Rematch santa, you are awesome! Not just because you are kind enough to be a rematcher, but because you got me the perfect cookbooks!

The first one "Classic 1000 Beginners' Recipes" has all the essentials and more. They all have quick easy instructions and simplified ingredients so I'm not spending a fortune. In the front it has basic cooking skills and a glossary of terms. I learned a new way to cut onions! I don't think I'll be running out of ideas any time soon.

Second book is "The Dumpling Sisters" now this is real Chinese cooking! I love the photos and with some recipes they have a "add an exotic" as an option. At the back is Chinese baking which I have never had and looking forward to trying out.

The same day I got the cook books, it was my husband turn to try and cook a meal with chicken. He asked me to get green capsicum but it but turns out he had no idea what he was making! While he was trying to think of a plan I was looking at the different recipes and found chicken cashew nut and realised we had almost all of the ingredients for this. Went to shops, couldn't find rice wine so went with suggested substitute of gin.

The recipe says for the cashews to be shallow-fry until "golden brown" somehow he took that as "charcoal black"

I've had cashew chicken before, and if it wasn't for the burnt cashews I would say this would have been the best one so far!

Thank you rematch secret santa for the great cookbooks, and for the yummy meals to come.