Chicken lickin'

Years ago, I had a long relationship with a guy whose parents live in the village I grew up in, and while I was at university we fell into a comfortable, predictable routine of going to his folks for dinner most Friday and Saturday nights. Although I didn't really think about it at the time, there was something homely about their house and about the lovely food we ate there that, as a student, made me feel part of a family again. After dinner, if F and I weren't going out, we would often lounge about watching TV and reading the paper, and F's mum would produce bags of sweets.

One memorable meal she used to cook was chicken, boiled potatoes and salad. To this day, that's one of my favourite meals. Not just any salad, mind. It has to combine lettuce or other green leaves, avocado, tomato, red pepper and red onion. There's something about the combination of hot chicken and potatoes and cold salad that is indescribably lovely. It helps if the potatoes are new, and you have some nice salad dressing.

Sadly, that relationship came to an end, but tonight, 10 years later, I cooked the same meal for my ex and my kids, and we polished off the lot. Now all I need to do is calculate the calories. Oh, how the mighty are fallen.