There are time when feeding a teenage boy feels like a bit like the labours of Sisyphus – cursed to carry water in a sieve – it might be more fun, but it seems every bit as endless!  I swear that our elder son, Alan, actually had not so much a cavity from hunger as a black hole in place of his stomach – so somewhere out on the other side of the universe there is a whacking great pile of the second helpings of dinner, afternoon tea, breakfast, second breakfast, midnight snacks … and did I mention  cookies eaten in one snap of the jaws?

As we head towards a massively over-commercialised St Valentine’s Day, that really just goes to say why cooking for a family is one endless, intricate conversation that can be summarised as “I love you!” and the fact they clean their plates says “I love you too!”