The first day of the year is spent according to the recipe of years past – eggs and bacon (the good organic kind), oatmeal pancakes, milky coffee for breakfast. Chatting to good friends who stayed the night; recovering slightly from the sleeplessness of New Year’s Eve. Cooking something simple for dinner is suddenly special; I haven’t cooked properly for days, other people providing delicious meals all through the holidays. So today it’s our good old friend, Jamie’s leek and chickpea soup (from his first book). We’ve made this soup many, many times. I cut the leeks and peel the potatoes and I hardly need to think; my hands remember the recipe. The sweet smell of leeks cooking slowly in the pan. The evening of the first day of the year rolling in from the East.