For the last three years I’ve used January to try and learn something new. Three years ago it was to try 31 days of exercise, two years ago it was 31 days of stretching, last year it was 31 days of learning to play the piano and this year it’s 31 days of… lunch.

Iain TwinBikeRun is looking at a plate in our kitchen when Mrs TwinBikeWife walks in. He’s using a spoon to poke at a grey mushy filling in the plate.

“What is this?” He asks.

“It’s smoked mackerel pate.” Says Mrs TwinBikeRun before adding, “It’s homemade!”

Iain drops the spoon and picks up a sausage roll instead. It takes him a second before he realises how this might come across:

“It’s not that’s it homemade,” he explain “I just don’t like mackerel!”

I love smoked mackerel and today we’re having a party for TwinBikeChild who turns four this year. We have homemade smoked mackerel, homemade sausages, homemade cake and… a sandwich platter from Marks & Spencers. In a month of lunches the only thing we’ve not made fresh is… the lunch. So, as Iain was avoiding the mackerel I thought that meant there was more for me so finished it off with some toast and water biscuits to scoop it up.

The scoop element of eating is very underrated and very satisfying. I know we have spoons, but you don’t scoop with a spoon, you spoon with a spoon. A scoop suggests something more primitive, more primal, something involving your hands scooping water from a mountain stream. Or using a cracker to clear pate from a delicate bowl. You know, just like the cavemen.

More scooping in my scoffing is a definite goal for this month.

Bread: a few days old loaf from Newlands Bakery

Filling: smoked mackerel pate

Taste: like the dawn of time (with a squirt of lemon and some cayenne powder).