A couple of days ago I had a go at making Heston's cheese sauce. The big difference between his recipe and a traditional one is that you don't start with a roux. The sauce base was white wine and chicken stock, instead of milk. The wine was reduced then the stock was added and heated. The cheese was finely grated then mixed with cornflour before being stirred into the wine/stock mixture.

The end result was a very smooth sauce but the stock flavour was a bit too strong. I will experiment further but next time I might use milk and wine or milk and stock.

My next new recipe was a sourdough bread. This was based on the recipe from the Fabulous Baker Brothers TV series. I made the starter last week using spelt flour, and fed it each day with a bit more flour and water.

I made the dough yesterday and left it to 'prove' overnight before baking it this morning on the pizza stone at gas mark 8. For a first attempt I am reasonably happy with the results. Since the starter was fairly young, the 'sourdough' flavour was quite light but it was a good loaf. I have just realised that this is probably the first loaf of bread I have made completely on my own.

Next time I might make the dough a bit stiffer since I think this one was a bit wet and sticky. The bread had a big hollow bit in the middle, like a giant pitta bread, so we sliced it in half horizontally and made a fried egg sandwich for our breakfast.

We both really enjoy roast chicken so when Heston Blumenthal's latest TV series (How to Cook like Heston) covered chicken in last week's episode, we had to see it. He presented a novel way of cooking a chicken which began with an overnight soak in brine, in a similar manner to cooking a ham. The actual cooking was done at a very low temperature (gas mark ¼) instead of the usual gas mark 6.

We didn't plan our chicken roasting in advance and hadn't done the brining, so today I just did my normal roast chicken recipe. The only real similarity with Heston's is that we both remove the string which trusses the chicken so the heat can get to the legs and side of the breast better. I filled the cavity with a few cloves of garlic and a sprig each of thyme and rosemary to give a bit of extra flavour to the meat. I rubbed vegetable oil on the skin and sprinkled some stock granules all over.

We have a roasting tray with a rack inside and a lid, so I put about half a centimetre of water in the bottom of the tray, sat the chicken on the rack, put the lid on top and put the chicken in the middle of the oven at gas mark 6 for an hour. The water will create plenty of steam which will keep the meat moist while it cooks.

After the hour was over, I removed the lid and let the chicken carry on cooking for just under an hour to let the skin go crispy. The end result was a well-cooked tender chicken with thin crispy (and tasty) skin. The juices which collected in the bottom of the tray, along with the herbs and garlic, will be used later on when I make a chicken stock.

The chicken legs and wings (along with some of the crispy skin) are going to be blitzed with some mayonnaise and a sprinkle of salt to make a sandwich spread for tomorrow's lunch.

Tonight we joined some friends at a restaurant called Rhubarb, in Leamington. A few of us decided to have Tapas for starters: I had the calamari and Emma had the breaded prawns. Both were very good. The calamari were piping hot, tender, and quite a generous bowlful.

For main course, Emma chose the prawns and monkfish in a thick slightly curried broth, which was ordered from the specials board. I chose the braised lamb shank and chorizo cassoulet, also from the specials. Some people's meals seemed to be a bit on the small side and came without vegetables but I couldn't complain about mine. There was a decent amount of meat, which was very tender and fell off the bone with minimum effort. The cassoulet was very similar to a spanish chorizo and vegetable casserole I used to do years ago, which was based around chicken stock, herbs (oregano and mint if I remember correctly), paprika and chorizo.

Overall, the restaurant was ok but the lack of vegetables, side dishes or accompaniments was a bit strange. For example, no bread rolls were served with the starters, even for the people who ordered soup. Prices were reasonable but food quality and serving size appeared to be a bit variable.

One problem with my new office is that you aren't allowed to eat or drink at the desks. Another problem is the nearby communal seating area and kitchen are being refurbished so there's quite a long walk to the next nearest place where I can sit and drink.

My old office was near the department kitchen and I used to keep a good selection of teabags and loose leaf teas on my desk. I am now reduced to keeping a selection of teabags in my bag for those occasions when I manage to take a tea-break.

I found an interesting tea related chart on the Tea Appreciation Society website which lists a number of interesting tea related facts. Among them are the ideal temperatures for different styles. I already knew that green and white teas should be brewed at below boiling, but I didn't realise they only had to be at 65-70°C and 65-70°C respectively.

At the moment I have the following teas in the house:

• Gunpowder tea: One of the most readily available green teas, and usually a reliable option.
• King Bladud's Blend: A black tea, named after the legendary king who founded the city of Bath. These first two teas were bought from the tea and coffee stall in Bath market.
• White tea: from Whittards. A mild refreshing tea.
• Te Med Blåbärssmak: A blueberry flavoured tea from Ikea.
• Tesco Loose Leaf Tea: Claims to be leaf but is actually more like tea dust - the contents of a teabag but without the bag. OK for when I want a decent strong cup with milk.
• Earl Grey: Teabags, made by Clipper.
• Redbush: Teabags, from Tetley. I have had various flavoured redbush teas but usually prefer the plain ones. A redbush flavoured with orange which I bought from the German Market in Birmingham a few years ago was quite nice though.
• Darjeeling: Asda own brand 'Selected by you' Teabags. Nice light flavour, better without milk.

Most of the time I drink tea without milk, which is handy in work since at the moment there isn't anywhere to keep any. I first started drinking it milkless when I was at university in Aberystwyth. Milk would go off before I had chance to use it so I just stopped bothering buying any. Now, when I have milk in tea, I prefer it to be semi-skimmed. For some reason, skimmed milk seems to make the tea taste worse, and full milk is a bit too creamy for tea.

The year before last I tried to cook (or at least eat) a new different recipe each week. I probably won't be able to do the same thing again this year but I will endeavour to try more new recipes, since last year we weren't as adventurous with our cooking. I do enjoy cooking different foods but we are both going to be very busy this year, which is why I am not going to make any promises.

Last night we cooked a roast chicken so today I made a chicken stock using the bones, along with some herbs, peppercorns, garlic and the outer leaves from some leeks. Tonight I decided to make a risotto using the stock and remaining chicken. Since we had fish in the freezer and saffron on the shelf, this morphed into a paella. Although we do have some paella rice, I decided to try my normal paella recipe but using the small orzo (or risoni) pasta instead. I tried to stay faithful to the risotto method but I added the orzo to hot stock, instead of the other way round, which is more usual for risottos.

Ingredients and Method

• Dice and fry some vegetables, including red pepper, leek, courgette, garlic.
• Put the fish in a pan of boiling water then turn the heat off and let the fish cook in the remaining heat.
• Add a couple of cups of chicken stock to the vegetables and bring to the boil. Stir in a few strands of saffron and add a cup of pasta.
• When the pasta is cooked halfway, add a cup of shredded chicken and a squirt of tomato puree, along with any seasoning.
• When the pasta is cooked, stir in a tablespoon of cream cheese followed by the cooked fish.

To serve, all it needs is a grind of fresh black pepper and a sprinkle of parmesan. I know that isn't the right way to serve a paella but we like it that way.

We were in Leicester doing some Christmas shopping, which included a walk around John Lewis. We had lunch at Carluccio's. We started with the Pasta Fritta, which was deep fried squares of herby pasta, and Focaccia All'aglio which was a really nice cheesy garlic bread.

For main course we decided to try the Tasting Trio from the pasta menu, for £20. We had the Penne Giardiniera, with courgette, chilli and deep fried spinach balls, and the Linguini al frutti di mare. Finally, I had the Gnocchi al ragu d'angello (lamb ragu) to myself. The food was good and impressive value.

Last time we went to the Bear Inn, I had a starter which consisted of an entire wheel of brie. This time I skipped the starter and went straight for the Winter Pie Platter for my main course.

The platter consisted of a tiny cornish pasty and 3 little pies (venison, chicken & mushroom and steak & ale), along with mash and mushy peas.

Last week I picked some elderberries but I only managed to get one small tub of them. I thought I would have a go at making elderberry syrup since it is supposed to be a good source of vitamin C. I read a few recipes but didn't follow any of them exactly.

I removed all the stalks and put the berries in a pan along with a small splash of water. I simmered the berries and pressed them against the side of the pan to release the juices. I strained the juice into a jug before putting the berries back in the pan with a bit more water for a 2nd extraction.

To make the syrup, I put the juice in a pan with a splash of lemon juice and a generous sprinkle of sugar. I simmered the juice for a few minutes to dissolve the sugar. When it had cooled, I poured it into a bottle and stored it in the fridge.

The first time I tasted the syrup it was still slightly warm and tasted quite sweet but later on when I sampled it again it had gone nice and cold and had a nice strong 'berry' flavour with no obvious sweetness.

We were in Tesco yesterday and we bought a selection of bottled drinks, including their own brand active electro-lite sports drink. It tastes ok but we were surprised when we read the ingredients. Among the list of 'fruit and vegetable extracts' it lists Radish and Sweet Potato. I'm not sure why these are in the drink, I can't taste radish, but it must be there for a reason.

This afternoon I made a fruit smoothie which, as far as I can tell, didn't contain any vegetables at all. We had some melon which had gone very soft and over-ripe so I liquidized it along with some of the wild strawberries from the garden and a kiwi fruit. The strawberries were straight from the freezer so the smoothie was nice and cold when I drank it.

We don't eat potatoes very often but occasionally buy sweet potatoes which we leave on the bottom shelf in the kitchen until we either feel in a 'potato mood' or several weeks pass and we find them and think 'we should probably eat them before they go off'. Last night's tea fell into the latter category. I was making some sweet potato mash to go with the home-made breaded chicken breasts and had already peeled one potato when I started on this one:

I don't know how common multi-coloured sweet potatoes are but we've been eating sweet potatoes for a couple of years and this is the first time I've seen one like this.

A few years ago samphire started to become a fashionable ingredient and featured on a number of recipes by various celebrity chefs. I have only eaten it once and that was when it came in a jar of posh olives I bought from Tesco.

Yesterday I was walking along the Kent estuary near Arnside when I spotted some growing near the path. This was the first time I had actually seen it 'in the wild' so I made a note of the location and today I went back with a carrier bag and picked some.

Since I have never cooked with it before, I'm going to have to look up some recipes first.

The meatballs were our usual recipe (turkey mince, breadcrumbs, minced onion, seasoning). The pasta sauce contained leeks, garlic, passata and cream cheese.

The recipe came from the Joy the Baker website.

We followed the recipe exactly as written but we had ordinary bakers yeast instead of 'active dried yeast' so ours took a little longer to rise.

Emma texted me to say she had bought something special for our tea but I wasn't expecting take away sushi. We shared 3 take-away boxes. It was a very nice surprise and the first time I'd had actual slices of sashimi, instead of having small amounts rolled up in sushi.

The lasagne came about because we had some fresh lasagne sheets in the fridge. The meatballs in the sauce meant the lasagne was a bit tricky to eat but the mixture of quail eggs and meatballs meant that each mouthful tasted different.

The meatballs contained turkey mince, grated cheese and seasoning. The tomato sauce was cooked down for a couple of hours to concentrate the flavours.