Small big recipes, Hanna Sumari

This book is my personal return to the dinner table, and I hope the rest of you will enjoy it as well.

In our family of five, I'm the one who cooks, so over the course of thirty years I've prepared some thousands of weekday dinners from start to finish myself. Eventually it happened - as so often happens - that I got tired of cooking and the same dishes I made over and over again. Cooking became an annoying compulsion; I longed for new flavors, new ingredients and, above all, joy in the kitchen. So I started hunting for new ideas and developing recipes. The book also included a couple of old favourites, which you shouldn't give up, because you never get tired of them.

With us, everyday food has to be on the table quickly, the ingredients have to be found in the local store and the food has to be healthy, without any special dietary requirements. In my world this means vegetables, low fat, meat, chicken and fish.

Desserts are not part of my everyday life, but guests are, and it's always nice to offer them something good at the end of the meal that is prepared quickly and effortlessly. That's why the sweets offered are often things made of fruit, even though I love baking.