Food Bites: easy and tasty recipe ideas for the (below average) cook

This pantry staple can be used to make a variety of simple, flavoursome meals.

There's nothing better than getting your hands on a new cookbook. It really is a buzz.

Flicking through the crisp, clean pages, scanning the ingredients list, eyes lingering on the mouth-watering photographs ... because over time, that book is more a reminder of past meals (or meal attempts). Splattered with sauce, smeared with condiments and dog-eared, though, the book has its charm.