The weather is getting a little chilly, and I’m definitely looking for some more rib-sticking food these days.

On the meal plan for today is katsu. I make it about once a month. It’s a little messy, but really good.

Two chicken breasts out of the freezer, each sliced in three and left in a tub of buttermilk in the fridge last night. Normally it’s be four or five pieces let breast for quick cooking and maximum crispy coating, and I’ll go back to this next time. Three wasn’t quite right.

This evening I washed sushi rice and stick it in the rice cooker. Oil into frying pan, and the magic plastic tubs out.

The large one is plain panko. The smaller has seasoned flour – salt, pepper and garlic granules. Last is the chicken, with the buttermilk poured off but with some still clinging on.

This is very much a “dry hand, wet hand” recipe, or you’ll end up caked in batter. Even then you’ll end up washing your hands a lot as you proceed due to glue fingers or raw chicken handling. Cross contamination is no one’s friend.

Flour the chicken by putting half in the tub, firmly putting the lid on, and shaking the daylights out of it. Then repeat.

Add enough water to the flour to get a nice thick batter – like pancake batter. It needs to cling on without leaving too thick a coating.

Then into the panko for a good shaking…

…then into the pan.

Keep each batch warm in the oven as the next cooks. Don’t overload the pan, as it lowers the temp and risks ripping the panko off the chicken, which would be tragic..

I made up half a pack of Golden Curry, which is the standard Curry sauce for katsu, and was lurking at the back of the fridge.

Tah dah!

That’ll cure a case of the Mondays!

The planner pad worked well last week, especially as it stopped me stuffing the presses further with bits and pieces.

The sum total of all groceries this week has been perishables (mostly bread and dairy), some fruit, baby things, two fajita dinner kits (€3 on special, which is cheaper than a single packet of tortillas), garlic granules, frozen chips and tinned plum tomatoes. Everything that went into the basket was a completion of pantry ingredients for a planned meal, apart from the fajita kits which I tend to stock up on when they’re going cheap.

Tonight’s dinner was simple as it gets. 28 day aged striploin and chips. Blue.

Steak from the freezer, bought a couple of weeks ago at the butcher.

I’ve actually got two freezers, truth be told. In the kitchen there’s a standard fridge freezer, which is about half of each. I’ve also got an under counter sized one in the box bedroom. It’s a leftover from when we were renting and only ever had tiny freezer compartments. It came in very handy at the end of my pregnancy, as I batch cooked and filled it solid, which kept us going for the first month with a newborn. I’d like to get it turned off and back into the shed though, as there’s no major need for it right now.

I’ve used steak, wings, chicken breasts and chips out of it this week, and there’s some space freeing up at last. I’m hoping to take some bits to work for lunches this week too. It’s hot lunch weather here, and cheese toastier get boring after a while.

Two tubs with some lasagne for tomorrow, and a huge tub of soup for Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s apparently sweet potato, but I can’t remember after that.

Also, a “before” of my dried goods press. Argh.

In theory it’s full of jars of flours, pulses, oats and the like, plus bottles of oils as it’s one of my taller presses. In reality it’s full of crap that doesn’t belong in it. There’s a half sheet pan and a couple of huge sandwich tins; a 30 cm cake board, a very nice whistling kettle that my current hob doesn’t love but that I love. Baking parchment, cling wrap and foil. Random things like a can of coconut peanuts and a single curtain tie back *mortified* that was stuck there to get it out of the way and has lived there since.

This needs a massive rethink, as I’ve a 10 kg bag of rice that could do with living on the bottom shelf. It’s also a combination avalanche/Tetris situation every time I need to get at the plain flour or chickpeas. I’m probably going to attack this in bits during the week, but I’d like it sorted before end of the month!

I’ve grown fond of hot wings over the last couple of years, but they’re something I’m aware are usually hideously unhealthy. I make my own at home, and no one believes they’re not deep fried! I know that’s also usually a b.s. claim in a magazine where the end result usually tastes of cardboard and sadness, but these really are awesome.

Hot oven is key. Mine is a fan, and I preheat it to 200C for a good 20 – 30 mins.

For two people, I take a large snappy lid plastic tub and add one tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning and about three of plain flour, and a pinch of salt. Lid on and shake to combine. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Pop about 16 wings into the flour tub, double check that the lid is securely on, and shake the daylights out of it. Arrange on sheet with a decent bit of room around each. Into oven for 15 mins, flip each over, then return to oven for another 10.

The magic buffalo sauce that wing places serve is magic because of one amazing, makes-everything-taste-better ingredient – BUTTER!

In a small pan I combine about 2 tablespoons each of butter and Franks Red Hot sauce ( the original one only, please. And no subbing Tabasco – I love the stuff but the consistency isn’t what we want here). Heat over a very low heat, stirring as the butter melts, and it will emulsify into that glorious, orangey sauce. Check heat levels, and keep warm.

To minimise washing up, I skip the additional step of tossing the wings and sauce together in a large bowl, and just pour over, making sure they all get a little coverage.

Et voila!

Along with a few chips and some sour cream (with a little seasoning stirred in) it wasn’t half bad for a Monday night, and all from my heaving freezer and pantry!

I also picked this little doohickey up in Flying Tiger at the weekend, and have started filling it in.

I’m rubbish at writing down meal plans, so this magnetic pad on the fridge should help! Not sure yet what the plan is for Wednesday or Sunday, but have the rest of the week at least, and with a minimum of shopping required. I’ve a bag of spinach that needs eating, so that’ll need to feature in the next couple of days.

Black turtle beans and canellini beans are soaking already. I’ll cook one each in my pressure cooker tomorrow and Wednesday nights. It’s a bit of faff, but the texture is very different to canned beans, and is largely worth the extra time. That said, the chickpeas and kidney beans for this wont be from dried as I’ve already got some in the press. I’ll start the chilli cooking on Thursday, so on Friday it will just need polishing off. That’s the plan anyway!

Our New Year’s Eve was spent sitting on the sofa, watching movies and having a few G&Ts with a small boy snoozing on us. Truth be told, I didn’t even make it to midnight, but that doesn’t really bother me. I’m not a big fan of the whole thing, to be frank.

That said, there was an absolute barrage of very loud, very illegal fireworks at midnight, so I can at least say I was awake for it. Small boy slept through, which I was grateful for and a little shocked by. He can hear a babybel being unwrapped from 20 yards!

A lot of people are involved in Veganuary this year. I can tell by the fact that Hellmann’s have jumped on the bandwagon, and that this is for sale in my local regular, small-ish supermarket

My past experience with vegan mayo has been underwhelming. The only brands available here were a bit too vinegar-y for my taste, and while the texture was fine they just weren’t quite to my taste. Now we’ve got some very popular American brands popping up left, right and centre, including Follow Your Heart and Amy’s, though not the range available Stateside.

This January I’ll be doing some veggie and vegan cooking (I have been both at different stages in my life) but my general theme for January is Iffits. As in, iffits in the pantry, it’s on the menu.

This is partly to cure the raging food hangover from the holidays, partly to force a little creativity, and largely to use things up. I’ve had a minor reorganizing session, and chucked out anything that didn’t pass muster one way or another.

This is now my first pantry press. Tah dah!

Largely spices and baking.

Top shelf has more honey than I thought I owned, some decorating bits, gluten free flour, syrups, jam and icing sugars, and odds and sods.

Middle shelf has extracts, sugars, raising agents, chocolate, and my awesome little nutmeg mill. My sushi vinegar and fish sauce won’t fit on the bottom shelf, so live here.

Bottom shelf then gets most use. Salts, peppers, spices, dried herbs, hot sauces, stock powders and general umami-bringers.

I’m not gonna lie, it’s neater than it has been in a while. I’ve also got added motivation now, seeing as I found two open packs of gluten free flour (we’re not GF, but a close friend is) and sodding THREE bottles of black peppercorns.

So yes, work in progress, but much tidier than my other presses. I’ll get to those next!

The last six months have, quite frankly, been crazy. I went back to work after maternity leave, managing a lot of people on a big project, working through tea breaks and lunchtimes to make sure I’d finish in time for last call at crèche.

It hasn’t left a lot of brain space free for anything other than keeping us fed (featuring more takeaways and frozen pizza than I’d care to admit), in vaguely matching and clean clothing, and somewhere decent on the sleepometer. Some nights, that involved me going to bed at 9pm after an hour napping on the sofa.

There has been some really fun cooking in between the rounds of cereal for dinner. Almost all of these involved me swearing as I realized far too late that my now-eaten meal needed a photo.

My gorgeous boy turned one, and I baked a huge spread. 6 dozen cookies (largely good 9ld chocolate chip) 3 dozen cupcakes ( lemon and poppy drizzle, salted caramel with chocolate buttercream, and carrot cake with cream cheese icing, all with Hey Duggee toppers). There was a giant (24 cm!) multicoloured layer cake, sticky cocktail sausages, dozens of mini tartlets (chicken and pesto, fresh mozzarella and homemade marinara) and assorted dips and dippables. Did I get a photo of this huge spread?

Leftovers. Bloomin’ leftovers.

The gorgeous white chocolate cheesecake with raspberries or the pecan sheet cake I made for Christmas dinner at my in laws? Not a single photo. Any of the other birthday cakes I made this year? Not a one.

Today is a perfect example. Panfried salmon fillet with proper, homemade hollandaise, snapped in the three second gap before Charlotte potatoes and carrots were added to the plate and my son figured out there was food going (hence the sauce on the side. No undercooked eggs for toddlers, much to his indignation).

I haven’t made this sauce in ages. Partly because you know how much butter is actually involved, and partly because it’s not difficult to make but if you rush it you’ll end up with rather expensive and inedible scrambled eggs.

Totally worth a little window of concentration though, and a lovely way to see out the year. Hope it’s a good one!