One Year On

Today sees the begining of my second year with this site. Beginning this morning (at 5.30am) editing one after another recipe index (because the spacing goes haywire when it is saved - several were drafted yesterday, to be published this morning so that my diary could come at the top of the page). Once that was done I then hoped to complete the full year of recipes, so began handwriting July recipes - which seemed endless, and so afraid that it would run out of page length (just in case you wanted to print them off) it has been divided into three parts.
It was just after 8.00am when I had typed it out, published and then sat back to relax and chat to you. And still I haven't done the August recipes - but they should be completed by this weekend.

Honestly, I cannot believe how many recipes have been put up on this site, with not too many repeats fortunately. It is very handy for me now to be able to look back and see if I have posted up a recipe previously. I should have kept a record, writing down in a book recipes included after each posting had been published. But of course I didn't. Wonderful thing hindsight. From now on I will do.
The problem with any indexing is that it can be done in several ways. In fact the more ways you can include the same dish in a cookery book index the more the publisher likes it, for it looks as though hundreds are in the book when they almost certainly would be less than half (pick up a cookbook and you will see what I mean). For instance a dish such as 'Warm Potato, Tuna and Broccoli Salad' would be listed under the 'W's (as an alphabetic listing), but then also under the general name of 'Potato' - along with all the other dishes which contain the name 'potato'. Likewise under 'Tuna' and the same with 'Broccoli', oh yes - it would also be indexed under 'Salads'. So, in this example, this dish could be entered into the index five times.
With my recipes I think 'Courgette' would need a whole page to itself. Or maybe two.

Marking up (V) for vegetarian made me realise that many more recipes could come under that banner if I had used vegetable stock instead of chicken or beef in many recipes. Some may appear vegetarian but include some meat, a few suggest using meat substitutes. So it is a matter of looking through. Similarly (F) for freezing, not a lot of those, but this doesn't mean many won't freeze, it is just that I haven't tested them. With so many soups listed I am sure some ought to freeze.

It would help me so much if, when you try out a recipe and discover it is vegetarian (but not listed as such), or will freeze (but not suggested), you would let me know then I will edit the details on the index. Obviously some recipes, such as desserts, dips, salads etc, things like that which do not include meat, seem so obvious I left out the symbol.
It is at times like this that I feel so much more a housewife than a professional cook (which of course I am not), because professionals always seem to have a team working behind them who can sort out all the necessary facts before anything is published. Me - I just have to rely on books, any reading matter, or what I have taught myself over the years.

Have any of you been watching 'Kitchen Criminals'? Extremely interesting because of the way a person who couldn't cook even an egg (and that is not as easy as it seems), after two weeks can serve up a really good and professional meal. But please remember, that is probably all they can, and perhaps will ever, cook properly. When back at home, unless preparing the same dish every day, they will still not really know what they are doing.
My cousin, who managed a very well-known watering hole in Cornwall, needed to learn some Cordon Bleu cookery, just so that she could show the chef she had the Knowledge. After tutoring, she ended up being able to make six perfect dishes. But when it came to cooking anything else she failed miserably.
My daughter's friend went to catering college, learned all about nutrition, and a hundred other basic things, but when she finished the course, and things went wrong in her domestic kitchen, she had no idea what to do (bless her, she kept phoning me to find out).
Experience is the best teacher, and probably anyone who has cooked regularly for several years will be able to put food on the table that any discerning diner would drool over. Why is it now, that foods that 'grandma used to make' are now appearing (at a price) in many of the top restaurants? Because they taste so good.

Almost any food we make at home we can serve to guests. We might wish to alter the presentation a bit, but the end product will taste the same. Even just a few twiddles here and there, or an additional garnish can lift a dish. Yesterday I mentioned pea-pods but forgot to mention how I use a pod to garnish a dish. As we don't grow peas I would use a bought sugarsnap pea pod. Open the pod, but leave it attached at the stem end. Remove any peas. Make pea-sized butter balls and put them into the pod, side by side (as peas grow) then half-close the pod and place it on a serving of cooked peas. The butter can be taken out and will melt into the hot peas, but the main thing is, it looks ever so good, believe me.

Another butter-ball idea is to use a melon scoop, if you have one with a scoop at both ends of the handle, one scoop smaller than the other, that is ideal. Scoop balls out from blocks of chilled butter (these balls can be stored in water in the fridge or frozen), and then assemble them on a dish in the form of a bunch of grapes, with the smaller balls towards the end. At the top tuck in a few vine leaves (either real or paper ones) and this presentation again looks really good. Far more entertaining to look at than a dish of butter curls.

Making food look pretty is half the battle when it comes to serving a really low-cost dish, for when something looks good, it can also look expensive - which is one thing we should remember when we eat out. If you want value for money, go for good pub-grub where the plates are large and the food is full of flavour (and pensioners can often get a discount). Prepare to pay a lot more where (quality?) food arrives on large plates, but in much smaller quantities placed in the centre, stacked in the tower presentation so beloved of chefs these days. Seems a bit of a waste when it has to be knocked down to get at the food. Some would say we are paying for the ambience, the chef's skills, and certainly over the odds for the wine. But Ramond Blanc said the other day - when serving pate, the first nine servings pay for the cost, only the tenth brings in any profit. So we shouldn't grumble too much at high prices. The overheads must be enormous. Often there are days when a restaurant is almost empty, but bills still have to be paid. I have great respect for restauranteurs, but still can't get stop myself working out how much a meal would have cost if I had made it myself at home.

After four hours at the comp. I feel it is time to have a break. Go down and have a coffee and my bowl of Bran Flakes. More viewers to see this house tomorrow. So as Beloved has just about finished the kitchen floor (it looks good), it remains for me to put away all his tools (for I seem to be the only person who knows where they should be kept), possibly peel, core and freeze several bucketfuls of apples (using my Victorian style apple peeler and corer, this is a doddle to do), and maybe, in between times, think up something for supper. Beloved is delivery boy at the florist today, so that helps. Nothing worse than having a man wandering around in the kitchen, always getting in the way. Perhaps I really mean My man, My kitchen, My way.

Any suggestions re the recipe indexing will be taken on board. Look forward to hearing from you.

By the way Marjorie, pie crust is almost certainly what we call short-crust. Also, as you haven't sampled blancmange before, it is almost identical in texture, and similar in flavour to cold, thick custard (the sort made with custard powder - which, after all is just flavoured and coloured cornflour).