I make no secret of the fact that I’m a total food fascist. I really abhor the bad quality food that is sold in our supermarkets and spend much of my life finding out how to make stuff myself so we don’t have to eat the chemical-filled fodder of most of the UK.

Making my own pasta has been one of the most revolutionary things I have ever done. The difference between home-made and shop-bought is subtle but once you get used to home-made, the shop-bought stuff seems completely repulsive.

We’re lucky though because making our own is not cheap – in fact, this shop-bought stuff cost me 31p and will last for two meals, whereas my home-made for two meals would cost around £2.00 or so if you include the cost of organic free-range eggs at shop prices….most of ours are virtually free because they come from our fat-bottomed girls whose food costs almost nothing.

Why then are we eating the shop-bought? A couple of reasons, firstly I’ve killed my second pasta rolling machine in just over two years…..sorry Jan! Secondly we’re on an economy drive after just about the most expensive time in our lives, what with moving house twice, finding we’ve bought a complete money-pit, making a few bad decisions and my traipsing up and down to London every week. Yes, yes, I know I brought it on myself, don’t think I haven’t been over and over exactly that millions of times over the last few weeks.

So, we’ve pulled in our belts and are surviving on the proceeds of selling furniture from the little cottage, camera gear and anything else that we own that might have a second-hand value. In fact, we’ve even sold stuff that I’m completely shocked has any value at all. We’re feeling pretty pleased with ourselves because it’s working and we’re getting ourselves upright for the first time in months. Each time we get some cash in our pockets, it feels like a huge triumph and we dash off down the supermarket clutching our wad and counting the cost of what’s going in the basket. Oh and again, I know that many folks would love to be ‘pulling their belts in’ and living like we are…..but in the pbase world of millions of digital slrs, L series lenses and other gizmos and toys, don’t preach to me about it.

To try to capture the ‘nightmare’ of 31p Morrisons own brand (eeewwwww) pasta, I donned my lensbaby (one gizmo that’s not yet found its way into a sale), bought last summer in less straitened-times and rarely brought out of its bag if truth be told. I love the idea, love some of the sample shots on their website but I’ve never realised its potential yet. It’s so damned difficult to focus on the 10d. I did try it on DMs 50E and found the focusing screen to be much more lensbaby friendly but I can’t face going back to film so I can get the best out of it. My tactic is then to position it a foot away from the subject (apparently its natural focus point) and take loads of shots while wiggling it about. I have to junk most of them but eventually I get something that’s not too shockingly bad. I have used it to best effect in my wedding pics, mainly of the bride’s bouquet and other accoutrements.

In fact, I quite like this pic in the context of the rest of my lensbaby shots and I think it symbolises the nightmare of Morrisons pasta quite well. What’s the pasta bought with? Two sofas…..well, the pasta and quite a big trolley of other stuff. Thanks Champ!

Last year, I was photographing the enigma that was Tony Ricci, our very own Jeanne's lovely hubby...the reason why he was an enigma and is no longer is that over that weekend, we got to know him and found a charming man!