Welcome to the world of blogging

This is all very new to me. I LOVE reading other people's blogs but never really thought of writing my own. But I figure, if they can do it so can I.

What I'm all about at the moment is cooking really good food for my family. I have a daughter who is 4 and a son who is a week away from turning 3. They admittedly are really very good eaters, but they havent always been. My friends have often asked me "how do you get the kids to eat so well?" and my answer is quite simple. Offer up good tasty food and nothing else. Dessert in my house consists of yoghurt or fruit and unless dinner is eaten there is no "dessert". But that isn't much of an issue in my house.

I, like most other mums and dads, have often felt like I was dishing up the same thing night after night, week after week. So instead of dwelling on it, I set myself a completely achievable challenge. Cook 1 new recipe a week. Simple. It didn't even have to be a complete meal, just 1 recipe. So I started with some little cupcakes and simple things I could send my daughter to preschool with as a snack and went from there. I've made main meals, side dishes, desserts, and even jam since I started my challenge.

I hear all the working mums out there say to be, but you don't go to work you can spend all day cooking if you wanted to. To which I say, I was a working mum and I think I almost have less time now believe it or not. But with a little bit of planning (nothing comes too easy!!) I could have a week of gourmet meals without needing to answer the dreaded question "what on earth are we having for dinner tonight".

The purpose of my blog is to share some of these recipes I've been making that my family have loved. And before you get too scared, most of them don't take up too many ingredients or too many special skills.

So let's start cooking together!

Super easy raspberry jam

This is so quick, you can have your jam made in shorter time than it would take to get the kids in and out of the car at the supermarket.

1 kg frozen raspberries
1 kg white sugar
Jars to store cooked jam

1. Preheat oven to 120*C. Wash and rinse your jars and metal lids and place on a baking tray. Place in oven and "cook" for 15 mins or until completely dry. Keep in turned off oven until jam is cooked.

2. Place raspberries into a large saucepan. Over moderate heat cook raspberries for 3-4. Ins until just heated through. Add sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to bring mixture to the boil. Once it is boiling, cook for 6 mins.

3. To test jam for readiness, pour a small amount of jam onto a cold plate. Tilt plate onto an angle slightly. If the jam wrinkles it is ready.

4. Pour hot jam into hot jars and seal with lids immediately. Serve with scones. Crusty bread or anything you like. This will really impress your friends.

Happy cooking.