The idea

Ever since I can remember I always used to help mum in the kitchen. My sister and I had a Homepride man (a plastic model of a baker) which dis-asssembled into a bowl, strainer and utensils, so when mum was baking that always used to come out. I remember my sister playing happily hand whisking smarties in the bowl. It kept her quiet for the longest time. As we got older we used to help make the evening meal and prepare the salads etc... It was always fun in our kitchen...

This basic grounding, led me to where I am now. I love to plan for dinner parties and special meals. When I met my boyfriends family for the first time, the effort that went into the dinner was outstanding, but it all worked out so well. Asparagus with cured meats followed by Poussin in red wine sauce, dauphinoise potatoes, broccoli and finishing with a mandarin cheesecake. The cheesecake I had tried out on work friends the week before. It had gone down a treat. Although I was nervous about meeting the" in laws" the dinner spoke for itself and in a way gave me some support. Crazy I know.

More meals have been cooked and enjoyed... so I began to save my fail safe recipes. These recipes have been used over and over again. I like to be creative with my cooking so many recipes are interchangeable. My sausage jumbalaya can easily be turned into a paella with the addition of mussels and shrimp. It so easy...

I have an idea for a meal and then look for a recipe. I normally pick out a couple of recipes for the same dish and pick out which ingredients and flavourings I think will work to make the best dish. I'm always changing it to suit my tastes. If I'm happy with the dish and it works out well on a few occasions it goes into my recipe files.

This led me to think that I wanted to share my recipes, so I decided to write a book. I got my sister on board to add her fail safe recipes. We email each other and exchange recipes and then test them out. Her lamb kebabs rock, although my homemade tzatziki sauce failed miserably.But you never know until you try something....