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Agree about the pastry. Try ground cooked sausage mixed with spicy tomato sauce and cheese baked in pastry rounds.

I also do mini-quiches a lot. Salmon, broccoli and stilton, in a small pastry pan, with the egg spooned over the filling. Top with a little cheese before baking (and keep an eye on them...the pastry will turn on you if you don't watch it.)

Kebabs are also good...maybe thick chunks of lamb with haloumi, plum tomatoes, mushrooms and onions. Cook in a hot pan with olive oil and garlic, maybe a few sprigs of rosemary. Keep the lamb pink.

I also really like seared strips of beef, served on a roasted tomato filled with horseradish cream. And batter-fried nuggets of shrimp and sliced fish fillet, with a selection of sauces (I'd go with aioli, cocktail sauce, and a lime mayo).

To end on a '70s classic, a whole wheel of Camembert with the yop rind sliced off, covered in sliced almonds, brown sugar and butter, chucked in a hot oven until melty and caramely, and served with fresh crusty bread.

Every Christmas, my mother would make Swedish meatballs with potato sausage. Half beef, half pork meatballs and sliced bits of sausage, browned first then baked in Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup mixed with sour cream and covered with lots of dill. Durkee fried onions were added on top once (over) cooked. Serve over buttered egg noodles. I still love them.

I grew up in Chicago. Spice for us was the little shaker of red pepper flakes at the local pizza joint. I fell in love with Thai and Tex/Mex food, and built up a love of spice.

Then I moved to the UK. And I have very little spice tolerance at all anymore. I can manage a Madras curry, but not a Vindaloo. And, when working at a reastaurant run by a Salvadorian chef, I made the mistake of asking for something 'extra hot'. I had hiccoughs for a week. Apparently, he regarded it as a personal challenge. And he won.

I love chiles, but I don't want them to mask the flavours underneath. You need to know just how much to add to a dish; to give it added flavour and kick, but not burn the tongue. I'm sure you all know this, but the current leading theory on why we like spicy food is that the pain triggers endorphins, which make us feel better. That's right; chiles really are a drug.

I like them with lashings of good butter right out of the toaster.

I also like flaked smoked haddock, finely chopped roasted red pepper and onion, all mixed with creme fraische and spread on to a toasted bagel. Or smoked salmon, sauteed spinach, thick-cut bacon and a poached egg.

I also like to play the savoury/sweet game...mature cheddar melted onto a cinnamon and raisin bagel, or raspberry jam on sourdough.

They're also great for proper crab cakes (by which I mean crab, an egg, breadcrumbs, a bit of pepper and nothing else). But not a sandwich, just on a toasted and buttered half. You get the crusty, yeasty taste of the bagel with the sweet-yet-savoury taste of the crab. It makes for a great starter.

@ronder; YES! We were in Belgium and stopped for moules and frites. Salty, crispy heaven.

There's another type of frite Belgians specialize in, where you keep the moisture in during par-cooking and then plunge it into super-heated oil. The cut potato literally explodes, giving you a large and very crispy chip, perfect for aioli.

Individual meat pies? If you can score some small aluminium tins. Braised beef or pork or lamb (or hell, all three) with your favourite veg (I'm a peas and carrot man, but you can be creative). Use ale to braise, with onions and garlic, before adding to the pastry and top with creamy, cheesy mashed potatoes and yet more cheese on top. Store-bought pie crusts work just as well as the home-made thing, in my experience. And you can do them up to a day ahead of time.

If you need a veggie option, I love broccoli and stilton mini-quiches. They also make a nice starter, and you can add haddock or salmon (or whatever you want) for the omnivores.

At our wedding, we had whole roast tomatoes, de-seeded and filled with horseradish cream, with strips of grilled sirloin over it. Easy to eat with a fork.

I agree with lots of the comments here. Anything that requires me to pay full attention to the food, and not worry about whatever else is going on.

I made a lamb stew last week...just sliced lamb, potato, leeks, celery, garlic and spices in a cream sauce, based roughly on the classic Bigos stew from Poland (because ours was lamb-based, we jokingly called it 'builders' stew' in a nod to our Irish and Polish friends.

The lamb was from the farm down the road, was free-range, and very tasty. We don't eat much meat, so when we do, we get the best. I sauteed it in butter, dill, garlic and sage, sliced it, then added it to the potatoes, onions and other veg boiling away in a large pot full of stock. I added a pot of cream near the end. It was nice. A loaf of bread and some butter helps. You can add some kielbasa or any other spicy sausage if you like. Basically, you can do anything with it. Just...keep...stirring...

It was my birthday yesterday, so I made pizza. Four-cheese pizza, with mozz, dolce-latte, parmesan and smoked gruyere with sauteed chestnut mushrooms and roughly-chopped tomatoes, garlic, onions and peppers, on a thick whole-grain crust.

Washed down with lots of beer. Lots. The wife got to put the kids to bed last night (usually my job...I am generally considered better at story reading). I was busy watching action films and eating chocolate. Priorities, people. Although the card my son made for me must have contained some sort of allergen, as my eyes started to mist up...

Sounds lovely, but I am firmly in the 'Chili requires slow-cooked sliced beef' camp.

We had roast tomato and mozzarella ravioli with a tomato, mushroom and mascarpone sauce with, along with fresh baguette and a simple spinach salad with a mustard dressing. If the daughter cleans her plate, I know I've done well.

My wife was raised on a farm, and she grew up drinking goat's milk. Problem was, there was a lot of wild garlic around, so her cereal tasted a bit odd.

We always used barbecue sauce instead of ketchup, salt-pork or pork rind rather than bacon, and about 75-25 beef and pork blend. Brisket and rib tips. Lots of thick-cut onions and grated garlic. I've even added split and crushed kielbasa and chorizo to the mixture.

One trick I've posted before: line the bottom of your pan with whole slices of onion. It keeps the bottom from crusting, and you end up with meat-infused slices of onion for a gravy, or just to serve on the side (and they're delicious). A similar trick works well for roasts, too...make a rack out of celery and fill in with onions, garlic, tomato...whatever you want. The gravy is phenomenal. Use a good ale to deglaze.