Back to Keith Floyd. It is probably no great exaggeration to say that without having seen him on television I would not be doing all the cooking I do. It was his series on Spain that did it for me.

You could carp and say that most of what he was cooking were one pot wonders and there was no finesse in what he was doing. But that misses the point. It was about food kept simple, but good because the ingredients were fresh and treated with respect.

There was all that and he was filming in Spain. Apart from half a day lost in Barcelona and a couple of holidays in Menorca I had not been to Spain. The bits that we saw made an impression, particularly the shots of a fiesta and men walking along calmly holding fireworks and lighting them in their hand and letting them go just as the wick caught.

So I will go down now and open a good bottle of red wine to slurp with the beef stew. It has been cooking for about four hours. All it needs now is for me to put in a few handfuls to heat through to give it some sweetness.

As might be expected two children are already complaining at the prospect of stew again. The rest of us will enjoy it.