... the life of another cookbook. I’ll keep you posted!!

As well as having a delightful name - Indian Chicken with Happy Spices - I think this is the best chicken dish I've ever eaten. It's simple and oh so flavoursome, lots of buttery goodness. Only a few ingredients but spectacular results. I've had this recipe scrawled on a piece of paper since the 1980s would you believe - no idea where it came from, but I drag it out every now and again for a re-run. Yum. Worth a try.

This is a beautiful braised chicken dish from the glorious 'Home' cookbook by Karen Martini. It's got a really lovely 'dark' flavour (umami apparently!) from the porcini mushrooms. A long list of ingredients, but very easy to cook. I cooked it for guests/family on a weeknight, prepped it the night before (chopping, massaging etc.) then whipped it up in less than an hour when I got home. Easy peasy. Served it with home-grown spinach pan fried with olive oil, anchovies, garlic and pine nuts, and whole boiled small potatoes (not home grown). A yummy meal.

I just love this lemon tart and I'm not alone - very simple, no fuss, no pastry (!) and easy to prepare in a hurry. It's from the David Herbert recipe collection - I've been cooking his Frying Pan Lemon Tart (great name!) for dinner guests for the last 8 years. Always gets a good reception. All you need is eggs, lemons, sugar, cream and almonds and you're done. Start it on the stove top, finish it in the oven - and voila! Dessert in a flash. Give it a go - I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Another simple winner winner (no chicken) dinner from the house of Jamie Oliver. A lovely dish of risotto style rice with salami and parmesan - but baked in the oven, no endless stirring involved. I served it 'as is' for a quick and easy Sunday dinner, but you could serve it as a side dish. or with a salad.

Not limited to '5 ingredients' I decided to add some fresh fennel to the mix - cut the same as and cooked with the onions. Yum.

In the House of Far Too Many Cookbooks, we decided to treat ourselves to yet another Jamie Oliver for Christmas, the 5 Ingredients Quick and Easy Food cookbook. Loads of great looking recipes in this one - no surprise there! Our first choice was this simple frittata that was whipped up incredibly quickly and served with a rocket, cherry tomato and shaved parmesan salad (oh, and a julienned carrot for the 15 y.o. in lieu of salad!). Thumbs up all around for this dish - will become a staple. May I say that mine looked better than the one in the photo!

Not a crumb was left when I took this cake to a business workshop we were running recently - this is a beauty, and our workshop participants obviously agreed! It's David Herbert again - just love his recipes!

Judith ... who are you?! I found this recipe on taste.com.au over six years ago and I've been cooking it ever since. It's simply the best cake I've ever made. Very easy to make, not flashy, just amazingly light and delicious. Everybody but everybody loves it. So ... thank you Judith, whoever you are.

Bacon, cream and mashed potatoes - what's not to love about this recipe. It's that time of the year when it's best to cook something for dinner that will feed us for a couple of nights and maybe leftovers for lunch. This recipe fits the bill. There's nothing gourmet or particularly special about this dish - but Giant Son (now 15!) loves it and we do too. Thumbs up all round. It's one of those dishes you could change to suit your tastes - go for it.