From my kitchen this week...

This colder weather makes me want to cook and cook and cook. Here are some of the highlights...

A surprisingly wonderful loaf of bread, made with half white and half wholemeal bread flour. It kept so well, and was still good for sandwiches two days after baking.

Minestrone soup, warming and nourishing and delicious.

Beef and ale stew, the stuff of cold autumn evenings, with a glass of wine.

Weekday breakfast - a smoothie made from banana, milk, espresso powder and chocolate powder. Breakfast should not taste this good.

Red velvet cupcakes, one of my favourite kinds. A moist, mildly chocolately cake with cream cheese frosting - heaven.

I can't claim that I grew these pears myself, or even that I bought them from my local, organic farm shop, but these supermarket bargains were sweet and so juicy that they had to be eaten standing over the kitchen sink.

Not photographed but eaten regularly in this house...endless platefulls of fish fingers, pasta pesto, cheese on toast, jacket potatoes, beans on toast...comfort food. What are you cooking and eating lately?

All this cooking means lots of eating, so all I will say is it's a good thing I've been running more. I've entered a race in November and suddenly it seems that there aren't many weeks to go, so I need to do more "training" (ahem). Last night it was the monthly 5 kilometre time trials in my running club. Everyone just turns up and runs against themselves. It's hard work. But the worst bit was the long walk home, through absolutely torrential rain. When I got home I could wring water out of my running clothes and my fingers were so cold that I could barely get undressed. A hot shower never felt so good.