My Kitchen Confidence cookbook is the perfect gift for family and friends who want to build up their cooking skills and confidence in the kitchen. Or treat yourself and brush up your skills.

• Packed full of family-friendly recipes for beginner cooks, students, busy families and rusty chefs.
• Arranged into useful chapters for breakfast, starters and snacks, main dishes, sides, pasta dishes and desserts.
• Easy-to-follow instructions, images and timings.
• No frills – just simple, homely meals for feeding hungry mouths.
• You can buy the book direct from me or you can buy from online book shops listed on this page.

It took a year or so, starting with a passing remark by my lovely daughter Jessie about me gathering together a few recipes for her to take to university with her. It evolved into an actual book and lots of people wanted to know more. Many hours of experimenting, testing recipes, photographing later – I had a draft of a book.

Jessie and her friends read it, tried out some of the recipes and gave their seal of approval. So did some of my Kitchen Confidence Cookery School customers and they gave it the thumbs up too. So I hit “send” and off the draft went to the publishers. That was followed by a few weeks of discussions with them, then the rather nail-biting moment when I gave them the go-ahead to print.

Boxes of my cookbooks arrive!

It was a while ago now, but I can still feel the sense of excitement when a whole box of Kitchen Confidence cookbooks landed on my doorstep, written by me!! I’ve always needed a deadline and guess what – the boxes arrived the day before Jessie packed her bags and headed off to further her education.

I’m so grateful to everyone who helped my get there – I gave them a mention in the book and they know who they are. But I have to single out the amazing Greg Swenson, of Recipes4Rebels who so patiently designed the book, guided me through the process and was infinitely patient with my “there are no stupid questions” approach to the project. I also have to thank Harry Stone for his beautiful illustrations that really help bring the reipes to life. Oh, and Jessie for getting me started and keeping me on track when I was distracted.