Another Saturday morning trip to Wards. Cora was with me and I gave her a choice of haddock or cod. She chose cod. There were great slabs of them – line caught from Scarborough – pearly white on the ice. Simon then tempted me with with a small pack of smoked cod’s roe. It should make for a good Irish themed taramasalata next weekend when I attempt to empty the fridge full of cheese.

Saturday afternoon was spent in the garden cutting off branches on some of the big trees at the back to be sawn up for logs.

There was an autumnal feel about Sunday. Brown leaves are gathering on the lawn and in a few weeks I am going to have to start raking them up. It seemed to get dark halfway through the afternoon as the grey sky turned black and rain swept across the garden whipped up by the wind.

There were still some potatoes left in the bag we brought back from Kilcrohane. I peeled and par-boiled them. They only need a few minutes in water at a rolling boil.

I rescued a few pieces of stale old bread from the bread bin, sliced off the mouldy bits and put it into a very low oven for an hour. Once it had cooled it went through the magimix with a bit of seasoning and a thick pinch of paprika until it had been reduced to a fine crumb.

The potatoes went into a tray with hot oil and then into a very hot oven for half an hour.

Whilst the potatoes were roasting I put some water on to boil for the peas and set myself up for frying the cod. Two eggs were cracked into a bowl and a heap of flour went into another bowl. The cod was taken out of the fridge and cut up into handy chunks.  The cod was then floured, put through the eggs and covered in bread crumbs. My fingers became thick with the egg, flour and breadcrumbs.

I used a wok for the deep frying pouring in a litre of sunflower oil. I used some of the gunk that had stuck to my fingers to test if it was hot enough. Flicking in a small pinch into the oil and waiting for it to gather a fierce bubble and rise to the surface.

It was then a quick routine, placing five or six pieces of cod into the hot oil, turning them over after a few minutes and lifting them out and leaving them to drain in the hot oven whilst the next lot went in. Half way though I put the peas into the boiling water.

Ten minutes later it was all done and we sat down to eat tartare sauce and tomato ketchup on the table listening to Roy Harper.

First Saturday of the month and part of my morning routine is a trip to the Farmer’s Market in New Ferry. This last Saturday there was a nice man on the way in proffering a taste of his cider. Having tasted the five different varieties he had on offer I felt obliged to buy of litre of dry cider he had been keeping in old whiskey barrels. There was another that had been kept in old rum barrels and I should have bought some of that as well.  That will be for next month.

There was more cider inside and I persuaded myself to buy some more, so I now have three litres of cider in the cellar waiting for the right time to be opened. Should give me a chance to use some of the cider cups I have down there from a holiday in Brittany of about seven years ago.

After the cider I bought a free range chicken, a bunch of dirty carrots and some green beans. No cheese this month as the fridge is groaning with the stuff. As well as the cheese from Ireland there is still a half a ball of Edam to get through and a nice looking lump of Garstang Blue.

The chicken was roasted for Sunday lunch having been stuffed with an onion and herbs from the garden including some tarragon. We had it with some of the Kilcrohane potatoes we brought back from Ireland. There is a knack to boiling these potatoes. Take your eye off them at the wrong moment and they turn to mush in the pan. I got these just right and the crisped up beautifully in the hot oven.

There was plenty of chicken left so I picked every last shred of meat from the bones. I threw the carcass  into a pot of water together with the onion and herb stuffing and boiled it slowly all for half an hour. Strained it and put the stock in the fridge.

It only took 20 minutes to cook up a fricassee with all this earlier this evening.

I fried a finely chopped onion in some butter and when it was soft added a squashed chopped clove of garlic. Once this had cooked through for a few minutes I stirred in a tablespoon of flour and cooked that through for another few minutes. I then added the stock slowly and brought it all to a simmer. If there had been any white wine I could have thrown in a glass of that. Once it was simmering I stirred in the chicken and heated it through. Taste and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Before serving I added some chopped parsley. If I had not finished off the tarragon the previous day that would have worked well. As would a glass of the cider that is still in the cellar.

We ate it with boiled rice The Flaming Lips playing quietly in the background. There should be lots in The Flaming Lips for the kids to like so I am hoping that if I keep it in the machine for a few nights one of them will twig and ask me what it is.

I got five new cookbooks for my birthday and last night we cooked out of one of them, Polpo, a book of Venetian cooking.

In the early part of the evening it was warm enough to sit outside around the new firepit.

We started with cicheti a type of finger food, two or three ingredients held together with a cocktail stick.  We had cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and a basil leaf drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper together slices of grilled fennel wrapped in an anchovy fillet with dill. We also had a plate of sliced smoked sausage from Gubbeen.

We came inside after that and had a plate of beetroot slathered with a walnut and pesto. There is plenty of the pesto left to have with a plate of pasta during the week.

We followed that with a great plate of lentils, cod cheeks and salsa.  The cheek is the tiny pocket of meat just below the eye about the size of a scallop. Wards sells them in 500 gr packs. I have not had them before but I will have them again. They will taste good breaded and fried.

Andrea then finished us off with a bowl of poached autumn fruits and cream.

For those who had any room left we are a small Durrus cheese.

Washing up this morning listening to Jack White and Jim White.

On our last day in Ireland we caught about twelve mackerel. I smoked most of them and once they had cooled wrapped them in foil and put them in the back of the fridge. I remembered to pack them the next morning and they came back with us on the ferry to Holyhead. We got back to Birkenhead about five in the afternoon and that evening we had a takeaway curry.

Monday was first day back at work and the first shower for a week washing away the rust off an Irish tan and then back to an office and the slow grind of a computer screen.

That evening I cooked another kedgeree. It was not as good as the one we ate on the beach one evening in Ireland sat around a fire, food always taste better like, but it wasn’t bad and there was not much left at the end of the meal.

The mackerel had survived the journey. Unwrapping it from the foil and peeling the skin off the fillets brought home how much oil there is the fish.

We won’t be having mackerel again until next summer.

Whilst we ate we listened to the new James Yorkston. Some of us have been waiting almost ten years for Ella Guru to make a new record. This maybe the closest we will get. Kath with Rhodes  could be the track of the year – a softly spoken wooze of a song.