Yes, I know – eek! – you’d probably never consider making anything with your own hands (correct me if you disagree, I’d be chuffed to be wrong), let alone knit a scarf or crochet a little alien or a beanie to warm the thoughts in your head.

Last week I've been riding home on my bike and getting so frozen that I was dreaming about coming in from the cold and finding a steaming hot bowl of Äzesopp, which is a split pea soup that is a speciality from the region in Germany where I come from – the Rhineland.

In the blurb on the back the book is said to be a "calling to account of a massive social and intellectual fraud; an entertaining and utterly essential guide to a dangerous global delusion". I call it a success for the pharmaceutical industry.

Cooked tomato sauce as the basis for lots of different meals is a useful recipe to know.

This morning I found a job advertisment on Trade Me

- yes, still looking for that perfect place . . .

If we believe foody magazines and cooking shows on the box, everybody knows what vinaigrette is, how to deglaze a pan and that white sauce is a thing of the past. I disagree.

Eight foods cause ninety percent of food allergies: nuts, eggs, milk, soy, sesame seeds, wheat, fish and shellfish. If you suffer from some form of food allergy, are intolerant to soy or wheat or have to cook for a sufferer – here’s the book for you.

I'm stripping back this weekly What's-for-Tea section to what it was in the first week - just a series of suggestions without a recipe. I'll just give a general idea what I have in mind. You figure out the rest or ask me for instructions.

Most people are too timid with salt and pepper and don't know how important seasoning actually is. They're bamboozled by so-called nutritionists who tell them not to eat too much salt. Okay, too much salt can have all sorts of bad effects on the body. But how much is too much?

Deciding what's for tea is almost as trying as the cooking process itself. That's why every Sunday I'll post a list of suggestions for the week following. Pick and choose, be adventurous and try something new. If you don't know how to cook something or have a suggestion just drop me a line.