I'm not a particularly good cook. Part of it is that it is the kind of cooking anybody could do if they bothered. It's improvisational. I cook with whatever I have laying around.
I love cooking fish pies.
If you could make a pudding wi' thinking o' the batter, it 'ud be easy getting dinner.
A lot of people love the idea of improvising but are terrified of it, so I tried to make a book that was not a chef's book about improvising but a real home cook's book with a real home cook's pantry, supermarket ingredients, that sort of thing.
Barbecue is the good old technique of people making a fire and putting some stuff over the top - I mean, look at the S'more: it's just got a stick. A lot of those goofy toys, it's people who are looking at things to do. I think if you focus on the food, at the most you need tongs or a spoon to flip something; that's about it.
If you want to think about cooking, and it's a high-five, laid back motion, then flip burgers and dress Caesar salad, don't try to pitch in the premier league of restaurant. Build up to it, by all means.
I don't normally cook, but if I did it probably would be beans, sausage, bacon and eggs. I never really get to eat that to be honest.
My idea of baking is buying a ready-make cake mix and throwing in an egg.
I cook a little - I've never taken classes or anything - but enough to get by.
I can't cook, but I can make a turkey and cheese sandwich like nobody else.
The Thanksgiving meal should not be treated as a grad school exam or an Olympic dive. Whatever you cook will be good enough - unless you make that Twinkie turkey stuffing we're suddenly hearing too much about.
Beans are such a nice, neutral canvas, you can make a big, basic pot of them and then play around with them differently every day.
I think the thing about cooking from tins for me that I really enjoyed was... the convenience of it, the slight entertainment side of it. Just the surprise of being able to crack open a couple of tins, pour them into a pan, and 15 minutes later you've got a fantastic dinner on the table.
I'm not a cook and I always stick everything in the freezer and then I leave things out, saying 'if it's good today it will be good tomorrow.'
