Cookbooks

There are lots of things that have gotten me through raising a child: Foxtel, buckets of red wine...only kidding.
No, I'm talking celebrity chefs.
When you're trying to feed a family in a new and interesting way and coax your baby/toddler to eat nutritious food, cookbooks come in quite handy. And I simply could not have survived without 2 particular cooks - Bill Granger and David Herbert.
When it comes to cooking for a family with kids in mind, these guys simply rock. Jamie, Stephanie and Nigella all have their strengths, but I've found their recipies to be too fiddly, too time consuming, too something...
Granger I'm sure you'll have heard of - he of the white pants, open-buttoned shirts and gleaming smile. He has shows on Foxtel and even endorses toothpaste (well, obviously), apart from selling binsquillions of books.
Despite the fact that he is very smiley and drips Sydney, I love Bill's food. His recipes have kept this family fed - from his glorious butterscotch and banana pudding (the BEST dessert ever in the world - go on, I dare you to find one better) to his tomato and zucchini baked risotto. Ari has scoffed down so much of this risotto. It was, for a time, his favourite food - he would even eat it cold when we were out and about.
I also worship at the culinary altar of David Herbert, the man behind The Perfect Cookbook (the best cookbook in the world ever - go on, I dare you to find one better). I know his recipes for beef casserole and bolognese sauce off by heart.
Until recently I didn't know what Herbert looked like - then his toothy grin popped up in The Weekend Australian magazine as its resident food man. As it turns out, he used to be Paul Keating's personal chef. I like the man even more...