Spiced bulgar wheat with roast vegetables

This vegan delight is from Nigella Lawson's new book Cook, Eat, Repeat. Whilst this was in the oven the house smelt amazing and indeed it did taste as good as it smelt. Nigella's instructions in this book are a bit over wordy, but if everything turns out this well I'll be making more. This recipe is a keeper.

Butterscotch steamed pudding

Another from my new Hairy Biker's One Pot Wonders cookbook, and slightly trickier to make than all the other puddings I have made in the last few years. It was delicious (it's a steamed pudding, how could it not be?) but it will not be replacing my staple the treacle sponge pudding.

Roast vegetables with halloumi and chickpeas

This is from the Hairy Bikers' 'One Pot Wonders' cookbook which i was given for Christmas from my partner - I'm not really sure why he gave me this, and he didn't really have an explanation for it, but there are a few things in here I'd like to try and amazingly this dish contains none of the vegetables my fussy vegetarian daughter, who is home for CHristmas, won't eat. I subbed out rocket for pea shoots and put extra red peppers and halloumi in to bulk it out for dinner. i had to cook it for a good 20 minutes longer than the book says - but it was delicious even though I liked it much more than the 2 vegetarians in my life did

Vin Santo ice cream

I have been wanting to make this for a long time and so Christmas feels like a fitting time. we had this with sticky toffee pudding and the remaining Vin Santo as dessert wine. bloody lovely!

Leek and Reblochon risotto

in NIgel Slater's Real Food he suggests taleggio, which is relatively hard to come by round here, but I did find the previously impossible to find Reblochon and used that instead. Pure comfort food this and elicited a 'it's a triumph' from the rarely expressive boyf.

Easy peri peri chicken

I had a dinner dilemma tonight in that the key ingredient I had been promised by the boyf as fully grown in the garden and just needed harvesting, did not materialise. Leeks were needed but what looked like spring onions were brought forth, so i needed to scavenge about to see what else i had in, which basically was chicken thighs. Jamie Oliver's 7 ways had this recipe as a whole chicken but i used 5 thighs instead and roasted for a shorter time. this was outstanding - the chicken alone would get that accolade, but the sauce made from the onions and harrissa was seriously addictive. A definite winner and will make again.

Tagliarini with asparagus and herbs

 Another from my rediscovered River Cafe Cookbook, which has become one of favourites as everything is delicious from it - including this.  Easy to make, the sauce took just 10 minutes and got extremely positive noises out of the hungry boyf.