A good English fry-up...

can rarely be beaten, except maybe by steak. Perhaps I should do an English breakfast with steak too - that would be cool. This was my fry-up this morning, which we had about lunchtime, so I guess I could call it brunch. As you can see, it has a fried egg, crispy sausages and ubercrispy bacon, grilled tomatoes (drizzled with balsamic vinegar for extra sweetness) and mushrooms and onions. I put a bit of cayenne pepper with the mushrooms and onions and a small clove of garlic for some extra kick. My other half had baked beans too, but I'm not a fan of them so I didn't. Neither of us like fried bread either, or black pudding particularly, so for my taste, all the basics were here. Maybe some potato waffles or chips would have been good too - but a bit unnecessary, I think. I had ketchup on the side, of course - how could you have a fry-up without Heinz ketchup? Impossible.

Proper stodgy food

When you get as much snow as we had today, you need a good, warming meal in the evening, with lots of fat and baking or roasting involved. Tonight we had chipolatas baked in the oven nestled around veg (onions, whole garlic cloves, pieces of yellow pepper, carrot and courgette) with roasted new potatoes and leeks in white sauce. Perfect winter food. I ate loads, but still feel hungry when I look at this photo and see the glistening fat on the potatoes. Such gorgeous flavours - proper stodgy food.

Bangers with mustard mash

I suppose I didn't leave it very long before more roasted sausages... Yesterday's meal was so welcome that after a late breakfast/brunch of scrambled eggs on toast, we had a 4 o'clock lunch/supper/tea of Taste the Difference Ultimate Pork Chipolatas, roasted with more onions, carrots and a courgette, served with mustard-mashed new potatoes.

I had to drain the pan again though as there was so much watery liquid - I think I might grill these sausages next time.

How did I forget about sausages?

Sausages are one of my favourite foods. And this is one of my favourite meals. I usually have it virtually every week in winter, so I'm not sure why I haven't cooked it for so long. I try not to think about what goes in to sausages, so in an attempt to minimise the rubbish we're eating I like to buy good quality sausages from farmers' markets and the butcher. Sadly, more often than not I find I don't manage it and end up buying them from supermarkets - but only their 'quality' ranges.

Rather surprisingly, a few years ago I did some taste tests with the three supermarkets near where I was living - Safeway, Tesco and Waitrose. After much testing, I found the Safeway range to shrink the least on cooking - an important quality in a sausage. And they had a great range of flavours. I thought the Waitrose range was a bit disappointing and they had very thick sausage skins which was rather unappealing, but I may have had higher expectations for their sausages than the others as their meat always seems to be good quality. I admit, I was never a big fan of buying meat in Tesco, although my brother always preferred Tesco to our local Safeway, but even he admitted the Safeway sausages beat the Tesco ones. Having written this, I'll probably find out they all are from the same supplier...

More recently, I tend to buy Sainsbury's taste the difference sausages as there are two Sainsbury's supermarkets nearby - and their Ultimate Pork Chipolatas are great. But on Friday night we cooked the packet of Taste the Difference Toulouse sausages that had been stinking out my fridge for a couple of days. I roasted them in a pan with a couple of red onions, some whole, unpeeled garlic cloves, a large carrot in batons, a courgette and most of a green pepper. They produced so much water I drained the pan a couple of times as I wanted the meal to roast, not poach - this was hugely disappointing as I'm sure they don't usually seem to be pumped with so much water.

As you can see, we had leeks in white sauce (with lots of grated nutmeg) as an accompaniment. The Toulouse sausages had a satisfyingly meaty texture and flavour and were stuffed full of garlic and herbs (unsurprisingly, after smelling them in my fridge). Despite the excess liquid produced, I like them. And as I said, I try not to think too much about what goes in them anyway. Maybe one day I'll make my own so I can be sure.

This has to be a meal I'd consider if I ever have to choose my own last supper, although I bet I'd probably forget it and choose steak instead.

Christmas Lunch

Turkey, roast potatoes, sausage stuffing balls, veggie (walnut and apricot) stuffing, bacon rolls, sausages, sprouts with chestnuts and pancetta, peas and gravy (not seen, but I did have some on the meat), bread sauce (not seen either as it wasn't on my plate yet).

Christmas pudding (some burning booze made a run for it and burnt along the table - a scary Christmas moment there - and it was alight for so long we thought the plate might crack) and the tastiest threesome on the Christmas table - brandy butter, oozing rum butter and cream. I don't even like Christmas pudding much, but I don't need much coercing to eat these three.

Succulent roast chicken

On Sunday night we went to my parents' for roast chicken. I wasn't feeling very well so I had a smallish portion, although looking at it there it really isn't so small. I was really unhappy not to finish it, although the gannets around the table swooped on my discarded sausages and spuds as soon as I was finished. The chicken was so juicy and delicious there was no need of gravy and the mixed vegetables which had been roasted underneath the chicken (it was on a rack above the veg with the bacon slices laid across it) added the necessary meat juices and moisture. As you can see, we also had green beans and roast potatoes. Fantastic.

Sausages for supper

This was supper. Butcher's pork sausages with roasted veg (garlic, onion, courgette, yellow pepper, fennel). Yum.

Late dinner of cold sausages and veg

Last night I went out for a couple of drinks with work people, then met my boyfriend in town. He'd already been home and cooked up some chipolatas (Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Ultimate Pork Chipolatas) which had been defrosting gently in our fridge. He grilled the sausages and stirfried some veg (onions, courgette, mushrooms, a green pepper, garlic) then left my portion in a covered bowl. So I got home about 11.30, a little worse for wear, and had this delicious meal waiting for me. Mmmm, I love cold sausages. I dipped them in some tzatziki and some salsa and added a bit of that to the cold veg for some extra flavour. Great.