Necessity is the mother of invention

I seem to have been cooking with a whole lot of restrictions of late - never mind the everyday ones of my fasting days, my husband's likes and dislikes and what the grandchildren will eat. We have had guests who are almost vegetarians - the kind who will eat fish but not meat - which is relatively easy as long as you don't do it every day. And this weekend we have friends coming for lunch, one couple being vegetarian, and the other having one member having lactose, fructose and gluten intolerances - real ones, not imagined. So I don't want to make her ill! Then on Sunday we have one son and all the older grandchildren with all of their little food fetishes (and I include my son in that). It's a challenge and one that, at the moment, I am struggling with a little.

Part of me mutters about it along the lines of 'difficult people', but the other and greater part of me actually quite enjoys the challenge. It means I have to think harder, be more imaginative, use books I haven't used for a while. At the moment my main challenge is garlic. I can't use garlic - or onions, but I can use the green tops of spring onions, and chives, so the onions are not too hard. Garlic though is a different matter. I had a quick look for garlic substitutes but didn't really find any - celery was suggested, but it's really not at all the same thing is it? Or ginger. But ginger is often used with garlic anyway. There were several other similar suggestions for things that are really not at all like garlic, so I think I'll just leave it out. Though I find it hard to cook without it I must confess. What did we do in my childhood when there was no garlic?

And to make matters worse, it's Australia Day tomorrow so the market, to which I was going to go, is closed. I shall just have to grit my teeth at the prices and shop in the supermarket. Or make do with what I've got. Which is not a lot - carrots, lemons, mint, oregano, capsicum, corn, frozen peas and, of course, potatoes - oh and I bought a couple of aubergines today. Eggs are Ok I think.

I think I'll go Middle-Eastern - a bit of this and a bit of that. It's lunch after all and David doesn't really like lunch - another challenge - but he does like meals that consist of lots of different things.

Keeps you on your toes.