Taking the hint from Jos, I made us a big Spanish omelette tonight. I got the idea from the BBC Good Food website. You need a couple of shallots sliced up, a red pepper chopped up, 500g of unpeeled Jersey Royals sliced a bit thicker than a £2 coin, a good handful of chives and nine eggs.

Boil the sliced spuds in salted water for 15 minutes. Fry the shallots gently in butter for ten minutes (your frying pan needs to be about 10 inches across and needs sloping sides), adding the pepper after three or four minutes. Beat the eggs with the snipped chives and a goodly amount of seasoning. Drain the spuds and put them in with the shallots and pepper. Pour in the egg mix. Keep the ring fairly low. I put a lid over my pan. After ten minutes, put the pan (lid off!) under a hot grill for three minutes. I wrap tinfoil round my pan handle to protect it. Don't forget how hot it might get. Viola!

That made enough for two of us to have a nice big wodge for tea (we had greens with it) and some good eating for lunch (cold) tomorrow. I make a lot of frittatas but I haven't done this before. It was very good, but the slight tweaks needed will be more butter and more seasoning next time. To get things like this right, you really do need to know your pan and your cooker very well, otherwise it'll either take too long to set or you'll burn the bottom, or both. Best to keep the heat fairly low but not too low.

I'm making meatballs tomorrow for two separate feasts in a few days' time. I'll use three pounds of minced steak, a pound of minced pork and about six tablespoons of caramelised onion chutney. Enough for eight portions. That all goes into a bowl with some salt, mixed together and made into balls slightly bigger than bite size and quite a bit smaller than golf balls. Formed gently without squeezing. They open-freeze nicely. To cook them, I'll fry them for about six minutes in extra virgin olive oil to brown them, then throw in two cans of plum tomatoes (best you can get is paramount). I'm adding a bit of salt to that and enough chilli flakes to really spice up the sauce. Get the heat up to simmering and let them bubble gently for about 20 minutes. Right at the end, I'll be tearing a handful of fresh basil leaves in (no fresh? Leave it out, or a sprinkle of dried oregano would be good). That's it, so simple. We have it with home-made oven chips but it also goes well with plain boiled rice or some crusty bread to soak up the lovely sauce. No onion, no garlic, in case you think I'd forgotten.