Thanks Pyro, that sounds very easy and yum!

Oh sorry Dwanye (I do love your name) I meant to come back to this earlier:

Get some chicken stock simmering on the hob - a litre? I end up topping up from the kettle when it's all gone

Fry off an onion or a few shallots, then add some chopped bacon for a few minutes (if using cooked ham just chuck it in later)

Add some arborio rice (250g for three people? ish? that includes a toddler though) and then a glass of wine - when wine absorbed add the stock bit by bit

When nearly done add peas, mint, parmesan (and the ham if using cooked)

Gobble it all up and save some for meeeee

Ahhh Catless, once tried to cook paella for friends (with DH who was my boyf at the time) We were pissed. We cooked it by candlelight. In a wok. Funnily enough its not something we've ever tried again!

sausage and mash

Paella. Easy peasy but never fails to impress.

Baked risotto, which is a blueprint recipe and then I adapt it.

Or pasta with homemade pesto.

Be interesting to see how old we all are. I only say this because a lot of my staples are pasta based, which I think is a throwback to the recipe's I learned from my Mum, the comfort food of my formative years. (bolognese, macaroni cheese, jacket pot's with mince etc, which were all big in the early 80's.) I wonder if its the same for everyone?

OOOh Pyro, bacon, pea and mint risotto recipe please!

another vote for bolognaise, with or without meat

Hmm probably risotto. Chicken and porcini mushrooms, or bacon peas and mint. Nom nom.