I've seen you try to laugh at all of my bad jokes
And I've cooked you seven meals: six of them on which you've choked
I Love You, The Pipettes

The after-effect of the How to Cook Like a Grown-up training is that I am becoming ever more confident in playing with my food. Take the humble 'American style' pancake. This began as a careful following of a Nigella recipe (allowing for the fact I have to halve it to make the right amount for one or two people instead of a family). Within weeks it gained complexity, with a very ripe banana smooshed into the batter mix. Yesterday, it also gained some vanilla essence. The main disadvantage to making them is that we are rapidly using up my supply of Miel de Palma - either we track down the Canarian expat shop in London or I start begging friends who are off to Gran Canaria to bring me back large bottles of it from the airport. Of course, we could eat the pancakes with maple syrup but that seems to be taking a step away from the successful formula.

My tomato sauce base needs some rejigging to allow for the absence of onions whn cooking for myself and the chap: I need to find another way to bulk it out and I'm not sure what to try. I will persist though, since I'm finding the whole cooking thing actually enjoyable these days.

I'm also starting to consider various minor changes to the kitchen. It was custom-built to suit my requirements five years ago, but now I have new needs - like a little storage space for all the essences used in baking - and need to look at adding more shelves etc. This coming weekend is a free one (when I am not in London and the chap is not in Exeter) so I have been compiling a long list of Things To Do. If I manage even half I shall be impressed.

At some point I really ought to put in some hours writing as well.