Hungry!

Whenever I cook up a new recipe that we like, I copy it into to my little blue book.  I’ve had this book for years now and its pages are getting rather full and sticky, so recently I asked Husband to seek out some sort of virtual recipe storage that would never get ripped, spattered or greasy.  Being the technical whizz that he is, he came back with a few options and my final choice (although not for the name, believe me) was We Gotta Eat.

WeGottaEat.com is like a big, cooperative foodie blog.  A blogging kibbutz.  I now have a username (Purplejake, of course) and my own pages where I store and share all my recipes.  If you go there and search for a particular user, and that user happens to be me, then you will find yourself inside my own, personal, virtual recipe book!

This has proven to be quite useful for sharing certain recipes that are oft requested by friends and family.  Now I can just send them the link to the scrummiest banana cake ever or brownies that will make you think you have died and gone to heaven, or an indescribably lush lamb tagine.  Oh, and I always try and remember to give credit to the original source (or sauce, ha ha.)  Only a few are my own creations – most are adaptations of something already in existence.

Ironically, when I’m using one of the old tried,-tested-and-liked recipes, I still revert to the original, sticky, hard-copy version.  The laptop and the kitchen don’t really work together for me – clicking a button with a bolognese finger or splattering the screen with over enthusiastic whisk debris is counter productive whilst being productive at the counter even if, as I look down at the keyboard now, I am horrified by what I see lurking there in those dark crevices.

Cooking for special occasions has always been a pleasure once the menu is selected, unlike the daily grind of producing a palatable and well-balanced meal for a family of four.  If I had a minion who would select the meals for me and then do the shopping, I wouldn’t mind so much.

Nothing compares to the misery of trying to get creative whilst maintaining a healthy balance with kids’ lunchboxes, though.  In fact, I have given up and both offspring suffer from the most dismal lunch boxes imaginable.  Here is a good blog if you have non-fussy eaters and are looking for some lunchbox inspiration  (and I’m not talking about Lynford Christie) although if you are like me you may run the risk of suffering a severe case of Inadequate Parenting Syndrome after visiting the sumptuous pages.  I swear that blog actually gives off the aroma of freshly baked bread!

And finally, to finish on a positive note, here is one of my very own artistic creations made for Eleven on the occasion of his 4th birthday.  Fourteen, (Seven at the time) always maintained it was wasted on him and I should have made it for her.  Ah, that’s my girl!