My mother considers herself a good cook - that's if a good cook is one who doesn't branch out and try different things, and if they do - they taste like crap! Or they don't use a recipe and they just 'make it up on the spot and hope that if they add every content of our pantry, it might taste nice'. That's my mum for you!

She never uses a cookbook, she thinks they are over rated, as she can never get it looking the same as in the book. This used to annoy me as a kid, as everyone else seemd to use a cookbook and they could get it right! So why couldn't she?

On the odd occasion that she pulls out the cookbook (just to make the kids happy) she assumes that they've got it wrong, or will add extra ingredients and then complain it looks nothing like the picture - as we like to tell her, a cookbook has a specific recipe in it, with a specific amount of ingredients because IT WORKS. It has been tested and tested and tested again, to make sure it's right, IT DOESN'T NEED EXTRA INGREDIENTS!!!!!!!

She also makes the mistake of showing us what it's meant to look like, once she has served it up - like a quick 'comparison test'. Half the time we assume it's 'meant to look like that' so don't question it. But then she shows us the picture, and it's amazing how different it looks. Not only because she has probably cut things differently, or added different things... but becuase she proabably hasn't follwed the rules in the first place!

Has anyone lived a cookbook free life, and wishes that one day, just one day they would be served a meal that looks like the one on TV, or in the cookbook! I've attached some pics that prove my point - what was meant to be a roast vegetable tart, turned into more a creamy potato bake with bacon, because my mother couldn't be bothered going to the shops to get the other veggies. Oh and all we had was parmesan cheese.