight.

First chop a smallish aubergine into inch-sized cubes and place them in a colander sprinkled with a little bit of salt. Leave it for a while, then cook it over a high heat on a griddle pan for 5 minutes, with a tiny bit of oil.

At the same time, toast some cumin seeds in a large dry frying pan. Once the smell of the cumin starts to waft, add some olive oil and a very finely chopped red onion. Add a splodge of tomato puree, some sultanas, a shake of ground coriander, a pinch of ground cinnamon and the griddled aubergine. Pour over half a cupful of water and leave the whole thing over a low heat (covered if possible) for half an hour or so. It really can't cook down enough, so you can get away with leaving it for longer as long as it doesn't 'catch' on the bottom of the pan.

When you're ready, add the juice of half a lemon and serve it with flatbread and sour cream.

*The restaurant was St Alban, near Picadilly, and is always fantastic.

What about Sweet Pea?

I saw a thing in a Spanish supermarket I've been dreaming of for quite some time but never seen before. They sell teeny tiny bottles of olive oil.

I'm rubbish at quantities, but these are 'dinky' little (technical term) bottles sold in packs of five, each with a cute little screw-on lid. Each contains just enough for dressing your salad, dipping your bread or frying a few portions of onions.

All those times I've eaten a dressing-less salad for lunch because I didn't want it to wilt before it reached the office. All the picnics with no oil for my ham and bread. All the camping holidays (well, just one ... ) where I've had the chance to fry, but not wanted to take a big bottle of oil.

Do British supermarkets sell such a thing? And if not, dammit, why not?