My mother always encouraged us to "play" in the kitchen so I grew up feeling comfortable with cooking and baking. Since leaving home and setting up on my own, and later getting married I have become very adventurous and eager to try new recipes and tastes. My husband is one of the fussiest eaters I know so he presents a challenge! Some days when I am tired I only want to go for quick and easy - usually a pasta dish. I always cook extra of dishes that can be frozen so there are plenty of "TV dinners" in my freezer for those times. On the other hand I love to experiment and try new recipes, especially with baking. Family birthdays are always celebrated with a meal chosen by the birthday boy or girl. Family members can become very predictable when they get to choose! I could not find a recipe for my husbands favourite fast food snack - chicken livers peri peri, so using a number of different recipes and some of my own ideas I invented my own version which he begs me to make. The other attempt I am very proud of is the chocolate orange torte which had such complicated instructions and yet turned out to be really easy when it came down to it. My greatest cooking triumph perhaps has been to invent ways of disguising vegetables so that DH doesn't realise how healthy his supper really is (trade secrets that will never be reavealed in case he finds out!) I tried to make our favourite chicken liver dish using lambs liver. It was so awful we threw it away and called for takeaway!