THIS really is a rather melancholic time of year isn't it? The whirlwind of fun and frolicking is over for another eleven months or so and one is left feeling like the party is definitely over and what's next on the agenda apart from paying off huge credit card bills and losing a ton of rapidly gained weight. Not a prospect that any of us relish I am sure!

I must say that it was becoming a habit for me dressing up to the nines every night, not discovering my pillow until the wee hours and then feeling a little shaky the next morning. What a shock to the system to swan around now in the evenings in my dressing gown, sipping cranberry juice and waking up feeling as though there hasn't been a fireworks display going on in my brain. I

have just returned to London from Scotland where I had spent five days celebrating Hogmanay in true style. I don't know whether it has anything to do with the grey, miserable weather that the Scots have to endure for most of the winter but when it comes to celebrations of any kind (especially the New Year) I defy you to find any other country who not only does it better but where the participants have the stamina of herds of oxen.

As you may remember from last week I (along with my dear friend Cindy) was staying at my friend Mark's lodge on the outskirts of a small town called Duns in border country. On the last night of 2003 we had a fabulous dinner for ten people all cooked by me on the dreaded Aga. As you probably know an Aga is an old fashioned oven, which is considered to be a trendy way to cook nowadays. You have three ovens of varying degrees of heat but you have no idea what this heat actually is. I am sure that in the more modern ones you do but not in this one, this one has been here since God was a boy.

You shove in whatever it is that you are attempting to cook and basically just hope for the best.

The Aga is oil fuelled and is continually on as it not only cooks but also supplies your heating for the room. In Mark's case this was the only heating source for the entire house apart from the log fire in the living room. Consequently Cindy and I found ourselves either huddled in front of the Aga or virtually sitting inside the fireplace.

My bedroom, which also doubled as a study, was so cold that I could see my breath. Mark being of a somewhat hardy and incredibly frugal disposition allowed me to turn on an antiquated heater (that looked like a relic left over from World War I and highly dangerous) for a few minutes before I retired in the evening.

For fear of being burnt alive I switched it off when I went to bed, changed into gear that I could just about wear if I were to anticipate a climb to the top of the Matterhorn and awoke most mornings to find that ice had actually formed at the top of my glass of water!

This dinner on New Year's Eve ? which could have easily been a hit-or-miss affair ? miraculously enough turned out to be a huge hit but then you couldn't really go wrong with a Scottish tenderloin of beef that in my opinion is just about the finest in the world. Gorgeous, very thin French beans with ginger and garlic, scalloped onion potatoes with a ton of melted Swiss cheese and my lovely, crispy Parmesan parsnips. All exceedingly good blotting paper for an evening that was to go on well into New Year's day.

In Scotland they have a wonderful tradition whereby you open a window on either side of the room to let the Old Year go out and the New Year come in.

Needless to say that when this ritual was performed I had to go and get my overcoat as by now it was snowing outside and I swear that icicles were starting to form on the inside. At precisely 11.30 a mini bus arrived to take us all into the town square to witness the piper piping in the New Year. What an experience that was, mystical and slightly eerie at the same time.

The wailing of the bagpipes sounding from a distance as we slowly approached the square with the snow pelting down on the fairy-lit Christmas trees is certainly something that I shall never forget. The revelry continued at the local doctor's house where there was a firework display accompanied by copious amounts of Champagne and mince pies. I don't think that our heads touched the pillow until the first birds (who surprisingly enough hadn't frozen in their nests) began chirping their version of .

The next few days carried on with the same irresistable momentum ? open house here, open house there, but what was so great was that everyone is included in whatever is going on. Every party that you go to there is the entire population of the town, the postman, the garage mechanic, the lawyer, the farmer and the Lord of the Manor (and we all know who he is!) No one is impressed by fame and fortune; it's what you give of yourself that counts and not who you are. It is a shame that this life style isn't shared by other small communities that are very close to my heart.

I have now moved on (I feel like a gypsy) to Caroline's house (aka Lady Chatterley) where I have just spent an hour or so browsing through her fabulous collection of cookbooks. The Jamie Oliver one really takes my fancy and my dear friend Marty, the illustrator of this column, cooked the following recipe for a group of us quite recently from this same said book. It is so fabulous I can't even begin to tell you. So good in fact that I ended up in the kitchen afterwards with a teaspoon trying to scrape up the remnants of what remained in the pan. It is really, really deelish and I would in fact almost double the quantities if you are not as yet into New Year's health mode (and realistically there is nothing big time fattening in either of these recipes).

I am leaving you now and will report back next week from the depths of New Hampshire where I am headed next. I understand that the temperature tomorrow when I go will be minus 37 with the wind chill factor and so I guess that Mark has inadvertently got me prepared.

We were meant to have a day or two of skiing but I don't think so.

4 large, ripe plum tomatoes, salt and fresh black pepper, a pinch of dried oregano, olive oil, 8 slices Prosciutto, 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped, 1-2 small dried red chillies, crumbled, 4-6 anchovy filets, chopped, 1 tin Cannellini beans, extra virgin olive oil, 12-16 scallops, a small handful of arugula or watercress: Dressing - 5 tablespoons olive oil mixed with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, salt and fresh black pepper Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Season the tomatoes with the oregano, drizzle with olive oil and roast skin side down for 10-15 minutes. Place the Prosciutto slices alongside the tomatoes and roast for a further 10 minutes until the tomatoes are juicy and the Prosciutto is crispy. In a pan-fry the garlic, chillies and anchovies in a little olive oil for a minute or so. Add the beans and cook for a few minutes adding a glass of water. Bring to a boil and then lightly mash to a coarse puree, adding a little more water if necessary. Finish off with a little olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper. Season the scallops and then sear them in a frying pan with a touch of olive oil for 2 minutes without touching them. Check and continue to fry until they have a lovely sweet caramelised skin. Turn them over and allow the other side to do the same. Remove to a bowl and coat with a little olive oil and lemon juice dressing. Put some mashed bean puree onto each plate, scatter over the tomatoes, Prusciutto and scallops and finish off with some of the leaves.

5 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1-inch squares, salt and fresh black pepper, 2 large eggs, 2 large handfuls fresh spinach, 1 onion finely chopped, 1 carrot halved and finely chopped, extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup thick cream, 2 cups cheddar cheese, juice of 1 lemon, I heaped teaspoon English mustard, 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley, 1-pound haddock or cod fillet, skin removed, boned and cut into strips, grated nutmeg Preheat the oven to 450-degrees. Put the potatoes into boiling water, bring back to the boil and cook for 2 minutes. Carefully add the eggs to the pan and cook for a further 8 minutes until hard-boiled; by this time the potatoes should be cooked as well. In a colander above the pan, steam the spinach for about a minute or until well wilted. Squeeze away any excess moisture. Drain the potatoes, cool the eggs under cold water, peel and quarter them and set aside. In a separate pan slowly fry the carrot and onion in olive oil for about 5 minutes, add the cream and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and cheese, mustard and parsley. Put the spinach, fish and eggs into a suitable sized earthenware dish and mix together pouring over the creamy vegetable sauce. The cooked potatoes should be drained and mashed, adding a little olive oil, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg. Spread this on top of the fish mixture. Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the topping is a nice golden brown. Serve with some peas or green beans