I am mum to two teenage girls one of whom wont eat anything green apart from peas and the other has been a committed vegetarian for 6 years.I also have a husband who thinks he hasn't been fed properly if there's no meat on his plate so a few cooking challenges there. I love cooking but wouldn't say I'm a natural cook I have to have a recipe in front of me. Recently I have become a little more experimental and stray a bit more from the original recipe. I love cooking pasta and I also like soups they're so easy and usually mean we can all eat exactly the same thing which is a bonus. Having a sweet tooth I also like making desserts and cakes. Where do I start I remember making home made sweets and putting them in fancy boxes for Christmas presents. My father's side of the family are Cornish and learning to crimp a pasty properly was very important. Oh and my Aunt's saffron buns although she wont share the secret but I'm working on it.Now weekend breakfasts are important. During the week we're all scrambling to get to work school and college and just make do with a piece of toast. So at the weekend usually on a Sunday I do a proper breakfast we usually have a vote on what it will be and thanks to allrecipes this now includes pancakes. Then we all sit down together to eat it. These days it's the little things that are the triumphs for me. My grown up niece and nephew fighting over who's going to take home the leftover birthday cheesecake, my picky daughter asking for seconds, my stepdad ringing and saying when we visit can you make your chicken curry, these are the things that let me know I've done well. Mainly because I cook to please my family and friends. As I get older I'm trying to be less of a perfectionist when it comes to my food. I'm not saying I don't have tragedies, I do but I'm trying to be more relaxed about them. So what if the cake sinks or the sauce isn't quite as thick as I'd like as long as it tastes good and everyone enjoys it. My main tragedies now come from the fact that I'm accident prone. The main one that comes to mind is cooking for our annual Christmas party a couple of years ago. I opened the oven door to check on something and the door literally fell off in my hand. Not my finest moment, but all was well in the end. We took what was cooking into my neighbour's to finish off and when the oven was cool my husband fixed the door. Actually that was a great party.