I should really, by rights, call this salad "Twitter-created" as that is pretty much how it happened.

I was sitting here doing the menu for the coming week and began to think down salad lines, but not your classic "lettuce, tomato, cucumber" salad. I wanted to do more of a main course type salad that included interesting ingredients that you wouldn't have, upon first thought, necessarily put together.

However, my brain just wouldn't conjure up an exciting combination. I knew that we'd got a whole shed load of chicken on the menu, so I was trying to think of an alternative meat ingredient. Now I know that everyone loves bacon - and our butcher's bacon is just amazing, so that was a good start.

My eyes strayed to the computer screen, where Twitter was open. So I asked - of the general Twitterati - "@JennyEatwell is trying to think of a salady thing that doesn't involve lettuce, that is a main meal. ~ponders~".

Almost instantly, came suggestions from things like chicory, fennel, new potatoes to citrus dressing, feta cheese, baby spinach and others.

So began the compilation of my Wednesday evening's dinner. After many suggestions, exclamations of approval, expressions of doubt and alternative suggestions, we came up with a salad which involved a bed of baby spinach & watercress (so good for you), with baby plum tomatoes (so sweet), roasted Jersey new potatoes (so gorgeously earthy) and red onion (so savoury), crispy bacon (so salty), sauteed chestnut mushrooms (earthy again, but a different kind) - all topped off with crumbled creamy goat's cheese (so gorgeous) and a dressing made from wine vinegar (red, in this case) and wholegrain mustard (so tart).

You're salivating, aren't you? I know I was!

The reality proved to be every bit as tasty as the imaginary creation - in fact, it surpassed my expectations. It was one of those salads that, every forkful you took, contained different mixtures of flavour that all went so superbly well together.

It was impossible to become tired of eating it. In fact, where the bacon was concerned, hubby declared himself reluctant to swallow on occasion, so as to live with that gorgeous flavour for as long as possible.

The onion and the goat's cheese, the tomato and the goat's cheese, the potatoes and the bacon, the bacon and the tomato - every bit was as gorgeous as its neighbour. The spinach and watercress leaves were gently dressed with the red wine vinegar and mustard, which served as a beautiful palate cleanser as you progressed through the meal.

I'm going to ask the Twitterati to create my dinners more often, if this is what they come up with! The full recipe is available on my blog

Now I’ve not been very well for the last few days (which is why you haven’t heard from me recently). This has caused a bit of an upset in the menu planning, as either I haven’t been fit to cook or I couldn’t face what we had on the menu (like the Pork with lemongrass and cinnamon, regrettably).

However, one dish that very definitely made it to fruition was the Pot Roast Chicken we had for dinner last Sunday.

I really love cooking pot-roast chicken. There’s something so homely and comforting about having a chicken chuckling in a stock pot on your cooker. I think it’s also the smell of the herbs and vegetables that go to make up the stock ingredients, combined with the knowledge that the chicken will emerge from its bath both subtly flavoured and succulent.

I always roast the chicken for a half hour at 200deg prior to dunking it into its bath of gorgeous stock ingredients. I think it imparts some of the “roasted chicken” flavour without resulting in the sulphurous effect that can be brought about by just roasting alone.

For the stock, I used onions, garlic, celery, thyme, parsley, basil, black peppercorns and included a star anise for that lovely and very distinctive flavour it imparts. The smell, as the chicken cooked, just improved as the 90 minutes (it was a big chicken!) went on.

Once the cooking time is up, I remove the chicken from the stock and place it on a plate, swathed in silver foil, to keep warm and just rest. I know I could do with a bit of a lie down when I come out of the bath sometimes, so why should my chicken be any different? I just don’t indulge in the silver foil for myself, you understand – although it is an idea.

Getting back to the chicken, after removing some stock to make the gravy with – it makes superb gravy - the stock is strained and allowed to cool before freezing. I can thoroughly recommend Ramen noodles made with your own chicken stock, as a lovely mid-week lunch!