Trying different bread recipes, flours and timings in the oven, found one that works for me.

• 500 g strong white flour – 32p
• 15 g butter – 3p
• 7 g dried yeast – 7p
• teaspoon of sugar – 1p
• flat teaspoon of salt – 0.2p
• 300 ml warm water.

I mix the flour, sugar, salt and yeast, and rub in the butter, then gradually add the water, stirring it in with a teaspoon as bigger spoons get too clogged up, until the mix is thick enough to knead. Knead for 10 minutes, put it in a greased 5 x 9 inch (13 x 23 cm) bread tin and pop it on a shelf directly above the storage heater for an hour, so that the mixture rises well, doubling in size.

Into the oven at 220°C for 15 minutes (I don’t ‘preheat’ it, seems a waste of electricity to me) and 180°C for another 15, spinning it round halfway so it bakes evenly. Cools an hour before attempting to cut or eat it. Getting to know one’s oven is important. If the first attempts are under- or over-cooked, add or subtract 5 minutes

Total cost: including oven time and hot water/washing up liquid used when tidying up, something like 46p a loaf. Half the price of and tastier and more filling than a supermarket loaf.

This was my first attempt at avgolemono and didn’t work, although I did manage to use the result as a sandwich topping. For the successful version click here.

Sometime next year – probably later in the year – I’m hoping to visit Greece. Looking up recipes, came across something usually spelled in English ‘avgolemono’, a Greek version of chicken soup, flavoured with lemon.

There are lots of different versions on the ‘net, but the basic recipe is lemon juice whisked into raw egg and this mixed into warm chicken stock, soup or broth – the trick is not to have the liquid so hot that the egg scrambles on contact.

Happened to have some lemons, left-over chicken and an egg, so here’s my first experiment with ΑΥΓΟΛΈΜΟΝΟ (pronounced something like av-ro-le-mo-no) soup. (Small quantities as I didn’t want to waste too much if it didn’t turn out right.)

• 200 g cooked chicken
• one crumbled chicken stock cube
• mug of water
• a bit of red onion chopped up
• 20 g rice
• salt and pepper
• juice of half a lemon

Simmered everything (except the egg and lemon) for half-an-hour. Mashed the chicken up a bit at the end to make it more broth-like.

While this was cooling, whisked the egg white to a stiff froth, then added the yolk and lemon juice, then stirred this interesting-looking yellow foam into the soup. Finally got everything steaming hot again in a frying pan to make sure the egg was cooked.

The result: Soup? Not really. I could almost stand the spoon up in it. It was, however, quite pleasant – a delicate flavour, and always nice to eat something not dependent on flavour enhancers or strong sauces to make it tasty.

As a spread on top of a slice of wholemeal bread it was enjoyable and filling, but I won’t include this in the recipe listings as there’s definitely a long way to go yet. Lot to learn here. Cost per meal: 75p, the above quantities making enough for two.

Of the various web sites I looked at for this, one I particularly liked the look of was faghta-giagias.blogspot.com.