Cooking for pleasure

Cooking is a pass time my girls and me love to do.it makes the bond tighter when your doing things together.

today I tried a new recipe,(sugar free )lemon drizzle cake,I'm diabetic so any ideas for cutting down sugar content are always welcome.i tried it after cooking,it was absolutely delicious.i may upload the recipe soon.

I love to cook,I love to bake

my wife says I make ,the best Madeira cake.

me and my girls,cook a variety of dishes

when it works out good,god grants all your wishes

my signature dish,is home made steak pie

you see all the full faces,put you on a high

i think I'm a pretty good cook,although I never use a recipe book

i make it up as I go along,like a writer writing his number one song

usually it tastes and smells so good,if it doesn't I go in a stinker of a mood.

i am a chef at home in the kitchen,too many helpers some times causes friction.

i like some help,now and again,are the best cooks really men.

i really love to bake my cakes,they really are speciality bakes.

chocolate orange cake,shortbread or pie,no stopping me,the limits the sky

I've always cooked from an early age,my mum taught me at age 9,just as a gauge.

to see how I handle the heat and the strain,she said I definitely used my brain.

my mum believed you should be able to look after yourself

cooking and cleaning,create food from the shelf.

if you could look after yourself,you never go short

household duties you can easily sort.

if you do the duty often enough,it really becomes easy not tough.

practise makes perfect,an accurate phrase

helps you navigate life's little maze.

when I cook I block out the whole world.i hear nothing except the jangling and rattling of the cutlery and the crockery.i quite literally zone out to outside distractions.it a great way to pass the time,and I don't know of any activity that keeps me so calm and motivated,and if the cakes are good that's a bonus aswell.

i came across a recipe today for no sugar chocolate sponge cake,I'm fascinated with the recipe,I didn't think these things would work out so well till today when I made lemon drizzle cake,so tomorrow I'm going to give the choccy one a bash.lets hope it's as good as it sounds.i may post a couple of pictures if it looks good.

my best dish I think is my home made steak pie,I make it on special occasions like New Years day or Boxing Day.my wife and kids love it so much,my hardest year making it I recall when I was vegetarian for a couple of years,when I started cooking it the smells were driving me mental,I couldn't even taste the dish to check for seasoning.i had to get one of my daughters to taste it for me.needless to say I'm no longer vegetarian.

in reality I'm probably better at cooking sour dishes like meat based pies etc,but it's not for the want of trying.i love baking cakes as much as other recipes,just sometimes the cakes don't turn out the way you expect.

when my kids were all very young I came up with my own chocolate brownie recipe,it was an instant hit and I've made them regularily since then,on average once a week or maybe more.

i think over the years I've cooked just about everything possible, my kids and my wife have been the testers of my food for all this time. Some times recipes I made up weren't that good,but thankfully others were a great success,and I continue to make them to this day.my family prefer home cooked food by far,packaged and frozen food don't go down too well in my house. I think you're better off cooking from scratch,as with pre-packaged food you literally don't know what's in it. The recent scandals with horsemeat and other inclusions to factory made foods tends to support my theory. Not that I'm saying horse meat is not good,a lot of people love to eat it. The fact people were eating it inadvertently was the cause of the scandal.I think if it advertised horse meat included,there would not have been such a big uproar about it.

some of my happiest times

were in front of a stove

laughing and joking

family emotions I drove.

baking,cooking,frying and boiling

we all love cooking,we were never toiling

sometimes a disaster,never cooked it again

trial and error,really keeps me sane.

teaching my girls,the fun of the meal

teaching them healthy meals are the best deal.

Today I had a notion,I thought I would cook an old favourite that I used to cook quite often when my kids were growing up.Toad in the hole.I vaguely remembered the ingredients,I began with flour,eggs,oil,milk,salt and pepper.As my masterpiece took shape,the taste surprised even myself.i did not expect it to taste so good after so long,and being severely out of practise.It was very nice indeed,what surprised me even more was,my kids enjoyed it very much too.Since they are a bit older and grown up,they tend to be very fussy.But as I watched them chomp away,they were very quiet,they grunted occasionally but seemed to enjoy it.Thats as close to a thank you as I probably will get from teenagers.I will definitely be making it sooner rather than later again.