Friday 19th June 2026
Lunch
A ‘normal’ Friday which means lunch in Kelham Island and specifically our favourite Bakery’s Yard. We often share a piece of quiche and a large salad and today’s was a slow roast tomato, leek and Wensleydale cheese quiche with a lovely smashed potato salad. I also had a nice sour cherry drink that I hadn’t seen before.
Dinner
Feeling a bit Friday evening tired and uninspired tonight so I used the veg box mushrooms and cherry tomatoes alongside supermarket spinach and ricotta stuff pasta with pesto.
Saturday 20th June 2026
Lunch
An eating out day today beginning with a crispy tofu rice bowl at Kelham Pride Festival. I wish I’d made a note of the food van name because it was really good. Lovely crispy tofu and very tasty. We also caught some good music from Mappin Street Collective and had a fun couple of hours absorbing the wonderful atmosphere.
Dinner
In the evening we had planned dinner out with friends at our lovely local restaurant Freak Street. Before that we met up at the Wisewood Beer Festival (a double festival day!) but it was very hot and busy so we just had one there and then headed to the Wobbly Dagger in Walkley for pre-dinner cocktails. I think that’s a pornstar martini and a margarita variation in the picture but I’m playing catch-up with this journal a good while later so I’m not 100% sure. I need to get into better habits of doing this each week while things are fresh in my old brain. I do remember they were excellent as always anyway.
And not having taken any snaps I’m also struggling to remember what we ate at Freak Street! Tom and I shared a few dishes which I think included sweet chilli paneer, their tomato dahl (always!) and samosa chaat (perhaps there was an aubergine-y dish too).
Sunday 21st June 2026
Lunch
Leftover Green Minestrone soup for lunch today.
Dinner
I was fancying something noodle-y for dinner and then remembered this Far Eastern Noodle Hotpot recipe that I haven’t done for ages. It’s another recipe that is very forgiving if you need to chop and change with lots of the ingredients.
Monday 22nd June 2026
Lunch
We were both working from home today so headed to Aesthete for lunch. I had my new favourite from the specials board again: Crispy Cheesy Eggs on toast with avocado smash, crispy chilli oil and fresh herbs.
Dinner
My sister arrived for a couple of nights so I wanted to make a special dinner. I did a recipe from an old Vegetarian Living magazine: celeriac ‘steaks’ pan-fried with green olives, served with romesco sauce, black rice and salad that included my home-grown lettuce. It’s a really lovely looking dish with the contrast of the black rice and the red romesco and I do like the black rice. It’s very nutty.
Tuesday 23rd June 2026
Lunch
Out in the Peak District today after a lovely trip to the spring-fed outdoor pool at the New Bath Hotel in Matlock so we decided to try the cafe at Chatsworth Farm Shop. We both had sandwiches. I think I had egg mayonnaise, my go-to sandwich choice and they were nice. I was a bit disappointed by the menu because I expected from what people had told me that it would be a bit more interesting. But it was a very hot day so I think they were serving a slightly limited menu and we did get very good chips on the side.
Dinner
We went out for dinner to Domo, a really good Sardinian restaurant in Kelham Island in Sheffield. It does great food and always has a lovely, buzzy atmosphere. We sat outside and started with olives and rosemary and sea salt garlic bread. For mains I had a capricciosa pizza (artichokes, olives, capers, mushrooms). It was lovely sitting outside on a hot evening eating summery food.
Wednesday 24th June 2026
Lunch
My regular minestrone soup with bread and cheese.
Dinner
Book group tonight where we had a really good mixed cheese and leek quiche with new potatoes and salads. The cherry tomato and olive salad was fantastic. Tom had curry from the freezer.
Thursday 25th June 2026
Lunch
Minestrone rerun! It makes enough for two lunches which is always a bonus.
Dinner
I had a lovely bunch of rainbow chard so I made this Lemon Swiss Chard Pasta with linguine for dinner. It’s one of things I often cook if we get chard in the veg box or if I spot a nice bunch of it somewhere. I love the gutsy flavour from the green olives and the lemon.
