It’s all kicking off at Larder Towers. Work is insanely busy, and there hasn’t been a lot of time to blog lately, so please accept my apologies for the temporary disappearance. I could tell you I’m halfway through baking a tray of award-winning featherlight macaroons – but in reality I am watching the England qualifier match and waiting for the pizza delivery. Yes, it’s refined dining and rock’n roll all the way!

I do have a backlog of recipes, photos and restaurants to share with you as soon as I have a little break. For now, I may as well get out of the way that the Peckham Bazaar has been the most exciting place I’ve eaten at in ages. Amazing. Bear with me and I’ll soon go through photos, their succulent-delicious barbecued lamb neck, and the resident cat I so wish I could take home with me.

What else has been going on? A few recent highlights:

• The Green Door Supper Club joined forces with the Hither Green wine club again last Saturday, and we rocked a fundraiser for the Jimmy Mizen Foundation at the Café’ of Good Hope. And I still have no photos to show for it! It’s all a bit of a shambles with the blog lately, I know. But I’m happy to report that the Italian menu I had inside my head worked just as I imagined. It wasn’t all my doing, though. The lovely and patient Iris from the beautiful Whatever Gets Your Through The Day blog (her photos make me so hungry!) provided valuable advice using her Friuli credentials to tweak some of the dishes and come up with great ideas.  Thank you, Iris! As per usual, I went a bit off-piste and didn’t strictly stick to the brief of a Piedmontese 3 course meal. There were mushrooms (tick), osso buco (tick), but I also sneaked in a classic Milanese risotto, which in my book is close enough to Piedmont. This was my personal favourite supper club menu so far, which I may repeat soon, as I don’t believe you can have too much osso buco.
• If you’re somewhere around Southeast London tomorrow, the Green Door supper club will venture into StreetFoodLand and serve a variation of porchetta sandwiches at the Harvest Farmers’ market at St Swithun’s church in Hither Green. Since I am not planning to roast a whole suckling pig, this is not strictly porchetta as the Romans know it. But turn up and you’ll be rewarded with a pretty close approximation of it, in the form of very slowly roasted pork cuts in a herby sauce served with crusty bread. It’s how I’ve decided to welcome autumn into our hearts. The market will run from 12:00 to 18:00 and I am delighted to report they are licensed – which can only mean a reliable Hither Green Wine Club presence! Alex from GG Sparkes butchers – incidentally, the source of that scrumptious pork belly I will be roasting tomorrow – is bringing some pulled pork pies that can’t really be missed.
• There’s some exciting news I am hoping to announce soon too, but for now I’ll just keep the aura of mystery and dreamy possibilities.

• And above all, I am one week away of ridiculously much anticipated holidays! My first ever visit to Sardinia is planned to start with a couple of very long sleeps, followed by a fortnight of exploring what should be a very empty and quiet island in autumn. Pecorino tasting, litres of cannonau wine and some adventurous Tyrrhenian swims – I am told its waters are at their warmest at this time of the year (no, I don’t know either) – are all in the list. First in the suitcase are the names of special food places recommended by Luigi from the Capocaccia stall of Sardinian delights at Catford Broadway Market. If the cheese I had from him last week is anything to go by, this is going to be a superb holiday!