It used to be that when it came to dinnertime I would wait until The Daddy returned from his hard day at work and ask him what he was cooking tonight.

And then things changed, and I found myself in control of the kitchen. Actually, more like out of control in the kitchen, for as many of you will know I am a terrible cook.

Still, there I was, muddling along and not receiving anything in the way of compliments for all my efforts. I was starting to get a bit huffy about the whole thing really. I mean there are only so many times a person can hear words such as “burnt”, “bland”,  “tough” and “inedible” applied to her cooking before starting to feel, oh I don’t know, a little bit miffed?

Then came the fateful day when the moon and stars must have been aligned and the gods smiling and my lucky day, all rolled into one. The day I stumbled upon THE SOLUTION.

It did not start out well. I had bought a nice piece of beef which would have to be put in to roast early and was very proud of myself for remembering to take it out of the fridge on time. But when I looked at it, it turned out that I had accidentally not bought a nice piece of beef, but just a piece of beef, which would have to be put in to stew early. At this point I almost abandoned my abandonment of Twitter to tweet “Help! How do I make a beef stew with no ingredients?”

Then I remembered Mark. Mark is an old friend of ours from way back, when The Daddy and I used to have time to watch TV, and would watch his New York Times podcasts on simple cooking. Despite my well-documented hatred of the culinary arts, somehow I never minded watching his podcasts. He seems kind of … nice. It was Mark who taught The Daddy how to cook Paella and it was on his recommendation that I stopped buying those expensive kitchen knives and instead bought myself two restaurant knives for $16 from Costco. They have plastic handles but still I have received compliments.

I am not sure how I came to have Mark’s book, “How To Cook Everything“. I know that it came via Amazon, probably ordered by me in a fit of optimism after seeing a random ad. I also know that the moment it arrived I looked at the cover, thought “this might come in useful one day” and put it straight onto the shelf.

So there we were, several months later. I opened the book and discovered it contains tons and tons of simple recipes for simple people like me. Who don’t have 20 exotic ingredients in their pantry and really don’t feel like rushing out to buy them. Who very possibly don’t even have the most basic of ingredients. That night Mark didn’t try to make me feel guilty for not throwing three tired kids in the car and rushing them to the crowded supermarket to buy beef stock. He gave me permission to cook with water.

Imagine that! Needless to say, How to Cook Everything no longer lives on the living room shelf. It now has a permanent home on the kitchen counter. In fact, it is probably stuck there. With gravy.

And this is why Mark will always have a special place in my heart:  I spend less time cooking. I can usually find a recipe to accommodate my gruesome lack of fancy ingredients. Oh, and here is a real and honest quote from 5 minutes ago as The Daddy finished eating yet another of Mark’s 20 minute meals:

“It used to be depressing eating your dinners. Some days I almost wanted to kill myself. But that was great.”

No kidding.

(PS: Yet again this is an unpaid review. What can I say, I am a mug.)