I ran out of steam with cooking a little bit this weekend. A lot of that probably has to do with some gargantuan hangovers I inflicted on myself a few days in a row. It also has to do with the fact that I’ve been a victim of my own success in using what’s already in the cupboards. I used up those spices that have been sitting around. I used up those frozen sausages in the freezer. I used up the dregs of that short-grain rice. The upshot is that my cupboards and my fridge are more fundamentally empty than a quick shop could fix. That’s a deeper hole to set off from when you need to cook something.

Through the unattractive haze of a hangover yesterday I tried to think of something meal-shaped that I could produce with the matter I could find in my kitchen. I came to a realisation: mostly what I eat is a pan-fried vegetable with a sauce with salts and fats in it, all on top of a bed of boiled tubes of carbohydrate.

I think I need to do a root and stem re-stock of the basics in my kitchen based on a new raft of go-to recipes. I not that I’m not enjoying this food (I love my own food to a fault), it’s that I don’t want to end up in a rut.