I, like many food folks, love collecting cookbooks.
I love their sumptuous covers, I love poring over the recipes, dog-earing favourites, planning meals at length with my sons, gazing at their covers lovingly as they pile up by my bed.
In fact, the only thing I DON’T do with my cookbooks is cook from them. Because I, like so many of us I believe, am stuck in Solid 4-Meal Vortex.
“What’s for dinner tonight, Mom?” my sons chimed last night as I walked through the door.
I mentally scanned through the fridge and freezer.
“You choose. Spaghetti bolognaise or fish pie? Macaroni cheese or stirfry?”
“You say that every night,” observed Son1. “And it kinda creeps me out that it rhymes.”
Because while I’d like to be experimenting with confit duck legs and interesting soils, the truth is I have difficulty finding the extra energy to do so.
And on the rare occasions that I do, chances are one of my young family will simply push a fork around the dish listlessly, clearly wishing it was one of the Solid 4 I could have whipped out with my eyes closed.
But boy, am I tired of our rhyming food. I have been blog-lurking, obviously – poring over the gorgeous and family-friendly fare of the likes of Chef Dom, Bits of Carey, Sous Chef and My Easy Cooking – and gearing myself up to break out of our square meal problem.
Do you find yourself suffering from this problem too? And if so, what are your family’s staple meals? Drop us an email at editor@food24.com.
Maybe the first step towards more adventurous weekday cooking is not Adam Liaw’s beautiful cookbook, but rather ordinary people sharing their favourites. I hope so.
Love at 180 degrees for 20 minutes