And this week...I bought

We were early this week for no particular reason and the market was just starting to get going. People but not masses.

We started at Booths - all change! I bought a bright pink shopping trolley and am now trying to use it logically - and without distress to others - on our weekly jaunts to Borough. The man likes the idea - turns out he doesn't like carrying all the shopping on a Saturday. It's just that he doesn't like me carrying it even more. So if it all goes in to the trolley it's easy peasy but I don't want to squish the stuff at the bottom with all the heavy stuff on the top. Logistical nightmare. Figuring veg weighed the most we headed to Booths for potatoes, a huge sweet potato, cauliflower, courgettes all with roast on Monday night the cauliflower with cheese sauce and then cold for lunches for a few days, peppers, aubergine roasted vegetable pasta Thursday night with leftovers for lunch Friday, lettuce, sugarsnaps, cucumber, tomatoes, fennel Friday night salad and bananas lunches - and that really does weigh a lot - £13

Then to Ginger Pig for steak - I had been hankering for a t-bone - it's been the longest time since I had such a thing but upon arrival we discovered that rump aged for 45 days was on special for £12.95 Saturday stunner and leftover rare grilled in a noodle salad and the t-bones were £17.95 so t-bones will have to be another day, also bought a big piece of pork to roast Monday night - altogether £28 But this involved a bit of rejigging of the trolley as the meat would squash soft things like tomatoes and lettuce but not hard things like potatoes. The man was on hand fortunately and he rescued the soft things into a bag and let the rest trundle along happily ensconced

Cheese from Gianni - needed some Parmesan and fancied a little Pecorino with some olives and a glass of wine Saturday night and some still in the fridge - two serious blocks for £15

Thought of mozzarella and parma ham for lunch but we went to see the unutterably fabulous film You the Living so instead the man made me the most decadent breakfast in bed Sunday - convinced the woman ahead of me in the queue that she really would like to have some cheese with the ham and she went off delightedly clutching both - as did we a few moments later - £8.90

Scotch egg brunch from Ginger Pig - £3

Milk, bread and yoghurt and a small block of cheese to cook cauliflower cheese Monday night -with from Neals Yard - £11.80

A cottage loaf Sunday breakfast and a toastie for lunch and a chocolate brownie rounded out the morning - £3

Trolley laden we headed off back to the bus £82.70 well spent

This time last year we were msotly eating out in France, same the year before except for poached chicken I'd made for lunches.

Cannellini, Celery and Carrot Salad

An interesting salad of the three 'c's. This started as a basic beans and herb salad which is a great standby and makes frequent appearances in lunchboxes as a source of carbohydrate comfort. It is true that if you soak and cook your own beans they will taste better but I find that tins of Italian cannellini's in nothing but water are very good in salads like this. I always have some in the cupboard.

So I started out with the idea of simple salad then decided it would be interesting to add some texture, a little crunch and colour to brighten up a rainy day. I had both celery and carrots in the fridge and that seemed like enough. I chopped them into roughly the same size as the beans - appearance adds such pleasure to simple dishes sometimes. Then added masses of herbs and oil and lemon and ended up with a triumph in under five minutes. Who could ask for more?

Cannellini, Celery and Carrot Salad

2 x 400g tins of cannellini beans, drained and thoroughly rinsed

2 medium sized carrots, peeled and chopped to about the size of the beans

3 stalks of celery, washed and cut to about the size of the carrots and beans

About a cup of chopped herbs, use what you have/like I tend to include some of the following - flat leaf parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme and tarragon, finely chopped

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Stir the vegetables and herbs through the beans then add oil, juice and seasoning. Mix thoroughly and check it tastes fabulous.

Will keep for a few days quite happily in the fridge.

And this week ... I bought

Easter and the start of spring. Yay!

And then there was the reality. Hail. Sleet. Snow. Rain. Gales.

Unspring.

Friday morning was windy and sunny and so the man and I set off for Borough figuring that Ginger Pig, Booths and Neals Yard would all be open from the start of the day even if the majority of stalls would not be set till the official Friday start time of midday. Because it was Good Friday and only about 10.30 I thought there would be next to no one there. Some of us live and never learn... probably even more tourists than usual thinking it would be open for the whole of the day mingling confusedly with stall holders trying to set up around them. Ah well.

As we were in holiday mood we started at the 3 posh bangers in a bun café on Stony Street for exactly what it said on the sign and a coffee and most fine they were too - £10

Then to a very quiet Ginger Pig for a breast of chicken intended for a stirfry with noodles but ended up in the freezer for another day and a box of eggs two yolks as a thickening agent into veal with mushrooms and cream that was a decadent supper Wednesday night and a real treat for lunch on Thursday and a couple to top a friton salad Friday night- £4.80

Some apples lunches from Chegworth - £1.20

Booths for veg - potatoes, peppers, aubergine curry with chickpeas Thursday night and lunches Friday, garlic, onions, cucumber, dill had thought about making dill rice for the curry but just had plain rice topped with chopped dill, mushrooms for veal and mushrooms, brussel sprouts and carrots with veal on Wednesday night - £6.20

Bread and hot cross buns toasted for breakfast Saturday before we set off for the Suffolk caost from Flour Power - £3

Milk and yoghurt breakfasts from Neals Yard - £5.60

As we were meeting up with some of the man's family we just had to take chocolate - not the hand made truffles at £55 a kilo (!) but lovely things from Konditor and Cook, including a smiling lamb made in fluffy white chocolate - £17.95

Not much at all for the week but we were away for the long weekend for sunny walks that were snowy ones in the end and I am still on a mission to be using the stuff from the freezer - a miraculously small £48.75

This time last year we had garlic bread, spiced oil and - an ever recurring theme - treasures from the freezer.

Penne with Porcini, Tarragon and Tomato Cream

When I made the vague plan for the week on Friday night I fancied salad for a supper - probably Tuesday. Fresh, easy and in the freezer I had some duck fritons - essentially duck scratchings which, when warmed through are utterly sublime atop a salad, perhaps with a poached egg. Great idea - but then Friday was quite mild. Seems like spring is here.

Come Tuesday and it's a different story. Cold - and I mean really cold with a bitter wind and sleety rain and suddenly salad was a much less attractive option. Didn't have vast amounts in - we are out a couple of nights this week and away for the weekend and I do hate to waste. It struck me that pasta was a good option - had some bits to make a good sauce and we've not had much pasta lately so it could be a treat.

I assembled some bits when I got in. Tinned tomatoes because that's often a good place to start - good warm colour as well as adding flavour. A small tub of cream from the freezer to provide a luxurious version of comfort. I always have garlic and Parmesan in the kitchen, as well as dried chillies, used sparingly for spiced warmth. There is usually some dried porcini in a jar. I had no parsley but did have a small bunch of tarragon leftover from making a bean salad and the first of the new sage leaves had appeared on the plant in the garden. Bound to be able to make something out of that lot!

Penne with Porcini, Tarragon and Tomato Cream
A small handful of dried porcini, soaked in 200ml hot water for about 30 minutes
50g unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 dried chillies, crushed
2 tablespoons of chopped tarragon and sage - about 1 of each
400g tin of tomatoes
150ml thick cream
250g penne
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Strain the softened porcini reserving the liquid. Heat the butter in a small pan and add garlic, chillies and herbs. Stir on a gentle heat for a minute or two till the garlic softens. Add the porcini and a little of the soaking water. As the liquid disappears add more, stirring as you go, till it is all absorbed. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up and cook at a medium heat for about half an hour. You want a thickish sauce. Season.

Cook the pasta according to instructions. About 3 minutes before it is al dente add the cream to the sauce and stir thoroughly still on a medium heat.

Strain the cooked penne and add to the sauce along with the grated Parmesan and mix till the pasta is well coated.

Serve in large bowls. Salad optional!

Delightful.

And This Week ... I bought

We were at Borough almost before 9 this week - it was warmish and uncrowded and generally pleasant. Started as ever at Ginger Pig, there to discover it was National Butchers Week, so I wished young Charlie a happy week which amused him - he'd thought they might get the day off to celebrate but no chance. Bought a lovely piece of topside to roast Sunday night and then in lunchboxes and a kilo of diced beef because it was on special for £6.50 - a bargain to good to miss. Into the freezer in two packs. £25.70 altogether.

Bought a pork pie for Saturday lunch for the first time in what seems like ages. Had a long chat with the stallholder about rugby, and the chances of England winning at Twickenham - seemed unlikely but they did - and Wales getting the grand slam in Cardiff - he thought it unlikely but that has more to do with not wanting Wales to win than anything and I was unsurprised to see them make it. The pie was £4.90

The here for the week outside Roast stall was selling bunches of deep green watercress - had to have some - went with smoked salmon for an elegant post theatre supper Saturday night and the last of it was good on Monday with cold roast beef for lunch - £1

Eggs - spinach omelette Thursday night - from Wild Beef - £1.50

Coffee breakfast every single day - from Monmouth - £8

Booths for veg - potatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchinis roast dinner Sunday, lettuce, cucumber salad Thursday with omelette, carrots, bananas, thyme and tarragon herbed bean salad for lunchboxes - £9.40

Then to Tony's for spinach omelette Thursday with salad including a head of chicory on a whim - £2

Smoked salmon Saturday supper from the Irish stall - £5

Milk and yoghurt breakfasts from Neals Yard - £5.60

Hot cross buns hot brunch from Flour Power - £2

Tomatoes from Elsey & Bent because I was looking for something else but they looked lovely and smelt like proper ripe fruit went into a dahl Wednesday night - £1.78

A not unreasonable £66.88

This time last year we were mostly eating pilau rice and a decadent beef stew. Of the two the beef is a serious recommendation for what looks set to be a bleak easter.

Charcuterie Loaf

I was getting a bit jaded recently by our lunch boxes. The contents were almost invariably fabulous but they had also begun to default to roast something with a carb salad and some sugarsnaps, possibly raw carrots as well and it seemed a bit repetitive. The only variation being what meat was cooked. I fancied a change, the result possibly of the slight increase in temperature and the miniscule lengthening of the days that mean suddenly it is still light at the end of the day, almost till 6pm. Winter is over. Yay!Perhaps.

I'd bought a copy of the french - translated into english - book Pork & Sons recently and thoroughly enjoyed reading it - the combination of family tales of raising pigs and the array of recipes built up over time to use every bit of the pigs that resulted was an interesting way to spend an hour or two. I mentally bookmarked a couple of ideas to try.

One of them was this charcuterie loaf. The man and I both love all things ham and bacon and sausage like - saucisson, chorizo, salamis - the lot. This loaf involves making a batter with eggs and flour, then encompassing into that all manner of diced fabulous bits before baking it till risen and golden. A sort of glorified bacon and egg bread, that keeps fresh in the fridge.

What could be more perfect?

And wonderful it turned out to be. The only unexpected delight was the way the paprika from the chorizo stains the dough into glorious streaks of sunlight yellow, like full on summer has arrived. Joy in your lunchtime.

The Genuine Charcutier's Meatloaf

unsalted butter for greasing the pan

300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting the pan

4 tbspns olive oil

3 shallots, chopped roughly

1 1/2 tspns baking powder

4 eggs, lightly beaten

100ml white wine

200ml milk

100g smoked lardons, rindless, coarsely chopped

100g unsmoked ham, coarsely chopped

100g spicy chorizo, coarsely chopped

100g prosciutto or other air dried ham, coarsely chopped - you can buy an end piece cheaply

Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas 3. Grease a loaf tin with butter and dust with flour, tipping out any excess.

Heat 2 tablspoons of olive oil in a frying pan, add the shallots and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally for about ten minutes, until golden.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl - I just use a fine mesh sieve - add the eggs, white wine, milk and remaining olive oil and mix well. Stir in all the meat and the shallots. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. If the top gets too brown before the loaf is cooked, cover loosely with foil.

The loaf is cooked when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20 minutes or so before turning out of the tin. When it is cold, cover with foil and refrigerate if you're having it for lunches. Or slice generously and serve with salad for a great dinner.

Though it might take up to an hour to cook, it only takes ten minutes to prep. Perfect.

Coconut Fish Curry

It was my brother's birthday last week. Despite the fact that he lives on the other side of the world it still seemed like as good a reason as any to have a party tea. I had ripped out Atul Kochhar's recipes from last month's Observer Food Magazine as we are both fans of Indian food. And so is my brother, fortunately, as this is a party in his honour if not his presence. This collection sounded, unsurprisingly, very good.

When I looked more closely at the list of ingredients for the fish curry I noticed the fat used for cooking was coconut oil. When I was a possibly foolish teenager many moons ago in Australia I would spend my summers slathering coconut oil all over myself in pursuit of the perfect tan. The joy of getting older is finding there is more pleasure in a perfect curry.

MEEN MOLEE Coconut fish curry

Serves 4
1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp turmeric

4 small fillets of sea bass or sea bream (about 150g each)

30ml coconut oil

2 medium onions, finely sliced

6 whole green chillies, slit lengthways

3 garlic cloves, sliced into fine strips

30 curry leaves

400ml coconut milk

small bunch of coriander, chopped

Mix 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp turmeric, and gently rub into the fish fillets. Heat the coconut oil in a wide pan, then sauté the onion, chillies and garlic. Add 20 of the curry leaves and keep cooking until the onion is translucent. Add the rest of the turmeric and salt, pour in the coconut milk, heat through, then add the fish fillets and simmer very gently. Fry the rest of the curry leaves in a separate pan. When the fish is cooked, serve garnished with the fried curry leaves and chopped coriander.

We ate it with spiced spinach and some basmati rice and it was utterly fabulous.

Bon appetit and bonne anniversaire to my brother!

And this week...I bought

The sun was vaguely shining on Saturday morning and so we set off to Borough with light hearts. Shame it was nowhere near warm when we hit the street and by time we got off the bus storm clouds were building. Ah well.

Went to Ginger Pig for some minced pork made into pork and water chestnut balls for the noodle and greens soup pictured that also used up the stock from the tipan that was in the freezer that we had Wednesday night for supper and again on Thursday because I had an excess of balls! - and resisted the temptation to buy anything else as I want to use stuff from the freezer and because we have eaten a lot of meat lately and I fancied some lighter dishes - so a mere £3.75

On the way to Furness the 'just for the one day' stalls outside Roast had what is, for the man, the utterly irresistable prospect of real ale, brewed in a microbrewery. The stallholder started a spiel but really it was only a question of how many - 3 for £7.50

Then to Furness for a couple of sea bass coconut curry Monday night - that the monger filleted for me - £7

Across to the other side for eggs into the soup and the charcuterie loaf - from Wild Beef - £1.50

And cheese from Gastronomica. A practically liquid round of cow's milk cheese was too good to resist and they had some truffled sheep's cheese which we love as a nibble with a glass of wine and then Gianni said he had one thing on the stall that was stronger than love. He pulled out a small tub of soft cheese labelled 'The Edge of Poison' and scooped some out for us to try - an amazing thing, like a whole army's worth of rotting socks - a cheese strong enough to take your head off! Loved it alone or with tiny oatcakes but the man didn't. Asked how to buy it and was told he'd give it to me for free - or for 2 pence as the rest of the cheese came to £13.48. So £13.50 and everyone is happy.

Some olives from the Taste of Turkey as we haven't had any for a while - £2.50

Then to Chegworth for apples - for lunches - only a pound and sure to be edible unlike last weeks nectarines

Booths for potatoes meant for potato cakes but still there and still fine for next week, carrots , spring onions pork balls soup, a lemon pasta Friday night, red onions for spiced onions to go with the potato cakes another definite for next week, sugarsnaps, fennel for salad for lunches and then, at the checkout, a jar of truffles for our friend Georgia £13.75

Tony for spinach spiced with curry Monday night - £1.50

A sausage roll from Ginger Pig - £3

Milk, bread and yoghurt from Neals Yard - £9.70

Hot cross buns and a brownie from Flour Power - £4

Altogether - £69.70 It was raining by the time we were back on the bus.

This time last year we were mostly eating another version of pork and cabbage as well as little mutton chops with sounding radish slivers. The year before in March we were mostly eating curried lentil and potato soup.

Jollof Rice

I had been looking for an African dish to make for my next foodchain Sunday. Knowing almost nothing of the food of this continent I needed to approach an expert - so I asked Abi, a Nigerian woman who is in my french class, what her favourite dishes are. Instantly she said Jollof Rice! - then gave me a rough outline of what's required but not a recipe as she makes it the way her mother makes it and that's how she knows it is right.

So, as ever in these situations, google came to the rescue. Once I'd worked out how to spell it properly.

Jollof rice is a popular dish all over West Africa, with both Ghana and Nigeria laying claim to having been the original source, though the name comes from the ancient kingdom of the Wolof people of Senegal. It involves cooking rice with tomato paste and spices and adding meat and vegetables but not in any rigid way - whatever is to hand. The end result is always red. I went through a few sites and settled in the end on Congo Cookbook - partly because it is an interesting site and partly because the recipe given was very vague - many variations could be made from this one source.

This is the version I made last night - and it was really very good. Let me recommend it.

Jollof Rice

2 Tbspns oil for frying
One chicken, about 1.5 kg, jointed into 8
Two onions, finely chopped
Salt, black pepper,
1 tspn cayenne pepper
2 chilli, chopped
1 bay leaf,
Knob of ginger about two inches, finely sliced
800 ml water
400g tin tomatoes
1 green pepper, chopped into 2cm squares
½ cabbage, shredded into 1 cm ribbons
2 cups rice
3 tbspns tomato paste
Large bunch coriander, washed and finly chopped

Heat two tablespoons of oil in a large skillet. Stir-fry the chicken in the oil until it is browned on all sides. Season well. Remove the meat from the oil and set aside. Add the onions, the salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, chopped chillies and ginger to the skillet and fry the mixture until the onions begin to become tender. Remove the onion mixture from the skillet and set aside with the meat.

In a large covered cooking pot, bring the water to a simmer. Add the chicken and onion mixture and the bay leaf, turn the heat down and cover.

In the same skillet used for the meat and onions, stir-fry the tomatoes and the cabbage and peppers. Continue frying the mixture until the vegetables are partly cooked, then add them to the meat, onions, and broth in the big pan.

Again in the same skillet, combine the rice and the tomato paste. Over low heat, stir until the rice is evenly coated with the tomato paste. The rice should end up a pink-orange color. Add the rice to the pan and stir gently.

Cover the pan and cook the mixture over a low heat until the rice is done and the vegetables are tender (maybe half an hour). Stir gently occasionally and check to see that the bottom of the pot does not become completely dry. Add warm water - a quarter cup at a time - as necessary to help rice cook.

When the rice is cooked, check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary. Stir through the chopped coriander and serve in big bowls.

It only took about 90 minutes to cook - definite possible for mid week. And it makes a huge pot of food - easily enough to feed six very generously. It was good for lunch next day and later for supper but I'm not really sure you could freeze it successfully. Best to get your friends round.

Lions Head

Though Lions Head is not a vegetarian dish you may be relieved to know big game hunting is not on the agenda here either. It doesn't include any instructions along the lines of first catch your lion. I am not that brave.

It is a Chinese dish that is poetically named describing the appearance of these beautiful bowls of food. As soon as I read the recipe in Mrs Chiangs Szchewan Cooking I could picture it - big scented dumplings of minced pork given little sparkles of crunch with chopped water chestnuts floating in stock strewn with shreds of cabbage and carrots and crinkled black mushrooms and laces of cellophane noodles. In my mind's eye all these elements came together into a gentle rendering of a lions head. And I wanted to make it.

My biggest mission in the preparation was finding fresh water chestnuts. I have only ever used tinned ones and, apart from anything else was unsure what they actually looked like (in the wild!). I headed to Chinatown, scanned the shelves of fresh produce in Loon Moon and was pleased to see a label reading 'water chestnuts'. It was in front of a pile of plastic bags in each of which were vacuum packed a dozen or so dark brown balls that looked just like chestnuts. Who'd have thought. It turns out they are in fact the underwater corm of a variety of water grass. Their most magical characteristic is that they retain their texture, even when cooked. They are easy to peel and easy to chop and are well worth searching out.

Lions Head

8 large dried black mushroom

1 package - 2oz dried cellophane noodles

4 spring onions, chopped into tiny pieces the size of a match head

2 inch piece of ginger, chopped more finely than the spring onions

6 fresh water chestnuts, peeled and chopped to the size of match heads

500g minced pork

2 tbspns soy sauce

1 tbspn sesame oil

2 egg whites

1 tspn szchewan peppercorns, roasted and ground

1 tspn salt

1/4 cornflour

1/2 large head of Chinese cabbage, cut into 2cm shreds

2 small carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1/4 cup peanut oil

Wash the mushrooms very carefully under cold running water then soak them in a bowl with 1 cup of boiling water for half an hour. They will swell quite a lot, so don't do as I did and be tempted to use a few more.

Put the dried cellophane noodles into another bowl and soak in 2 cups of boiling water.

Put the pork in a bowl with the chopped spring onions, ginger and water chestnuts as well as the soy sauce, sesame oil, egg whites, ground roasted Szchewan pepper, salt and cornflour and mix well.

Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid. Cut off the hard stem and cut any very large ones in halves.

Heat the wok or pan - I used a pan for this - for 10 seconds over a high flame then add the oil. It will be hot enough to cook with when the first tiny bubbles form and a few small wisps of smoke appear. When it is ready add the carrots and mushrooms and stir fry for 30 seconds then add the cabbage shreds, stirring carefully till they start to collapse. cook for about 3 minutes before adding the reserved mushroom liquid and enough extra water to make 4 cups of liquid. Bring it to the boil over a high flame.

While you are waiting for it to boil, make the meatballs. Use a wet spoon and your hands to shape the meat mixture into balls about the size of large plums. You should get about 10. Place the meatballs on top of the cabbage and cover the pan. As soon as the liquid is boiling heavily, reduce the heat and let the meatballs simmer for 45 minutes. Then remove them from the pan into a bowl.

Drain the cellophane noodles and rinse thoroughly under cold water then add to the simmering soup. Taste the liquid and add salt if it needs it. Return the balls to the pan and simmer for 2 minutes before serving into large bowls. Add a dash of sesame oil and consume with enormous pleasure.

This was a little more complicated than I anticipated for a Monday supper but we ate the other half Tuesday with no more effort required than reheating so it was worth it. It was a wonderfully subtle soup and it will go into my repertoire for sure.

And this week...I bought

Cold and bright is always a good way to go to Borough and that was what we got on Saturday. At Ginger Pig I bought a serious hunk of pork shoulder for lunches after a lovely roast dinner Sunday night, some minced pork Lions Head Monday night with leftovers Tuesday, and a small chicken that I had jointed into eight for jollof rice Wednesday night with some for lunch Thursday and the rest for dinner Friday. Thought that was all but the man noticed they had diced veal so I bought a kilo for the freezer as sometimes it's hard to get - £40 for a fairly major amount of meat.

Then in the 'just here for the day' space outside Roast the Yorkshore crisps people were back - thoroughly enjoyed their wares last time so had to have a tub of ready salted miraculously as yet untouched - £2

Next to them was a friendly woman selling cordials for Thorncroft. The man tried the ginger and lemon then we both tried the detox made from herbs steeped in apple juice and it was very good indeed - £2.95 - counter the effect of the crisps...

Across to the other side and I bought eggs two whites into the Lions Head - from Lizzie at Wild Beef and, because I have been eyeing it off for a while, I also bought a copy of the Borough Cookbook - £21.45

The Isle of Wight tomato stall is back. I have resisted buying any in the last few weeks as too early they are a disappointment but I tried a mini plum and, though they will surely get better, it was a real pleasure to eat a fresh tomato again. It has been a long time. So I bought a punnet - £3.60

Coffee beans were essential - had run so low I could wash out their container - some dark roasted Columbian - £8.50

Parma ham and mozzarella for Saturday lunch because they were so good last week - £9.20

Booths for veg - potatoes, carrots Sunday roast, fennel, celery lunches, sweet potato, leeks Sunday roast and cold sweet potato in lunches, rhubarb breakfasts and another tub in the freezer, green pepper jollof rice, garlic for just about everything, Chinese cabbage, spring onions both in Lions Head - £13.80

To Neals Yard, and I was delighted to see they had sheep milk yoghurt - a perfect match with my soon to be stewed rhubarb for breakfasts - and a couple of litres of milk - £6.40

From Flour Power it was only hot cross buns Saturday special , as the little toast loaf went in to the freezer last week and has not yet reappeared - £2

Then because I'd bought no fruit I stopped at the stall outside Elsey & Bent and bought a scoop of nectarines for a pound and because they never ripened they ended up in the bin and so they were very expensive indeed, hoping all the while they will be good - £1

So the grand total this week was £110.90 - partly because I spent £20 on the cookbook and partly because prices are rising at Borough as well as the rest of the world.