The Lazy Cooks Guide To Cooking

Have you ever found yourself wondering how you can give a new lift to old favorites? Or worrying over how you can tempt those picky eaters?

Try keeping a few sheets of frozen puff pastry in the freezer.

Puff pastry is one of the most useful, and at the same time most overlooked, weapons in the cook's arsenal. It gets less exposure than it should because many people are nervous of using it. If you are one of those, read on. You are about to become an expert.

Frozen puff pastry is one of the food industry's great success stories. From the cook's point of view it's easy to handle, needs no preparation and, even more to the point, it works every time.

On top of all that, it's versatile enough to be used in any number of ways from making mini pizzas to decorating the lamb roast. There is practically no end to its flexibility.

Take desserts for example. Cut one sheet of thawed out puff pastry into four pieces, place a spoonful of fruit into the middle of each one, bring the opposite corners of the pastry into the center and crimp them together between finger and thumb. Lightly glaze with an egg beaten in milk, top with half an apricot and a sprinkling of sugar and pop into a medium hot oven for 15 minutes.

You can use exactly the same technique for individual savory pies or, for a terrific farmhouse-style result, use two whole sheets, one for the base and one for the top.

You don't even need a pie dish. Put the base directly on to a baking sheet, add the filling and top with the second sheet, folding the edges over and pinching the corners together. The base will be light and crisp when cooked and the crust golden-brown and flaky.

Once you get started on using puff pastry in this way, you may find it difficult to stop. One great technique is to cut the pastry into shapes using a cookie cutter, glaze and bake the individual pieces and then use them to decorate whatever dish you are serving.

You could use crescent shapes to top off a casserole, or prepare triangles and place them artfully on cooked meat or chops. You could even cut the pastry into rounds, cover with something like sweet chilli sauce and grated cheese, bake for 15 minutes or so and serve them with pre-dinner drinks.

Kids love these min-pizzas too.

The truth is you can go down any path your imagination takes you. As an ingredient this kind of pastry is just so forgiving it's hard to get it wrong. There are really only a couple of things to guard against.

One is incorrect cooking temperature, either too hot or too cool. Most ready-made puff pastry 'lifts' successfully at around 200-220 degrees Centigrade. The other thing to bear in mind is not to overdo the glaze. Too much egg-wash may result in a soggy finish that will not rise successfully. Just a light brushing will do.

So there you have it. A great product that is labor-saving, versatile, looks good and tastes great. What more could you ask for?

Get Your Kids to Eat Fruit and Vegetables

Most children don't like to eat fruit and vegetables. How can parents get them to eat the food that is so good for them? Here are some ways:

1. Healthy breakfast

Fill your kids up on their fruit for the day at breakfast.
a. banana on toast, maybe with peanut butter;
b. cereal with fresh or dried fruit;
c. pancakes or waffles with fruit toppings;
d. fresh fruit smoothies and a yogurt and sliced fruit combo.

2. Hide vegetables in a sauce.
a. Grate and chop zucchini, carrots and spinach into pasta and cheese sauces;
b. puree mushrooms before putting them into spaghetti sauce to avoid kids seeing them and picking them out.

3. Add to dessert
a. Add fresh fruit pieces to Jello, yogurt or ice cream for a healthy treat;
b. puree fruit to use as homemade topping in place of chocolate or caramel syrup;
c. let your kids make their own fruit parfaits.

4. Put vegetables into the meat;
a. grate vegetables in meat dishes;
b. hide grated vegetables in meatball, casseroles, meatloaf, shepherd's pie and lasagna;
c. try an all-vegetable lasagna;
d. make all-vegetable "hamburger" patties.

5. One pot, many vegetables
a. Making homemade soups stews and chili are all easy ways to increase your family's intake of vegetables and fruit (yes, fruit!) Everything and anything healthy should go into the pot. Puree vegetables that the kids don't like and add them to the stock to use as a thickener.
b. Make gazpacho, a fruit soup using mangos, yellow pepper, yellow tomatoes, carrot, cantaloupe, cucumbers, papayas, raspberry vinegar, honey and vanilla extract.

6. Mystery foods
a. Use the kids' favorite cookies, cakes and breads as a cover for fruits and vegetables. Make sweet breads and desserts with vegetables - zucchini bread, sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie.
b. Slip fruits and vegetables in all kinds of things: applesauce in cookies, zucchini in chocolate cake, and grated carrots in pasta sauce.

7. Fast and healthy food
a. Homemade pizza. Give the kids tons of healthy toppings to choose from such as tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, spinach and pineapple. Let them make their own pizza.
b. Tacos or fajitas can be a great way to get kids to add vegetables in various forms - diced tomatoes, salsa, etc.
c. Stir fries - sugar peas, snow peas, spinach and carrots.
d. Omelets - salsa, tomatoes.

8. Keep fruit and vegetables handy
a. Keep washed fruit in a bowl nearby;
b. Have ready-to-serve individual fruit cups in the fridge;
c. make up vegetable-and-dip packs for snacks;
d. serve fruit and vegetables as a side dish at meals.

If at least some of the items on this list don't work, try making their food more interesting - like shapes out of vegetables - trees, animals, houses and let your kids pretend to be King Kong eating his surroundings.