As you will discover throughout this blog, whilst I cook with fresh ingredients often making my own sauces, or chopping and mincing fresh garlic, I’ll also use cheats and short cuts, I mostly buy frozen vegetables and cheap cuts of meat, usually pieces which I can cut up into, two people size portions, simple because, yes! We eat a massive variety of meals but something has to give somewhere, unless of course money is of no concern, like most people though I have to watch what I spend, so I keep my eyes out for a bargain and buy things which won’t spoil in a hurry, this doesn’t mean you have to skimp on flavour.

Try new things, just because you don’t like an ingredient one way, doesn’t mean you won’t like it done another; for example my husband didn’t like the avocado in the Apple, Spinach and Brie salad I made but will perfectly happily eat it in the guacamole which makes up a layer in my five layer dip.

Remember that not everything will come out perfectly, that doesn’t mean it’s a total disaster, just that next time it needs a little tweaking and the ones that are inedible need to be regarded as a learning curve and something to laugh about later. Mine was so, so bad that we had to order out for pizza, it couldn’t be saved, I will blog the recipe later….. At the time I was very disheartened and disappointed, but I have learnt to take mishaps in my stride, we all have them. That said I too have had mishaps which leave me cross – I admit to few but at least two where I have stepped on my peddle bin and emptied the contents of my saucepan into it, in hind sight this is a travesty and a total waste in the moment of anger and frustration.

The following recipes are MY story, my failures as well as my successes. I want to tell how it all came about, to show that with a little ambition and by putting those ‘kitchen fears’ to one side, you can achieve anything from the very simple to the more complicated, and that a few short cuts by no means any less effort or love went into the dish – although I am sure some would argue the toss on that one!