I don't cook much anymore

THE PROBLEMS OF COOKING FOR TWO

Somehow or other, even though I now have the dream kitchen, I do not seem to cook from scratch much anymore. I'm either fasting - two days a week gone right there - or using up leftovers. And sure it can be a challenging and creative process doing things with leftovers but after a while I long to start afresh.

How did this come to be? As a young bride I was keen to cook something new and interesting for my man every day. This was the time of Elizabeth David, Robert Carrier, Jane Grigson and others, whose names I have forgotten today. I used recipe books a lot. It was a brave new world of what was available in the shops, and I had the good fortune of teaching in one of London's poorer suburbs where the food was cheap. Almost every day I cooked something new from my growing library of cook books and I didn't have leftovers. Not that I remember anyway. We also entertained at home a lot - our friends were invited to dinner fairly frequently.

This continued after our move to Australia - it was one way of making friends and also fitted into my husband's sales career - some of the invitees were customers, some of these became friends. These meals were often elaborate and I even kept a book in which I wrote what I had served to who so that I wouldn't give them the same meal twice. And the cook book library grew and grew. Not very many leftovers from these meals either - an occasional bit of cake perhaps.

Then we had children and as my sons grew they became less and less adventurous food wise, and so my repertoire decreased to a mere handful of dishes, and the quantities increased to cope with two growing boys and one full-grown man. Again, not very many leftovers, but a lot of what became fairly boring cooking.

But they left home, became more adventurous in what they ate, and meanwhile it was back to cooking for two, with the occasional dinner party with friends - more occasional than before. As Melbourne's restaurant scene expanded and as we all became ever more busy we mixed the dinner parties with meeting in restaurants. The cooking for two was now difficult - I had grown used to cooking for four, and somehow or other, even now after another twenty years, I still don't seem to have got used to cooking small quantities for just two. There's almost always some left over. So we are either eating the same meal two, even occasionally three times, in a week or trying to do something with leftovers - sometimes successful, sometimes not.

I must have realised this though, because I notice I even bought a Women's Weekly Cookbook on Cooking for Two at one point. I don't think I have ever cooked anything in it. I know the theory of what I should do - not buy as much, not cook as much, freeze half, but somehow I just can't do it. And if, for example, you are making a stew with several different vegetables it can be difficult to end up with small quantities.

I don't use recipe books as much as I used to as well - even though I keep collecting them, and enjoy reading them. Is it arrogance? Do I think I know better? Do I enjoy the challenge of creating something new from leftovers? Whatever it is I suspect nothing much is going to change anytime soon. Today I'm just reheating leftover lasagne!

"Whenever you can use one meal and make it into two or more meals, you’ve successfully mastered the art of cooking for two." Celeste Stewart in Lifescript