The challenge

So one of my pet hates has always been my 2pm phone call to my husband each day asking the question "What's for dinner?" This is closely followed by my second pet hate and that is the response "I am not fussed". You see, although my husband has explained many times that what he means when he says "I am not fussed" is "whatever is easy, I eat everything so I don't mind", my interpretation went something like: "whatever you cook, regardless of how much effort you put in it doesn't matter because I DON'T CARE". My third and final pet hate and the explanation behind the title of this blog is my husband's idea of the perfect meal. Meat and 3 veg. I am not going to go into any explanation other than to say that my husband was brought up in a household where a Sunday roast was something to look forward to and somewhat of a ritual. On the other hand, growing up I could never relate to the lamb commercial where the girl chose to stay home for a roast lamb over dinner with Tom Cruise.

So I started of the year (yes I know it is already the end of March) by setting myself the challenge of cooking something different from a recipe book each night. Now, to many this may seem as though I am putting myself under undue pressure, but surprisingly it has been kind of liberating for two reasons, the first is if the recipe is a flop then it is OK because I won't be cooking it again this year and the second is that it has given me a strange kind of freedom to taste and try new things. Crab pasta on a Tuesday night doesn't seem so extravagant when you are making your way through a dozen recipe books.

My best friend Shari, who thinks she can't cook, but is really fabulous and just scared to experiment encouraged me to take inspiration from a movie that shall not be named and share some of my successful and not so successful adventures via a blog.

My only disclaimer is that I am and have no desire to be a professional cook. I take short cuts and I substitute in recipes quiet often to the detriment of the final outcome.