It is just a few days until the clocks go back and it is the end of British summertime. While we are looking forward to an extra hour of sleep, it can feel like a small amount of comfort compared to the dark mornings and evenings ahead. As we prepare to spend more time indoors with the heating on, there is some wonderful veg taking root outside that will be at its tastiest as morning frosts begin (such as kale, sprouting broccoli, carrots and turnips). 

This recipe is for a delicious and flavourful dip that is a very welcome addition to the autumnal menu, and something of a panacea to the ailments. While we are enjoying soups and stews and the produce of this bountiful season, muhammara is a refreshing reminder that although the temperature is dropping and the days are getting shorter and the cold and the dark are surely on their way, the winter will not last forever. 

This dish is a grown up version of what we would otherwise prepare for Little Boy Green. It requires more time to prepare, but is fairly simple to cook and goes down a treat. The polenta is cooked, cooled and then grilled in the same way that it was prepared in the Grilled Polenta and Fagioli All'Ucelletto recipe. Cooking the polenta this way allows it to become a firm slab of smokey deliciousness. It has a very satisfying and comforting texture and does a great job of soaking up the juices from the stew-like spinach and beans topping.

If there ever was a must-eat bread that did not require any kneading, then this is it. In his soda bread recipe a good friend has presented us with a gift that will keep on giving. I am not new to soda bread, but perhaps I had just not had soda bread of real quality previously, so until now I never truly appreciated the delights it had to offer. Alan, I am a convert. The Bethnal Greens thank you, sir.

Another bean soup recipe here, but this time with a little heat breathing from deep inside this smoky and nourishing soup. We eat a lot of beans, and I have waxed lyrical of all the reasons why. We also eat a lot of soups, and we like soup a lot. But there is more to soup than may be immediately apparent. A bowl of soup can contain all of the vegetables you want the whole family to eat without a discussion of its component parts - partly or wholly blended it can conceal any number of plant-based secrets. A soup is generally a one-pot affair and easy on the washing up, simple to prep and painless to cook - just leaving it to simmer, the longer the better. Leftovers are often fought over and occasionally eaten cold. So, all in all, soup is the source of many a good thing. Have I mentioned that this recipe includes cocoa powder?

I signed up for the ultra distance in the London Duathlon that took place a couple of weeks ago. The challenge was hard. The ultra duathlon consisted of running 20km (1:38:26), cycling 77km (4:22:38) and finally running 10km (58:30). I finished last in the race.

Cantuccini feature large in my childhood memories. I associate them with gas stations during car trips in Italy, my father bringing the whole family to tour furniture factories. They were a road trip bribe that my parents somehow convinced me were a treat. I only learned much later that those hard-as-rock "cookies" were best served with - and dipped into -a Tuscan dessert wine, Vin Santo, a tradition I now embrace with open arms. I am also now happy to pass on to my children, especially as Little Boy Green is into making a mess in the kitchen, as daddy does, a delicious cookie that is best served as a "treat".

Little Boy Green has recently been very curious about pumpkins. We have received a few squash in our veg bag in the past few weeks but given previous meetings of boy and pumpkin in a culinary context have been less than successful, we had not thought to reintroduce the two. However, pumpkins have been popping up in the books he's been reading, and all kinds of varieties of squash have also been growing for a while at his favourite haunt, the Spitalfields City Farm, leading to him requesting some for lunch.