judydawn, you just reminded of my late MIL. Potatoes and cabbage boiled to death, tripe, offal etc. Yet we had to go for Sunday lunch. every week . I ate before we went there.

Blood pancakes, fish soup cooked in milk, all of my grandmother's cooking - "this is what we ate during the war", just too many to mention.My mother was not a chef either and it has taken me all these years to learn to cook nice food. I was an omelette/ quick salad person for years. I didn't like meat as a kid - goodness only knows what was put on my plate so I'm mainly vegetarian since childhood.

Cuilidh,

I'm useless with Word but advanced with Excel - thus my choice. Copying all recipes into my template makes them all look uniform and easy to follow and I can make my own adjustments to suit my taste. Normally when I cook something new we all have an input into it and decide there and then what needs changing - provided it was something worthwhile cooking it again. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 times but normally I end up with something everybody enjoys.

I have been looking on this forum for a while and have tried some of the wonderful recipes posted here, thank you all. I never liked cooking but in the last few years decided to give it a go and I actually like it.  Since buying my TC I have got very confident and have tried cooking things I never thought I could cook. It's such a shame these kind of machines weren't around years ago!