Feast Newsletter

After the death of my beloved dog, I’m thinking a lot about the role food plays in all of life’s big events – be they happy or sad Made with love … Anna Jones’s chocolate chip cookie power bites lie somewhere between a flapjack and cookie dough. Issy Croker/The Guardian by Felicity Coake I lost my beloved cairn terrier Wilf a couple of weeks ago, and when I say lost, sadly, I don’t mean I mislaid him yet again on Hampstead Heath.

Baked pasta, gnocchi, chicken, meatballs and greens – all perfectly served straight from the oven, writes Rachel Roddy A roasting tin favourite … Meera Sodha’s baked pasta, with sweet potato, spinach and miso. Louise Hagger/The Guardian by Rachel Roddy As I have mentioned before, we live directly above a takeaway pizzeria and tavola calda (a canteen-like spot that translates as “hot table”).

The weather in London can’t quite make up its mind. You leave the house in the morning and immediately wish you’d brought gloves, but by lunchtime you’re carrying your jacket under your arm, and by dinner you’re closing the windows again. Summer hasn’t exactly gone, but winter has started sending little reminders that it knows where we live. We love this time of year.

Nena Foster's kids' packed lunches. Ola O Smit/The Guardian After an August spent mostly on the road, I’ve found myself unexpectedly enjoying the back-to-school feeling that arrives with September. Usually, I greet it with the sort of enthusiasm reserved for a tax return, but, having been away for so long, it’s actually been rather nice coming home. Of course, there are all the usual inevitable resolutions and to-do lists: go to bed earlier, eat better, take lunch to work.

Stanley Tucci’s recipe for Calabrian eggs poached in tomato sauce. Ola O Smit/The Guardian Last weekend, my family congregated at a restaurant in Edinburgh to celebrate my parents’ diamond wedding anniversary. Good though the meal was, the farewell lunch my mum prepared the next day sparked more in the way of fond reminiscence.

Sunshine in a jar … Felicity Cloake's strawberry jam. The Guardian The ideal time to make lemonade, when lemons are juicy and plentiful and cheap, is in the dead of winter, when the last thing you want is a cooling glass of lemonade. Similarly, jam-making is best done on a grey November afternoon, when the windows are steamed up and the kitchen is the warmest place in the house.

Good in a crisis … Rachel Roddy's spaghetti with tinned sardines, anchovy, capers, chilli and lemon. Rita Platts/The Guardian I can’t find it, despite having spent the past 35 minutes looking, but somewhere in the house is The Crisis Cook Book. It’s a standard paperback, postbox-red with white writing on the cover, and full of recipes from chefs including Rowley Leigh, Heston Blumenthal and Jeremy Lee.

Best enjoyed by the seaside, classic fish and chips. Mtreasure/Getty Images/iStockphoto There are few things more powerful than the smell of salt, vinegar and hot oil carried on a sea breeze. Or sugar-coated doughnuts, still warm in a grease-stained paper bag. Such distinctly British perfumes are the smell of my summer, because my family and I are road-tripping through the UK and Ireland.

There is still plenty cook with this summer, including Yotam Ottolenghi’s stuffed courgettes with oregano and pine nut salsa. Louise Hagger/The Guardian I don’t wish to boast, but I’m typing this with a jumper on. Not because my flat has air-conditioning, but because it doesn’t – and the relentless heat of south-east England was having a seriously detrimental effect on my productivity and the health of my elderly dog (NB: the two are not mutually exclusive).

A perfect beach day is not complete without a “perfectly chilled” watermelon. Pictor International/Alamy Everyone who grew up by the Mediterranean Sea knows that a lazy day on the beach requires a certain level of planning. You should pack everything you’ll need, or may need, and get there early to secure a good spot.