Don't sweat the onions

This takes 10 minutes to cook.

My children have already noticed that sometimes I will peel an onion and chop some garlic before I have decided what to cook.

So, we all know by now that when a recipe says it takes fifteen minutes that it will actually take half an hour. Jamie Oliver I am looking at you!  This is important.  Hungry and busy teenagers need feeding quickly, and when you plan to eat at 7 o'clock, it has to be ready by then. The biggest culprit in all of this is ONIONS.   Just about every recipe I have seen suggests it takes a couple of minutes to sweat onions. "Just lightly coat them in oil over a low heat for two to three minutes until they are translucent" they say - yeah, right. It never takes less than ten minutes. Ever.  Don't be afraid of correcting your recipe books when they lie. They all do.

My recipe books are now covered in post-it notes, and scribbles. This is what makes them useful.  Also, I have learned to watch carefully for how many people a recipe serves.   Why don't recipe books contain recipes that serve the same number of people all the time?  Of course, an active 15 year old boy counts as two.