I'd never considered stuffing a squid before. How blind I have been, stumbling ignorantly through life armed with a knife with which to slice these delicate slippery tubes into calamari-style rings. Nigel Slater has opened my eyes to the beauty of squid stuffed with a mixture of breadcrumbs, parsley, lemon zest, chopped tomato and anchovies, and served with a red pepper, tomato and chilli sauce. There's something incredibly satisfying about slicing into the soft squid with its salty, lemony interior, with the kick of tomato sauce to bring it all together. It's also a good way, I would imagine, to get squid-haters to eat squid - it doesn't taste too fishy, and the squid loses that rubbery, slimy texture that it can sometimes have if cooked badly in rings.

To satisfy a recent craving of mine, we had moules marinieres to start. I'd never actually made this - I normally cook mussels with Asian aromatics (lemongrass, garlic, fish sauce, tarragon, shallots, rice). This is even easier - chopped shallots and garlic, cooked in butter until soft, to which you add chopped tomato, lots of parsley and a good glug of white wine (OK, fine, a third of a bottle). Throw in the mussels (cleaned and debearded) on a high heat, put a lid on the pan and leave for 3-4 minutes, then dish into bowls. Simple and immensely satisfying. It would make a good main course with a big baguette to soak up the delicious mussely juices, or some potato wedges. Or both.

For dessert, a rhubarb and strawberry crumble. It's a combination I've been told is good (and one of the few exceptions to the rule that you should never cook a strawberry), and it was indeed good - the two go together in a rather surprising way. Not to mention the beautiful pink colour of the juice as it bubbles up around the crumble mixture.