We had guests for our curry evening today: Jonathan and Tracy (more were planned, but Alex and Andrea cancelled last minute).

I cooked a beef madras, a butter chicken and mushroom, and some rice.

Sheryl bought some vegetable pakoras and vegetable samosas for our starters, and naan bread and onion kulcha to eat with the main course.

For dessert we had some mango sorbet with raspberries, drizzled with vodka.

It was all delicious, and we were all full afterwards.

The kitchen is extremely messy, so I will be spending a few hours cleaning up tomorrow.

For dinner tonight I cooked an omelette filled with red onion, mushrooms, tomatoes and feta. I cooked sauté potatoes to eat with the omelette.

The feta worked well in the omelette.

Sheryl came home from work very late tonight, so we decided to have something quick for dinner: for Sheryl, a 4-cheeses pizza topped with tuna and red onion; for me a 4-cheeses pizza topped with anchovies, capers and red onion. I also had some coleslaw with my pizza.

For dinner tonight I cooked a selection of dim sum: glutinous rice balls, kimchi dumplings, leek dumplings, a barbecue pork bun, some pork gyoza, some yakitori sticks (a new brand, as the Asian store has stopped carrying the brand that we used to buy), some spring rolls and some shao mei.

I cooked mushroom (a mixture of champignons and mixed "forest mushrooms") risotto for tonight's dinner.

It was lovely.

For dessert I made a bread and butter pudding, which was especially lemony this time.

We were completely stuffed afterwards.

For our dinner tonight I cooked pasta (capellini) with prawns and green asparagus.

It was gorgeous. I am so glad that the shops have asparagus again.

For dessert we defrosted some of the date muffins, which we ate with Sheryl's home-made caramel sauce.

For today's brunch I made banana pancakes (flavoured with some cinnamon). Sheryl ate most of hers with maple syrup; I ate most of mine with butter. We ate the last of them with peanut butter.

For our dinner tonight Sheryl cooked chicken enchiladas in salsa verde.

We ate them with sour cream and guacamole.

They were the best yet! There is now a second dish of them in the freezer.

For today's brunch I made scrambled eggs.

Sheryl ate hers with the last brioche burger bun, and some green stuff (she tried to buy water cress, but the shop only had this substitute, which wasn't as good). I ate my eggs on toast, without the greenery.

For our weekly curry evening I heated up some chicken satay and some beef madras (the recipe will be added soon) from the freezer, for a thali. I cooked rice to go with it.

It was delicious.

For our dinner tonight I cooked a vegetable stir fry with noodles.

I used carrots, red onions, broccoli, mushrooms and snow peas (also known as sugar peas, Mennonite peas and Chinese peas). I used soy ketchup (kecap manis), oyster sauce, garlic, ginger and sambal oelek for the sauce.

I thought it was lovely, but Sheryl felt that I was a little heavy-handed with the sambal, which made it too spicy for her.

Dinner tonight was very simple: I made pasta (fusilli) pesto, with pesto that Sheryl made yesterday.

Yummy, and healthy.

Tonight I cooked cauliflower cheese for dinner. We ate it with some of the leftover "biscuits" from Sunday (the recipe made loads, so I had to throw some away after dinner).

It was very tasty.

Tonight I made a green salad and Sheryl made the feta baked in filo pastry.

We ate it with some of the leftover burger buns.

For dessert we had some carrot cupcakes (Sheryl made a big batch for work, and saved some for us).

This evening I cooked a beef stew, in part to use up some of the large stock of cooking wine that we have accumulated (we have had rather a lot of bad wines recently).

Instead of the usual dumplings, Sheryl made American "biscuits" (rather like scones), using the recipe from her new cookbook, The Preppy Kitchen.

It was lovely, although the stew had too much of a tomato flavour (I added too much wine, and then had to thicken the stew with extra tomato pureé).

There were way too many biscuits, so we will be eating the rest later in the week.

Today's brunch was something new.

We cooked baked eggs in hash brown cups (cooked in a muffin tin). We topped them with some grated Gruyère (which, for some reason, puffed up in the oven).

It was quite a lot of effort, and was nothing special; we won't be cooking them again.

For dinner tonight Sheryl made Mexican pizzas (like they serve in Taco Bell, which have now been reinstated on their menu). We ate them with guacamole (bought) sour cream and some lettuce and tomatoes.

Today I went across the street to the Saphir Bakery, to get croissants and a Danish pastry (Rosinenschnecke).

Unfortunately, they had sold out of Danish pastries, so I bought a mini-vegetable-quiche and a pain au chocolat instead.

The quiche was OK, but not great, and contained bell peppers, so Sheryl couldn't eat it.

We ate the croissants with Obatzda, bought from Vinzenzmurr.

For our regular curry evening I cooked chicken redang and coconut rice.

I accidentally made the curry too oily, as you can see from the photo, but it still tasted great.

Tonight's dinner was truffle tagliatelle with tomato and truffle sauce (both bought ready-made), which was garnished with parmesan.

For dinner tonight I heated up some frozen vegetarian chili, and cooked some rice to accompany it, garnished with some grated cheddar and sour cream (sorry - no photo).

I added some extra spice (sambal oelek) to it.

For dessert we had two more of the date muffins, with caramel sauce, from the freezer.

Dinner tonight was the leftover quiche Lorraine and sauté potatoes.

It was still very tasty.

For dessert we ate two of the frozen date muffins with caramel sauce, heated up in the microwave.

For our dinner tonight we made vegetarian burgers, using "Beyond Burgers", which we ate with some balsamico crisps (chips).

My burger contained a burger patty, soft blue cheese, mustard, tomato and mayonnaise in a rye and malt bun; Sheryl's contained a burger patty, soft goat-cheese, fig jam, and arugula/rocket in a brioche bun.

They were yummy.

For today's evening meal I made a bacon and leek quiche, and sauté potatoes.

It was lovely.

For today's brunch I made blueberry pancakes. Sheryl ate hers with maple syrup, and I ate mine with butter.

We finished off with a mango which needed to be eaten up.

I wasn't expecting Sheryl for dinner, but she returned from her business trip to Stuttgart early. She still wasn't feeling 100%, and was careful about what she ate.

She had a spinach pizza with an egg; I had a cordon bleu from the freezer, and some chips (French fries), with an egg.

I wasn't on form in the kitchen tonight, and managed to burn the eggs a little.

For my brunch today I made myself a toasted sandwich with mature cheddar and Branston pickle.

Tonight I was on my own for dinner, because Sheryl was away on a business trip, so I cooked a pizza (salami and pepperoni) from te freezer, and topped it with an egg.

Sheryl went to Ritzi, a Michelin star restaurant in Stuttgart, expecting a great French dinner. Sadly, after two bites of the meal pictured to the right, she had a serious allergic reaction, and couldn't eat or drink any more (more details in the 11^th March entry on my News Blog).

For tonight's dinner I made tortiglioni With ricotta and zucchini; it is also meant to have mint in it, but there was a shopping failure.

Despite the missing ingredient, it tasted lovely.

Tonight for dinner I cooked cashew chicken with saffron rice.

It was gorgeous, and we ate every scrap.

Tonight's dinner was an experiment.

Sheryl made feta baked in filo pastry (with olive oil, fenugreek, sesame and a bit of honey), with an Olive Garden salad and some bought bread-rolls.

We thought that we should have made two (one each) of the feta in filo, but actually one to share was perfect.

The experiment was a success (it was yummy) and we will definitely cook it again.

Dessert was the last of the individual cheesecakes.

For this evening's dinner I cooked tortellini (not even sure what they were stuffed with) in a mushroom sauce.

Desserts were more of Sheryl's individual cheesecakes.

For tonight's dinner Sheryl cooked (baked in the oven, in tin-foil) salmon on a bed of green beans, topped with green (basil) pesto and cherry tomatoes.

I made some sauté potatoes to go with the fish (some of which were a little overdone).

For dessert we again had individual cheesecakes. In the photo there are no hazelnut pieces on top, but we quickly decided that they make it taste much better, and added some.

For our brunch today we made croque madame.

It was, as always, delicious; the only way it could have tasted better is if we had used duck eggs, which we don't currently have.

For dinner today I cooked chicken satay and rice.

For dessert we had individual cheesecakes, on a speculaas cookie crumb base, topped with home-made caramel sauce, chocolate ganache and hazelnut pieces. They were cooked in glass ramekins saved from Gü desserts, which is why they look like Gü desserts, but they taste even better.

For today's brunch we had avocado on toast.

After the avocado was eaten, we had more toast. I had cheese and marmite on mine, and Sheryl had nutella and peanut butter on hers.

Tonight, before going to the ballet, we had a quick dinner at Zum Franziskaner

I drank a Weißbier, and Sheryl had a glass of Merlot and some sparkling water.

For food Sheryl had steak tartar with French fries (normally it is served with rye bread, to which she is allergic), and I had a truffle Käsekrainer with very buttery mashed potatoes and champagne Kraut (like sauerkraut, but made with champagne instead of vinegar). Both dishes were superb.

We had room for dessert: a tiramisu for Sheryl and an apple strudel served with vanilla sauce and whipped cream for me. Both were very good.

For dinner tonight I heated up two frozen pizzas: a pizza margherita for Sheryl, topped with parma ham and arugula after it was cooked, and for me a 4-cheeses pizza topped with anchovies and capers. I ate mine with some coleslaw on the side.

For tonight's dinner Sheryl had made green pesto, which I then used to make pasta (fusilli) pesto. We ate it garnished with some cherry tomatoes and parmesan.

It was delicious.

For dessert we ate the last of the date muffins with caramel sauce.

For our evening repast I cooked an omelette (filled with spring onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and camembert) and sauté potatoes.

The omelette was a little overcooked, but still great.

For dessert we had some Häagen Dazs ice-cream (we are done with Ben and Jerry's, now that they have compromised all their recipes).

For tonight's dinner I made a green salad, topped with baked camembert, and served with the last of my home-made sour dough bread-rolls.

For dessert we had some more of the date muffins with caramel sauce.

For our dinner tonight I cooked pasta (capellini), and meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce.

As usual, there were some meatballs left over, but not really enough for another dinner, so I put them in the fridge to make meatball sandwiches for my lunches.

Earlier today, Sheryl made some date muffins and some caramel sauce. For dessert she heated up a pair of muffins with caramel sauce (which soaked into the muffins). They tasted wonderful.

For today's brunch I made crumpets. We ate them either with butter, cheese, strawberry jam, nutella or peanut butter.

For dinner, Sheryl made salmon cakes. I cooked mashed potatoes and asparagus, and made some tartar sauce to go with them.

Sheryl's hand slipped while adding spices to the salmon cakes, and also slightly over-browned them, but they weren't spoiled; if anything, they tasted even better than usual.

For dessert we had some chocolate dessert by Gü, which was nothing special (most of their desserts are excellent).

For brunch today I made poached eggs on toast.

We followed up by sharing a mango, which was nice and ripe (mangos have been on special offer at a couple of stores recently).

Today was our weekly curry evening.

For starters we had papadams with pickles (brinjal/aubergine-pickle and hot lime pickle).

For our main course I had a second attempt at beef madras (which was much better this time), which we ate with rice.

For dessert we had some Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Ben and Jerry's has recently been taken over, and now they sell all-new recipes that are healthier and don't taste so good; all our old favourites are no longer available.

Tonight we made club sandwiches, which we ate with balsamico crisps (chips).

The were lovely.

Sheryl also bought Krapfen (doughnuts) from the Rischart bakery for dessert: a Himberger (raspberry) one for her and a pistachio tiramisu one for me; also very good.

We were completely stuffed afterwards.

For our dinner tonight I cooked a mushroom (champignons and mixed forest mushrooms) risotto.

We garnished it with some chili flakes.

It was lovely.

Tonight we ate the leftover chicken pot pie from Sunday.

For tonight's dinner I cooked linguine cacio e pepe (pasta with sheep's cheese and pepper); so simple and so good!

As usual, we ate every scrap.

For dinner I cooked a chicken pot-pie. I was also planning to cook some potatoes, but I didn't have the energy.

The pie was great (we ate half, and saved the rest for another day), even though I forgot to add garlic.

I made a bit of extra effort to make a little pastry leaf to go on top of the pie, and Sheryl said "Oh look, you made a little heart." I don't think my artistic talents are appreciated.

Sheryl made two types of scones for our brunch today: some cheese scones and some date and cinnamon scones.

We ate the cheese scones with butter and some extra cheese (Gruyère); we ate the date scones with clotted cream and fig jam.

They were gorgeous.

For our dinner tonight we made a cherry tomato and goat cheese galette.

As usual, we were unable to wait until it was completely cold (it is supposed to be eaten cold) before eating it.

It was lovely.

For brunch today I made scrambled eggs on toast.

Sheryl also ate half a grapefruit.

For our regular Friday curry evening I heated up two frozen leftover curries (a butter chicken and a chicken badam pasanda) for a thali. We ate the thali with garlic naan.

As with most curries, I drank a Weißbier (Scheider Weisse original [Tap 7]) with it.

It was really delicious.

For dessert we ate some mini-Krapfen (doughnuts) that Sheryl brought home from work, which were very good.

For dinner tonight I made a green salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avocado and feta) topped with tandoori prawns, which we ate with some home-made sour dough bread-rolls (sorry, Sno photo of this). It was lovely, and we finished it all.

For dessert Sheryl had bought two Krapfen (doughnuts), one Germknödel and one raspberry, which we cut in half for sharing. Unfortunately, the raspberry one had got accidentally sprayed with a cleaning spray in the shop, and wasn't edible; the Germknödel Krapfen was great, though.

Dinner tonight was the dim sum that we had planned for yesterday.

We had glutinous rice balls (pictured left), which were not great (kept in the freezer too long); spring rolls, leek dim sum, shao mei, kimchi dumplings (for Sheryl - I don't like them), duck gyoza (all in the photo below); and a barbecue pork bun (to the right) for me.

It is quite a while since we had dim sum, and most of the dim sum has been in the freezer too long, and is no longer at its best. We will have to have a clear-out.

Tonight's dinner plans had to be changed at the last minute, because Sheryl got home very late from work, so we needed something quick and easy.

We cooked some frozen pizzas (again!). Sheryl had a spinach pizza topped with feta, red onion and an egg; I had a salami and pepperoni pizza topped with red onion and an egg.

Tonight I cooked vegan "meat" balls in spicy tomato sauce with capellini.

The vegan fake-meat balls were OK, but not as good as real meat-balls (which I have been having cravings for ever since).

For dinner tonight we cooked a puff-pastry roll filled with balsamic mushrooms, cheese and spinach.

For brunch today Sheryl started with half a grapefruit (which I can't eat as they clash with my statins). We then had cheese (mature cheddar) and branston-pickle toasted sandwiches.

The grapefruit was very ripe and juicy (apparently).

Tonight we heated up the enchiladas in salsa verde from the freezer.

They may not look so great in the photo, but they tasted great.

We ate them with guacamole (bought, not home-made) and sour cream.

For our brunch today I made blueberry pancakes (with cinnamon added).

Sheryl at hers mostly with maple syrup, and the last couple with peanut butter; I ate mine with butter, and then with peanut butter.

They were lovely.

Friday is normally our curry night, but I was somewhat unwell earlier today, so we decided to eat something less challenging to my stomach.

We opted to cook frozen pizzas. We only had 4-cheeses pizzas. Sheryl had hers with some Parma ham and an egg; I had mine with Anchovies, capers and an egg.

For dinner tonight I cooked prawns in batter, in Singapore-style sweet and sour sauce, and rice.

This is something we had planned for several weeks, but kept cancelling for various reasons.

We really enjoyed it.

Tonight I cooked medaglioni (similar to ravioli) al tartufo (truffle), bought from the supermarket, in spicy tomato sauce.

We were actually impressed. The medaglioni had a strong truffle taste, even though they came from a down-market store.

It was very enjoyable.

For our dinner tonight I heated up the leftover salmon, leek and mushroom quiche, and cooked some more sauté potatoes.

For dinner tonight I made an Olive Garden salad, topped with baked camembert cheese, and served with home-made sour dough bread-rolls.

The salad was lovely.

For dessert Sheryl had bought a Krapfen (doughnut) and some chocolate thing (the bakery was almost out of doughnuts). Sheryl was not pleased with the chocolate creation; despite an assurance that it didn't contain cherries (which she hates), it did.

For dinner tonight I cooked a salmon, leek and mushroom quiche, and some sauté potatoes.

As you can see from the photo, the quiche was a little crumbly, but tasted lovely.

For brunch today we decided to try croissants from a different French bakery (recommended by our neighbour Isabelle).

We ate them with selection of cheeses.

We also shared a Rosinenschnecke (raisin Danish) and an apple turnover.

The croissants were not as good as the ones we usually buy (not enough butter), and the Danish was dry, but the apple turnover was excellent.

We will probably only buy croissants at that bakery when the one across the street is closed.

For dinner Sheryl made quesadillas (filled with mature cheddar cheese and home made refried beans).

We ate it with a vegetarian chili from the freezer, sour cream and shop-bought guacamole.

It was great.

For brunch today I made eggs benedict, served on English muffins, and some bacon.

I think this is my favourite breakfast.

Sheryl put some Rucola (rocket) on her muffin before I added her poached eggs. I hate rocket, but Sheryl loves it.

It was our regular curry evening.

For our starter we had papadams with pickles.

For our main course I cooked butter chicken, and Sheryl cooked some frozen garlic naan.

The butter chicken was even better than normally; I made it a little spicier this time.

For our dinner tonight I cooked fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli.

It was really lovely.

I was on my own for dinner (Sheryl had a late work event) so I cooked myself an omelette filled with spring onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and soft blue cheese, and ate it with a couple of home-made sour dough bread-rolls with French butter.

Tonight I cooked a mushroom risotto, which we ate with a garnish of chili flakes.

I forgot to add garlic to the risotto, but it still tasted great.

For tonight's dinner I made a green salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mini-mozzarella balls and avocado), which we ate with mustard and tarragon chicken and some home-made sour dough bread-rolls.

For dinner tonight I cooked cordon bleu, chips (French fries) and braised cabbage (with a little onion).

I thought about adding caraway seeds to the braised cabbage, but decided that Sheryl might object, but then, while we were eating, she said "this would be better with some caraway seeds, so I will add them next time.

For brunch today we were invited downstairs by Isabelle and Markus.

We took some prosciutto and asparagus puff pastry bundles and some of my home-made sour dough bread rolls. We also took a bottle of rosé prosecco.

Our hosts provided more bread, cheeses, and various fruit.

Because it was Ann-Sophia's second birthday, there was also a birthday cake, bought from Käfer, which was excellent.

The prosciutto and asparagus puff pastry bundles and the bread rolls were a big hit, as was the birthday cake.

For dinner tonight Sheryl made chicken enchiladas with salsa verde (doesn't look great in the photo, but tasted awesome) which we ate with sour cream and guacamole.

For dessert Sheryl had bought salted caramel cheesecake by Gü which are amazing.

For brunch today we had avocado toast.

This week's curry was something new: a beef madras (from this recipe) , which we ate with rice.

It was pretty good, but the recipe needs a bit of fine tuning.

For dinner tonight I cooked lentil soup with vegan wiener, which we ate with some brioche burger buns.

Our dinner tonight was a spicy lasagne bolognese that we had in the freezer.

Our dishwasher conked out today, so I decided against cooking what we had planned because it creates a lot of dirty dishes.

Instead we heated up frozen pizzas: for Sheryl a spinach pizza topped with feta, red onion and egg; for me a salami and pepperoni pizza topped with red onion and egg.

For tonight's dinner I cooked pasta (tortiglioni) with ricotta, zucchini and mint.

It was lovely.

For dinner tonight we tried something new: prosciutto asparagus puff pastry bundles. They are intended to be a starter, so we ate them with a side salad.

They were lovely, and we will definitely be making them again.

For brunch today I cooked banana and cinnamon pancakes.

I ate most of mine with butter, and the last two with peanut butter; Sheryl ate hers with maple syrup, and the last one with nutella.

For our weekly curry evening, postponed from yesterday because Sheryl was out, I cooked a chicken and mushroom badam pasanda, which we ate with garlic naan.

For brunch today we had croissants from the Saphir bakery, with some of the paté that Peter brought us.

Sheryl was not so impressed with the paté (she likes smoother paté), so she switched to jam and nutella for the second croissant.

We also shared a Rosinenschnecke (raisin Danish).

I peeled the mango that we had, but it wasn't good and I threw it away; instead we ate some mandarins.

Sheryl was out for dinner at a work event, so I was fending for myself tonight.

I cooked poached eggs, baked beans (spiced up with some hot sauce), fried mushrooms and a toasted burger bun (the toasting bread that I had planned to eat was mouldy). I also had a chunk of cheddar cheese with it.

For tonight's dinner I cooked baked feta and cherry tomato pasta.

Tonight we made beef burgers. I made chips (French fries) to have with the burgers.

For dinner tonight I made an Olive Garden salad and a tuna pasta salad.

It was delicious, but there was too much to finish (so it was saved for tomorrow's lunch), as we needed to save room for dessert.

It is now the season (Lent) for Krapfen (doughnuts) in Germany. Sheryl bought us a Himberger (raspberry doughnut) and a Germknödl doughnut for dessert, which we shared. They were nice, although not as fresh as they could have been.

Tonight we had an insalata caprese with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls as a starter, followed by a truffle pizza topped with extra cheese (to share).

For tonight's dinner I cooked fish fingers/sticks, mashed potatoes (flavoured with some nutmeg), peas and home-made tartar sauce.

It was lovely, and we ate every scrap.

For dessert we ate some "Mr. Kipling's Sticky Toffee Pudding" that we found in the pantry, with some cream.

For today's brunch I made raw vegetables and crisps/chips with French onion dip.

The crisps were the Jura cheese flavoured crisps from Muji.

It was delicious.

For our evening repast we made quesadillas (filled with refried beans and cheese) served with vegetarian chili, sour cream and guacamole.

They were really good.

For brunch today I made toasties: toasted cheese (cheddar) and pickle (Branston) sandwiches.

For our regular Friday curry evening I cooked chicken satay, served with rice.

For our dinner tonight I cooked penne al Arabiata.

For some reason Sheryl had bought mini-penne, but it still tasted great.

Tonight I cooked cashew chicken for dinner.

We ate it with saffron rice, and garnished it with sesame seeds.

It was especially good this time.

Tonight, for dinner, I cooked an omelette (filled with spring onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and goat-camembert). We ate the omelette with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

For dinner I made a green salad, topped with mustard and tarragon chicken, and served with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

For tonight's dinner I cooked a butternut squash risotto, which we ate garnished with chili flakes.

For brunch today Sheryl made porridge (oatmeal) with banana and pecans.

It was delicious.

For dinner tonight we made fish tacos.

They were lovely.

For today's brunch I made poached eggs on toast.

For our dinner tonight I cooked papadams as our starter, and butter chicken (from the freezer) with garlic naan as our main course.

It was so nice to be able to have some of our more usual food, after 3 weeks of American fare.

For our brunch today I cooked crêpes, which we ate with berries (blueberries and strawberries) and maple syrup.

We were both exhausted after the flight home, and not able to do any real cooking, so I heated up some frozen pizzas.

Sheryl had a spinach pizza topped with feta cheese and an egg; I had a 4-cheeses pizza with anchovies, capers and peperoni (peperoncini).

We also ate breakfast on the flight home.

It consisted of some dried-out fruit salad and a small marble cake.

It was not very good, but at least Sheryl could eat it.

We were not offered a second coffee.

We ate dinner on the flight home.

I had the beef, which was dull but edible.

Sheryl was unable to get an assurance that the meals contained no peppers (bell-peppers/capsicum), so they gave her an extra bread roll (wow!).

We each had a glass of red wine and some sparkling water; there were no top-ups on the drinks.

This morning most of the family (Sheryl's parents, sisters, nieces, and Marc) went to Walker Bros. for brunch.

Sheryl again had a Belgian waffle with whipped cream and strawberries; I had eggs Benedict and hash browns.

After the movie we went back to Sheryl's parents' house. Theresa went out and bought a couple of deep pan pizzas: some with pepperoni, some with sausage and some with just cheese.

Today we went to First Watch for brunch.

Sheryl and her mum had French toast; I had an omelette with fried potatoes and toast.

The omelette was rather weird.

Tonight Sheryl's niece Kaelyn cooked steak and chicken, with biscuits, roast potatoes, green beans and asparagus for the whole family at Sheryl's parents' house.

There were also mozzarella sticks and deep fried mushrooms.

For dessert Kaelyn and her sister Ashley went out to get ice-cream.

There was a disaster at the Finkbone household this morning: the coffee maker broke (after Sheryl had made herself a coffee). I was feeling extremely rough (hung over and extremely tired), and desperately needed a coffee, so Sheryl's mum went out to McDonald's for some coffee; she also brought me an egg McMuffin and Sheryl a bacon, egg and cheese McGriddle.

The coffee helped me a bit, but I have been struggling to update my Food Blog because I am still far from 100%.

This evening the whole family went out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, to celebrate Ashley's birthday (which is actually tomorrow).

They don't only do cheesecake, but have a rather extensive menu.

I had honey and truffle chicken, served with asparagus and mashed potatoes; Sheryl had chicken parmesan pizza style, which is served with spaghetti.

The truffle in my dish was undetectable, and the mashed potato was lumpy and dry (although other people thought it was great).

There was way too much food, and most people took their leftovers home in doggy-bags. Despite this, two desserts were ordered, most of which were also packed into doggy-bags.

This afternoon and evening we were at Marc and Theresa's. They ordered two large pizzas for dinner; various parts were topped with pepperoni, Italian sausage and beef.

Later we went to a bowling alley for New Year's Eve, where there was more pizza.

For brunch today we (Sheryl, her Mum and I) stopped off at Panera Bread, on our way to Marc and Theresa's.

I had a beef and cheddar sandwich; Sheryl had a turkey BLT.

My beef sandwich had a lot of horseradish in it, which was all in a lump in the centre, rather than being spread out. I was only just able to eat it because of the horseradish (and I like horseradish).

This evening we had a family outing to Medieval Times.

The "feast" included tomato bisque, garlic bread, and half a roast chicken. The chicken was not as good as an Oktoberfest Hendl, but overall the food was fairly good. Very few people managed to finish their chicken because there was so much of it.

For brunch today we stopped off at a Burger King on our way somewhere. We all had bacon, egg and cheese croissants and hash browns, which we ate in the car.

Tonight after going to the Shedd Aquarium, we got take away from Portillo's.

I had a beef and sausage sandwich, which was OK.

Tonight we went with Sheryl's family for martinis at Illusions, in Des Plaines.

I ate a Cuban sandwich, and Sheryl ate a chicken wrap.

Tonight we ate dinner at Sheryl's parents' place. We had a chili con carne that Sheryl's sister cooked, with some sweet corn and bread.

It was nice, but we both would have liked it more spicy (even Sheryl's family don't seem to be able to understand that she can't eat bell-peppers/capsicum, but loves chili).

After our shopping trip we were at Theresa and Marc's (the ladies then went out for more shopping!).

When everyone had returned, Kaelyn cooked sesame chicken for dinner, which was good (although Kaelyn doesn't like sesame or the vegetables that are part of the recipe.

Today we went shopping (again!) in the hope that there would be some bargains after Christmas.

Before going into the shopping mall (Gurnee Mills) we went to White Castle for lunch. We had sliders (mini-burgers) which is pretty much all that they do.

Lunch was good.

Christmas dinner was at Sheryl's parents' house. Various family members brought food, either home-made or bought.

Because Americans eat turkey for Thanksgiving, they generally eat something else for Christmas. We had some ham (cooked by Theresa) and two kinds of spare-ribs, (cooked by Becky - both of which were delicious), baked beans made by Sheryl's mum, a green-bean casserole, and various other things.

For dessert there were several bought pies: pecan, peach, apple and pumpkin, which were variously eaten with vanilla ice-cream, whipped cream, or plain cream.

Everything tasted great.

Today we went over to Theresa (Sheryl's older sister) and Marc's; Marc's family is German, so they celebrate Christmas on the 24^th.

There was a huge selection of food. Sheryl's mum took devilled eggs. There was a platter of cheese, salami, crackers and olives; there was a cauliflower casserole, roast beef, red cabbage, potatoes, meat loaf and "biscuits" (almost like a scone, eaten with gravy).

We tried some of the roast beef and cabbage, and I tried the biscuits, which I loved. We also had a little of the meat loaf.

Later there were desserts: banana pudding (made by Sheryl's mum) and some more of those gorgeous bundt cakes.

Everything was delicious, and we ended up stuffed.

It was a lovely day.

The plan was for me to cook a butter chicken for dinner for Sheryl's dad, Sheryl and me (Sheryl's mum won't eat spicy food), but he has not been feeling well and didn't want dinner.

Instead, we made croque madame for Sheryl and me, and croque monsieur (i.e. without the egg) for Sheryl's mum.

For brunch Sheryl baked scones: some with cheese (Cheddar and Gruyère) and some plain (eaten with clotted cream and jam).

The plain scones were a little crumbly, but they were all great.

For dinner tonight I cooked fettuccine Alfredo, with chicken and broccoli.

It is always a struggle cooking in a strange kitchen, made worse by the shortage of suitable pans and the lack of a cheese grater. Also, the parmesan that we bought turned out to have no flavour at all.

Even so, dinner turned out OK, and everyone (Sheryl's mum and dad, and us) enjoyed their dinner.

This afternoon and evening we were at Theresa (Sheryl's older sister) and Marc's. The ladies went shopping, and brought back tacos from Taco Bell.

For dessert there were a selection of bundt cakes, which were excellent.

This morning Sheryl's niece Kaelyn cooked us breakfast at Sheryl's parents' house: scrambled eggs and bacon, with toast.

It was nice, although Americans cook scrambled eggs differently.

The family all went over to Sheryl's sister Becky's for dinner, and ate spicy chicken wings (2 kinds), corn on the cob, potato skins with cheese, and "biscuits".

It was all lovely, and everyone enjoyed themselves (except maybe Sheryl's brother-in-law Mark who slipped and spilled his bottle of beer on himself).

We went to a bagel place (Bagel & Bialy, Buffalo Grove) for lunch. I had a pastrami sandwich with coleslaw on rye bread; Sheryl had a Reuben sandwich (corned beef, sauerkraut and cheese) with potato salad, and her mum had a Reuben sandwich with coleslaw.

I was quite pleased with my food, but Sheryl's mum ate hardly ate any of hers, and Sheryl was rather ill (due to peppers/capsicum in the potato salad).

Large numbers of Sheryl's family were at her parents' house this evening, and couldn't agree on what to eat. In the end we got take-away from two different places; our dinner was from Sonic Burgers.

It wasn't bad, except that the fries/chips were cold by the time we got our food.

We ate brunch at the food court of a shopping mall. The selection was not very exciting, and mostly unhealthy, so we ended up ordering burritos (mine with chorizo and Sheryl's with minced/ground beef). Both of us felt somewhat unwell afterwards.

We ate dinner with Sheryl's family at Theresa and Marc's: they heated up some frozen pizzas and some mozzarella sticks (plus there was a large selection of chips, cookies and other sweet snacks).

Mark and I cracked open his beer advent calendar, which was filled with an interesting selection of German beers; we had help drinking them.

We ate our brunch in the car on the way to Theresa (her sister) and Mark's (her brother-in-law) house to watch the World Cup final: bacon, egg and cheese croissants from Burger King.

For dinner we (Sheryl and I, Sheryl's parents, sister and nieces) had Chinese take-away from Yen Yen's.

I wasn't very impressed.

Today, for brunch, we went to Walker Bros.

I had eggs Benedict with bacon on English muffins, plus a side of pancakes, Sheryl had a Belgian waffle with maple syrup (which is served hot), Sheryl's sister and mum both had French toast and hash browns.

Tonight's dinner was on the plane to Chicago.

I had beef goulash; Sheryl had tortellini with a mushroom sauce. It was OK.

We only got fed once, even though we were on the plane for hours.

We had a long time to wait at the airport today, so we had our brunch there.

I had some sausages Nürnberger Bratwurst with mashed potato and sauerkraut. Sheryl had some truffle pasta (the same as I cook at home; we ate at a Käfer restaurant).

I drank a Weißbier, and Sheryl drank a red wine and some sparkling water.

Because we are flying tomorrow, we wanted something simple, that created minimal mess in the kitchen, for dinner, so we heated up a couple of pizzas.

Sheryl has a spinach pizza, topped with vegan fake feta and an egg; I had a salami and pepperoni pizza, also topped with feta and an egg.

Tonight, for dinner, I poached salmon in white wine, which I served with mashed potato, green beans and home-made tartar sauce.

It was lovely, despite my having to make the tartar sauce without spring onions.

For dinner tonight I cooked Käsekrainer (also called Käseknacker; a lightly smoked pork sausage with cheese) and chips (French fries), which we ate with lashings of mustard.

They were really delicious.

Sheryl only ate 1½ sausages, so I was able to have 2½; all plans to save some for lunch went out the window.

For dinner tonight I made a green salad, topped with tandoori prawns, served with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

Tonight's dinner was broccoli and capellini with Alfredo sauce.

We were invited down to Isabelle and Markus' today for brunch.

Our hosts provided the usual nice selection of bread, croissants, cheeses, and fruit salad.

We took raw vegetables and French onion dip, and some home-made crackers. We also took a bottle of prosecco.

Sheryl also tried to make some chocolate brownies decorated to look like Christmas treed, but they were a disaster, so we didn't take them. Erik had been looking forward to them, and was very disappointed.

For dinner we made corned beef rolls, served with baked beans and mustard.

We haven't had these for quite a while (they are not really healthy) and really enjoyed them.

For today's brunch I made crumpets. We ate them variously with butter, cheese or with jam.

They were gorgeous.

Our regular Friday evening curry was a chicken badam pasanda, served with garlic naan (bought frozen).

It was delicious.

Tonight I cooked some ricotta and spinach tortellini which Sheryl bought at the weekend, which I served in spicy tomato sauce.

Despite not being such a big fan of spinach, I really enjoyed it.

For dinner tonight I raided the freezer for a frozen vegetarian chili, which we ate with sour cream and grated cheddar cheese.

There wasn't very much chili, so we filled up afterwards with lots of chocolate from our advent calendar.

Tonight's dinner was the warmed up leftover venison pot-pie.

It was still excellent.

For dinner tonight I cooked an omelette (filled with spring onions, mushrooms, tomato and goat camembert) and zucchini and potato fritters.

I used the burger press to form the fritters, but even so they came out rather uneven.

For dinner tonight I made an Olive Garden salad and a tuna pasta salad. We ate it with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

Although it was delicious, there was enough tuna pasta salad for both of us the have for lunch another day (the Olive Garden salad doesn't keep, so we had to throw the leftovers away).

For brunch today we made Croque Madame.

They were fantastic.

The one pictured looks a little odd because we had two slices of our normal toasting bread, and two slices of smaller toasting bread, so Sheryl decided to make it fair by giving us half of each, then putting the egg on top.

This evening I made a venison pot-pie. I slow-cooked the venison and vegetables in a pan for about two hours before making the pie, to ensure that the meat was tender. It was delicious.

For dessert we had Ecclefechan tarts (a cross between Eccles cakes and mincemeat tarts without a lid) with cream. They were really amazing. We decided that one was not enough, and each had another, after which we were stuffed.

For today's brunch I made crêpes, which we ate with blueberries, raspberries and maple syrup.

Sheryl had to eat her last crêpe with nutella, of course.

For our regular curry evening, instead of a proper curry, I made a cashew chicken and saffron rice.

For our brunch today Sheryl baked scones: some cheese scones (containing strong cheddar, parmesan and Gruy&egave;re), and some raisin and cinnamon scones.

We ate the cheese scones either with just butter or with goat-camembert; the raisin and cinnamon scones with clotted cream and fig jam.

They were really excellent.

For dinner this evening I cooked tortiglioni al Arabiata.

It was especially good this time.

For dinner we had something from our advent calendar.

For dinner I heated up the frozen meat stew.

I made fresh dumplings.

It was lovely, although more than we could eat (but not enough left over to keep for another day).

For dinner tonight I cooked a selection of frozen dim sum.

We had glutinous rice balls with peanut filling, some home-made chicken teriyaki yakitori sticks (which were pretty good), spring rolls, leek dumplings, shao mei, kimchi dumplings, a barbecue pork bun (for me - Sheryl doesn't like them) and gyoza.

For our dinner this evening I made a green salad and some tandoori prawns. We ate it with some home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls that I baked today.

After I had eaten mine (pictured) I realise that I forgot to put tandoori prawns on mine!

We ate the last two of Sheryl's individual caramel cheesecakes for dessert.

For today's brunch we defrosted some cinnamon rolls (frozen uncooked).

They were not so great. When Sheryl made them, the ones we cooked and ate did not rise very well, and the frozen ones even more so (plus they always sag a little when proving, as can be seen from the photo), so they were a little deformed and dense.

They still tasted good though.

For dinner I made a lasagne, which was as usual, excellent.

I actually made two, so the second is going into the freezer for dinner another day.

Today, for brunch, Sheryl made toasted cheese and Branston pickle sandwiches.

For our dinner tonight we made falafel wraps, filled with Sheryl's home-made hummus, feta, lettuce, tomato, pickled red onion and sour cream.

They were rather filling, so we only managed one each, leaving a few falafel for lunch another day.

Sheryl also decided to make caramel cheesecake. Instead of making a big one in a pie dish, she made 4 individual cheesecakes. They were very good.

For today's brunch I made scrambled eggs on toast.

I had French butter and marmite on my other slice of toast.

I cooked a chicken redang with coconut rice for our Friday curry evening.

I had planned to add mushrooms, but we don't have any.

It was delicious, and we ate every scrap.

The original plan for tonight's dinner involved Sheryl cooking, but since she has Covid and I do not (yet!), we thought it best that she not cook for me.

Instead we heated up some pizzas from the freezer: a spinach pizza topped with red onion, feta and an egg for Sheryl, and a 4 cheeses pizza topped with anchovies and capers for me.

For our evening meal today I made linguine cacio ed pepe (linguine with sheep-cheese and pepper).

It was, as always, delicious.

For this evening's meal I made Peking duck.

We haven't had this for quite a while, and really enjoyed it.

For tonight's dinner I made a green salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato and feta - would have been even better with fresh figs and walnuts, but we didn't have any figs), served with baked camembert on top.

We ate it with home-made sourdough and caraway bread-rolls.

We haven't had baked camembert for a while because the stores haven't had the nicer variety in stock for months.

This evening for dinner I cooked salmon braised in white wine and green beans.

Sheryl tried out a new recipe for potatoes baked with parmesan.

I also made tartar sauce.

We were not so impressed with the potatoes. They needed to be cooked longer, and were not as cheesy as we expected.

For our brunch today Sheryl made porridge (oatmeal) with banana and pecans.

For dinner we heated up some leftover meat enchiladas from the freezer, which we ate with a little lettuce, tomato guacamole and sour cream.

In the photo they don't look great (rather dried out), but they tasted great.

For today's brunch I cooked poached eggs on toast.

Tonight I cooked a chicken and mushroom satay, served with rice.

It was fantastic.

This recipe is the quickest and most reliable curry that I make.

Dinner tonight was the leftover New England clam chowder (from the freezer).

Sheryl ate hers with a brioche burger bun, and I ate mine with a Semel (Bavarian bread-roll) that I bought earlier (we were getting low on bread, because today I threw away an unstarted loaf of toasting bread which had gone mouldy in just a couple of days).

It was still gorgeous, even after having been frozen.

For tonight's dinner Sheryl made quesadillas (filled with cheese and home-made refried beans), which we ate with some vegetarian chili (from the freezer), guacamole and sour cream.

They were delicious.

Now that we have a cast iron skillet, our tortillas are no longer burnt, and I don't have to spend ages the next day cleaning our non-stick (ceramic) frying pan.

Tonight I cooked baked feta and tomato pasta (farfalle - bow-tie pasta).

It was, as usual, great.

There was enough left over for a lunch for Sheryl later in the week.

For today's brunch I made scrambled eggs, which we ate with burger buns.

For dinner tonight we made fish finger (fish stick) tacos, filled with feta, lettuce, radishes and some home-made pickled sliced red onion.

They were lovely.

For today's brunch we made raw vegetables (carrots, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, radishes, spring onions for me and celery for Sheryl) and French onion dip (Sheryl made the dip yesterday).

We also had some crisps (chips).

For dinner tonight we made vegetarian burgers ("Beyond Burgers").

Sheryl had hers in a brioche bun, with goat-cheese, rocket salad, mayonnaise and apricot preserve; I had mine in a rye and malt bun, with soft blue cheese, mustard and a pickled gherkin.

I also made some chips (French fries).

For brunch today I made blueberry pancakes.

Sheryl ate hers with maple syrup; I ate mine with butter.

Since today is Sheryl's birthday we went to the Rusticana.

Sheryl had a glass of prosecco as an aperitif, and I had a Weißbier.

For our main courses we both had a filet steak (medium), which is served with baked potato with lashings of sour cream. We also shared a tomato and onion salad.

The steaks and potatoes were both awesome, although the salad was not as good as usual (made with cherry tomatoes instead of very ripe full-sized tomatoes).

We drank a bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo with dinner.

We managed to find room for dessert. Sheryl had a chocolate soufflé, served with cream and ice-cream; I had a crème brûlée (my favourite dessert).

The service was, as usual, fantastic, although the waiter told us that our table was reserved by others later, and when we initially tried to order dessert there were only 15 minutes before we had to leave, but he came back a few minutes later with the good news that the other people had cancelled, so we were able to order dessert and eat it in comfort.

We had a bit of a laugh at the neighbouring table; a mixture of Germans and Spaniards. They ordered a huge platter of spare ribs for the 6 of them (you can't see in the photo how enormous it was, because the oval platter is end-on in the picture). One of the Spanish guys insisted on eating his ribs with a knife and fork!

For today's brunch I bought croissants and a Rosinenschnecke (raisin Danish pastry) from the Saphir bakery across the street.

We ate the croissants with truffle brie, Norwegian Ost, and nutella (for Sheryl).

For our regular Friday curry evening I cooked a butter chicken (with added mushrooms), which we ate with garlic naan.

It was fantastic.

I was a little annoyed because I couldn't find any whole cashews (it turns out that we had some - I just couldn't find them), so I substituted ground cashews (the cashews are used for thickening the sauce). It was very difficult to judge the quantity, meaning that I ended up with too much ground cashews, and had to add more liquid to compensate.

For tonight's dinner I cooked pasta (Tortiglioni) with zucchini, mint And ricotta.

Tonight I made an Olive Garden salad and an egg salad, which we ate with some home-made bread-rolls.

Sorry that the photo is out of focus.

I was alone tonight for dinner, because Sheryl was working late.

I cooked myself some sausages, poached eggs on toast and baked beans on toast.

When Sheryl finally got home, she made herself a sandwich.

For tonight's dinner we shared a starter of insalata caprese (mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil leaves) with home-made sourdough and caraway seed bread-rolls.

For our main course we shared a truffle pizza topped with extra cheese (mature cheddar) and two eggs.

For our dinner tonight Sheryl made salmon baked in foil with green beans, pesto and cherry tomatoes, served with mashed potatoes falavoured with nutmeg.

It was yummy.

For today's brunch I made crumpets.

We ate some with butter, some with cheese, some with cheese and marmite, and some with jam.

They were lovely.

Tonight's dinner was cauliflower, deep fried in batter, with rice and spicy Singapore style sweet and sour sauce.

For our brunch I made poached eggs on home-made bread-rolls.

For dinner I heated up 3 small leftover curries from the freezer, to make a thali, and heated up some frozen garlic naan.

The curries were a butter chicken, a chicken satay and a paneer (cheese) palak (spinach) left over from our last visit to the Taj Mahal.

For brunch today Sheryl had avocado on toast, with malt vinegar, salt an pepper. Only half of the avocado was good, so she then had more toast with goat camembert and jam.

I had a sandwich made with toast, filled with soft blue cheese, salami, mustard, tomato and mayonnaise, which was yummy. I followed up with another piece of toast with French butter and marmite, and then a mandarin.

Today we decided to make New England clam chowder; something else that Sheryl has been having cravings for.

She found a recipe by chef Jean-Pierre on YouTube, which we adapted a little (leaving out the tomatoes and fresh paprika/capsicum/bell-peppers, which have no place in a proper New England clam chowder, and celery, which I hate). We added some mushrooms, which worked well in the chowder.

We ate the chowder with home-made bread-rolls (the sourdough and caraway seed rolls that I made yesterday).

It was really delicious!

There was enough left over to freeze for another day.

Today Sheryl decided to make "Belgian" waffles for our brunch.

They worked well, although a little crisper than Sheryl prefers.

We had raspberries, blueberries and maple syrup to put on them, plus peanut butter for our final waffles.

They were lovely.

Tonight neither of us felt like cooking, so we went out for dinner.

We went to Pequeño in Haidhausen (about a 5 minute walk from home). The have a long happy hour, so we were able to get two jumbo cocktails each, at half price.

First we shared a large starter (Nachos Grande), then we shared a main course of Tostadas. We weren't quite able to finish the main course.

It was lovely (although not as spicy as a Mexican restaurant in the USA, because Germans generally don't like spicy food).

The service was friendly and efficient.

We didn't reserve a table, and were lucky that we didn't arrive any later, because it filled up very fast.

Today I made more bread-rolls; this time sourdough bread-rolls with caraway seeds.

They worked well, although there was a lot of variation is sizes.

Tonight Sheryl met a friend for drinks and dinner, so I was fending for myself for dinner.

I cooked a cordon bleu that we had in the freezer, eaten with plenty of mustard, with some baked beans on toast.

Sheryl has vacation from work this week (today is also a public holiday in Bavaria), so we took the opportunity to go for a Bavarian breakfast at the Schneider Bräuhaus.

We had some Weißbiers (tap 1 for Sheryl, and tap 7 for me). We also each had a pair of Weißwurst (white sausages, made with veal) and some pretzels, and we shared a portion of Obatzda

Partly because of increased hygiene requirements due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and partly because of cost cutting, pretzels are served differently than they used to be. Three years ago you would receive a basket with several pretzels, and when you paid the bill you simply had to say how many you had eaten and would be charged appropriately. Now, however, you get one pretzel on a plate, unless you specify that you want more; this can be a bit of a nuisance, because you end up having to order more.

The meal was great, although Sheryl was not happy about the sweet mustard. It is common in Bavaria to add horseradish (called Kren Bavaria) to the sweet mustard, and this time it was a lot. Sheryl really hates horseradish, and it was too mush for her to handle. I asked whether it was possible to get some without horseradish, but it was not. Next time we go there, we will take a tube of sweet mustard without horseradish with us.

For dinner tonight I cooked a meat stew, using another of the pieces of meat that Peter had brought us.

I made dumplings too, flavoured with some herbs, ground coriander and cardamom.

It was gorgeous.

Because there was so much meat, there was plenty to freeze for another day.

For our brunch today Sheryl made us porridge (oatmeal) with banana and pecans.

It was good, and fairly filling.

Today we cooked something that Sheryl has been craving: veal parmesan. Veal (or sometimes chicken) parmesan is a standard in many Italian restaurants in the US, and Sheryl loves it.

We found a recipe video for veal parmesan by chef John, which worked really well.

We served it with capellini.

It was delicious!

Sheryl made scones for brunch: some with cheese (mature cheddar and Gruyère) and some plain.

We ate the cheese scones topped with either goat-cheese camembert or Gruyère); the plain scones topped with clotted cream and jam (strawberry or blueberry).

For our dinner tonight Sheryl made quesadillas (filled with home-made refried beans and cheddar cheese), which we ate with sour cream, guacamole and some vegan chili that has been in the freezer for ages.

As usual, Sheryl made margaritas to accompany dinner.

It was gorgeous, and we ate every scrap.

For today's brunch I made poached eggs on toast.

We were starting to build up a lot of left over curries in the freezer, so for tonight's curry evening I served a thali: butter chicken and badam pasanda, with garlic naan.

It was really tasty.

Tonight I made the tuna and pasta salad that I was meant to make on Tuesday.

As that was all we had (2 bowls, like in the photo, each, there were no leftovers.

I was supposed to cook a stew tonight, but it was the first day of my rehab/physiotherapy and I got home too late (a stew takes about 3 hours to cook properly), so we heated up frozen pizzas instead.

Sheryl had a 4-cheeses pizza topped with tuna, red onion and an egg; I had a salami and pepperoni pizza topped with red onion and an egg.

Tonight I made an Olive Garden salad, which we ate with the last of the home-made bread-rolls from the freezer.

I was supposed to make tuna and pasta salad to have with it, but I forgot. In the event, dinner was quite filling enough, so we didn't miss the tuna and pasta salad.

For dessert we ate the last of the apple and plum crumble.

Tonight for dinner I cooked an omelette (filled with spring onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and goat-camembert) and has browns.

For dinner tonight I cooked a butternut squash risotto, using some squash that we had frozen. We ate it sprinkled with chili flakes.

For dessert we had some more of the apple and plum crumble that I made yesterday.

For brunch today Sheryl made cinnamon rolls.

For some reason they didn't rise as well as usual, but they were still good and we ate every one.

For our dinner tonight Sheryl made classic (with brown sauce) enchiladas, this time with real meat.

We ate the enchiladas with some lettuce, tomato and lashings of sour cream.

As usual with Mexican food, we had margaritas.

For dessert I made an apple and plum crumble/cobbler, flavoured with plenty of cinnamon; I ate mine with cream and Sheryl ate hers with ice cream.

For today's brunch I made scrambled eggs on toast

We then had some more toast: mine with butter and marmite; Sheryl's with honey, peanut butter and cinnamon.

For our regular curry evening I made butter chicken and mushroom, which we ate with garlic naan (from the freezer).

It was lovely (now that food is starting to taste normal again).

There was enough left over to freeze for a thali.

For our dinner tonight I cooked truffle pasta (tagliolini) with truffle and tomato sauce (all ready made from the Käfer store).

My appetite is starting to recover at last, and I was able to eat a normal portion.

For "dinner" tonight we ate a few cookies.

Sheryl worked late, and ate out with a colleague.

I had beans on toast for dinner (my appetite is still not recovered).

Sheryl had canned tomato soup and a toasted cheese (mature cheddar) sandwich for dinner.

She made me a slice of toast, which I did not eat.

For dinner tonight Sheryl, under my direction, cooked a chicken pot pie. It contained onions, peas, sweet-corn, carrots, mushrooms, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, coriander, chicken stock and cardamom.

For a change, instead of cooking one pie and struggling to find room in the fridge for the leftovers, we made two smaller pies.

For brunch today Sheryl had avocado on toast; I had a slice of toast with crunchy peanut butter.

For tonight's dinner I made a chicken badam pasanda.

Sheryl had planned that we would eat garlic naan with the curry, but, due to my antibiotics, I can't eat any milk products (naan is slathered in butter), so instead we heated up some roti.

The roti was very stale, so we threw it away.

For our brunch today I made poached eggs on toast.

Tonight Sheryl heated up a frozen spinach pizza, topped with feta and an egg.

I, again, because of my illness, had almost no appetite, so I had a slice of toast with crunchy peanut butter.

For tonight's dinner I made lentil soup with vegan wiener, served with bought bread-rolls (one with pumpkin seeds for me, and a spelt roll for Sheryl).

There was a lot left over, which we put into the freezer.

Sheryl was out for dinner, and I still have very limited appetite , so I had some beans on toast.

For tonight's dinner Sheryl cooked us sausages (Nürnberger Bratwurst) with sauerkraut, fried tomatoes, toast and for me some fried mushrooms.

We had take-away for for dinner tonight: burgers and a portion of French fries (chips) to share, from the Hamburgerei Zwei.

Sheryl had her usual "Franzose" (French); I had a "Hamburger" with bacon (I started a course of antibiotics today, which are not compatible with milk or dairy products, so no cheese for me).

For dinner Sheryl (again under my direction) cooked us pasta (tortiglioni) with ricotta, zucchini and mint.

For brunch today Sheryl went across the street to the Saphir bakery to buy croissants and a Rosinenschnecke (raisin Danish pastry).

We ate the croissants with truffle brie and Gruyère.

Sheryl made us chicken Caesar salad for dinner, under my direction, which we ate with garlic bread (from the supermarket).

For our brunch today Sheryl made us toasted cheese (mature cheddar) and Branston pickle sandwiches.

I still have no appetite, and Sheryl doesn't want me to prepare food for her (she doesn't want to catch what I have), so Sheryl brought some sushi home from Sushi Cent.

I had no appetite this evening (my throat infection is hitting me hard), so Sheryl cooked herself a frozen 4-cheeses pizza, topped with tuna and red onion, and I ate nothing.

For tonight's dinner I cooked pasta (capellini) with steamed broccoli and Alfredo sauce.

It was delicious.

We ran out of our normal red wine, so Sheryl bought three bottles of different red wines on the way home from work, and we drank one with dinner; it was actually very good.

For our dinner tonight I cooked veal cordon bleu with mashed swede and braised cabbage.

It was yummy.

The cordon bleu (from the supermarket) come in packs of three, so I now have one in the freezer for lunch another day.

Since today was the last day of this year's Oktoberfest, and we had vouchers for beer and food left over from our previous visit to the Wiesn (the "meadows" where the Oktoberfest is held) we decide to go there for brunch.

We went back to the Armbrustschützenzelt, because our vouchers were only valid for there.

The tent was almost empty when we arrived, but had begun to fill up (and warm up) by the time we left.

We shared a giant pretzel and some Obatzda, and each ordered a pair of Weißwurst (always served with sweet mustard).

We each drank a liter of Helles beer, and then shared one more.

We also shared a giant pickled gherkin (a pickle, to you Americans).

The service was much friendlier and more efficient than our last visit.

The food was great, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Before we left the Wiesn we had cup of coffee at the Marstall tent, partly to get another coffee mug (you pay a deposit for the mug, which you get back if you return it).

For dinner tonight we made fish tacos: salmon marinaded in chipotle, slaw, feta, a guacamole cream and radishes. We had a few tortilla chips on the side.

The were really lovely, and had just the perfect amount of spiciness.

For dessert Sheryl made a pumpkin and nut Swiss-roll.

For our brunch I prepared raw vegetables, crisps/chips and French onion dip.

Dinner tonight was an experiment. Sheryl found a recipe for tortellini (4-cheeses) in a burnt butter, pumpkin and vodka sauce.

It was not very good, and we won't be cooking that again.

For today's brunch I made eggs Benedict, served on home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls, and some more of that lovely thicker cut smoked bacon (still on special at the supermarket).

It was so yummy!

The original plan was for me to cook butter chicken, but that requires a solid 90 minutes at the stove, and my back is still too sore for that, so we decided to go out for a curry instead.

We went to the Taj Mahal; we hadn't been there since before the pandemic.

We had complimentary poppadoms; then I had the Chili Jheenga (Prawn) Dry and Sheryl had the Paneer (Cheese) Pakora; for our main courses Sheryl had the Palak (Spinach) Paneer and I had Duck Taj Mahal. We also ordered an onion kulcha and some roti.

Sheryl drank Helles (lager) beer and I drank Weißbier (wheat beer), with our food.

There were complimentary shots of mango liqueur after the food.

My duck main course was not so impressive (it was just crispy roast duck dumped on top of sauce), but everything else was great.

We were pretty full afterwards (neither of us could finish our main courses, and Sheryl brought her leftovers home and put them in the freezer).

None of the staff at the restaurant were people that we remembered; the downside of that is that we used to get special treatment because we were regulars (e.g. a better selection of pickles with the poppadoms), but not any more.

For tonight's dinner, in an attempt to compensate for yesterday's rather unhealthy dinner, I cooked penne al Arabiata.

It was just the right degree of spiciness.

For tonight's dinner we made club sandwiches, which were lovely.

Sheryl was not very pleased with the bacon she had bought, because it was smoked and cut thicker than normal in Germany; I thought it was terrific.

We ate the club sandwiches with truffle crisps/chips, which were stale and very greasy.

Sheryl had to work late tonight, and I am still not fit enough for any serious cooking, so we had pizzas from the freezer.

I had a pepperoni and salami pizza, topped with a egg. Sheryl had a 4-cheeses pizza topped with tinned tuna and red onion.

In the end, I couldn't wait until Sheryl got home, so I ate my pizza alone.

Tonight I heated up some stew from the freezer, which we ate with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

It was so nice to have some proper food, after a week of hospital food.

On Tuesday the 20^th of September I went into hospital for another operation on my back; I returned home today. I have therefore been subjected to the joys of hospital food for a week. Here are a selection of photos of my interesting hospital food.

For dinner tonight I cooked tortelloni (ready-made, filled with porcini) in a mushroom sauce. The sauce turned out rather lumpy, but it still tasted good.

For dessert we ate some more of the apple and blueberry crumble.

I was still not very hungry by dinnertime.

Sheryl had a spinach pizza topped with red onion and feta (of which I had one slice).

I also made an apple and blueberry crumble (cobbler) which we ate with cream. It was delicious.

This evening we were at the Oktoberfest (the Armbrustshützenzelt, which means the crossbow shooting tent). We had our share of the shared Brotzeitbrett (which, bizarrely doesn't include any bread) and quite a lot of giant pretzels, so we were not so hungry for our main meal; we decided to share a Käsespätzle.

We enjoyed our food, although not everyone was happy with theirs (what do you expect if you order vegan food at a Bavarian place?).

Service was very slow and the waitresses were rather grumpy, because they were understaffed.

I wasn't feeling very for brunch today (I was too full after last night's burgers) so I just had a bread-roll with some soft blue cheese and Branston pickle.

Tonight the painters went to the Hofbräukeller for beers and food (which they seemed really pleased with).

We stayed home and ate take-away burgers and some truffle fries from the Hamburgerei-Zwei.

Sheryl and I spent about 30 minutes reconnecting the TV and audio system (the painters finished the living room late afternoon), so that we were able to watch something after dinner.

Because our kitchen is being painted, we went out for dinner to L'Angelo della Pizza, our favorite Italian restaurant. We took the Ukrainian painters with us and treated them.

Everyone had pizza (Sheryl usually goes for the Rigatoni Quatro Formaggi).

We drank wine, and the painters drank beer (of course).

The Ukrainians didn't seem very hungry; I suspect that they got something to eat when they went out to buy beer.

Dinner was really lovely, as it always is there.

For tonight's dinner I cooked an omelette filled with spring onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and camembert. I also made some chips (French fries), which we dipped in some truffle mayonnaise.

It was delicious.

For dessert we ate the last of the fig tart.

This afternoon I baked another batch of malt and walnut bread-rolls. I ate one (there is nothing as good as bread fresh from the oven), and put the remainder in the freezer.

For dinner tonight I cooked pasta (fusilli) pesto, using the green (basil) pesto that Sheryl made yesterday (she makes much better pesto than me).

It was lovely.

For dinner tonight I made a salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, spring onions and feta), which we topped with Tandoori chicken. We had some shop-bought Semel (Bavarian bread-rolls) with it.

It was very nice.

Tonight I cooked pasta (capellini) Alfredo with broccoli.

It was lovely, but some more sauce would have been good (I made extra, but obviously not enough).

I cooked scrambled eggs for our brunch today, which we served on toast.

We then ate the mango that Sheryl bought a few days ago; it was very disappointing: not properly ripe, and almost no flavour.

For dinner Sheryl cooked quesadillas (filled with cheddar cheese and home-made refried beans). We ate them with a vegetarian chili that I cooked earlier in the day, and some sour cream.

We both ate two plates like the one pictured.

For brunch today we had avocado on toast. Sheryl had malt vinegar on hers; I had aceto balsamico on mine.

We were still hungry after two slices each of avo toast, so we had more toast: marmite and cheese on mine; peanut butter, honey and cinnamon on Sheryl's.

For our regular Friday curry evening I made a satay. Because we had no chicken, I made it with prawns. I also added mushrooms and banana. We ate it with rice.

It was OK, but nowhere as good as with chicken or turkey.

Tonight I cooked salmon braised in white wine, mashed potatoes (with some nutmeg added) and corn-on-the-cob. I also made some tartar sauce.

It was lovely.

I cooked a butternut squash and sun-dried tomato risotto for tonight's dinner.

As an experiment, we ate it topped with some chili flakes, which was a great success.

Tonight, for dinner, I cooked a teriyaki vegetable (broccoli,snow peas, mushrooms, baby corn cobs and onions) stir-fry with noodles. We served it with topped with a mixture of black and white sesame seeds.

It was yummy.

For dinner tonight I made a chicken Caesar salad, which we ate with burger buns.

This time I really nailed the salad dressing, although I was, as usual, not allowed to add anchovies to the dressing (I mashed up a couple of anchovies to put on top of my salad, but it isn't the same).

I was really great.

After the brunch today we were not very hungry for dinner, so we shared a small 4-cheeses pizza topped with tuna and red onions.

I had some coleslaw with mine.

Today we joined Isabelle and Markus in the garden for brunch, to celebrate Markus and my birthdays.

They provided a selection of bread, croissants, cheeses, fruit and fruit salad. We took some home-made eclairs and some pancakes (some with banana and some with blueberries).

We drank prosecco, water and coffee.

It was all lovely (the eclairs were very popular with their kids), and we had a great time.

For dinner I made a meat stew, using a lovely piece of meat that Peter brought us. I also made dumplings. It was really delicious. There was enough left over to freeze for another day (there was lots of meat).

For dessert we ate some of the cheesecake that Sheryl made for my birthday.

For our brunch today I made poached eggs on toast.

Tonight we went to a restaurant, La Bouche, to celebrate my birthday (which was yesterday).

We have been to this restaurant quite a few times, and it was always excellent, but not this time. We had already noticed a steady decline in the quality and range of food and wine over the years (they used to have langoustines on the menu sometimes, which I love, but they haven't been an option for a few years).

I had half a dozen oysters for my starter, which were good. Sheryl had whelks, which were rather chewy, as they normally are (which is why I rarely eat them).

For my main course I had mussels (served with fries), which were edible but not great. They lacked garlic, and did not seem to have been cooked in white wine as moules marinière are meant to be, so they were not very tasty. Also, many of the mussels did not open, which is probably because they were not cooked long enough. I found it odd that they served them with fries; normally they are served with bread to mop up the sauce.

Sheryl ordered the steak tartare (also served with fries), which was a total disaster. The tartare tasted of dish-washing-up liquid so strongly that it was inedible (and would probably have made her sick if she had eaten it). I complained to our waiter, and he replied "What can I do?", which was not what I had expected.

Sheryl was understandably disappointed; she loves steak tartare, and had been looking forward to it since she made the reservation.

The whole evening, the service was slow and chaotic. The couple at a neighboring table left after their starters, because of the poor service.

When the bill came, I asked the waiter to bring the boss or the chef, which he failed to do, but eventually I got the boss to our table. She tasted the tartare and pronounced that it was fine, although her sample was from the opposite side to where we had eaten from, but she did at least take it off the bill.

After this disastrous dinner, coupled with the general decline in choice and standards, we will probably not return there. We just need to find another French restaurant where Sheryl can get her tartare.

After we returned home, Sheryl had a slice of my birthday cheesecake.

For tonight's dinner I cooked truffle pasta, and truffle and tomato sauce (all bought from Käfer, the "Harrods" of Munich).

For dessert we ate some of the cheesecake (with a base made from Oreo crumbs) topped with salted caramel that Sheryl made for my birthday cake.

It was all very good, especially the cheesecake.

For dinner tonight we made burgers, with real meat (beef) for a change. I made chips (French fries) to go with them, which we dipped in truffle mayonnaise.

There was far too much meat. I made the burgers very thick, and, even so, there was a third burger (for my lunch later in the week).

They were very nice.

For dinner tonight I made an Olive Garden salad (lettuce, tomatoes, croutons, olives, peperoni, red onions and grated parmesan) and a tuna pasta salad, served with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

It was really delicious.

For dinner tonight I cooked an omelette, filled with spring onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and camembert cheese, which I served with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

It was very tasty, but, again, it didn't look so good because the omelette stuck to the pan when I folded it.

For dinner tonight we cooked a spinach, mushroom and cheese puff-pastry roll.

It tasted lovely, but didn't look so good, because Sheryl sealed it up and then realised that she hadn't added the cheese (not the first time she has done so). She had to unseal it, add the cheese, and seal it up again, hence the mess.

For brunch today Sheryl made scones: some cheese and some plain.

We at the cheese scones topped with some camembert cheese; we ate the plain scones with clotted cream and jams (strawberry for Sheryl and blueberry for me).

They were as always, excellent.

Dinner tonight was the leftover enchiladas verde from the freezer, which we ate with sour cream and guacamole.

They were lovely.

I bought ready-made guacamole at the supermarket today. It was rubbish. They have stopped selling the brand that we used to buy, and we haven't found a good alternative (and Sheryl's last attempt to make guacamole was not a great success).

For this week's curry dinner I cooked a chicken redang (a Malaysian curry), which I served with coconut rice.

It was gorgeous.

For dinner tonight I heated up the leftover meat balls in spicy tomato sauce, from the freezer. I served them with capellini.

There was very little sauce in with the frozen meatballs, so I added more tinned tomatoes, herbs, and sambal oelek.

Sheryl had to work late tonight. We had planned pizzas, and I finished cooking my pizza just as Sheryl arrived home.

I had a salami and pepperoni pizza topped with an egg (pictured); Sheryl had her usual spinach pizza topped with feta, red onion and and egg.

Sadly, I had no coleslaw to eat with my pizza.

Sheryl had to work late tonight. We had planned pizzas, and I finished cooking my pizza just as Sheryl arrived home.

I had a salami and pepperoni pizza topped with an egg (pictured); Sheryl had her usual spinach pizza topped with feta, red onion and and egg.

Sadly, I had no coleslaw to eat with my pizza.

For our dinner tonight I made a chicken pot pie.

I added sweetcorn, carrots, mushrooms, chili, oregano, tarragon, mustard and chicken stock. I also decided to add some aceto balsamico, which enhanced the flavour nicely.

We both ate two plates like the one pictured.

For dinner we made falafel wraps, also filled with lettuce, tomato, feta, home-made hummus with green olives, sour cream and hot sauce.

Sheryl bought the falafel yesterday at the kebab stand in the local shopping mall (Kebazza at Das Einstein).

For dessert we had Mr. Kipling's golden syrup sponge puddings with cream.

After our filling brunch, we were both still full at dinner time, so we decided to have a snack for dinner: crackers with various toppings (some Gelbwurst and mustard, some cheese, and for Sheryl also some nutella and peanut butter).

For our brunch today we made croque madame.

We had to wait until Sheryl returned from grocery shopping for the white sliced bread that we needed. Sheryl bought some a couple of days ago, specifically for the croque madame, but discovered that the pack was full of fruit flies (I guess that the package was not properly sealed), so I threw that one away and Sheryl bought some more.

We had some fruit (watermelon and strawberries) afterwards.

The brunch was delicious, and very filling.

For this week's curry dinner I cooked a butter chicken, which was served with garlic naan bread.

As usual, it worked well, and we greatly enjoyed our dinner.

For dinner tonight I cooked prawns in batter, served with rice and Singapore-style sweet and sour sauce.

It was delicious.

Today, for our brunch, we had raw vegetables (carrots, radishes, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and celery) and crisps/chips with French onion dip.

The crisps were French Jura cheese crisps from Muji (their own brand), which are outstanding; such a strong cheese taste; very addictive.

For tonight's dinner we made linguine cacio e pepe (sheep's cheese and pepper).

It was so good (an explosion of cheese flavour in your mouth), although it always has that grey colour, due to the pepper.

For today's brunch Sheryl made French toast. She ate hers with strawberries and maple syrup; I ate mine with blueberries and a small amount of maple syrup.

It was nice, although more Sheryl's thing than mine.

For dinner tonight I made a salad, including fresh figs and walnuts, topped with goat cheese and served with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

For tonight's dinner we made raviolo all'uovo, topped with pieces of crispy fried bacon and sage. They are a lot of effort.

They were lovely (the egg yolk ran out when we cut them - see the photo on the right), although they probably should have been cooked a minute longer.

For our dinner tonight Sheryl cooked chicken enchiladas verde (with a green sauce of tomatillos and green chili).

We ate them with sour cream and some home-made guacamole (which was not very good).

The enchiladas were great.

For dessert we finished off the apple pie: Sheryl had ice cream with hers, and I had cream with mine.

For our brunch Sheryl cooked porridge (oatmeal) with banana and pecan nuts.

It was very tasty.

For dinner tonight we cooked (in the oven, wrapped in tin foil) salmon with green pesto, green bean, cherry tomatoes and mashed potato and carrot.

It was lovely.

For today's brunch I made scrambled eggs (to use up the egg whites from yesterday evening's custard), served on toast.

We then had some more toast: mine with butter and marmite and Sheryl's with nutella.

For our curry evening I cooked a chicken badam pasanda, which we ate with garlic naan.

It was delicious, although Sheryl felt that I was a little heavy-handed with the garam masala.

There was enough to freeze for a later thali.

For dessert we ate some of the leftover apple pie, with some real egg custard (which turned out a little runnier than intended).

For tonight's dinner I cooked pasta (tortiglioni) with zucchini, mint and ricotta, which was lovely.

For dinner tonight Sheryl tried something new: crunch wraps. They were filled with refried beans, cheese and chili sauce, sour cream, cherry tomatoes and lettuce.

We ate them with jalapeño poppers, more of the cheese and chili sauce, guacamole, more refried beans and sour cream.

They were OK, but not as good as the Mexican pizzas that Sheryl makes.

Today Sheryl made scones for our brunch.

Half were cheese scones and half were raisin and cinnamon scones (to which she added loads of cinnamon).

We ate the cheese scones with some extra cheese; we ate the others with clotted cream and fig jam.

They were delicious.

Neither of us felt like cooking this evening, so we went to Sushi Cent for a sushi dinner.

It was great.

The owner gave us a complementary bottle of wine.

For tonight's dinner Sheryl made spicy chicken wings, using a recipe that she got from her sister Becky.

We ate them with some corn-on-the cob, potato salad (Bavarian style, with oil and vinegar rather than mayonnaise) and dips.

She made a ranch dressing dip for herself, and a blue cheese dip for me.

It all tasted lovely, although we both felt the wings could have been a little spicier.

For our brunch I made crumpets.

I had just butter on mine; Sheryl had some jam on some, and then nutella.

They were lovely.

For dinner tonight I made an Olive Garden copycat salad, served with egg salad.

The recipe calls for finely grated parmesan, and Sheryl prefers it that way, but the fine grater was in the dishwasher, so she had to make do with shaved parmesan (the way that I prefer it).

For dessert Sheryl made an apple pie using the Preppy Kitchen recipe. Sheryl ate hers with ice-cream, and I ate mine with cream. It was lovely, although it is quite a bit of work.

Sheryl decided on porridge (oatmeal) for breakfast, because she believes it to be healthy (which it is, until one adds sugar and maple syrup).

We added slices of banana and pieces of pecan nut to it.

We fancied pasta with prawns and asparagus for dinner, but the asparagus season is over. Normally, the supermarket has mini-asparagus from south America, all year round, but they didn't have any when Sheryl went shopping. Instead she bought some asparagus-filled ravioli, and I used that to make something similar to what we wanted.

It wasn't a great success; the ravioli had very little flavour (although it still gave us both asparagus-pee).

We also decided to try a fairly expensive bottle of rosé wine: Mirval (from the estate that was bought by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie). The wine is best described as inoffensive: not too acidic, but distinctly lacking in flavour and character; a wine for people who don't really like wine; most certainly not worth the €20 that we paid; bizarre that it was voted best rosé wine in the world.

If you want a really good rosé wine, one of the best that I ever had was Odyssey, from Gozo in Malta.

For brunch I went across the street to the Saphir bakery to buy croissants and a Rosinenschnecke (raisin Danish pastry).

We ate the croissants with Peter's pork paté and mustard.

We shared the Danish pastry.

For tonight's dinner I cooked Thai Chicken Ramen, something that we hadn't had for a while.

For our brunch we had avocado toast; I had aceto balsamico on mine, and Sheryl had malt vinegar on hers.

We then had some cantaloupe and blackberries.

For dinner tonight we made tacos (hard-shell), using vegan meat substitute.

Sheryl made us margaritas as well.

For dessert we had canoli: real canoli that Sheryl bought at "Eataly".

Tonight I cooked the piece of venison that Peter brought us recently.

I sliced it thinly and cooked it in a sauce with onions, mushrooms, mustard, tarragon, oregano, vermouth and cream. I served it with pasta (capellini).

It was really gorgeous: the meat was tender and full of flavour.

I had another of the leftover cheesecakes for dessert; Sheryl had chocolate.

For tonight's dinner I made a green salad topped with tandoori prawns, and served with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

The tandoori prawns were especially good this time; no idea why.

Tonight's dinner was a bit experimental. We made "hot dogs" using vegan sausages, served in home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls, with some baked beans (not normal baked beans, but 5-bean baked beans) on the side.

The vegan sausages were not great; they were "Beyond Sausages" (we had high hopes, because the "Beyond Burgers" are rather good), but they had no flavour at all, and if it hadn't been for the mustard that we used would have been hard to finish.

The 5-bean baked beans really tasted just the same as normal baked beans.

For dinner tonight we made club sandwiches, served with crisps/chips.

They were, as always, delicious.

For dessert I had one of the leftover cheesecakes; Sheryl had a piece of date cake (which we had in the freezer for ages) with some cream.

Today we had brunch in the garden, with Isabelle and Markus (and kids).

We took some scotch eggs (which I cooked yesterday) and some individual lemon cheesecakes with mango topping (which Sheryl baked yesterday).

The scotch eggs proved popular. The cheesecakes were also good, despite Sheryl forgetting one of the ingredients (flour).

For tonight's dinner I cooked baked feta and cherry tomato pasta.

It wasn't quite as good as usual, because I didn't add enough tomatoes.

For today's brunch I served a selection of raw vegetables, crisps/chips and French onion dip.

Today we needed to eat healthily, because tomorrow's brunch will be very unhealthy.

For our dinner tonight I cooked a chicken and mushroom satay, which I served with rice.

It was, as usual, gorgeous.

There was enough left over to freeze for a thali.

For tonight's dinner I cooked a duck-egg omelette (the last of the duck-eggs that Peter brought us) and zucchini and potato fritters.

It was lovely.

I cooked penne al Arabiata for dinner tonight.

Sheryl found this one a little too spicy.

For dinner tonight we ate a selection of dim sum.

Dinner tonight was pizzas from the freezer.

Sheryl had her usual spinach pizza, topped with feta, red-onion and an egg. I had a 4-cheeses pizza topped with anchovies, red-onion and an egg, with some coleslaw on the side.

For tonight's dinner I made a green salad based on the Olive Garden salad (red-onions, lettuce, tomatoes, olives and parmesan) and a tuna pasta salad.

It was delicious.

Today's brunch was Scotch Eggs, made with duck eggs, which I cooked yesterday afternoon.

We made a dipping sauce to go with them, using mayonnaise, mustard and chili powder, which was very good.

We really enjoyed them.

Tonight was a Mexican evening.

Sheryl made margaritas, and Mexican pizzas (like the ones that Taco Bell has recently put back on their menu).

For our brunch today I made poached eggs on home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

For dinner tonight I cooked a butter chicken, which we ate with garlic naan (bought, frozen, from the supermarket).

It was delicious. We both had two portions, and there was not enough left to freeze.

This afternoon I baked some malt and walnut bread-rolls.

They worked well.

For dinner tonight I heated up the leftover salmon and leek quiche, and cooked some more sauté potatoes.

Sheryl finished work early, and since the weather was really nice, we decided to go to a beer garden for dinner. We went to the Hofbräukeller on Wiener Platz.

We sat with Sheryl's boss, and a couple of his team.

I ate some Schweinebraten (roast pork, with crackling) with a Kartoffelknödel (a dumpling made of potato) and gravy.

Sheryl ate a giant pretzel with obatzda

We drank quite a few beers.

Tonight I cooked a salmon and leek quiche, which I served with sauté potatoes.

I cooked the potatoes in home-made Schmalz (lard) which Peter had brought with him, which made the potatoes really good.

The quiche also worked very well (not runny in the centre) and tasted great.

Dinner tonight was salad topped with falafel and served with home-made bread-rolls.

I was feeling rather unwell, and had very little appetite, so I ate just some bread and butter.

For dinner tonight I cooked pasta (Tortiglioni) with zucchini, mint and ricotta, which was, as usual, lovely.

Our guests headed home today, and wanted to make an early start, so they heated up the leftover pizzas for breakfast.

Sheryl and I made ourselves a brunch of croque madame, using some of the duck eggs that Peter brought us. They were really fantastic.

For dinner we got takeaway pizzas from L'Angolo Della Pizza.

Peter and I each had a pizza diavolo; Sheryl, Georgina and Atanas shared two Pizza Parma (with Parma Ham, Parmesan and Rucola/Arugula). I made a side-salad as well.

The pizzas are huge, so we didn't quite manage to finish them, but they were delicious.

For dessert Sheryl made chocolate lava cakes; some people ate theirs with vanilla ice-cream, and some with cream. There were also raspberries to have with the lava cakes.

For dinner Peter, Atanas and I cooked two risottos: one with butternut squash and one with prawns.

They were both very good.

For breakfast Peter bought some croissants and bread-rolls from the Saphir bakery. We ate them with cheeses, ham, salami, jam and nutella.

For dinner tonight we went to the Hamburgerei Zwie.

Sheryl had her favourite, Der Franzose (the French), Georgina had Der Hamburger (the Hamburger), Peter had Der Mexikaner (the Mexican), and Atanas and I both had Der Amerikaner (the American).

Georgina had some French fries with her burger, Sheryl had some truffle fries, and I had some coleslaw. The coleslaw was a great disappointment, as it always is; I don't know why I order it.

Sheryl had a glass of red wine; Georgina, Peter and I had beers, and Atanas had some kind of pop. The beers were annoyingly warm.

Another problem was that our waitress seemed to forget to submit our order, so it took an hour for our food to arrive, because they didn't start cooking it until we complained.

For dinner tonight we made fish tacos, using fish fingers/sticks (Atanas would not eat the spicy fish marinaded in chipotle).

We put radishes, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, feta and home-made pickled red-onions in the tacos. Those of us who like spicy food also added hot sauce.

Our guests seemed to enjoy the tacos.

For dessert I had bought some Gü individual cheesecakes with chocolate and salted caramel, which were very popular.

For breakfast today Peter and I cooked banana pancakes. There was maple syrup, nutella, butter and peanut butter to put on the pancakes.

Tonight we went to the Dalmatiner Grill for a lovely Croatian dinner.

Sheryl and I shared a beef tartar (yes, that is a single portion of tartar, for one person). The others didn't have a starter.

For our main courses Sheryl and I both had fried calamari; Georgina had ćevapčići; Peter had lamb cutlets and Atanas had a Croatian style schnitzel stuffed with ham and egg.

A couple of people had room for some ice cream for dessert.

We all really enjoyed our food; Peter wants to go there on his next visit.

The dinner experience was made even better, as usual, by the younger Kovacec, who is very funny and entertaining.

I had a doctor's appointment downtown this morning, so our guests had to fend for themselves for breakfast. They had toast with cheeses, ham, salami, jam and nutella. I bought myself a Schnitzel Semmel (bread roll) and a cheese pretzel on the way home.

Tonight Peter and I cooked meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta (capellini). We made a non-spicy sauce for Atanas and Georgina, and my normal spicy sauce for the rest of us.

We had planned to have croissants from the Saphir bakery, but Peter came back empty handed because they are closed for a couple of days.

Instead we had toast, and the leftover scones from yesterday, with cheeses and jams.

Peter, Georgina and their son Atanas arrived today for a visit. Atanas really loves sushi, so we went to Sushi Cent for dinner.

The sushi was especially good today; the fish was very fresh.

For brunch today Sheryl made scones: some plain and some cheese.

For dinner we heated up the enchiladas verde from the freezer, which we ate with sour cream and guacamole.

For today's brunch I made scrambled eggs on toast.

For our regular curry evening we had a starter of poppadoms with pickles, followed by a thali (chicken satay and butter chicken, from the freezer) with garlic naan bread.

For dinner tonight I cooked a prawn risotto, flavoured with some sun-dried tomatoes, nutmeg and sambal oelek.

It was excellent, and I will definitely make it again.

Dinner tonight was a starter of insalata caprese, which we ate with home-made bread-rolls (to mop up the dressing) followed by a truffle pizza (topped with some extra cheddar cheese).

It was delicious.

For our dinner tonight I cooked linguine cacio e pepe.

I accidentally added too much of the pasta water, so the sauce was a little too runny, but still tasted great.

We heated up some of yesterday's bread and butter pudding for dessert.

For tonight's dinner we made club sandwiches, which are always great. We ate some balsamico chips/crisp with the sandwiches.

For dessert I made a bread and butter pudding, which was also lovely.

We were totally stuffed afterwards.

For dinner tonight I made a cherry tomato and goat-cheese galette.

It worked well, despite me having no help from Sheryl.

For brunch today I made toasted cheese (mature cheddar) and pickle (branston) sandwiches.

For tonight's dinner we made fish tacos, using soft tacos and fish fingers (fish sticks).

We filled the tacos with feta, home-made pickled red-onions and sliced radishes, and added some hot sauce.

The were lovely.

Sheryl, as usual, burnt one of our frying pans heating up the tacos, so I will have a major cleaning task tomorrow.

For our brunch today I made poached eggs on toast.

For our regular curry dinner I cooked a chicken badam pasanda, which we ate with roti.

I was very tasty.

For dinner tonight I cooked two frozen pizzas: a spinach pizza topped with red-onion, feta and an egg, for Sheryl, and a 4-cheeses pizza topped with red-onion, chorizo and an egg, for me.

I had some coleslaw on the side.

For dinner I cooked penne al Arbiata, which was delicious.

We had some pork and beef mince in the freezer, which Sheryl had bought in case she couldn't get pork mince for our Japanese meal two weeks ago.

We decided to use it to make some Fleischpflanzerl (called Frikadelle in northern Germany): like a beef burger, but made with minced pork and beef.

We ate them with some potato croquettes and pickled gherkins.

We really enjoyed our dinner.

For dinner I made a green salad, topped with with quails' eggs, which we ate with some home-made bread-rolls.

It was nice, but the quails' eggs were not as special as I was hoping.

For our dinner tonight we made a puff-pastry roll stuffed with spinach, cheese, and mushrooms.

It was lovely, but we couldn't finish it (we had two portions each), after our filling brunch.

For today's brunch we met Manu at the Schneider Bräuhaus for a Bavarian breakfast of Weißwurst, pretzels, Obatzda and Weißbier (wheat beer).

The food and drink was, as always, great, and it was lovely to see Manu again after such a long time.

For dinner tonight Sheryl made chicken enchiladas verde, which we ate with guacamole and sour cream.

It was the enchiladas were fantastic; probably the best yet.

For this morning's brunch we had raw vegetables and crisps/chips with French onion dip.

Tonight, for our curry evening, I cooked a chicken redang (a Malaysian curry) and coconut rice.

For tonight's dinner I cooked capellini with asparagus and prawns.

Normally I include sun-dried tomatoes, but when I opened the pack I found they were mouldy, so I made the dish without.

For dessert we ate the leftover cheesecakes that Sheryl had made for work. The lemon cheesecake was the best.

Tonight Sheryl was at work in a meeting until 8 pm. I was unable to wait, so I cooked a frozen pizza (salami and pepperoni) topped with an egg.

When Sheryl finally got home, she had a spinach pizza, also topped with an egg.

Our dinner tonight was the leftover Quiche Lorraine from Sunday, which I heated up in the oven.

Whilst I was getting dinner ready, Sheryl made three New York style cheesecakes (one to be topped with a red wine jelly, one with a mango jelly and one with a lemon jelly, which she plans to add tomorrow) for the birthday of her deputy at work; so, none for me.

For dinner this evening I made an Olive Garden Salad which we ate with crab cakes that Sheryl made. I made some home-made tartar sauce to go with the crab cakes.

We decided not to have bread-rolls with dinner, because the salad had croutons in it.

It was really delicious.

For tonight's dinner I cooked a quiche Lorraine.

It was great.

This morning I went to the Saphir bakery and bought croissants. They had no Rosinenschnecken (Danish pastries), so I got a couple of pain au chocolat instead.

We ate the croissants with Obatzda.

For tonight's dinner I made a butter chicken, which we ate with garlic naan.

It was really tasty.

Sheryl went to the local swimming pool this morning, and took a packed brunch of sandwiches made with some of my home-made bread-rolls.

I was not feeling well, so I stayed home and ate bread-rolls with butter and marmite.

This evening we had an online Japanese cooking course (a present from my daughter) with The School of Wok.

It started at 19:00 (7 pm) our time, which meant we didn't eat until 21:00 (9 pm), by which time we were thoroughly hungry.

We made pork gyoza and a vegetable teriyaki stir-fry.

The gyoza were really good, and now I know not only how to make gyoza, but also the proper way to cook them, even for frozen gyoza like we usually have when we eat dim sum.

The stir-fry was rather lack-lustre; my usual vegetable stir-fry is better.

Tonight I cooked truffle tortellini in a spicy tomato sauce.

It was lovely.

Dinner tonight was pizzas from the freezer.

Sheryl had a spinach pizza topped with some feta, red-onion and an egg; I had a 4-cheeses pizza topped with some chorizo, red-onion and an egg. I also had some coleslaw on the side.

For dinner this evening we made vegetarian burgers.

I had some fried mushrooms on the side.

This evening I made a chicken Caesar salad.

So that Sheryl wouldn't complain, I didn't add anchovies to the dressing, but made an anchovy paste to add to my salad.

For tonight's dinner Sheryl cooked (in the oven) salmon with green pesto, green beans and cherry tomatoes. I cooked some corn-on-the-cob to have on the side.

It was delicious.

For brunch today I made crumpets.

I ate most of mine with just butter; Sheryl had cheese, and also one with marmite as well as the cheese. The last were eaten with nutella (for Sheryl) and peanut butter (for me).

We usually have a few left over, but today we ate the lot.

For tonight's dinner I cooked penne with mint, ricotta and zucchini.

For our brunch today I cooked poached eggs served on home-made walnut and malt bread-rolls.

Sheryl returned from her business trip to Düsseldorf today. I cooked a chicken badam pasanda for dinner, which we ate with some naan bread.

My plan for dinner was to have sausages with baked beans on toast, but I discovered that there were no baked beans. Instead I fried some mushrooms and a tomato to have with the sausages.

For dinner tonight I made a cashew chicken and saffron rice.

It was lovely.

Sheryl is away on a business trip, so I was on my own for dinner.

I heated up the frozen meatballs in spicy tomato sauce that we had in the freezer, which I ate with some capellini.

Although there was not enough of the meatball sauce for two people, it was too much for one. I guess I will be eating a meatball sandwich for brunch tomorrow.

For dinner tonight we made falafel wraps, filled with falafel, feta, home-made hummus (with green olives), peperoni, lettuce, tomato and hot sauce.

For our brunch today I made raw vegetables with French onion dip. We had some hummus chips as well.

Afterwards we finished up the cantaloupe.

It was lovely.

For tonight's dinner I cooked baked feta and cherry tomato pasta.

Today we were invited downstairs for brunch by Isabelle and Markus.

We took some mini layered cakes with coconut and passion fruit, and some blueberry pancakes.

Our hosts provided a lovely selection of bread, croissants and some really lovely cheeses.

We drank prosecco, sparkling water and coffee.

We had a lovely time.

As usual, I forgot to take any photos.

For our dinner tonight I cooked a Thai Basil and Chicken curry (from a recipe I found online), served with rice.

It was good, although the sauce was too runny and I had to thicken it by adding more peanut butter. I used normal basil rather than Thai basil; it would probably have been much better with Thai basil. Also. next time I will serve it with coconut rice.

Once I have fine-tuned the recipe, I will add it to my recipes page.

For brunch today I went to the Saphir bakery and bought croissants and a Rosinenschnecke (Danish pastry).

We ate the croissants with various cheeses (some Obatzda, which was not very good, camembert and Castello soft blue), and shared the Danish and some cantaloupe.

I have never eaten such a good cantaloupe; it was very ripe, juicy and full of flavour.

Tonight I was supposed to make a Thai curry, but discovered that we had no chicken, so we decided to go out for dinner.

We went to L'Angolo della Pizza, which we haven't been to for quite a while.

We had our usual: rigatoni quattro formaggi for Sheryl, and pizza diavolo for me, both of which were excellent.

Sheryl was full after the main courses, but I managed to find room for a dessert: a panna cotta, which was also lovely.

Our waiter was very attentive, and spoke good German (some of them don't).

Tonight I cooked omelette (filled with spring onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and camembert cheese) and potato croquettes.

Tonight's dinner was a selection of Dim Sum.

It was all lovely, except for the yakitori sticks; our local Asian store no longer sells the brand we used to buy, and the brand they now sell is not good.

Tonight I heated up the leftover chicken pot-pie.

It was lovely.

For our dinner tonight I heated up some frozen mushroom, black bean and barley soup from the freezer, which we ate with home-made bread-rolls.

It was delicious, and quite filling.

For tonight's dinner I made a chicken pot-pie. In addition to the chicken, it contained onion, mushrooms, carrots, peas and sweetcorn. For flavoring, I added mustard, sambal oelek, chicken stock, thyme, cardamom and coriander powder.

It was lovely.

For brunch today I made scrambled eggs on toast. We added a slice of cheese too.

For our dinner tonight I made a green salad and tandoori prawns, which we ate with some home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls that I made this afternoon.

For dessert we had some so-called canoli that Sheryl bought at the supermarket, which were a little stale.

For today's brunch we made croque madame; delicious, but thoroughly unhealthy.

We were pretty full afterwards, but decided to try the marmite biscuits that Sheryl bought on her recent business trip to London. They were lovely.

For our curry evening this week I cooked a chicken and mushroom satay and rice.

It was gorgeous.

For dinner tonight we made a cherry tomato and goat-cheese galette.

This time we actually managed to let it cool before eating it (it is much better cold).

For brunch today Sheryl cooked some cinnamon rolls that we had in the freezer.

They were lovely, and rose well.

For dinner tonight we cooked linguine cacio e pepe

It was delicious.

For tonight's dinner I made an insalata caprese, served with bought Semel (Bavarian for bread-roll), because we had no more home-made bread-rolls, for a starter.

For our main course I cooked a large frozen 4-cheeses pizza, topped with red onion and the last of our home-made spicy Italian sausage. which we shared.

I had some coleslaw with my half of the pizza.

For our dinner I cooked sweet and sour prawns in batter, with rice.

It was good, but was not quite sweet and sour enough.

I was really stuffed afterwards.

For tonight's dinner I made an olive garden salad and a tuna/pasta salad, served with the last of my home-made sourdough bread rolls with caraway seeds.

It was fantastic.

For our brunch today I made toasted cheese (cheddar) and pickle (branston) sandwiches.

Tonight I cooked a butter chicken, which we ate with naan bread (garlic naan, I think).

It was, as always, delicious.

There was enough left over to freeze, for a thali later.

For today's brunch we had avocado on toast. As usual, I had balsamic vinegar on mine, and Sheryl had malt vinegar on hers.

Two slices of toast with avocado each wasn't enough, so I made some more toast. I ate mine with butter and marmite, and Sheryl had honey and cinnamon on hers.

For our dinner tonight Sheryl made vegetarian tacos, using a vegan meat substitute, vegan feta, some pickled red onions that we made yesterday, some avocado cream (avocado, sour cream, garlic, lime juice, cumin and garlic) tomatoes and lettuce.

She also made us margaritas.

For dinner tonight I cooked pasta (capellini) with broccoli and Alfredo sauce.

It was delicious, and we managed two plates each, despite our hug lunch.

This morning we were out shopping for a replacement dishwasher, so we decided to eat at Burger King in Das Einstein (our local shopping mall).

We both had items from the specials menu: Sheryl had a macaroni and cheese burger, I had a burger with pastrami, and we shared a portion of French fries.

They had such a dreadful selection of drinks that Sheryl went to the supermarket and bought us some drinks.

Neither of our burgers were anything special, but they were very filling, and we were totally stuffed afterwards.

Tonight I heated up the leftover salmon and asparagus quiche, which I served with a few sauté potatoes.

It actually tasted better the second time around, and was less crumbly.

Tonight, as the weather was nice, we decided to go out to the local beer garden (the Hofbräukeller).

We had a couple of beers, took some food (Spanish salami and radishes) with us, and bought a giant pretzel and some Obatzda at the beer garden.

It was a lovely evening out.

It is still early enough in the season that there are very few wasps trying to drink your beer and eat your beer.

For our dinner tonight I cooked a risotto with butternut squash and sun-dried tomatoes (the trick with the tomatoes is to soak them for 30 minutes in the wine that you will use to cook the risotto, so that they soften).

It was very tasty.

Tonight I cooked a salmon and asparagus quiche, with some sauté potatoes.

It was delicious.

For today's brunch Sheryl made scones: half of them with cheese (Gruyère and cheddar) and half with dates.

We ate the cheese scones with extra cheese (and, in my case, marmite), and the date scones with butter (and in Sheryl's case, honey).

They worked really well: they rose well, and weren't to crumbly.

For our dinner tonight I cooked capellini (what used to be sold as "quick cooking spaghetti" when I lived in England) with meat-balls in spicy tomato sauce.

The meat-ball recipe is based on Chef Pasquale's recipe.

It was really tasty.

There was enough of the meat-balls in sauce to freeze for another day.

For today's brunch I made Eggs Benedict, served on some home-made bread-rolls, and bacon (some crispy thinly sliced German/American style bacon for Sheryl and some thick cut English bacon for me). Sheryl also had some Rucola (arugula) with hers.

It was so delicious (although rather unhealthy)!

Because we were going to the opera tonight, we ate dinner at Zum Franziskaner before the performance.

It was warm enough to sit outside.

They seemed to be a little short-staffed, so service was a little slow, but otherwise very good.

Sheryl had the same as last time: roast duck with dumplings and cinnamon red cabbage. I had some "fiery red sausages" with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. We had some Merlot with our food.

The meal was, as usual, excellent.

Sheryl had vacation today, with the plan to do some last minute cleaning and preparation before Peter and Georgina arrived for a visit (but they cancelled this morning), so I cooked us banana pancakes for brunch.

The bananas were very ripe, and really needed to be used up.

The pancakes were good, although next time I will add more cinnamon.

For dinner today I heated up a chicken badam pasanda and a vegetable curry from the freezer, which we ate with some garlic naan bread.

Sheryl was working at home today, so for brunch we made vegetables and French onion dip. We also had some crisps/chips with the dip.

It was very nice.

For this evening's dinner I cooked a mushroom, black bean and pearl barley soup, which we ate with some of my home made bread-rolls (sourdough with caraway seeds).

It was very tasty.

There was enough left to freeze for another meal (or maybe two).

For our dinner tonight Sheryl cooked quesadillas, and I heated up a vegetarian chili from the freezer, which we ate with guacamole and sour cream.

It was lovely.

Tonight, due to the failure of our dishwasher and my failed attempts to fix it, there wasn't enough time to cook what we had planned, so we went to Sushi Cent for dinner.

For dinner tonight we made vegetarian burgers (using "Beyond Burgers") and French fries.

We had some truffle cream and ketchup for dipping the fries.

For breakfast today we had some of my sourdough and caraway-seed bread-rolls, with some cheeses, and some almond croissants that Pilar bought yesterday at the supermarket.

Tonight we took Renato and Pilar to the Rusticana restaurant, because Renato really loves ribs.

Renato and I had some beers before the food: a Helles (lager) for Renato and a Wei%szlig;bier for me. The ladies went straight for wine: a Montepulciano.

Everyone else had ribs; I had a steak (I wanted a filet steak, but they were sold out, so I had a rump steak instead, only half of which was eadible, due to gristle and fat).

Renato had some mushrooms as a side dish; I had coleslaw; Sheryl had corn on-the-cob. My steak came with a baked potato covered with loads of sour cream.

We had a second bottle of Montepulciano, which turned out to be their last bottle.

The food was great, and our waiter was really good (and spoke excellent English - useful since Renato and Pilar have no German).

Today we went with Renato and Pilar to the Fruhlingsfest (spring beer festival), which takes place on the Theresienwiese (Theresa-meadow) where the Oktoberfest is held.

Pilar drank red wine, Renato drank a Helles (lager beer) and Sheryl and I drank Weißbier.

For food, Sheryl and Renato each had a half a Hendl (rotisserie chicken), I had Weißwurst and Pilar had Obatzda, and we shared some pretzels.

In the end we ordered another Obatzda and more pretzels to share.

Tonight Renato and Pilar arrived from Barcelona. I cooked a lasagna and made a small side-salad.

We drank a bottle of Barolo with the food.

After the main course we had some cheese (Roquefort, truffle brie, Castello Blue and cheddar) and crackers, and drank a bottle of Saint-Émilion.

Tonight we ate at the Augustiner Stammhaus on Neuhauser Straße (see my News Blog).

We both had veal Fleischpflanzerl (meat patties, called Frikadelle in other parts of Germany) with gravy and potato & cucumber salad, which were lovely.

For our dinner tonight I cooked Tortiglioni Al Arabiata.

As always, it was lovely.

For tonight's dinner I made a salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, fresh figs and avocado) topped with warm goat-cheese, and served with home-made bread-rolls.

Sheryl recently ordered a selection of wines from Hawesko, and we tried one of the wines, an Italian rosé, with the salad. It was nice: not too acidic, and quite fruity, although somewhat more expensive than our usual rosé (Réserve de Gratias).

For dinner tonight I cooked a couple of frozen pizzas: for Sheryl a spinach pizza topped with red-onion, feta and an egg (pictured to the right); for me a salami pizza topped red-onion and an egg. I had some coleslaw on the side.

For dessert we had the Gü cheesecakes with chocolate and salted caramel.

For my dinner tonight I cooked sausages with poached eggs and beans on toast; real man-food!

I made some bread rolls this afternoon: sourdough rolls with caraway seeds.

The dough was not genuine sourdough (my previous attempt at sourdough was not a success), but were made with sourdough extract (you also have to add yeast, unlike a real sourdough).

They turned out pretty well.

Sheryl is still away on her training, so I was free to choose whatever I wanted for my brunch. I opted for tinned sardines and coleslaw on toast, which was lovely.

For my dinner tonight (Sheryl is still away on her training course) I cooked a frozen pizza (salami and pepperoni), topped with an egg, with some coleslaw on the side.

I had the second chocolate and salted caramel cheesecake for dessert; I also bought more of them today, so Sheryl could try them when she returns.

For my brunch today I made myself toasted cheese (cheddar) and pickle (branston) sandwiches.

Tonight I cooked spaghetti vongole. Sheryl hates this dish, and since she is away on a training course at the moment, it was a rare opportunity for me to eat one of my favourite Italian meals.

It was so delicious!

I have tried ordering spaghetti vongole in a few restaurants in Munich, and it has never been good (the chefs don't seem to know the trick), so cooking it myself is the only way to get this meal cooked properly.

For dessert I had bought some chocolate and salted caramel cheesecake, made by Gü, from the supermarket, which were amazingly good.

After my filling lunch I wasn't so hungry tonight, so I just had some toast with peanut butter, and some cheese and crackers.

I went out for lunch to the Schwabinger Wassermann and had a Cordon Bleu with French Fries.

The weather was nice enough to sit outside.

My lunch was nice, and the service was excellent.

For tonight's dinner I cooked tortelloni (filled with spinach and ricotta) in a mushroom sauce (with some truffle oil) garnished with parmesan.

For our dinner tonight I cooked salmon poached in white wine, served with kohlrabi and potato fritters.

It was very tasty, but I was in big trouble with Sheryl because I forgot to make the tartar sauce (Sheryl has to have sauce with her fish, probably a sign that she doesn't really like fish), and also didn't make any sauce for the fritters.

For tonight's dinner I cooked cashew turkey and rice, garnished with sesame seeds.

I thought it was perfect, although Sheryl complained that I had added too much ginger.

For dinner tonight we had tapas: potato croquettes, chorizo in red wine, jalapeño poppers, vitello tonoato, olives stuffed with almonds, Parma ham stuffed with cheese and garlic bread.

This morning we were invited downstairs for Brunch at Isabelle and Markus'.

There was the usual spread of cheeses, ham (the one I tried was really delicious), salami, smoked salmon, bread, cake, and fruit salad.

In addition we took down some baked eggs with cheese and bacon, and some carrot cupcakes (Sheryl had some in the freezer from a week or so back, which just needed to be defrosted and iced).

There was also prosecco, water, and ample supplies of coffee.

For tonight's dinner I made a green salad and an egg salad, which we ate with the last of our home-made bread-rolls.

I made too much egg salad, so both Sheryl and I will be eating egg salad for brunch on Monday.

For dessert we finished off the rhubarb and strawberry crumble.

For our brunch today I made toasted cheese (cheddar) and pickle (branston) sandwiches.

We then ate the leftover scones from Tuesday.

For this week's curry evening I heated up 3 frozen curries (a butter chicken, a chicken satay and a chicken redang) to make a thali, which we ate with some garlic naan that we bought frozen from the supermarket.

It was very tasty.

We had some more of the rhubarb and strawberry crumble for dessert.

For tonight's dinner I heated up two leftover risottos, one pumpkin and one mushroom, from the freezer.

Sheryl really enjoyed them, but I didn't (don't know why), and after a couple of mouthfuls I had some cheese and crackers instead.

For dinner tonight I used up the last of the roast duck (there was a lot of meat!) in a Gröstl (fried potato, meat, spring onions and snow peas), served with fried eggs on top.

It was really delicious; the trick is to fry the ingredients in duck fat.

For dessert I made a rhubarb and strawberry crumble/cobbler which we ate with non-dairy cream substitute; also delicious.

We were really stuffed afterwards.

For dinner tonight we had pizzas: I had a 4-cheeses pizza topped with an egg, with some coleslaw on the side; Sheryl had a spinach pizza topped with feta and an egg.

They were very good.

For our brunch today Sheryl baked scones: some cheese and and some plain.

They were lovely.

For dinner tonight we ate cold leftover duck and stuffing with beetroot/red-beets, pickled gherkins, coleslaw and home-made bread-rolls.

For today's brunch Sheryl made oatmeal/porridge with dark brown sugar, banana and pecans.

Afterwards we shared a mango.

Sheryl drank a glass of prosecco and a glass of orange juice; I drank an Apfelschorle (apple spritzer), with some of the sparkling water substituted with prosecco.

For our Easter dinner I cooked a roast duck with stuffing (bread, onion, mushrooms, dried figs, thyme, sage, butter and an egg), truffle mashed potatoes, red cabbage flavoured with some cinnamon and some gravy (flavoured with mustard, hot sauce and marmite).

We drank a bottle of Haut-Medoc with our food, which was actually bought for Christmas.

Dinner was absolutely wonderful. There is still a lot of duck left; probably enough for two more dinners.

The wine was also gorgeous.

For dessert I had a couple of small chocolate eggs, and Sheryl had one of her carrot-cake muffins and some chocolate.

For brunch today we had avocado toast and some devilled eggs.

In addition to the obligatory salt and pepper, Sheryl had malt vinegar on her avocado toast, and I had aceto balsamico.

We each had a mimosa/bucks-fizz with our food (it is, after all, Easter), which hit me pretty hard in the afternoon.

For tonight's dinner we had tamales, which Sheryl bought recently at our local Asian store (they have a growing Mexican section), served with a little vegetarian chili (from the freezer), guacamole, sour cream and some home-made bread-rolls.

We were not very impressed with the tamales, which needed some kind of sauce, and generally lacked flavour.

For our brunch today Sheryl made cinnamon-rolls, topped with cream-cheese icing/frosting.

They were excellent; probably the best yet: soft and fluffy, with good bread fibre-structure and full of flavour.

For tonight's dinner we made a cherry tomato and cheese galette using chef John's recipe.

Today, for brunch, we had a Bavarian breakfast of Weißwurst (with sweet mustard, of course), pretzels, Obatzda and Weißbier.

It was so good!

Because of the holiday weekend, we had our curry evening a day early. I cooked a chicken satay and jasmine rice.

It was really tasty, although it could have been a little spicier.

Asparagus season has now started, so I cooked pasta with prawns and asparagus.

It was really gorgeous.

For dinner tonight I cooked an omelette, filled with spring onion, tomato, mushroom and camembert, served with hash-browns.

It was delicious; although the hash-browns look a little burnt, they tasted fine.

For dinner tonight I made a green salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, peperoni, spring onion, avacado and vegan "feta"), topped with tandoori chicken and served with home-made bread-rolls.

For this evening's dinner I cooked salmon braised in white wine, kohlrabi and green beans, served with home-made tartar sauce.

It was really tasty.

For our brunch today we made croque madame, using this recipe (although I use double the quantity of Dijon mustard and nutmeg).

Absolutely gorgeous!

For tonight's dinner, Sheryl made quesadillas (filled with home-made refried beans and grated cheddar), and I made a vegetarian chili (with mixed beans and fake meat) to have on the side.

We ate them with guacamole and sour cream.

They were lovely, despite the fact that Sheryl managed to burn some of the quesadillas a bit (leaving me with the fun task of cleaning the burnt frying pan tomorrow).

Sheryl also made us margaritas.

For our brunch today I made scrambled eggs served on burger buns.

For our curry night I cooked a vegetarian curry, which I served with rice.

After having tried several recipes for vegetarian curry, found online, which we all very unsatisfactory, I decided to make up my own recipe.

I used onion, okra, pumpkin, mushrooms, chick peas, tinned tomatoes, tomato purée (to thicken the sauce) and some coconut milk. For the spices I used garam masala, cardamom, ground coriander, garlic and ginger paste, and some sambal oelek.

It turned out pretty well (a good level of spiciness, and good contrasts of flavour and texture), although I feel the recipe needs a bit of fine-tuning.

For this evening's dinner I cooked truffle pasta with tomato and truffle sauce (both the pasta and sauce bought ready-made). I served it with a garnish of parmesan.

For tonight's dinner we made a puff-pastry roll stuffed with cheddar cheese, spinach and mushrooms. I also added some aceto balsamico to the mushroom and spinach mix, before we stuffed the puff-pastry.

It was lovely, but we could have added more spinach.

For dinner I heated up some frozen ostrich stew from the freezer, and cooked some kohlrabi.

It was really tasty.

For tonight's dinner we made vegetarian burgers (using BeyondBurgers) and a few French fries (chips).

I had coleslaw in my burger.

We dipped the fries in some truffle cream.

For our dinner this evening I cooked pasta (tortiglioni) with zucchini, mint and ricotta.

It was, as always, lovely.

For dessert we had some of the so-called canoli from the supermarket.

For today's brunch I bought croissants and a Rosinenschnecke (Danish pastry) from the Saphir bakery.

We ate the croissants with some truffle brie, which was nicely warmed up by the time we ate it.

It was all delicious.

We decided to eat out this evening before we went to the ballet; we knew we couldn't hold out until after the performance.

We went to Zum Franziskaner, which is a two minute walk from the Nationaltheater.

Sheryl ordered a ¼ of a roast duck, served with red cabbage and Kartoffelknödel (potato dumplings); I ordered a Gröstl made with Spanferkel (suckling pig).

Instead of the fried egg that one gets on a Gröstl in Austria, there was some whisked egg mixed into the dish (almost as good as a fried egg).

The Gröstl was the best that I have had outside of Austria, apart from the ones I cook myself, and was really yummy. Sheryl's duck was also very good: the dumplings were really buttery , and the red cabbage was cooked with some cinnamon (something we will certainly try at home).

We each tried some of the other's dinner.

I drank a Weißbier with my food, and then had a glass of red wine; Sheryl had red wine and some water.

All in all, dinner was excellent.

We had something a little more healthy for brunch today: raw vegetables (and some crisps/chips) with French-onion dip (easy to make - just mix half a pack of French-onion soup powder into a tub of cream cheese - at least 12 hours before you want to eat it).

It was great.

This evening Sheryl was out for a work event, so, for dinner, I cooked myself something that she would not normally want to eat: sausages, fried mushrooms and baked beans on toast.

I really enjoyed it.

For our dinner tonight I cooked a selection of dim sum from the freezer.

For dinner tonight we shared a large 4-cheeses pizza from the freezer, which we topped with spicy Italian sausage and eggs (one each).

I had some coleslaw with mine.

For dinner tonight I made a tuna pasta salad and an Olive Garden salad (lettuce, tomato, peperoni, olives, red-onion and shaved parmesan, with an Italian dressing), served with home-made bread rolls.

It was delicious, and there was enough leftover for my lunch tomorrow.

For dinner tonight I cooked mushroom risotto, made with frozen mixed Waldpilzen ("forest mushrooms) and champignons, and flavoured with nutmeg and truffle oil.

It was lovely.

For our dinner tonight I cooked fish fingers/sticks, truffle mashed potatoes and sweet corn, served with home-made tartar sauce.

For today's brunch I made crumpets. We ate some with cheese and marmite, some with jam, and some with peanut butter and nutella.

This batch of crumpets worked extremely well, and tasted great.

For tonight's dinner we heated up some frozen enchiladas verde from the freezer, which we ate with guacamole and sour cream.

They were lovely, but very filling.

For dessert we had some sbrodolone, which were rather disappointing.

For our brunch today I made eggs Benedict, served on home-made bread-rolls, with some bacon.

They were simply delicious!

For our weekly curry I cooked a butter chicken (actually a butter turkey), which we ate with some roti that we bought at the supermarket.

Butter chicken takes quite a while to prepare, but it was worth it!

For dessert we ate the last of the cheesecake (topped with caramel sauce).

Tonight I cooked penne al Arabiata.

It was delicious, as always.

For our dinner tonight we made club sandwiches (using turkey instead of chicken). We ate them with some salt and vinegar crisps (chips).

They were lovely. We haven't eaten club sandwiches in a long time.

For tonight's dinner I made a green salad, topped with mustard and tarragon chicken, and served with home-made malt and walnut bread-rolls.

For our dinner tonight I cooked some pizzas from the freezer: for Sheryl a spinach pizza topped with feta and an egg; for me a salami pizza topped with an egg.

For our dinner tonight I cooked a Tiroler Gröstl (rather like an English "Bubble and Squeak"): potatoes, cabbage, spring onions, snow peas, sausages, bacon, and duck, served with a fried egg on top.

It was really delicious, although, if I use cabbage next time, I will add it a bit later.

For dessert, Sheryl made a cheesecake (New York style), which we ate with some caramel sauce on top.

For today's brunch we made toasted sandwiches filled with camembert and Preiselbeeren (cranberry) sauce.

One toasty each was not enough so we had some toast to follow.

For our dinner tonight I cooked 4-cheeses tortelloni, bought from the supermarket, in spicy tomato sauce.

For dessert we ate some canoli, which were lovely, but nothing like real Italian canoli.

For brunch today I made banana pancakes (with cinnamon). Sheryl ate hers with maple syrup (and later, peanut butter or nutella); I ate mine with butter (and later, peanut butter).

They were lovely, although they could have used more cinnamon (even though I added loads).

For tonight's dinner I made a thali, with a chicken satay and a butter chicken from the freezer. We ate it with some vacuum-packed naan bread that we bought from the supermarket.

The curries were great, but the nann bread was utterly disgusting; we threw most of it away.

Tonight we cooked linguine cacio e pepe.

It was, as always, delicious.

This time we made it easier to cook, by using the food processor to grate the cheese, and by using ready grated black pepper instead of freshly grated pepper, both of which saved a huge amount of time. Using the ready grated pepper didn't seem to have any effect on the flavour.

For dinner tonight I cooked Käsekrainer (smoked pork sausages with cheese in) and some kohlrabi fritters.

The sausages were great, and so were the fritters, although Sheryl couldn't eat all of her sausage (they are huge) - I finished her leftovers.

For tonight's dinner I made an insalata caprese for a starter, served with the last of the home-made bread-rolls. I heated up a frozen truffle pizza, topped with extra cheese and two eggs, to share, for our main course.

Tonight's dinner was mushroom, black bean and barley soup, served with home-made bread-rolls.

It is full of flavour, and quite filling.

Today Sheryl made some spicy Italian sausage (basically just small meatballs), which we sometimes have on pizzas. For tonight's dinner I cooked a spicy tomato sauce with some of the sausage, served with capellini.

It was really lovely: the balance of spices and herbs was perfect.

For today's brunch we started with some toast with the last of our goose-liver paté, then some toast with avocado. I then had another piece of toast with butter and marmite, and Sheryl had toast with peanut butter, cinnamon and honey.

For our dinner tonight Sheryl cooked Mexican "pizzas" (a al Taco Bell - no longer on their menu), filled with vegetarian meat substitute and topped with sour cream.

They were very tasty, but very filling.

For today's brunch I cooked blueberry pancakes.

Sheryl ate hers with maple syrup, and I ate mine with butter. We both finished up with peanut butter on our pancakes.

For our curry evening I cooked a turkey redang, served with coconut rice.

It was lovely, and a little spicier than usual.

There was enough left over to freeze for another day (although redang always curdles a little when you freeze it).

For dinner tonight I made cauliflower cheese.

The cheese sauce was based on my Alfredo sauce, with the addition of some cheddar, soft blue cheese and mustard.

For tonight's dinner I made a green salad and a tuna and pasta salad.

It was delicious.

There was enough tuna and pasta salad for Sheryl to take to work for lunch the next day.

For dinner tonight I heated up the leftover chicken pot-pie.

For our dinner tonight we cooked salmon with pesto, green beans and cherry tomatoes, baked in the oven, served with sauté potatoes.

As we were serving it up, Sheryl reminded me that we were meant to have kohlrabi with the fish, not potatoes.

After a very hearty brunch today, we both had limited appetite this evening, so instead of cooking our planned dinner, we had a snack of bread and crackers with cheese and goose-liver paté.

We were invited downstairs for brunch at Isabelle and Markus'.

Isabelle had laid on some French bread, cheese, smoked salmon, ham and salami. She also made, with some help from Erik, a cake with raspberries and chocolate chips.

We took down some finger sandwiches (some with cream-cheese and cucumber, and some with egg salad and water cress, in crustless Italian bread), some brioche fried in butter, some goose-liver paté to go on the brioche, some scones (plain and lemon) and some profiteroles (which were a huge hit with their son Erik).

We all greatly enjoyed ourselves.

For dinner tonight I cooked a chicken pot-pie. I added mushrooms, peas, sweetcorn, carrots, chicken stock, vegetable stock, mustard, tarragon and oregano.

It was really tasty.

For today's brunch Sheryl made French toast, which we ate with strawberries, whipped cream and maple syrup.

They were very good.

For our curry evening we had papadams with hot lime pickle and brinjal pickle to start, and a chicken and mushroom badam pasanda with roti (bought) as our main course.

The roti were surprisingly good; good enough that I won't bother trying to make my own again.

For tonight's dinner I cooked truffle and ricotta medaglioni (similar to tortellini) with mushroom sauce.

It was very filling, and we couldn't finish it, even though it was very good.

For dinner tonight we made fish (salmon) tacos, filled with fish in a spicy marinade, avocado creme (avocado, sour cream, cumin, lime juice, hot sauce and garlic), feta, slaw and radishes.

It was gorgeous, and not too hot.

Tonight we ate an insalata caprese, topped with some water cress, plus some home-made bread-rolls, as a starter. Then, for our main course we shared a large truffle pizza topped with extra cheese and two eggs.

I also had some coleslaw on the side.

For dinner tonight I cooked butternut Squash risotto.

For our dinner tonight I cooked baked feta and cherry tomatoes pasta.

It was delicious, as always.

For brunch today we had croissants from the Saphir bakery across the street, with some chili cream cheese (a home-made version of the Sambal Smeerkaas that I used to buy in the Netherlands).

They were lovely.

For tonight's Sheryl cooked chicken enchiladas verde.

They were delicious.

For today's brunch I cooked poached eggs on the last of our burger buns (toasted). We had some French butter on the buns, which tastes so much better than our regular German butter.

For our curry dinner tonight I cooked a chicken satay, with mushrooms and banana, served with rice.

Tonight I cooked penne al Arabiata, which we ate garnished with grated parmesan.

For our dinner tonight I cooked cashew chicken and saffron rice. We ate it with sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

I thought it was really tasty, but Sheryl complained that I had put too much ginger in it.

Tonight I heated up two pizzas from the freezer: for Sheryl a spinach pizza topped with feta, red-onion and an egg; for me a four-cheeses pizza topped with anchovies and red-onion, with some coleslaw on the side.

For dinner tonight we made vegetarian burgers. Sheryl had a brioche burger bun with a vegetarian burger pattie, goat-cheese, raw red-onion, Rucola (arugula/rocket) and apricot preserve; I had a rye burger-bun with a vegetarian burger pattie, mustard, blue cheese, a pickled gherkin, and on the side some fried mushrooms and red-onion, plus coleslaw.

Sheryl wasn't able to get either of our usual brands of vegetarian burger (Sensation Burger or Beyond Burger), so we had vegan Mühlen Burgers instead; they were nowhere near as good.

For dinner tonight Sheryl attempted to recreate the spicy buffalo-wings (chicken wings) that her sister cooked last time she was in Chicago.

We ate them with ranch dressing to dip the wings in, potato salad, and I also had coleslaw.

They were good: nicely spicy, although Sheryl said they weren't quite as good as her sisters.

It was difficult to find all the ingredients for the buffalo-wings and the ranch dressing, and even just the chicken wings, but of course everyone had them in stock and on sale a few days later.

For dessert we had some cannoli that Sheryl bought on Saturday.

For our brunch today, partly to compensate for yesterday's high-fat non-veg brunch, we had raw vegetables (carrot, cucumber, radishes, celery and spring-onions), crisps (chips) and French-onion-dip.

For dinner tonight we had Dim Sum (from the freezer). Only the glutinous rice-balls are pictured; there was, as usual, a large selection of dishes.

For today's brunch we treated ourselves to croque madame.

There are various ways to cook a croque madame (and some things that people may call croque madame, but clearly aren't). We use cooked ham, Gruyère, parmesan, bechamel sauce (with Dijon mustard and nutmeg added), white bread and fried eggs (although I plan to try them with poached eggs, sometime). They are baked, and then finished off under the grill, before being topped with eggs.

Sheryl says that our home-made croque madame are better than any that she had in France.

Brunch was delicious, and very filling.

For our Friday curry evening we tried out a new recipe: a vegetarian curry, made with Thai red curry paste, butternut squash and chickpeas. We also decided to add some okra, but Sheryl had problems finding it in the shops; in the end she bought what she thought was frozen okra, at the iShop, but it turned out to be moringa.

It was utterly dreadful, due in part to the moringa, but it was also way too spicy, and the flavour balance was just wrong. We both ate one mouthful, and were done with it (I have since thrown the recipe away, and our search for a good vegetarian curry continues).

Instead we ate cheese and crackers, and some toast with peanut butter.

For tonight's dinner I made a salad, using lettuce, Feldsalat (lamb's lettuce), cucumber, tomatoes, peperoni, spring onions, feta and avocado, topped with mustard and tarragon chicken and served with home-made bread-rolls.

It was lovely.

Cooking tonight's dinner turned into a bit of a drama. I was scheduled to make pasta (tortiglioni) with zucchini, ricotta and mint. I had grated a cupful of parmesan, and put it into the bowl I use for the sauce. When I opened the ricotta, I noticed a small green patch; I thought it would be fine if I simply removed the green patch. I put the ricotta into the bowl with the parmesan, but decided that I should taste it before proceeding; good thing that I did, because it tasted disgusting. I phoned Sheryl and asked her to buy more ricotta on her way home, but the store was sold out; she bought some mascarpone instead.

I waited until she got home, and tasted the mascarpone before making the sauce (grating a fresh batch of parmesan, because I had to throw the previous batch away, as it was covered in disgusting ricotta).

In the end, dinner tasted OK, although not quite as good as when made with ricotta.

For dinner tonight I heated up the vegetarian chili from the freezer, and cooked some rice.

We ate it with sour cream and grated cheddar cheese.

It was delicious, and we ate every scrap.

For tonight's dinner I cooked an omelette, filled with spring onions (green onions), tomatoes, mushrooms and camembert. I also cooked some chips (French fries), which we dipped in the last of the truffle mayonnaise.

For our dinner this evening I cooked fish fingers (fish sticks) with mashed potato and green beans, served with home-made tartar sauce.

I used some Truffle Creme that Sheryl bought at the supermarket in the potatoes, instead of butter and milk; it made them taste great.

For dessert, Sheryl had one of the cupcakes that she baked earlier today (see the photo in the post directly below).

Today Sheryl baked some lemon cupcakes, topped with raspberry cream-cheese icing (frosting), mostly to take to work, for her staff.

After our very fatty and meaty dinner last night we had something healthy for brunch: Sheryl cooked porridge (oatmeal), which we ate with banana, pecans and brown sugar.

Tonight we went to La Bouche to celebrate Valentine's Day.

I had a gin and tonic aperitif. Sheryl decided to go straight to the wine: a bottle of Bordeaux, which turned out to be a little rough (OK with food, but not really good enough to drink on its own).

We both had the paté foie gras, served with fried brioche (gorgeous), a little red cabbage and some chutney, to start. We really enjoyed our starters.

For the main course, Sheryl ordered bavette (flank steak) with French fries and sauce Bearnaise (plenty of sauce!), which was good. She wanted to order the steak tartare, like last time, but I persuaded her to try something different.

I ordered boudin noir (blood sausage) served on bed on mashed swede, which was a little disappointing (tasted like meat-loaf).

For dessert, Sheryl got the chocolate mousse; I had a cheese platter, which was excellent.

All in all, the meal was very nice, although the wine-menu lets the food down. The food menu is not a good as it used to be when we first ate at La Bouche at the old address (I miss the langoustines) but has some interesting dishes.

For our brunch today we had avocado on toast. Sheryl put malt vinegar on hers, and I put aceto balsamico on mine.

For our regular Friday curry evening I cooked a butter chicken, which we ate with Indian bread (naan and onion kulcha).

It was gorgeous.

For dessert we had Krapfen (doughnuts/donuts) that Sheryl brought home from work; they were OK, although one was a little stale.

For our dinner tonight I made an "Olive Garden Salad" (lettuce, red onion, tomatoes, black olives, croutons and peperoni) and an egg salad, which we ate with a home-made bread-roll.

This time I cooked the croutons in the oven instead of a frying pan, and they were much better.

It was lovely.

For our dinner tonight I cooked Penne al Arabiata, which, of course, we garnished with some parmesan cheese.

Tonight's dinner was the leftover quiche from Sunday. I cooked some hash browns (potatoes), which we topped with some tomato ketchup, to go with the quiche.

For tonight's dinner we cooked a puff-pastry roll stuffed with mushrooms, spinach and goat-cheese. Sheryl also added a little Dijon mustard with the cheese, and we topped it with some grated parmesan.

We used a whole pack of fresh baby spinach, but it cooked down so much that we hardly noticed it.

It was very tasty.

For dinner tonight I cooked a Quiche Lorraine with sauteé potatoes. I used not only red onions, as per the recipe, but also a leek.

For today's brunch we had vegetables and crisps (chips) with French-onion dip (made with half a sachet of French-Onion soup powder and a pack of Philadelphia cream cheese).

It was lovely.

For dinner tonight we made fish tacos, filled with salmon marinaded in chipotles en adobo, a "slaw" in a tequila marinade, feta and radishes, based on Rachel Ray's recipe video on YouTube.

It was really good: we got the balance of flavours and heat just right this time.

For dessert I made a bread and butter pudding, which was also very tasty; something we haven't had for ages.

We were really stuffed by the end of dinner.

For today's brunch I made toasted sandwiches: one with camembert and branston pickle, and one with cheddar and branston pickle.

For our curry evening we had a thali: chicken satay, chicken badam pasanda and chicken redang from the freezer, served with rice.

For dinner tonight we (a joint effort) cooked linguine cacio e pepe.

This dish takes a bit of effort, to grind enough black pepper, and to finely grate enough cheese. It also needs to be stirred continuously once one starts adding the cheese (one person to stir, and one to add the cheese a little at a time). It is, however, worth it: a simple dish that is simply delicious.

I was surprised at how well it turned out, because we only had packaged cheap and nasty pecorino cheese, rather than good pecorino from the delicatessen counter.

For our dinner tonight I cooked cauliflower cheese.

The cheese sauce was based on Alfredo sauce, with the addition of mustard and some soft blue-cheese (Castello).

It was very tasty.

For dinner tonight we had pizzas from the freezer: a spinach pizza topped with feta and an egg, for Sheryl, and a salami pizza topped with an egg and some coleslaw on the side, for me.

For dinner tonight I cooked sausages (Nürnberger Bratwurst) with mashed (puréed) potatoes and sauerkraut.

It was nice to have some meat for a change.

Dinner tonight was a butternut squash risotto, with some sun-dried tomatoes added.

It was great. Part of the trick is to add enough parmesan, garlic and nutmeg. The sun-dried tomatoes also add a nice flavour contrast.

For today's brunch we cooked the cinnamon rolls from the freezer from a few weeks ago (not a very good batch) and ate them with our usual cream-cheese icing (frosting).

The were not very good (nowhere near as good as those we took down to Isabelle & Markus recently) and we each only ate one (we threw the rest away) and finished off with some toast.

As we were having Mexican food for dinner, Sheryl made margaritas before dinner.

Then we ate vegetarian enchiladas which we had in the freezer, served with sour cream and guacamole.

It was terrific.

Since we were out shopping around lunch time, we treated ourselves to doner kebabs (Döner Kebaps, in German) at Kebazza in the shopping mall.

Sheryl had a falafel kebab with hummus, and I had a veal kebab.

They were really nice.

For tonight's dinner I made a chicken satay and rice.

I bulked it up with some mushrooms and a sliced banana, so there was enough to freeze for another day.

Tonight I cooked pasta (capellini) with prawns and asparagus.

Being out of season, the asparagus was from South America, and was very skinny, but still tasty.

We haven't eaten this dish for ages, and really enjoyed it.

Dinner tonight was an insalata caprese, made with truffle mozzarella, followed by a 4-cheeses pizza topped with tuna.

It was lovely.

For our dinner this evening I made a salad topped with tandoori prawns, which we ate with burger buns.

For tonight's dinner I made lentil soup with vegan wiener sausages. We ate the soup with burger buns.

For dinner tonight we made vegetarian burgers with a few French fries, with truffle mayonnaise to dip the fries in.

I had coleslaw with mine.

For brunch today I made crêpes, which we ate with berries (blackberries, raspberries and blueberries) and maple syrup.

I don't eat maple syrup often (too much sugar), and really enjoyed it.

For dinner this evening I cooked pasta (farfalle) with baked feta and cherry tomatoes.

It was, as always, delicious.

For dessert Sheryl had bought some apple strudel, which we ate with cream. They were not great; the apples hadn't been properly cored, so there were hard pieces of apple core in the strudel.

For brunch today I cooked poached eggs served on home-made bread-rolls.

For dinner tonight I cooked a chicken badam pasanda, which we ate with some garlic naan and onion kulcha.

It was delicious.

There was enough left over to freeze, to use in a thali in the future.

Sheryl was working at home today, so we were able to eat brunch together. We had avocados on toast. Sheryl had malt vinegar on hers, and I had balsamico on mine.

Tonight's dinner was truffle ravioli (bought, not home made) in a spicy tomato sauce.

It was very good.

Tonight I made a salad with figs, walnuts and goat-cheese, served with some bread-rolls that I bought earlier today.

For tonight's dinner Sheryl cooked quesadillas, which we ate with some vegetarian chili, guacamole and sour cream.

For our dinner tonight I cooked fettuccine Alfredo with steamed broccoli.

It was, as always, delicious.

For dinner tonight Sheryl made crab cakes, using frozen crab from the Asian store (the iShop); fresh crab is almost impossible to find in Germany.

I made some hash browns (which were a total failure) and tartar sauce to go with the crab cakes.

For today's brunch I made scrambled eggs (partly to use up some egg-whites that we had in the fridge), served on home-made bread-rolls.

For our dinner tonight I made a stew with the frozen ostrich steaks; the ones that were so dreadful last time, when prepared according to the instructions on the pack.

The stew also contained onions, carrots, mushrooms, two oxo cubes, some vegetable stock, mustard, sambal oelek, marmite and balsamic vinegar. I made dumplings as well, with herbs and cardamom.

It tasted fantastic.

There was enough left over for only one portion, which we froze.

For today's brunch Sheryl made us toasted sandwiches filled with camembert and Preiselbeeren (cranberry) preserve.

They were lovely, although they needed to have more cranberries.

For our curry evening I cooked a chicken redang, served with coconut rice.

It was a little spicier than usual, because the chilis were huge, but delicious as always.

For tonight's dinner I cooked a mushroom risotto.

We were out of the frozen Waldpilzen (forest mushrooms), so I just used champignons.

We were also out of garlic powder, so I used fresh garlic.

It was especially good this time, maybe the best ever, even though the only changes from normal were the mushrooms and garlic, although I did also add a lot of parmesan and truffle oil.

Tonight I cooked tortiglioni al Arabiata.

For dinner tonight I cooked a selection of Dim Sum from the freezer: glutinous rice balls, yakitori sticks, gyoza, leak dumplings and spring rolls.

For tonight's dinner I heated up frozen pizzas: for Sheryl a spinach pizza with feta and an egg, and for me a four-cheeses pizza with salami and an egg.

For our dinner tonight I cooked an omelette (filled with red-onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and truffle brie), served with sauté potatoes.

For today's brunch we had avocado on toast; I had balsamic vinegar on mine, and Sheryl had malt vinegar on hers.

For dinner tonight I cooked a vegetarian chili (chili sin carne), using fake meat, kidney beans and pinto beans (no fresh paprika/capsicum/bell-peppers, because they give Sheryl horrific indigestion).

We ate it with rice, sour cream and guacamole, and topped with grated cheddar cheese.

It was lovely.

There was loads left over, to freeze for future dinners.

For brunch today we ate the rest of the Scotch eggs that we made yesterday.

For our dinner tonight I made a tuna pasta salad (using farfalle/bow-tie-pasta), served with a side salad (a recreation of an Olive Garden salad: lettuce, tomato, red onion, peperoni [a kind of paprika preserved in brine, not to be confused with pepperoni, which is spicy salami], croutons, grated parmesan and Italian dressing).

It was really delicious, although I need to work on my technique for croutons.

For brunch today we (a joint effort) made Scotch eggs.

Last time we made them with sausage meat; this time we made them with minced (ground) beef.

Sheryl made a dipping sauce with Dijon mustard and mayonnaise, using a recipe from chef John.

They were again delicious, although I preferred the taste of the sausage meat Scotch eggs. We could only eat one each (we made a total of 4).

For dinner tonight I cooked something new: Mushroom, Black Bean and Barley Soup, served with home-made bread-rolls.

The soup took quite a long time to prepare, but it was easy, and was very tasty, although I felt that it needed something more, as a flavour contrast (maybe some vegan wiener).

Unfortunately, the photo was out of focus.

For our brunch today I cooked poached eggs, which I served on toasted English muffins.

We were at Jonathan and Tracy's for dinner tonight. We took a butter chicken, some Indian bread (naan, plus paneer and onion kulcha) and some vegetarian starters (samosas and pakoras); they cooked rice and a lamb curry.

It was all very tasty, although Sheryl couldn't eat the lamb curry because it contained bell-peppers (paprika/capsicum).

For brunch today, I had tinned sardines on a toasted burger bun, and Sheryl had cheese on toast.

For dinner tonight Sheryl cooked vegetarian enchiladas, which we ate with some lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and sour cream.

They were delicious.

For today's brunch I cooked banana pancakes with cinnamon.

They were lovely.

For dinner tonight we had planned vegetarian enchiladas, but Sheryl didn't have time, so instead I made a salad topped with tandoori prawns and served with burger buns.

For dessert Sheryl had made eclairs, filled with vanilla creme patisserie and topped with chocolate sauce (preparing these was one of the reasons why Sheryl didn't have time to cook the enchiladas). They were really delicious, and there are more for tomorrow's dessert.

For our brunch today Sheryl cooked scones: some cheese scones, and some apple and cinnamon scones.

They were lovely, although the apple and cinnamon scones didn't have a strong apple flavour.

I cooked tortiglioni with zucchini, mint and ricotta for dinner.

For our brunch today I cooked scrambled eggs, served on toast, and bacon.

This evening we were still very full from brunch, so I didn't cook. Instead we had some home-made bread-rolls and some crackers with cheeses, radishes and pickle (Branston).

Today we went downstairs to Isabelle and Markus' for brunch. We made a tomato and goat-cheese galette and some cinnamon rolls with cream-cheese icing, both of which were a big hit.

Isabelle also provide a selection of cheeses, smoked salmon, breads and fruit salad.

As usual there was far too much food, and I am now feeling rather bloated.

For dinner tonight we made salmon, baked in the oven on a bed of green beans, topped with green pesto and cherry tomatoes, and served with some sauté potatoes.

It was really nice.

In an attempt to be a bit more healthy, after days of unhealthy eating, we had avocado on toast for brunch today.

For tonight's dinner I made a chicken satay curry, served with rice; delicious, as always.

For our brunch today we made Croque Madame (a Croque Monsieur with a fried egg on top). Instead of normal ham, we used a mixture of Italian ham and salami; they would have been better with normal ham, but they were still yummy.

For tonight's dinner we made vegetarian burgers and chips (French fries). Sheryl bought some truffle mayonnaise to dip the chips in, which was delicious.

We again used the "Beyond Burgers", which are very tasty and don't stick to the pan so badly as the "Sensational Burgers".

For dinner tonight we had a salad, topped with falafel (bought from the kebab place, Kebazza, at the local shopping mall).

It was very tasty, but also very filling.

For dessert Sheryl had a chocolate lava cakes with raspberries.

For brunch today I made eggs Benedict, served with bacon: very unhealthy, but delicious.

For our dinner tonight I cooked a Gröstl (similar to an English bubble-and-squeak) with the last of the leftover duck, potatoes, spring onions (green onions) and snow peas, and served with a fried egg on top.

I cooked the Gröstl in duck fat from our Christmas roast, for extra flavour.

It was delicious, but thoroughly unhealthy.

For today's brunch Sheryl made porridge (oatmeal, to any American readers) with cinnamon, brown sugar, banana and nuts (a mixture of pecans and walnuts), and topped with a little maple syrup.

It was good.

For dinner tonight we ate leftovers from yesterday's dinner: cold duck and stuffing with fried mashed potato and pickles (gherkins, and for Sheryl beetroot).

The fried mashed potato did not work out so well, because the potato was too wet to form proper potato cakes, but it still tasted good.

For dessert I had some cold Christmas pudding, and Sheryl had a chocolate lava cake with raspberries and cream.

For brunch today we had croissants from the Saphir bakery across the street and a selection of nice cheeses: gorgonzola, truffle brie, rambol (walnut cheese), Gruyère and Norwegian brown Ost.

We also shared a Rosinenschnecke (a raisin Danish pastry).

We drank fruit juice with our food.

As an aperitif while our Christmas dinner was cooking, Sheryl made us painkillers (using mango juice instead of pineapple juice, because I hate pineapple). Unfortunately, the cream of coconut was curdled, and we threw them away after a few sips, for fear of getting food poisoning. I had a beer instead, and Sheryl had a white wine spritzer.

With dinner we had a bottle of Amarone, which was gorgeous (and amazingly cheap).

For dinner I cooked roast duck with stuffing (onion, mushrooms, the duck liver, bread, dried figs and herbs - I forgot to add garlic). We had roast carrots and parsnips, red cabbage (with a little red wine added), truffle mashed potatoes and gravy with the duck.

For dessert Sheryl had a chocolate lava cake, and I had some traditional whisky English Christmas pudding; both served with fresh cream.

After dinner I was so stuffed that I could hardly move (probably because I had a second plate of duck and trimmings).

After dinner I cracked open the bottle of Jura whisky that Sheryl bought me for Christmas.

For our Christmas brunch we had vegetables (carrots, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and radishes) and some crisps/chips, with French onion dip, and some deviled eggs.

We finished off the rest of the pink prosecco with brunch.

For dinner tonight I cooked truffle pasta with truffle and tomato sauce (from a jar - if I could get fresh truffles at a reasonable price, I would make the sauce myself) and topped with grated parmesan.

For our brunch today, Sheryl baked cinnamon rolls, which we served topped with a cream-cheese icing (frosting).

They took a long time to rise, and we were worried they wouldn't turn out well, but in the end they were great.

Sheryl drank a glass of orange juice and a glass of pink prosecco with hers; I drank an apple juice mimosa with mine.

We had our weekly curry evening a day early. We had papadams with Indian pickles, followed by a thali of butter chicken and chicken badam pasanda (leftovers, from the freezer, eaten with nann bread.

It was delicious, but we couldn't eat it all.

For tonight's dinner we shared a starter of an insalata caprese (pictured), followed by a truffle pizza with extra cheese (also shared).

Unfortunately, we had no bread rolls, and had to eat the salad with sliced bread.

Tonight we ate the left over quiche from Saturday.

It was still very good.

Tonight we made a cheese, mushroom and spinach puff-pastry roll.

It was lovely.

We wanted something simple for dinner tonight, after a busy day in the kitchen (Sheryl made a cheesecake for work, Muesli for a weekday breakfast and pesto, and we made fruit and nut crackers for Christmas), so I cooked pasta (fusilli) pesto, using the green pesto which Sheryl made earlier today.

It was very tasty.

For today's brunch I made crumpets. Sheryl also made mimosas (called buck's fizz in the UK).

I ate my crumpets with marmite and cheese (Gruyère), finishing off with two with whisky marmalade. Sheryl ate hers with cheese, with lemon curd, with peanut butter or with nutella.

For tonight's dinner I made a quiche filled with salmon, tenderstem broccoli (broccolini) and leek.

It worked really well, with a good balance between the different flavours, with no taste dominant. It also set perfectly (sometimes we don't have the patience to wait for it to set).

For brunch today we treated ourselves to something very unhealthy: Croque Madam.

It was easy to make, was very filling and tasted fantastic.

Next time I will probably double the quantity of Dijon mustard, but apart from that, the recipe is flawless.

Tonight I cooked cashew chicken for dinner. We served it with rice and topped it with sesame seeds.

We hadn't had this for ages, and really enjoyed it.

For our dinner tonight I cooked penne al Arabiata.

Tonight's dinner was a salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, spring onion, fresh figs and walnuts) topped with warm goat-cheese and served with home-made bread rolls.

Tonight Sheryl was feeling somewhat recovered, so we had the dinner that we originally planned for yesterday: linguine cacio e pepe (linguine with sheep-cheese and pepper sauce).

We didn't have quite enough pecorino cheese, so we used extra parmesan to make up the difference; it still tasted delicious.

Sheryl was not feeling well today: some kind of stomach bug. Because she didn't have much appetite, we decided to delay the meal we had planned, and I cooked two pizzas from the freezer: a spinach pizza, topped with some feta and an egg, for Sheryl, and a salami and peperoni pizza, also topped with an egg, for me.

We enjoyed our dinner, and Sheryl managed to eat nearly all of hers.