The Kitchen Diaries, by Nigel Slater

I was given this book pre-baby for Christmas and my new year's resolution was to cook my way through it by the end of the year. I almost did it! And many of the recipes have now become staples in our household, some with little variations depending upon what I fancy or have in the cupboard. Recipes are easy to follow and use seasonal ingredients and the writing inspires me to get out to the market rather than the supermarket. This is one of my cookery books I could not be without.

The ideal book when you lack inspiration - turn to the relevant month and be sure you'll find something seasonal to stimulate your appetite.

sit down with a glass of wine and prepare to enter an evocative world of farmers markets, summer nights on the patio and warm spicey winter evenings. Make your mouth water, treat your eyes to a feast and (failing an invite from Nigel himself to dinner,) maybe even cook a meal or two and join in the general ambiance and character which makes this glorious book every cooks or foodies companion.

We love this, and we love Nigels down to earth style of cooking. He is very talented at seeing what is in the cupboard and throwing together something yummy. It is hard to find something in particularly as it's in a diary format but we use this often.

This book has been a treasure trove of inspiration for me. The journal follows the highlights of cooking in the Slater household, such as slow-roast lamb with chick pea mash in February, strawberry water ice in July and an October plum crisp. The format gives great emphasis to the seasonality of ingredients.

The photography is mouth-wateringly beautiful, and Slater's prose is consistently tempting and inspiring. The recipes are easy to follow, and have been reliably successful so far. They often rely heavily on the quality of the ingredients, and they are also frequently quite rich.

The only downside for the journal-style format is that it's not easy to browse recipes by category (e.g. starters, main courses etc), as they are listed in chronological order at the beginning of each monthly chapter.