…and I’m sorry. Partly it’s the time of year, but mainly it’s been a change of life (no, not that sort). Buying and moving onto a lifestyle block between Tauranga and Rotorua while still working in Auckland has taken time and effort that might have been spent writing for you

But even more it makes being a repentant carnivore difficult. We have six chooks, who produce five eggs most days, that makes eating an average of only one non-vegan meal out (breakfast, lunch and tea) difficult, at least if that meal is not to be eggs almost every day. I like eggs, I enjoyed the (British) Egg Marketing board’s slogan: “Versatile as an egg” (I also enjoyed “Eggs is cheep!” but that’s another story But I do fancy some meals with meat…

It will get worse, we now have four big beefy guys (well, they were to have been guys, before the operation) eating up the grass at an astonishing rate. All that grass is becoming prime (half Angus) beef. Soon I’ll need to remove the “repentant” entirely from the title…

I have tried another of the competition recipes, and once marking is finished (marking student assignments, not your recipes I should be announcing the winner! But in the meanwhile I’ll make this confession.