With Jo Seagar as your friend, cooking's as easy as pie

It's Easier Than You Think, Simple & delicious recipes from the Cook School,
by Jo Seagar, Random House, $49.99
It is easier than you think, especially when you have Jo Seagar guiding you through every step.
Seagar's food philosophy is "maximum effect for minimum effort", which suits me just fine.
Who has time to spend hours in the kitchen? And who wants to spend hours in the kitchen?
Seagar and her recipes have arrived just in time ... I've done the practice run, they definitely work, they're definitely not fussy - and I'll be done in a jiffy.
We'll have a visitor from England next week and I intend to impress.
It's my husband's friend, a woman, thus the need to impress.
No it's not his mother, but with Seagar's help I am sure I could impress even her.
So between Jo (yes, I feel the need to call my new best friend by her christian name, and I have it all covered: breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. And I'll be nonchalantly offering homebaking when morning and afternoon teatime come around.
It's a fabulous book that will have you brimming with confidence and organising dinner parties.
What I especially loved was that I already had most of the ingredients on hand. There was no long list to take to the supermarket, trawling the aisles for exotic extras. Let's start with breakfast and my favourite - eggs benedict. The hollandaise sauce I made in the blender and then stored the leftover sauce in the fridge - it will last for 10 days.
This is on my list for next week (although I will be upgrading, under Jo's direction, by adding spinach and smoked salmon). I also couldn't resist the cinnamon French toast - so easy.
And you must try the salmon and dill fritatta.
Dinner, for a visiting English person, has to be a barbecue.
We've got the weather, the beautiful scenery - and, I'm hoping, a new barbecue.
I'm really going to show off with spring onion flatbreads to accompany dinner. They can be cooked in a frying pan, although cooking them on a silicone sheet on the flat plate of your barbecue is pretty cool. Only five ingredients are needed, none expensive, and they taste fabulous.
For dinner, don't go past the steak with shallots and red-wine sauce. And for dessert we'll be having banoffee creams, not good for the hips but pretty good for the reputation.
The recipes are straightforward and inspiring, the food is simple, old fashioned yet up to date.
Homely, with a certain style.
Mark this down as a Christmas gift for that special friend.