Use a spoon to combine the lemon juice, oil and cream (I use anything leftover – soured, single, double, Elmlea, whatever), then add the sugar and season. You have to TASTE this to get the proportions of everything just to your liking, then you finely chop the onion (or chive, or fresh parsley) and add to the dressing. I use this dressing to coat crisp iceberg lettuce on its own or even just finely sliced cucumber. Adding parmesan makes it more like a Caesar.

This is a delicious low-cost meal,and looks really impressive- like a huge, crisp cake of potatoe! Serve with salad.

Ingredients: Good 1lb of peeled potatoes, 6 free range eggs, 1 medium chopped onion, 3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin rapeseed oil, salt and pepper

Finely slice and cut the potatoes into roughly scrabble tile-sized pieces; sprinkle with salt. Heat 2 good tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and when hot, cook potatoes for 5 minutes, turning frequently. Add the onion, stir well, reduce heat a bit and then cover, cooking for a further 10 minutes, stirring often. Break eggs into a large bowl and beat just a little, adding salt and pepper. Check the pots are cooked and then add to the bowl of egg mixture. Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan and then add the contents of the bowl. Cook for about 15 minutes on a very low heat, until there is only the smallest amount of runny egg on top. To turn over, cover the pan with a large plate, invert and return the omelette to the pan the other way up by sliding it off the plate. Cook for a further 2 minutes.

Ingredients: 1lb lean minced pork, 1lb extra lean minced beef, small onion or 3 spring onions, 1 egg, 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs*, salt and pepper, parsley if you have it.

Get prepared to get all squidgy fingered with this recipe! Chop the onion up small and then combine all the ingredients in a large bowl using your hands. Roll clumps of the mixture with your hands into roughly ping pong ball sized shapes. You can then roll these in seasoned flour and then fry carefully, adding a tomato sauce mixture and cooking on low for a while before serving with spaghetti. Alternatively you can make them into patties and fry on both sides for a least 10 minutes to make Frikadellen, which are like German beefburgers. Delicious!

*Never throw leftover and stale bread away! Dry it out and then whizz it in your food processor to make perfect breadcrums. Store in an airtight container.

Ingredients: 300g fish pie mix, 2 chopped spring onions, extra virgin rapeseed oil, bunch of asparagus, 500g risotto rice, at least 2 litres of stock (I use chicken), garlic clove, grated parmesan, lemon juice, parsley, seasoning

Risottos are fab and can be made out of all sorts of ingredients, basically all following the same principle.

Heat a generous tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan, fry the spring onions (can be a finely chopped regular onion), add the crushed garlic for a minute ir two and then stir in the risotto rice covering it with the hot oil and onions. Add stock gradually and keep stirring and adding until it’s all absorbed. Just keep adding-don’t let it go dry- it needs to have a wet, sticky sort of consistency (sounds lovely!!). The rice will take about 20 minutes to cook, depending on how firm you like it; add plenty of parmesan to taste, a tablespoon or so of  lemon juice and also salt and pepper. About 3 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the fish and pop on a lid to steam the fish, making sure there is still enough liquid in the rice for it not to run dry. Meanwhile steam the asparagus in another pan for five or so minutes ready to pop on top of the risotto when you serve, adding a knob of butter. Before serving up the risotto, finish by stirring in a generous quantity of chopped parsley.

Honestly..practice makes perfect…!

Squeeze the sausagemeat out of the skin and use half of each to make a smaller, skinless sausage. Open up the thighs, place the sausage on the meat and then wrap the chicken around the sausage. Now wrap the bacon rasher around the chicked thigh, place in a baking dish and cook for 30-40 minutes in a hot oven.

(Get inventive – you can always stuff the thighs with something else..how about some finely chopped mushroom and spring onion, with some spinach all just pre-sauteed in butter with a little garlic?) Let me know the results of any experiments!

Ingredients: Tin of prunes (or 12 dried soaked overnight and stewed until tender), 12 whole blanched almonds, 8oz/227g plain flour, 1 egg yolk, 10z sugar, pinch of salt, a little white wine or cider to mix paste. To garnish: 2oz caster sugar and grated plain chocolate.

Pop an almond in the centre of each prune, replacing the stone if it’s still in. Mix a pastry paste with the flour, salt, egg yolk, sugar and wine. Roll out the pastry and cut into 12 rounds, enough to wrap each prune. Once wrapped, bake in a moderate oven on a well buttered baking tray for about 30 minutes, turning half way through. Roll in the sugar and chocolate to finish. Sounds great!

Ingredients: Rapeseed oil, potatoes. At least one large potato per person!

Simply peel and cut the potatoes into chunky-chip-sized piece . Par boil for about 5 minutes; meanwhile put a couple of teaspoons of oil in one or two roasting tins/dishes (depending on how many you are making) and pop them in a hot oven. Drain the potatoes well, and spread them, ideally just one layer deep, into the hot fat in the roasting tins, shake about a bit to coat the chips and the cook for about 40 minutes, giving them another good shake about half way through.

No more Mc Cains ever again!!!!

Store cupboard items: Red wine vinegar,whole nutmeg, cloves, brown sugar, cinnamon

Other ingredients: 1 red cabbage, 3 medium onions, 3 English apples, 1 clove garlic

Basically this whole recipe is about chopping and putting everything in the biggest, ideally lidded, dish or bowl you can find, that will fit in your microwave!

Quarter and quite finely slice the red cabbage, removing the white stalk and any large white chunks. Peel and finely chop the onions, apples and garlic, then bung the lot together in your big bowl and mix thoroughly with 2-3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, about the same of brown sugar and then roughly a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, a quarter of a freshly grated nutmeg (or 1/4 teaspoon of ground) and about 6 cloves. Season generously with salt and pepper and then put on the lid or cover with cling film and cook for about 3 lots of 10 minutes on high in the microwave. Stir really well in between bouts and gradually you will see the whole lot go purple. Have a taste and add more sugar, vinegar or seasoning according to how you like the flavour.

You have to get used to tasting your cooking as you go, to find out what works and doesn’t work. I try to be as flexible as possible on quantities and also on ingredients- if I haven’t got something it’s often possible to think of a similar tasting alternative.

Now, my ethos with cooking is that it has to be simple and it doesn’t matter if you haven’t got all the ingredients. In fact, improvisation could be my middle name as it’s amazing what left overs I can chuck in an stew/omelette/soup/gravy/sandwich/curry, you name it. I will try and convey this in my recipes, so you can pick up this relaxed approach with your own cooking and find out for yourself what works and doesn’t work. Each week, I will build up some store cupboard items that will feature regularly, most of which you may well already have.

I’m going to start with a one pot meal I cooked in advance last Saturday morning to have for a quick tea in the evening..

BEEF STEW AND DUMPLINGS

(Quantities below make 4 generous servings so vary accordingly).

Store cupboard items: Extra virgin rapeseed oil, organic plain and self-raising flour, dried mixed herbs (as a back up), pearl barley (optional), shredded suet, beef stock cubes

Other ingredients: 1.5lb braising steak, 2 medium onions, 2 medium potatoes, your choice of  6-8 oz  of 2 0r 3 of the following:  leeks, carrots, parsnip, swede, turnip, (in fact whatever veggies you like, really!), fresh parsley if you’ve got it.

Cut the steak into largish cubes and coat in well seasoned flour, (I just bung a tablespoon of plain flour in a biggish bowl with salt and freshly ground pepper and swill the meat round in it). Heat a generous dose of oil in a casserole until really hot and brown the meat quickly in two or three lots, then keep it to one side while you fry the roughly chopped onion for 3 or 4 minutes on a lowish heat. (Add a drop more oil if you need to). Then put the meat back in the pan with all your cubed vegetables. Give it all a good stir, add enough beef stock to just about cover the lot and then sprinkle on a couple of ounces of pearl barley, which adds extra substance. Bung a lid on the casserole, bring to simmering point and then either cook on the hob on a very low heat or put in the oven at 150C for 2 hours or so.

The dumplings are dead simple. It took me 2 minutes to add these to the pot when I came back after my day out. Mix 4oz selfraising flour with 2 oz shredded suet, some salt and pepper and a good sprinkle of mixed herbs or better still, a tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley. Slowly add enough cold water to make a stiff, but sort of elastic, dough that encorporates all the flour in the bowl. (If it all gets a bit sticky, just add a bit more flour, no worries!). Use your hands to roll 8 dumplings out of the mixture. Check on the stew: stir and add a bit more liquid or seasoning if necessary, then pop on the dumplings. With the lid back on, cook for a further 20 mins and then finish in a hotter oven (190/200C ish) with the lid off just to brown the top of the dumplings.

Serve and enjoy!