Fay Ripley - Fay Makes it Easy: 100 Delicious Recipes to Impress with No Stress

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In a world where food is political, powerful and controversial its important to me to make the most of every morsel. My family and friends are the tick in my clock, and sharing time and great food with them is what makes the grotty bits of life palatable. In this, my third book (I now have more books than kids), I have made sure there are 100 delicious recipes that will multi-task for you that will strip away stress like a fake tan covers up cellulite. My No-knead Crusty Sunflower Loaf (see ) will delight a tableful or can be used as leftovers during the week ahead. Theres also a double serving of desserts that will make you look like a genius while leaving time for a cuppa and a box set. Many of these work on a Stay at Home Tuesday when time is tight and nerves are frayed, but are SO delicious and doable that you could easily serve them to a crowd.

Its all about taking away the stress so that you can get back to loving the food you cook, the food you eat and the food you share. Every meal has the potential to be a celebration, not only on a high day or holiday but also on a Washing Day Wednesday or TGI Friday. So I felt it was time to sort out the problem of What on earth am I going to cook? when the boss/vicar/headmaster/boyfriend/girlfriend/old friend/new friend/mother-in-law/neighbour/vet comes for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It does seems that for a lot of us, the weekend is when family and friends get together, but its only fun when you have the perfect recipe up your sleeve which will then leave you time to enjoy being king or queen of your castle. This much I know; too many ingredients mean there is always something you cant find, dont have or simply forget to put in. Too much preparation means you dont get to brush your hair or teeth before its time to eat.

Techniques only used in restaurants that poach their eggs in nitric acid mean you lose confidence and your pride when it all goes wrong. And dear God, it does go wrong. Not so long ago I found myself inviting a woman for dinner whom I admired tremendously. A grown-up girl crush and I wanted to impress the hell out of her. Bad start I cared way too much about what she thought of me, my home and most of all my food. I started preparing weeks in advance.

I gave the house an enema, terrified that my key guest might open a drawer and discover some skanky pant or other. I bleached the kids, shaved the dog and landscaped the garden. Then I began to plan the food; so I sent an email asking if she had any dietary requirements. Nothing. No response. I forged on with my banquet.

A spring soup with peas, herbs and goats cheese, homemade bread, an elaborate lamb dish that needed marinating for 40 days and 40 nights and a huge, I mean HUGE, pavlova. So huge was my pavlova I didnt even have a plate big enough to serve it on. So in my hosting madness, that was by now at tranquilliser stage, I made a plate admittedly out of egg boxes and foil, but still. Things had clearly got out of hand. I was now swigging from any bottle I could get my hands on cough mixture included just to calm my perimenopausal hysteria. So, again I sent an email asking if there was anything she or her husband could or would not eat.

No response until 20 minutes before they pulled up outside my house when I received a text saying, Hi, forgot to mention that we are both off dairy, meat, wheat, sugar and alcohol. Soz, hope thats ok, dont go to any trouble! :) OOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGG. Dont go to any trouble? I was more relaxed when I had my coil fitted. As I looked up from my phone in despair, the fire alarm sounded and screams of The bread! The bread! Its on fire! came from my now smoke-filled kitchen/diner. Some early, helpful guests threw their cardigans on the smouldering remains and assured me that crackers would be just as good. Well, I now had 15 minutes to produce a meal for the guests of honour using only a tin of mung beans and some coconut water.

Quickly I knocked up what I could, given the brief. Although I admit I did pass off the soup as vegetable-based when it actually had a chicken stock at its very core and was laced with dairy products (she was no vegetarian, just on a blinking diet, so I figured it was only a white lie). So I fussed and fettled all through a hideous night of stress-soaked dishes I wished I had never tried to reproduce in a domestic environment. Then came the pavlova in all its glory and on its tailor-made cardboard plate. Drum roll please. But do you know? She didnt even glance up.

She just flicked her hand into my face as though stopping traffic and said Not for me. The hand. I was just about to tip the most glorious pudding I had ever made right on top of her blow-dried head when from my sons baby monitor I heard the unmistakable sound of retching followed by a scream that only dogs and mums can hear. I spent the rest of the night with buckets and sponges knowing that I had impressed no one, least of all myself. Oh, and by the way, she never even texted a thank you. Nothing.

I havent seen her since. I no longer have a girl crush on her and I fully intend to give her more than just the hand when I do bump into her. However, it was in the cold light of day that I pledged to follow some simple rules from then on. Rules to make life easier, to make life fun and rules that would mean you and I could enjoy sharing our food without beads of sweat dripping into the gravy. I now stack my pavlova in layers to great effect (see ) so theres no need to customise the crockery, and although I do swig from the odd bottle every now and then, its usually not because dinners gone tits up. You dont have to source the ingredients from the foothills of the Himalayas. You dont have to faff about with fiddly bits. There must be a mouthwatering picture of the finished product for each and every recipe so you can see what the hell you are heading towards. Simple instructions that work every time. It has to look like its taken you ages to prepare even though it didnt. Show-off value must be high. It must be absolutely, totally delicious.

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