... And what's the best food you've ever cooked yourself?

On special occasions I make Tarte Montmartre from Jocelyn Dimbleby's dessert recipe book. It's chocolate pastry filled with baked lemon filling and then covered with a real dark chocolate glaze. Looks and tastes really good - though I say it myself.

I also do lemon, coffee and also cherry and almond sponges which go down well. The Dorset Apple Cake disappears pretty quickly too.

Yes, we have a sweet tooth. Fie on the sugar police.

Christmas Puddings
Homemade Cranberry sauce
Plum chutney
All given as extra gifts at Christmas.

My cheesecakes, scones and homemade bread are all in demand too. I love to cook (and eat) find it so relaxing.

I'm (mysteriously) quite good with pastry and my favourite is a quiche made with caramelised red onions and Gruyere cheese. It has always been well received. Apart from that, my cheese scones prove popular.

Quiches made with Gruyere cheese. I use anything I've got for fillings, so much better than shop bought. Samosas including own pastry, for special occasions. So expensive to buy and can make loads.

I am the soup dragon!

With my allotment producing so much veg ( not at the moment though) my soups are always on the menu at lunchtime.

I’ve had some very odd combinations, but over the years I’ve learnt what goes with what, and how to bulk it out with lentils or pulses.

My DH loves my minestrone best.

I love my simple leek and potato, made with new potatoes, spring onions, and leeks.

For some visitors. (Years ago) I made Boeuf Bourgignonne They liked it so much that they took me out to get the meat to cook it again the next day.
My Danish pastries won a county competition at WI .

Steak and mushroom pie with a hot water crust pastry. I sometimes substitute chicken for steak or other veg in place of mushrooms, but the pastry is none negotiable!

Steak and ale pie and cinnamon buns!

Definitely Shepherds Pie or Fish Pie. I love both of these and put much care into making them.

Macaroni cheese courtesy of Delia with colourful salad and crusty bread. Also a lemon drizzle cake and muffins. I’m not the best cook in the world but these are the foods I get the most positive feedback ?!

Hate cooking, love baking. Choc cake, muffins, Victoria sandwich in lots of different flavours and fillings, cheese scones, brownies etc

Lasagna, Tiramisu, Chocolate Roulade - always requested by the family when they stay.
Christmas cake

I make excellent soup... problem is I don't use a recipe. It is about putting in any sad looking veg and adding herbs etc.. I do make one soup to recipe....cauliflower cheese with smoked paprika. Always get good comments on that one. My cooking is all based on a bit of this and a bit of that. I make very colourful red green and yellow salads as well.

Scentia, please could you share your recipe??? Thank you!

May7

Perfect poached eggs on toast using the microwave.

How do you poach eggs in mw?

My family love my boiled beef and carrots done in the pressure cooker and my cheese and onion pie. My favourite thing I have cooked is Singapore fried rice — yum!

My 'signature dish' is a raspberry and blueberry pavlova (other fruits too) - but I recently discovered that the same recipe, put into a lined swiss poll tin, and cooked for less time can be turned into a raspberry and lemon curd roulade - and that went down a storm!

Going to a Girls' Grammar School, I didn't have Cookery or Domestic Science Lessons at school - though we did learn Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

After getting married, I treated 'cooking' like a Chemistry Experiment by writing down Purpose - Method - Outcome. I know it sounds a bit OTT, but that's how my brain worked best!

The first thing that I learned to make, after getting married, was a decent 'Shepherd's Pie' .

I do excellent scones - plain, sweet ones; sultanas; chopped cherries. Also savoury ones with herbs, onion or cheese!

My 'Oxtail Stew' is good - even the grandkids love it, but I don't think they've noticed that it's actually made using 'oxtail' .

I'm also known for my Home-made Soups. Especially my Mushroom one - NOT Cream of Mushroom.

After being diagnosed as being Coeliac four years ago, at the age of 66, I've had to adapt most of my own favourite recipes to remove anything at all that contains Gluten - ie Wheat flour, Barley (including anything with Malt such as most vinegars and things like Horlicks), Rye, Spelt, Oats and Soy Sauce. Some 'substitutes' work and others don't .................... it's all a learning curve .

I make a very good Lancashire hot pot a bit of a cliche being from Lancashire but true !

I’m not a bad cook although I don’t really enjoy cooking. My sausage meat stuffing is usually well received plus family like a dip I’ve made for donkeys years! My husband is much better than me! He made a cheesecake for our grandson’s school Christmas fare a few years ago and won first prize! Plus his pavlova is gorgeous crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle! Lush! x

Chicken curry Caribbean style made with curried goat powder and additional spices and scotch bonnet peppers or pimento ma jacques. Lovely warm taste and right for a cold wet May!

I went to an evening class, and we boned a duck, and made a very time consuming sauce, which was absolutely delicious. Never made it since though. Also, thank you Delia, a chicken curry with fresh spices, wonderful.

Millionaire’s shortbread (Double quatities of toppings!)

Roast rib of beef cooked in red wine? It used to be our annual Christmas dinner, but DD1 has taken over cooking Christmas dinner (also very good)

I once accidentally made the best ever bread and butter pudding. It was to die for.

No idea why. Never been able to repeat it.?