At Christmas my mum made an epic veggie dish for my dad to make up for fact he cant eat turkey (the idea of eating animals freaks him out, which to me just seems weird) and I made sure I stole a piece cos it looked so good! Its a caramelised red onion and goats cheese tart, its really simple to make and it tastes incredible. I made this for me and a few friends last week and it was a huge success.
Rather than looking up a recipe or even getting my mum to write it down, I just phoned her up and get her to talk me through it really quick.
I got pre-rolled puff pastry and scored it all the way around about an inch from the edge without cutting all the way through. i then pricked the middle square all over with a fork and brushed the outside with egg. That then went in the oven for 20mins at 180 until it was all puffed up.
In that time I did the onions. My mum told me that its a delicate balance between caramelising and just overcooking  but I tried them pretty frequently after a while to make sure they were good.
When the pastry came out the oven I flattened down the middle square just with my hands and then I filled it with the onions. I placed slices of goats cheese evenly spaced all over and then sprinkled it with dried thyme because I couldn't get any fresh.
After going back in the oven for another 20 mins it was done.
I actually found this really easy to do, despite the lack of written instructions but obviously it would have been basically impossible with a more complicated recipe.

For years now, the main dish that I'm used to my dad cooking is mushroom risotto. As a kid I was really fussy and not keen on it at all but luckily all that changed and now I'll eat basically anything. In the few months before I came to university I started trying to learn how to make my favorite meals so I wouldn't miss them if I couldn't go home too often. Imagine my disappointment when I asked my dad for the recipe for this and he showed me it was on the side of the rice packet!
I have to say though, this is one of the easiest and one of the best recipes that I've encountered. It is short and simple and if you follow it closely you get perfect, amazing risotto. Its not chatty or fun like some recipes, it really is the bare essentials, instructions laid out in numbered steps, but for what it is it's absolutely perfect.