From batch-cooked dal and chicken barley to sticky toffee pudding, these are the cosy dishes that make October evenings at home feel special

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After a summer spent travelling here, there and everywhere, I am welcoming more time at home and bingeable telly with open arms. And, like a lot of the nation, I am obsessed with this season’s Celebrity Traitors. It is my achilles heel; so much so that, earlier this year, I politely declined an invite to a hot industry party because it clashed with the final, and there is no amount of free champagne or hobnobbing that would’ve got me off my sofa. The beauty of such shows is that they are on early enough to make an evening of it. Strictly has become our Saturday night family ritual, while my eldest will usually join us for Tuesday nights watching Bake Off. There are bowls of food, eaten by the spoonful, mugs of tea and endless biscuits. It’s a small, cosy ritual that makes the passing of summer feel a little less bleak.

For ease, I try to live by the rule of one meal for everyone. On nights when we eat on the sofa, I like to make something in advance that the girls can eat after school and that we can return to later on. Nigella Lawson’s chicken barley, for instance, is a firm favourite and, importantly, if a little less glamorously, it reheats well. The same goes for Laura Goodman’s mac’n’cheese, a surefire hit and a fixture in our house.

Nutty in flavour and creamy in texture, autumn’s bounty of squash and pumpkin has many uses, both sweet and savoury

The shops are heaving with pumpkins and squash, and though there are so many different varieties to choose from, most of them are interchangeable. My favourites are kabocha, crown prince and delicata, for their deeply nutty flavour and creamy texture, plus they hold their shape well when roasted or braised. And if you’re carving a pumpkin for Halloween over the coming weeks, don’t waste the flesh: chop it up and throw into a risotto. It’s hard to imagine that such deliciousness could come from such a ghoulish grimace.