Making Use Of...

Thanks to all of you who replied so speedily to Mary's query re EasyYo. It is rare I return to the site to publish something else on the same day, but I thought it was worth it yesterday as speed was of the essence, and it worked. And thanks to Mary's later comment, as she had been able to read your replies in time. Must mention, purely for economy reasons, I still make my EasyYo mix up with water - which is the recommended way. Others I know prefer to include other ingredients (evap. milk etc). So worth experimenting if you need to.

Beloved brought in a medium white (Kingsmill) loaf yesterday, and I counted the slices. There were 15 plus 2 crusts, three less than the Warburtons although both were the same weight (800g) differing slightly in price, but working on the price per 100g, very little in it. What I must do is start baking my own bread again, slice it (preferably using my slicing machine), and see how many medium-to-thin slices I can get from mine.

SweeterRita wrote about washing fruit and vegetables. Some people I know always wash everything, but - and I don't know why - I rarely do. Most root veggies these days have been washed before putting on the shelves, so I presume this has removed anything untoward, in any case, most of these are thinly peeled before using. Unblemished and 'fresh-looking' carrots I leave unpeeled, potatoes I cook in their skins wherever possible. Even with greens, it is obvious that most of the outer leaves have been removed before being sold, whether prepacked or not. I do tend to refresh bagged salad leaves such as watercress, rocket, spinach or lamb's lettuce - this for two reasons. One might be because the bag states they are unwashed, but mainly because once out of the bag, a rinse in fresh water makes them last a day or two longer (if rinsed every day, shaken and kept in the fridge).
Onions of course we peel anyway, and with spring onions I always peel off the outer, and very thin layer, before I start using them - mainly because it will reveal a much cleaner onion.

As to fruits, again I do not wash these, but then I tend to eat mainly fruits that come with the skin than needs removing, such as citrus fruits, kiwi, avocados, bananas. When making fruit salads, I leave the skins on the apples, and although don't wash them, use the old method of making use of their natural wax on the surface of the fruit by polishing them up with a cloth to make them shine. I suppose this would also remove any pesticides if any were there.

Having a slight mental block as to what to write about today, I have been flicking through my recipe collection and noticed some dishes that could be made from what I have already in store. Which just about covers every recipe anyway, because by now you know my kitchen cupboards are like a corner shop. Even, the recipes I have given today would possibly make use of something you might already wish to us up.
But I start with a classic fish soup, because it uses fish (of almost any sort, fresh not canned) and the more varieties the better, and who know what you might have lurking at the bottom of your chest freezer. Perhaps worth seeing if your fishmonger (or supermarket) could make you up a bag of oddments. They must have oddments. But not only the possible use of fish scraps, dried orange peel is also an ingredient (I have some peel in my bedroom after I ate my late-night orange, so will take it down and dry it). Fennel has been mentioned these past few days, and their fronds also go into the dish. I do not have fennel so maybe, just maybe, might add a tsp of Ouzo instead to give that aniseed flavour (there was a footnote to the recipe suggesting that a little pastis could be added and that is not a million miles away from Ouzo).

This fish dish is said to be a meal in itself, or rather (as Claudia Roden puts it) two meals - as it makes a soup and a separate fish dish. Worth making for a large number as the wider the variety of fish the better, and even though I have reduced the original amounts by half (originally to feed 10 - 12), they could be reduced even more. It does not say, but I assume the weight of fish is after cleaning, gutting and, scaling.
Fish stock is made from the fish heads and trimmings of the fish, plus the vegetables used as when making chicken stock, and also with added white wine. To make this easy I suggest making the stock using a fish stock cube instead. (When cooking fresh prawns, save the heads and shells, freeze and use to make fish stock).
Bouillabaisse: serves 5 - 6
2 fl oz (60ml) olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
8 oz (225g) ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or canned)
small sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
sprig of fennel
a 2" piece of dried orange peel
2 1/2 pints (1.5lts) boiling water or fish stock
salt and pepper
pinch saffron strands
3 lb (1.5kg) assorted fish
Heat 2 tblsp of the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion and leek until golden. Stir in the garlic and fry for one minute, then add the tomatoes and cook for five minutes longer. Drop in the herbs and orange peel, then pour in the boiling water or stock, raise the heat, and stir vigorously until it comes back to the boil. Season to taste, add the remaining oil and keep at a full rolling boil until the oil has been thoroughly mixed in and does not rest on the surface. Sprinkle in the saffron, reduce the heat to simmer and put in the fish. Cook gently for 6 - 8 minutes.
As each fish becomes cooked (some take longer than others but no longer than 15 mins total time) remove from the pan using a slotted spoon, and place on a serving dish, keep warm, adding the remaining fish as soon as cooked. Some of the softer-fleshed fish can be left in the soup to disintegrate, making the soup thicker.
Pour or strain the broth into a soup tureen and serve with garlic bread. With no mention of how to serve the fish, I suggest eating this with boiled new potatoes and peas, or leaving it to cool and turning it into fish pies and fish cakes.

Still continuing with the fish theme, this next dish is for a warm salad and includes several of our five-a-day necessaries.
Mixed Fish Salad: serves 2
2 baking potatoes, skin left on, cut into chunks
8 oz (200g) frozen peas, thawed
2 rashers bacon, cut into pieces
1 x 80g pack mixed fish pieces
3 cooked beetroot, diced
1 bunch watercress, leaves only
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and sliced
French dressing
Boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes or until tender but not soft. Remove with a slotted spoon, adding the peas to the boiling water and cook these for 2 minutes. Then drain.
Fry the bacon over low heat, allowing the fat to run out, then raise the heat and brown until fairly crisp. Remove the bacon and add the trimmed/skinned fish chunks to the bacon fat and fry for 3 - 5 minutes until just cooked through.
Put the potatoes, peas, beetroot, watercress and onion into a bowl. Sprinkle over approx 1 tblsp of the French dressing and toss well. Pile into a dish, nestling the bacon and fish into the salad.

This next recipe uses canned tuna, and am including it because it also uses three of our five-a-day (in this case vegetables). The remaining two could be fruit as in a pudding or eat-in-hand. The original recipe uses 'flavour enhancer' which at one time was sold as monoSodiumglucamate (MSG), which appears in the (yesterday mentioned) excluded additives list. However, I believe it is still used in some take-aways. I could be wrong. In any case, as salt and pepper is included, who needs more flavour enhancing?
Green and Gold Tuna: serves 4
2 tblsp butter
1 onion, chopped
1 pint (450ml) thinly sliced carrots
3 tblsp water
1 head broccoli, broken into florets
juice of half a small lemon
good pinch of salt
good pinch of black pepper
approx 375g (or 2 cans) tuna, drained and flaked
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the onion. Saute until tender. Stir in the carrots, cook for one minute then add the water. Cover and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat, then add the broccoli, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Cover and cook for a further five minutes. Stir in the tuna, and when heated through, serve in individual shallow bowls.

As white cabbage is very cheap (compared to other greens) and also has a good shelf-life when kept in the fridge, it is useful to seek out different ways to use it up. More often than not, our cabbage is steamed (usually over a pan of potatoes), and then added to the pan in which lamb's liver gougons and bacon has been fried. The potatoes also added. The whole lot then taking up the lovely flavours. Certainly a favourite dish in the Goode Household, but if liver is not to your taste, then try steaming the cabbage, meanwhile frying bacon, and then tossing the lot together. A few caraway seeds sprinkled into boiled or steamed white cabbage adds another dimension.
But instead of cooking the cabbage, an alternative way is to turn it into coleslaw. The simplest way is shredding it finely and mixing with grated carrot and onion, bound together with a little mayonnaise thinned down slightly with boiled water (or yogurt). Seasoned to taste. But for something that little bit different try these - the bonus being they all keep well in the fridge for up to and including 3 days:
Spicy slaw with Herbs:
2 tblsp cider vinegar OR lemon juice
half tsp salt
half a tsp cayenne pepper
half a white cabbage (medium size), grated
1 large carrot, grated
1 tblsp olive oil
1 tblsp fresh oregano leaves, chopped
Put the vinegar or lemon juice into a large bowl and stir in the salt and cayenne. Mix well then add the cabbage and carrot. Stir/toss to coat the vegetables, then pour over the oil and sprinkle over the herbs. Stir and toss one more time. Leave to stand for 1 hour before serving. Great served with something like kebabs, burgers, or grilled chicken.

This second slaw is a cross between sweet and savoury, and not quite sure what to suggest serving it with, but would think it would go very well with something spicy, such as a hot, hot, hot chilli con carne, which sometimes needs a touch of sweetness (often I add a bit of sugar to the sauce when making chilli for that very reason). It might even make a good dessert, for stranger things have happened. If there is no sour creme fraiche in your fridge, then I would think fresh cream would do instead as lemon juice is an ingredient (lemon juice turns fresh cream sour). Or maybe yogurt could be used instead.
Sweet and Creamy Slaw:
1 lemon
good pinch of salt
2 tblsp runny honey
4 tblsp sour cream or creme fraiche
half a medium white cabbage, finely shredded
few caraway seeds (opt)
Grate the zest from the lemon and put into a bowl with 2 tblsp of its juice. Stir in the salt, honey and the cream/creme fraiche. Add the prepared cabbage and caraway and mix together well. Allow to stand (chilled) for an hour before serving.

As this is the time of year for oranges (remembering to dry some of the peel for flavouring - remove pith before drying), this is a dessert well worth making especially as it needs egg yolks only (a very good rec;ipe for me to file away because I use the whites only when making soft-scoop ice-cream so the more yolks-only recipes the better). The amount of eggs seems a lot, but it works out at only just over 2 per person, so the ingredients can be adjusted to make for as few or as many as you wish.
Orange Creme Caramel: serves 6
7 fl oz (200ml) orange juice (roughly 2 oranges)
1 lb (450g) sugar
9 fl oz (250ml) water
12 medium egg yolks
2 whole medium eggs
Strain the orange juice into a pan and heat to boiling. Remove from heat but keep warm.
Put the sugar and the water into another pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes, by which time it should have turned syrupy. Add two-thirds of this syrup to the warm orange juice and mix together. Boil up the remaining syrup for 6 or so minutes more or until it has turned to a pale golden caramel. Divide the caramel between 6 ramekin dishes, swirling the caramel over the bottom and up the sides.
Put the egg yolks and the two whole eggs into a large bowl and whisk until well combined, then beat in the orange juice and syrup mixture. Strain into the ramekins, standing each dish in a deep baking or roasting tin, pouring in enough boiling water to come half-way up the sides of the dishes.
Bake at 130C, 250F, gas 1/2 for 40 minutes or until turned golden and set. Remove from ramekins by running a knife around the sides, upturn onto individual serving saucers and give a good shake so they each slide out. Can be served warm or chilled.

Last night I was torn between watching Jamie Oliver or the final of Mastermind Goes Large. In the end Jamie won, with a click flick to the other channel while the ads were on. I managed to see all of Jamie and his brassicas, and was so pleased to see he does what I do: mix grated cheese into creme fraiche to make a quick and easy cheese sauce. Just remember I said it first.
As I dearly wanted to watch Masterchef... I had to miss the last half of Jamies second prog, but managed to catch the final bit where he was making a sort of posh Welsh Rarebit. But only saw him piling the cheese on the chili jam (did he call it)? Let us hope his series will be repeated. I was a bit surprised he could make tomato ketchup/sauce without having to sterilise the mixture after bottling. I must check further. But as he made it by adding a bottle of passata, it was a bit of a cheat anyway. Think I will stick to the ready-made.

Although I love Masterchef, I feel that Jamie is much more at my level of cooking and so obviously loves his subject. With great admiration for the cooks in the Masterchef final, I doubt I could ever reach that level. Or even wish too if truth be know. Somehow it hardly fits into the cost-cutting, does it? But whatever cookery programme we watch, we should all be able to learn something new that we can put into practice.

Next week I see there is to be a new series about people who have developed a new type of food or meal or whatever, which seemingly is good enough to be taken on board by Tesco, and sold in their stores. Interested I am, but only to see how the foods are prepared in bulk. Because - after all - it does sound as though these will be yet another addition to the ready-prepared and ready-meal selections that fill so many shelves these days. On one hand we are being told to avoid the manufactured and processed and go all out for healthy eating, with home-cooking as much fresh produce as possible, and then we see programmes made encouraging people to invent a new ready-meal or product, and a (forthcoming) cookery series which we already know will suggest we buy ready-prepared-for-us fresh and processed foods.

The middle road has to be the most sensible way to live today. Using some manufactured products makes sense, for who wishes to make their own baked beans these days? But we should try to make sure a very high percentage of the meals served at home are made from fresh (or frozen) main ingredients. It is so tempting to urge everyone to 'eat fresh', or home-cook just about everything, and it has to be said, this could still be done for centuries ago people lived that way, without all the convenience of fast heating hob, ovens, electric mixers, food processors and all the numerous gadgets we have now, and having far less ingredients than we have now. They made do with a wooden bowl, wooden spoon and a knife. Plus lots of elbow grease. And survived. Well, some of them had to or we wouldn't be here now. Remember our genes still carry the ability to take care of ourselves food-wise, so we should not really need to rely on anyone else to do more than remind us.
Seems my philosophy is rearing its ugly head again. Apologies. I just care rather deeply about what was then and what is now and I don't much like the way we are heading.

Wouldn't it be just lovely, if - in our next life -we could go back instead of forward. Perhaps this does happen, and maybe the reason why something was able to be invented and quite unexpectedly (splitting the atom was discovered in two completely different parts of the world and at the same time). We have only to think of Leonardo da Vinci and all his proposed inventions, none of which materialised until centuries later. Is it what goes around comes around? Who knows the meaning of life, but personally I feel that processed foods don't quite fit into the great scheme of things. Unless of course, we have to eventually leave our ailing planet and then have to rocket off to find another. Preserved foods would be very useful then, in dry-pack or even pill form.
And so we could begin all over again. Welcome Adam, welcome Eve, just try and do better next time.

But, still being here, might as well carry on with the cards life has dealt me (and anyone who plays bridge will know you don't have to always hold the top cards to win - it is how you play them that matters), so will be back again tomorrow. Hopefully tucking my philosophy to the back of my mind and keeping it there.

It is raining, I am cold. Feeling the start of a moan coming on and still not Saturday. Have to say this week has gone by very quickly. Better leave you now although I have itchy fingers and could tap the keyboard all day.
Roll on tomorrow.

An addition to today's posting. Mary needs a urgent reply re whether EasyYo is worth buying/making. Firstly, I find it very good, but you need all the correct equipment (EasyYo flask and containers, plus the dry yogurts which come in packs of six and several different varieties). Others of you I know prefer to make your own, so if you can put up any comments re this today, it will help Mary to make a decision, she has to use her money-off voucher tomorrow (Friday), so if post this tomorrow, your replies may be too late.

A Taste of Now and Then

Further to yesterday's mention of additives. I searched for the book I was seeking "E for Additives - the complete E number guide" by Maurice Hanssen with Jill Marsden. However, the only book I could find was its companion: "E for Additives - Supermarket Shopping Guide" by Maurice Hanssen (pub.1986). However, enough info in there worth passing on even though it deals with lists (store-by-store) of only own-brand foods, and only those that contain additive-safe foods. Sounds impressive, but what it is really saying is that they seem to still contain additives (albeit just the safe ones).

Before I begin, dealing with E numbers is not my favourite occupation, although I am concerned with the amount of things that go into products these days. You have only to read yesterday's posting. But you are showing interest, so will be fairly brief, then leave it to you as to whether you wish to buy the books, or surf the net to find out more.

At the start of the book is given a list of additives the author "would prefer to do without, not implying they were dangerous, but have either shown to be quite unnecessary, like many of the colours, or can cause adverse reactions in many sensitive people". Nearly 80 unnecessaries, and far too many to even want to remember. One E number looks much like another and the definitions are only understandable to a scientist (eg. E216: propyl 4hydroxibenzoate). You may know what that is. I certainly don't.
I still cannot understand why cochineal E120 (red colouring made from ground up dried beetle) comes under the excluded additives list. E407, likewise listed is Carrageenan. Several times I have used carrageen (a dried seaweed) as a setting agent. It used to be listed as one of the ingredients included in a trifle mix. Both cochineal and carrageen I would could as wholly natural. Also As Cheesepare mentioned in her recent comment (she gave details of a website and book) the advice from the author being: "don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognise..."
Well, I'm a grandma, my mother would now have been a great grandma, and cochineal and carrageen we have both recognised and used.

As the intro to the E for Additives (supermarket guide) says: "almost everything we do in life has a potential risk and a potential benefit. You have to decide in your own situation the risks and benefits of the various groups of additives and of individual substances in them. It is certainly more useful to preserve meat products than it is to allow the growth of some of the most toxic bateria known...a meat pie can be preserved with Vit E (E306) or the more questionable E320 and E321 (BHA and BHT). Another example is Vit C (E300) which is very effective for preventing deterioration of many foods.
A good question to ask when reading food labels is ' would I use it in the kitchen, and if not, why is it used here?' ".

Reading the above does at least explain that several E numbers stand for products and vitamins that we would normally recognise under a more familiar name. The book goes on to say "there is no legal requirement to include additives such as preservatives or flour improvers to the list of ingredients if they have no effect on the product as a whole and are only incorporated into one or other of the ingredients. Thus apple flakes in muesli may have been preserved naturally or artificially, and there is no way of telling from the ingredients list."
The above statement may be out of date, for it does seem now that many listed ingredients are now followed by brackets listing their particular preservatives, whether natural or not (and even when natural the description we may not understand because it is given in chemical form or by an E number), but at least we get a chance to see what is what - hence the extremely long lists that now seem to appear on packs.

It's also worth remembering that a basic ingredient such as flour may well have had something added to improve its keeping quality, and even when adding a dough improver ourselves, or vit.C to aid the rapid rising of dough, these are 'additives'. But at least we control what we add, and hopefully understand why.

One sobering thought (and no pun intended) is that manufacturers of alcoholic drinks do not have to declare additives at all. There was a scare in1985 which highlighted the fact that there were more than 13 permitted additives in EEC wines (although none had been declared, and found only after random tests). If I read it correctly, anti-freeze was one. Since then regulations have been tightened, but even though there is a permitted list within the Common Market (remembering there are also other world markets), only the manufacturer knows precisely what has been used. There is still no legal requirement to inform the public as far as I know. But as I said, it is now over 20 years since I bought the book, subsequent reprints will have been updated to include recent regulations.

Nowadays adverse additives have been banned, and generally the ones allowed are for preserving, and flavouring. Many colourings have also been banedd although some are still allowed. So, while 'additives' is a very interesting subject, I think we should mainly trust the powers that be and just try to select products that have as few as possible, understanding that most are there for a very good reason.
Even so, the less additives we take in, the 'cleaner' our bodies will be. I have heard that all the preservatives we have eaten during our life-time end up by preserving us (sometimes to the extent of almost being pickled) so not the urgency for a fast burial as in the older days. Perhaps useful in these days of global warming.
Sorry to add a tone of jesting morbidity, just proving a point. On the other hand, with us all living longer, the additives don't seem to be doing that much harm either.
But for those of us who really are concerned, just stick to the home-cooking, using fresh products as often as possible, then we shouldn't go far wrong.

Moving on - but still talking about fresh products. The lettuce I mentioned yesterday whole v bagged . And further to this, after working out the weight of said whole Iceberg I have now checked the weight and price of the bagged Iceberg leaves (albeit washed, so we have to pay for that too) and the comparison price would have be 60p for the whole lettuce as against £2.40p for the same weight of leaves bagged up. Making a saving not of £1.80p, with the bonus that the whole lettuce will keep in good condition (in the fridge) far longer than the bagged - which has a very short shelf life, whether the bag is opened or not.

As to the fish pieces. If buying the same weight in solid pieces of fish (this was done by working out the average price of the three fishes contained in the pack), there was not as much a saving as expected. More like pennies rather than pounds. That I found very interesting. The intention was to ask how could they justify selling fish 'scraps' for the price they do. But that is what business is all about. I would do the same thing, given the chance. Not maybe selling fish, but by turning over-ripe soft-fruits into jam instead of throwing them out, then selling on the jars of preserve. Or (if I had a restaurant) making soup du jour from yesterday's leftovers. It's what we do with what we've got that counts. We just need to be aware that there might be a cheaper way of buying the same thing.

Today I will be jointing up a very large chicken. Probably battery farmed and I apologise to everyone who is urging buy free-range. But as Delia says...poor people can only afford to buy the battery hens. And, living on a basic state pension, we certainly qualify as being poor. With the fuel prices rising and the council tax rising and the pension not keeping pace, things get worse and worse. All I can say is that the years of cost-cutting in the kitchen now certainly has paid dividends for at least we eat very well indeed. And comfort-eating is what we need in these times of ever-increasing prices.

As always getting the urge to experiment, regular readers will remember that fairly recently I wrote about saving the stalks, core and the inner leaves from a bought (or even home-grown) cauliflower. Later cooking the saved bits in milk until softened, then blitzing them to make soup (with an added bit of Stilton rind for extra flavour). This I have done several times now as it makes particularly good soup, only the milk to pay for - and this could even be milk powder and water.
The last few times I have frozen surplus soup in cleaned creme fraiche tubs, and yesterday - after a request from Beloved for cauliflower cheese for his supper, and having less than half a cauli left, I decided this time, instead of making my quickie cheese sauce (grated cheese stirred into a tub of creme fraiche), instead would thaw out a tub of the cauliflower soup and add grated cheese to that.
Once thawed I could see that if I put the soup in a sieve, thin liquid would run out, and I wanted to avoid any chance of the 'sauce' separating, so added a little slaked arrowroot (I couldn't find my cornflour), which - after bringing to the boil - thickened it beautifully, and then I stirred some grated cheese, poured it over the top of the cauliflower florets (which had been microwaved for seven minutes), topped that with more grated cheese and finished it off under the grill.
After sampling I can say there was a lot more flavour using the soup as a base instead of using milk and cornflour, and this suggestion could also work instead of using a normal cheese sauce topping for a lasagne. By thickening the soup with a little cornflour, it could even form the white sauce as used when making a souffle. So all the cauliflower discards will now be turned into 'soup-with-potential', and - believe me - the potential is great.

We should always be prepared to experiment, as our mothers and grandmothers did in wartime. Here I give you a few recipes from that time, the first may make you recoil in horror, but apparently it worked. The second is similar to one I may have posted many months ago, but when short of eggs, or allergic to - then it could prove useful. The third makes a 'clotted cream'. There are many who feel we have progressed far beyond wartime rations, and who nowadays would even wish to sample them. But perhaps it would do us all good to have one day a month making and eating some foods from those times. We would then be able to respect a great deal more what we are able to eat today.
Eggless Mayonnaise:
1 small baked potato
1 tsp mustard
salt
a little vinegar
5 fl oz (150ml) light olive or sunflower oil
Remove the flesh from the cooked potato and mash together with the mustard, salt to taste and gradually add the vinegar, beating together until smooth. Last of all, slowly beat in the oil.

Eggless Salad Dressing:
3 tblsp evaporated milk
2 tblsp olive oil
good pinch salt
pepper (pref white)
a little mustard
1 tlsp lemon juice
2 tsp vinegar
Whip the milk until frothy, then beat in the oil very slowly, continuing to beat until the mixture has thickened. Add the remaining remaining ingredients and blend thoroughly together.

Mock Clotted Cream:
2 oz (50g) margarine (block type)
1 tsp sugar
1 tblsp dried milk
few drops vanilla essence/extract
Beat margarine and sugar together, then slowly, a bit at a time, beat in the dried milk. Flavour with vanilla and beat until very smooth.

The above recipe reminded me of a gadget (which I still have, in its original box - with instructions) owned by my mother. I believe the idea was to melt marg or butter with milk and then pour it into the top bakelite cup then pump a handle up and down, for what seemed like hours (no wonder my mother used to get me to do that part) and in the glass container at the bottom would appear thick cream.
I hated, HATED, the job of pumping the cream, almost as much as I hated being given a large block of salt and a knife and the job of scraping it all down into crystals. That took hours also.

One of my easier and very regular chores was being handed skeins of wool to hold while my mother wound them into balls. As she did a lot of knitting, (especially for the service men), there were a lot of skeins to hold. Having said that, in recent years (maybe 20 years ago) I learned how to spin wool from a fleece using a treadle spinning wheel - and (because I absolutely love name-dropping) was given a fleece from her Jacob sheep by Harvey Smith's wife-that-was. H.S. being a noted show-jumper at that time. They say that all of us are only separated by six from everyone of note. A matter of knowing someone who knows someone else who knows someone else...
I can reach the Queen in four moves (several different ways in fact), so make me your first 'who knows' and you will have have reached the Queen in five.
Surprisingly, Saddam Hussein also could have come into my separated by six moves, just because I happened to speak to someone who knew someone, who knew someone... but who would admit to that. Likewise George Bush. Oh, yes, am six times removed from loads and loads of well-known film actors and actresses just because my daughter's best friend is the cousin of Jeff and Beau Bridges. A good game to play for you will be surprised how well 'connected' you truly are, especially if you start with me as your first 'friend' for you then claim all mine. I knew I'd have a use, sometime, somewhere.

The final recipe today came from a wartime cook-book, but has appeared in many others and is quite fun to work out even if you don't want to be bothered to cook it. Why not give it to the children to see work out the 'code'. You never know - they might learn something else en route. 'Leaven' in this instance means baking powder.
Bible Cake:
1: half a pound (225g) Judges V, verse 25 (last clause)
2: same amount of Jeremiah VI, 20
3: 1 tblsp. I Samuel XIV, 25
4: 3 of Jeremiah XVII, 11
5: half pound (225g) I Samuel, XXX, 12
6: same of Nahum III, 12 (chopped)
7: 2 oz (50g) Numbers XVII, 8 (blanched and chopped)
8: 1 lb (450g) I Kings IV, 22
9: season to taste with Chronicles IX, 9
10: a pinch of Leviticus II, 13
11: 1 tsp Amos IV, 5
12: 3 tblsp Judges IV, 19
(you may need to add some Exodus III, 14 to moisten mixture)
Beat 1, 2, and 3 to a cream. Add 4, one at a time, and still beating, add 5, 6 and 7. Mix together 8, 9, 10 and 11 and fold into the mixture, lastly adding 12. Bake in a slow oven for one and a half hours.

Today has very much been a melting pot of the scientific through to religion, with a few wartime memories thrown in. Plus a game to play. What a mess of pottage that must has led to . Let us hope it has made informative, but also enjoyable reading, and am hoping you will all be back tomorrow for who knows - for I have not yet decided. But time for you to send in comments (before 7.00pm - to allow me time). My aim is always to give a reply, if not always possibly the answer, the very next day. And next day is tomorrow. See you then.

The Morning After...

We didn't expect that one did we? I was just dropping off to sleep when I felt the bed shaking slightly, followed within a couple of seconds by a much more severe shaking, plus other strange noises around the back of the wardrobe at the side of my bed. With my imagination, I believed an entity had got into my room and was shaking the bed to alert me (recently something had twice tried to tug the duvet off my bed - but then I might have been dreaming). Have to say it was very scary indeed and I felt frankly terrifed. As soon as the movement stopped I dashed to the comfort of Beloved's arms, then became very relieved when I discovered he had felt the earth move too. So no ghosts. Even so it took me ages to go back to sleep. It seems the peculiar noises might have been the car-port creaking (this backs onto my bedroom wall).

To your comments: Donna, the best way to deal with the recipe index is to print out each then keep them in a ring-binder. Alternatively (if you are computer literate) you should be able to high-light each index and transfer them to a computer file, where they could then be put them in alphabetical order (my son has done all this and more for me, so it is possible). The date is written alongside each recipe, so all you need do then is go back to the site and look up the respective page when you wish to make something. You will find at the bottom of the posting of Feb 10th 2008 details of where each month's index can be found from the start (Sept 2006 - Jan 2008).
Regarding fennel, a couple of recipes will be found at the end of this posting.

Cheesepare, I did know that coconut oil is higher in fat han most other oils, but as we never use this for cooking, I missed giving that a mention. As regards the desiccated, many nuts and some fruits (avocados for example) are also naturally high in fat, but if concerned, check on the coconut packet to see how much fat 100g contains (which is quite a sizeable amount as it weighs light) then -considering a small amount goes a long way - you will probably find it is not as 'fatty' as it seems.

Additives seem to be of concern. Some are quite acceptable, but when listed under an E number or given their scientific name (instead of the more common name that we would more easily recognise), we then believe that all are bad for us. Somewhere on my shelves I have a book dealing with E numbers, so will hunt for it and another day deal with these in more depth.

Just for fun, with the pack at my side, and reading the ingredients of something-yet-to-be-revealed, I decided to let you see what was listed. Please note the flavouring alone makes up the major part: (sugar, acidity regulator, sodium decetate, flavour enhancer, monosodium glutamate, tomato powder, milk powder, food acid: citric acid, onion powder, yeast extract, flavourings, lactose, milk proteins, colour: paprika extract, potassium chloride).
As for the other ingredients, in listed order, thay are: dehydrated potatoes, vegetable oil, corn flour (then comes all the 'flavouring' bracketed above), wheat starch, maltodextrin, emulsifier: E471, rice flour, salt, dextrose. I could even have missed something out as it is printed in a type so small that it needs a magnifying glass to be read, probably because it is had to be squeezed into less that half the pack size because it needed to be repeated in 12 different languages.
And so what do we end up with? Prawn Cocktail flavour sort-of-crisps. Perhaps, deep down, someone does cares for on the pack it did say 'no artificial colourings', and 'suitable for vegetarians'. Oh for the days when crisps meant just thinly sliced and fried potatoes which came in a bag complete with just a little blue bag of salt to sprinkle over.

Yesterday I did some weighing of fresh produce bought. The complete Iceberg lettuce bought weighed 750g and cost 60p. I have now forgotten the price and weight of the pre-prepared packs mentioned the other day, but am sure buying the whole lettuce will prove to be a massive saving. If I had been in the store myself, I would have picked up several of the lettuces and chosen the one that weighed the heaviest (always supposing some scales were nearby) or the one that felt the most solid. A looser-leaf lettuce may look larger but weigh less. No point in paying for air.
To store the Iceber, I leave the lettuce intact, in the fridge, just slicing a chunk off as and when needed (this is then shredded down). The lettuce keeps well if carefully re-wrapped in its original packaging (prevents the leaves going limp), and at the temperature of our fridge (4C) it will keep for anything from 2 - 4 weeks. This seems to be the very best temperature for keeping everything.
I cannot say that the vitamin content of the lettuce will remain the same, it probably lost most between being picked and being on display, but at least the fibre content remains. The last of the lettuce can be shredded and quickly braised/sauteed in a little butter to be eaten as a vegetable rather than a salad leaf.
Speaking of leaves - I also bought a pack of Kale. Not sure that was a good idea as it seemed horrendously expensive, I think in the region of 99p (thats £1 to you and me) for a weight I do not remember. Not a large pack either. Again, bought for research purposes and probably never again. Give me the hard red and white cabbages any time. MUCH cheaper and they keep for weeks.

The pack of fish pieces came to £2.99 (and doesn't that look a lot less than £3.00?) for 320g of three types of fish. It contained small pieces (approx 1" square but half that in depth) of what appears to be equal quantities of smoked haddock, salmon, and 'white fish' (whatever that is) . The skin was left on, so when that is removed the weight would be even less. I have yet to compare the prices (per 100g) against buying the same fish in whole pieces, for am pretty sure the pieces of white fish are what I call 'offcuts'. Fish offcuts used to be sold for cat food (and because they were fresh I used to buy these for Goode Food). My original idea was to turn the fish pack into two separate dishes (each to feed two), but I will be lucky if there is enough for one dish to feed one. This matters only in that for the price of the one pack, and using other ingredients, I would normally have been able to make anything from four to six dishes (each to feed two).

Even a £3 pack to make a meal for two may not seem that much (in this day and age), it does not take into account all the other ingredients needed to make that fish pie, chowder, kedgeree, curry or battered fish nuggets and chips. So it is important to consider when paying for the main ingredient, it is not the end of the story. Other ingredients still need to be paid for. You could say, if you have these in stock, they have already been paid for, but don't forget, sooner or later they will need replacing.

Time is moving on, and I have an early appointment - today being a Wednesday. I will finish with using fennel as a main ingredient. Both recipes are cooked, but raw fennel, thinly sliced is lovely added to salad leaves giving extra crunch and flavour. Although aniseed is not my most favourite of flavourings. One of the reasons why I do not use it often enough.

This recipe for fennel soup is full of flavour. Save the celery leaves, the feathery fennel fronds and chop these together with some fresh parsley to use as a garnish.
Fennel and Walnut Soup: serves 4
1 onion, finely chopped
2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
2 tblsp sunflower oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
2 pints (9ooml) vegetable stock
salt and pepper
5 fl oz (150ml) creme fraiche or plain yogurt
2 oz (50g) walnuts, finely chopped
Put the oil in a pan and add the onion, fennel and celery and saute gently until softened but not coloured. Add the garlic and stock and bring to the simmer. Cover and cook gently for 30 - 40 minutes or until all the veggies are tender.
Cool slightly then put into a blender or food processor and whiz to a puree. Tip this back into the pan, season to taste, then reheat gently, finally stirring in the creme fraiche/yogurt and walnuts. Bring back to heat but do not boil. Serve garnished with suggested leaves (detailed above the recipe).

This second recipe has a goodly number of ingredients, but still a worthy one to make. Have decided to remove the first nine ingredients as they are for making a tomato and chilli salsa, and 'doing a Delia' it would be easier to buy this ready-made. Instead of puy lentils, you could use soaked aduki beans or mung beans.
I am using a J. artichoke rather than the suggested can of sliced water chestnuts, as lightly fried and cooked they are very similar in texture and taste.
Asian Fennel and Mung Bean Casserole: serves 4
6 oz (175g) mung (or aduki )beans, soaked overnight
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 tblsp oil
1" (2.5cm) piece root ginger, peeled and finely sliced
1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
pinch ground cinnamon
half tsp ground cumin
1 piece lemon grass, very finely chopped
8 fl oz (225ml) orange juice
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
1 small Jerusalem artichoke, peeled and sliced
soy sauce
Drain the beans and rinse well. Lightly fry the onion and the fennel in the oil until softened (here I would also add and fry the artichoke). Stir in the garlic, chilli, ginger, lemon grass and spices and cook slowly for a couple of minutes*, then add the beans, orange juice and tomatoes. Bring to the simmer and cook for half an hour. or until the beans are tender. Season with soy sauce and serve with a tomato salsa.
Variation: omit the beans, orange juice and tomatoes and just cook to the stir-fry stage*. Serve with rice.

Being in a bit of a rush and still all of a tremble since last night, felt I have made a bit of a hash of today's posting, but better something than nothing at all.
Must dash to get ready to leave in 15 minutes, and will be back again tomorrow, 'quakes permitting.

The Cost of Loving

Many thanks for all those comments that have been coming in these past few days. The attention to detail and the effort you all have put in from working out the cost of ingredients (a dish for 50p) to seeking the 'best buys' shows a dedication far beyond the norm these days. I take my hat off to you all.

Kathryn has gone into a fair amount of detail (well done Kathryn) , and as regarding carrot tops, they are not edible (although rabbits might be able to eat them), and I think the fact that they are there is part proof the vegetable maybe locally grown (as in this country), and fairly fresh (or the tops would have died). In both instances maybe a marketing ploy to put the price up.
I too have noticed that pre-packed washed carrots (and other vegetables) often do work out cheaper than those sold loose. Two things to remember with packaged veg: they can dry out if removed the bag, on the other hand tend to go soggy and mouldy when left in the bag - but only as long as the bag remains unopened. So cut off one end to let air in, but leave the veg still in the bag, and they should then keep far longer. This works with many pre-packed vegetables. Lakeland do special green re-usable bags which keep most vegetables fresh for longer than the normal time. Potatoes I prefer to remove from the plastic bag and store in a cloth bag (also from Lakeland). The smaller new or salad potatoes, I keep in the fridge. This slows down the sprouting, which happen at this time of yearl

Some good info SweeterRita re food flavourings. It seems so easy these days to replicate a fruit flavour just using a blend of chemicals. Perhaps it is chemicals in the plant that give the flavour in the first place. We never like to think of food being formed of chemicals, vitamins, minerals, and other trace elements...but all of them are, and all good for us in one way or another. But while natural chemicals are fine, laboratory flavourings are seemingly not.

Once, when I was writing up a fact sheet (using a very tight budget) to feed a virtual family of four for a week - I wanted to include a jar of jam, but to fit into the budget it needed to be the cheapest jam that was on the shelves. One called 'mixed fruit' looked fine in the jar, but when opened and spooned out, it was more like a dark-coloured paste with no obvious fruit to be seen. When I looked at the ingredients the first listed was apple, then came rhubarb, then came water, then came sugar, plus other additives. With plenty of pectin in the fruit used water could be added to make the fruit go further, but the flavour was dreadful. Not even very sweet. The very best jam, using only fresh fruit and sugar, will taste absolutely wonderful, and cost the earth if bought over the counter, but as we know, can be made at home for the same price as the cheapest. Proof indeed that home-made jam is always worth making.

Listening to the radio before I came in here, I heard someone talking about the cost of living. Then, being me, my mind moved over to the cost of food, which seems to take a major part of our living expenses. The thought came that if the letter 'I' was changed to an 'O' the phrase becomes the Cost of Loving (sometimes I feel it would be better if I didn't think at all).
This I found interesting, because if we can think of the letter 'i' as representing the individual, the first person singular, and - as we tend to view the world from where we stand, and we like to make things easy for ourselves - you may begin to understand where I am heading. When it comes to foods, more often than not we buy the foods we like to eat, cooking the meals we enjoy the most. When time is short prefer to save our time buying the ready-made. Or eat out. I mention this because so many times I have come across domestic cooks who will not cook fish (or mushrooms, or curries, or, or, or...) because they don't like that particular food - even though their partners do and would give anything to eat them. And yes, I admit to being selfish too. I just cannot stand cooking any fish that looks at me. So Beloved hasn't eaten whole trout for umpteen years. the only alternative being that he has to cook them himself, and he can't be bothered. So 'sorry love, you'll just have to do without'.

Change the letter 'i' to an 'o' (representing the world outside ourself) and we can begin the progress past our rather restricted ideals. They say that home-cooking is the way to prove to our families that we love them, especially when we cook for their needs, rather than our own (we can always eat something else), and hopefully we would take a lot more interest in the nutritional value of foods rather than serving up chips with everything. Cooking mainly from scratch is more healthy, and less costly than using mainly the pre-prepared and processed ingredients, not only that - the family is far more likely to end up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
So the Cost of Loving wins hands down.

It doesn't even have to be our own family that eats our home-made. In the past, one or more of my offspring, later even the generation once removed, has brought into the Goode Kitchen a friend to sit down to a snack or meal. To see them scoffing the home-mades (to the extent one might believe they were starving), and thoroughly enjoying the foods, has prompted me more than once to make me ask about their favourite home-made meals - the reply usually being that at home they never had anything home-made.
Even when we used to have groups of small children who called at the door at Hallow-een, almost always they would choose to grab a just-baked cake or muffin (rather than a bought Kit-Kat or something else chocolately) and squeak out 'it's home-made', sometimes asking if they could take another back home to Mum. This made me feel very sad. Have the times changed so much that so very little cooking is now done at home?
Even if... there seems to now be a trend to bring the kitchen back into focus and use it as it was meant to be.

Coming back to the pricing up of a dish. Some can prove expensive as I found to my cost yesterday. After the badly balanced supper of the previous night, my decision was to serve something much more healthy. In the fridge were two ingredients which were normally bought as highly priced (my excuse is needing them for research purposes) and both needed using up (Jerusalem artichokes - 98p for 80g) and Parma ham (price forgotten but not cheap). A suitable recipe was chosen, and - as a little wine was one of the ingredients - Beloved was asked to open a bottle. Despite the price of the whole meal (I dare not even work out how much it came to), I can honestly say it was worthy of Masterchef goes Large. The subtley of the flavours and the different textures, not to mention the look of the dish - well, I would have expected it to come from Gordon Ramsey's kitchen and certainly not mine. It was gorgeous.
Yet, Beloved did not care for it. He said it had little flavour ( actually it had a lot), and he carefully lined up all the pieces of artichoke around the rim of his plate, and gave them to me to finish. But Beloved much prefers hot spicy foods, or casseroles bursting with rich deep flavours amd soggy vegetables. He does not do subtlety and dislikes al dente veg. To cut costs, I suppose the very thinly sliced ham (what I call 'frilly' ham) could be used instead of the Parma, but this is one dish where it really is worth using the best.
As mentioned in a previous posting, once we begin to cost out recipes, we can serve up many that we have discovered are really inexpensive, so averaging the cost of a weeks meals (I am into averaging at the moment) one expensive meal can still be fitted into the budget.

Because I had not the required amount of artichokes, the original recipe needed adapting quite a bit. Instead of thawing out some chicken stock, Marigold bouillion powder was used with water instead - which worked wonderfully well as regards the flavour. Because the artichokes needed frying, I was able to slice them (one at a time, to the thickness of a £1 coin) and put them into the oil before they got a chance to discolour. The given time for cooking seemed not long enough, for they had still a very slight crunch when eaten yet they were supposed to be tender. However, I felt this texture enhanced the dish, making a contrast to the other, softer ingredients. (Beloved asked that next time - so he can't have disliked it that much if there is to be a next time - the artichokes could be cooked until really soft). Any liquid left in the pan I served with my meal (not being sure whether it should be served at all but who am I to waste anything), and am glad I did, for it was delightful. Any pasta shapes could be used but my choice was the small pasta 'bows' and they looked perfect. Another change to the original recipe was adding the peas later rather than earlier to the pan as they tend to change from bright green to khaki if cooked too long. Also walnut pieces (pref. toasted) can be added to the dish at the end as walnuts go particularly well with artichokes. I added some to Beloved's portion (he loves them) but not to mine as I am not keen on the flavouor which I think could be a bit overpowering.

So here is my version of the recipe. Feel free to add more of each ingredient if you wish, because the portions were fairly small, but try to keep the balance the same.
Jerusalem Artichokes with Pasta and Peas: serves 2
2 Jerusalem artichokes (approx 10" long placed end to end)
2 tblsp sunflower or olive oil
half a pint measure (275ml) frozen peas, thawed
1 small wineglass white wine
juice of 1 small lemon
4 fl oz (100ml) water
1 tsp Marigold bouillion powder
freshly ground black pepper
4 tblsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 pack Parma ham, torn into shreds
half pint measure pasta bows
Peel the artichokes, one at a time, and slice - adding them immediately to the oil which is heating in a largish frying pan. Turn so they are coated with oil and fry until golden brown (about 5 minutes). Stir in the wine, water and Marigold powder (the recipe says add the peas, but I leave them until later), bring to the boil, then lower the heat. After four minutes, when the artichokes are beginning to be tender (or supposed to be - but cook them as long as needed), stir in the peas, parsley and lemon juice , season to taste with the pepper, and simmer for 3 minutes more.
While the above is cooking, boil the pasta in well-salted water for the time given on the packet (approx 12 minutes). Drain as soon as it is tender, do not over-cook. Stir the pasta into the artichoke mixture and scatter in the ham (do not add all at once or it clumps together and is difficult to separate). Toss together and serve at once.

A shorter posting today as again 'things to do'. Sometime this week I mean to experiment with a tub of Greek yogurt, some icing sugar, and the end of a bottle of Advocaat - in the hope that blending them together might turn into a form of frozen dessert. I would call it ice-cream but there will be no cream in it. Might even do it today. Will let you know the outcome.

Before I finish. A couple of things I meant to mention when talking about Mrs. Beeton. She insists that readers should always fry eggs by putting them into a cold pan, rather than heating the pan first. Also when adding water to a soup or something, says first 'strain the water through a sieve before adding to the pan'. Which leads me to believe the water then must be suspect. No doubt in those days water was pumped up from wells, or rainwater used, not the clean water we get today. I could do without the smell of chlorine though. By the way, an anyone tell me if the water in Morecambe is hard or soft?

Start the Week

Firstly, a huge thank you to all who have sent in your "what can be made for 50p?" suggestions and recipes. It just shows how you can come up with so many different and sustaining dishes will fit into that category, and that is only the tip of the ice-berg. The more we find that a dish does not need to be expensive to make, the more we become inspired to seek others.
Not everyone needs to spend less on food, many of us just wish we need not have to spend more as prices rise, and the more dishes we discover (and share) which use the cheaper basic ingredients, the easier things become. What I do hope is (because it worked for me when I began 25 years ago and counting) that taking up the Challenge, has turned out to be good fun in its own right.

Surprisingly (now coming to my new Challenge mentioned yesterday), after checking prices on-line for tomato ketchup and HP sauce, I discovered in both instances, the contents by weight of the 'convenient' squeezy plastic containers worked out cheaper per 100g than when sold in the glass bottles. The only downside to this is that the plastics are non-recyclable, whereas the glass bottles are. Also, if only a couple of pennies make up the difference between packaging, there is no reason why we should not buy which is the most convenient for our purpose. Knowing how and where savings can be made when occasion arises, means that we can still have our cake and eat it to0, if you will excuse the pun/metaphor or whatever it is.

If anyone watched Countryfile on BBC TV yesterday they will have seen a field full of strange looking veggies. Immediately realising they seemed exactly as I would expect the 'vegetable of 1000 heads' to look like - as mentioned several days ago - it was kale, as those of you who replied to my query said it probably was - you clever people you. Although I have seen kale leaves on sale, I have never seen the growing plant. How strange it is, that in this one week, not only do I first read of the strangely named vegetables, but also get sent the answers, and then actually see it growing and even prepared and cooked (and I don't normally watch that programme). Don't any of you ever believe that there is no meaning to life. Too many more-than-coincidental things have happened to me, I just wish I knew why.

Going back to Mrs Beeton, I noticed in several of her recipes tous les mois was given as an ingredient, although not specifically mentioned, assumed it was an ingredient something every cook in those days would know about. Certainly I did not. Beloved looked it up in the dictionary for me (he is sole keeper of the dictionary) and told me this was a starch made from the Canna plant. Surfing the internet more was then discovered. Another name for it was Queensland Arrowroot, and was originally grown for cattle fodder. Tous les mois (rough translation is 'all the months' ) is a kind of starch which has very large, oval, flattened grains made from the rhizomes of one variety of Canna, which is sold as a form of arrowroot and (the site said) was extensively used for adulterating cocoa (it didn't say whether that was in the past or even in the present day- so I will start reading the cocoa packs). The starch comes from the roots or rhizomes of the Canna and is edible every month of the year, hence its name.

Cheesepare, how do you grow celery on your window sill? Do you put the whole stick, root end down, into water, or just use the bit of root left after everything else has been used? I have put sprouting onions sitting on a glass jar of water so the roots grown down and the sprouts grow up, to be snipped off as a substitute for chives. I also also have jars with rooting stems (leaves attached at the very tip) of mint and basil. They both root extremely easily and can be potted up.
Bolting lettuces contain much more of a soporific chemical in their stems than a younger plant. Eating lettuce before you go to bed helps insomnia. So I dare say a bowl of soup made from a bolting lettuce would make a very good bed-time drink, and sleepless nights would no longer be a problem.

Seeing the packs of frozen mashed potato states ...'made from real potato' made me start to ponder. Surely dried instant potato is also made from 'real potato'? If not, what is it made from? I wouldn't even be a bit surprised if oven-chips, or frozen roast aren't a type of pre-formed (or in some way processed) potato. If it works, does it matter? But as soon as 'real' starts being printed on packs, we begin to believe in some way it is better... but better than what? Even the cheapest turkey twizzlers, chicken nuggets or fish fingers, are made from what was once a 'real' bird or fish. But we all know this could mean made from pre-formed scraps of flesh and skin. For heaven's sake, how simple is it to cut up a chicken breast or fish fillet and roll the pieces in egg and breadcrumbs to make our own (healthy, unadulterated, nothing added) nuggets and fingers? But that has already been said, several times before. As regards the ready-prepared, even processed foods, Delia is really dividing the nation into those that will and those that won't.

So always read the ingredients on the pack to see how much more (and what) has been added, before a choice is made. The best way of all is to use fresh ingredients, and 'process' them ourselves, in our own kitchens, then we truly know what is in the meals that we dish up every day.

When we read a recipe, we usually try and stick to the list of ingredients and the given method. This can often make the dish more expensive or time-consuming than it needs to be and also containing more calories than desired. Normally I do not give details of fat content, sugar content, calories etc., but most recipes now give these, so it is always worth reading through the listed ingredients and see what can be done to reduce the cost/calories/fat/sugar if that is what you wish to do.

The recipe below, given as an in-your-face version (by this I mean not stinting on the ingredients and ingredients as given), is said to have approx 800 calories per serving. But by changing the rice to 7 oz (200g) plain long-grain, and omitting the wild rice, we begin the savings. The chicken could be a total of two large breasts instead of one per person, even better, use what is leftover on the carcase after cooking the Sunday roast. Remember that 100g is not really 4 0z but more like 3 1/2 oz, so adjust to that when using imperial measurements, even half an ounce saved here and there will leave more for another day. It says 6 sticks of celery, I would use 4 or 5, slicing them thinner - they will give as much flavour. Less tablespoons of mayonnaise (and maybe reduce that by half and make up the shortfall with yogurt for a healthier dressing). A little less chutney and 1 tsp only of the curry paste (which -because using less, could be slightly hotter. Use half a large bell pepper instead of a whole. Three spring onions instead of four. Weigh the almonds and then take a few out to put back in the jar. Cutting costs (and calories) can be as simple as that.

Coronation Chicken with Rice: serves 4
1/2 pint (300ml) chicken stock
4 chicken breasts
8 oz (225g) long-grain rice and wild rice mixture
8 tblsp mayonnaise
2 tblsp mango chutney
1 tblsp mild curry paste
6 sticks celery, sliced
4 oz (100g) no-soak apricots, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, de-seeded and finely diced
4 spring onions, finely chopped
salt and pepper
2 0z (50g) flaked almonds, toasted
Put the stock into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the (raw) chicken breasts, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken and set aside to cool (if using already cooked chicken omit this first part and continue from here...).
Add the rice to the chicken stock, adding more water if necessary, and cook the rice according to packet instructions (wild rice usually take slonger). Then - when tender - drain and set aside to cool.
Place the mayonnaise, chutney and curry paste into a bowl and mix together well. Slice or chop the chicken and add to the mixture together with the celery and apricots.
Using another bowl, mix together the rice, diced pepper and the spring onions. Season to taste. Spoon onto one large or four individual serving plates and top with the chicken mixture. Scatter over the almonds.

For our supper yesterday we had egg, sausages, baked beans and chunky oven-chips. With HP sauce for Beloved, tomato ketchup for me. It really was nice - we always enjoy it, but afterwards I began to consider the nutritional side. For one thing there was too much protein (provided by the sausage, eggs and even the beans). No veggies (although, at a pinch, baked beans can be included in the five-a-day). Certainly carbohydrate (chips). And certainly too much fat (sausage and fried egg). A new improved version would be sausage, less chips, and served with a side salad, giving a much better balanced and healthier meal. Is this a case of don't do as I do, do as I say?

It is said that we only need 100g meat a day to keep healthy, and now suggestions are being given by nutritionists (and some chefs) that once a day might far too much, a more healthy option being three or four times a week max. with vegetable protein taking its place. So - the next (also in-your-face) recipe uses more more fish than we would necessarily need to eat at one serving. With the total calories (presumably including the suggested vegetables (and why do they suggest serving potatoes when potato is included in the fish cake?) is also approx 800 per serving, and the fat 52g per serving, so there is ample room to cut down the protein, fat and calories.
Instead of the more usual breadcrumbs, polenta is used for the crust, but to ring the changes, use ground rice or rice flour, cornmeal (a form of polenta), or semolina. Or crushed crisps, cornflakes, blitzed leftover toast. Use parsley if dill is not available.
As regards the fish, I would use less and cheaper fish, even using assorted fish offcuts that can be now bought in packs or from the fresh fish counter, or - if you prefer, a mixture of canned tuna and canned salmon. Use less potatoes - making the fish cakes slightly thinner so they heat through faster and need less oil for cooking (a non-stick pan also helps reduce the amount of oil needed). Serve with salad instead of the suggestion.
Posh Fish Cakes: serves 4
1 1/2 lb (700g) mashed cooked potatoes
8 oz (225g) cod or haddock fillet
8 oz (225g) salmon fillet
salt and pepper
1 tblsp finely chopped chives
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 oz (100g) polenta
3 tblsp fresh chopped dill
2 eggs, beaten
flour
4 tblsp sunflower oil
5 tblsp mayonnaise
Place the fish in a pan, just covering with water. Add a little seasoning to taste, cover and simmer very gently (more like poaching) for about 10 minutes until cooked. Drain and remove any skin and bones. Flake the flesh and add to the mashed potatoes with the chives and lemon zest. Season to taste and mix together.
Mix the polenta with half the dill and put the beaten eggs into a shallow dish. Flour the hands and shape the fish mixture into 8 cakes (or make 12 thinner ones), dipping each into the egg and then into the polenta. Fry in the oil for 5 minutes on each side until crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot. Make a mayonnaise sauce by mixing remaining dill and the lemon juice with the mayo. Serve the fishcakes with the mayo dressing spooned over and new potatoes, sweetcorn and peas.

Now for something much more healthy. Well - at least with fewer calories (this time 240 per serving and 3g fat). The recipe is for only one serving, but a good bowlful at that. The Udon noodles usually come complete with a little sachet of seasoning, but if not use chicken or vegetable stock with a dash of soy sauce. Alternatively, use the dried Chinese egg noodles which just require soaking in boiling water for a few minutes before using. It goes without saying you can make up your own selection of stir-fried-type vegetables from fresh: thin strips of each, carrot, red, yellow, green bell peppers, finely sliced onion, finely sliced celery, mange-tout.etc. As these are not actually stir-fried for this dish, they need to be thin enough to cook rapidly in water. As with many dishes, the more colour, the more appetising. Instead of prawns, cooked chicken could be used. If so, include a tablespoon of canned sweetcorn kernels.
Asian Prawn and Noodle Soup: serves 1
211g pack of Udon noodles with soup-mix sachet
7 fl.oz (200ml) boiling water
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 oz (50g) prepared stir fry vegetables
3 oz (75g) cooked, peeled prawns
1 spring onion, finely sliced
soy sauce, optional
Put the water into a pan with the ginger and vegetables, and simmer for 1 minute until the vegetables are softened. Meanwhile heat the noodles in boiling water for one minute, then drain. Into the pan with the vegetables, stir in the soup sachet, spring onions, the prawns and the noodles. Heat through and serve immediately with soy sauce if wished.

As calorie counting and healthy eating seems to have taken precedence today, I finish with a lovely and nearly fat-free dessert which will please everyone. At 215 cals per serving why not have two helpings? Although it might add a few more calories, a little Greek yogurt could be spread either under or over the apricot filling before rolling up.
Apricot Swiss Roll: serves 8
3 eggs
4 oz (100g) plain flour
4 oz (100g) caster sugar
1 tbslp hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract or almond essence
1 oz (25g) flaked almonds (opt)
icing sugar
8 oz (225g) no-soak apricots, chopped
8 tblsp water
1 tblsp demerara sugar
Put the eggs and the caster sugar into a bowl and place this over simmering water. Whisk until thick enough to leave a ribbon when the whisk is lifted. Remove from heat and keep whisking until the mixture has cooled down. Sift half the flour over the mix and carefully fold in, then repeat with the remaining flour. Stir in the hot water and the essence.
Pour the cake batter into a greased and lined 9" x 13" (23 x 33cm) Swiss roll tin, dusting the paper with flour. Tilt the tin so that the mixture spreads evenly and into all four corners. Scatter the almonds on the top, then bake for 12 - 15 mins at 180C, 350F, gas 4 until golden and firm. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then upturn onto a sheet of baking parchment which has been dusted with icing sugar. Trim the edges, then roll up loosely, including the paper, and leave to cool (it sometimes helps if a damp cloth is put on the table and the paper placed on that before rolling up (but don't roll the towel in with the cake).
While the cake is cooking, make the filling by putting the water in a pan with the apricots and sugar, bring to the boil, cover, and reduce the heat. Simmer for 10 minutes then leave to cool.
Carefully unroll the cake, laying it flat, then carefully spread the apricot filling over the cake, right to the edges, then roll back up. Place on a serving plate, end of the roll underneath, and dust with icing sugar.

And that is it for today. I am so tempted by the Asian Prawn Soup that it might be the main course for tonight's supper. Or shall I cook a pasta dish I have been wanting to try for ages? Decisions, decisions. Perhaps planning ahead the menu for the coming week's meals might be a good idea after all. But not nearly as much fun as making my mind up on the spur of the moment. And fun is what cooking should be. Just make sure it is.

And for my next Trick...

Thank you Cheesepare, for your comment. The artichoke soup recipe sounded delicious. Sounded a bit Thai, with lemon grass, ginger etc. Those extra flavoursome ingredients could work with other vegetables. Must do some experimenting.

Seems my Challenge has just about run out of time, and only a few of you have come up with some sugggestions for what can be made with that 50p's worth of ingredients. I am sadly disappointed. Is it only me that enjoys a challenge? If I was a teacher, and you were my students, I would wag my finger and say - well, you had your chance, those who haven't done it must take detention and now write down in one thousand words what can be made with 3op instead.

Let's try a new challenge, and one perhaps less taxing to our little grey cells. And before you all moan, the reason for these challenges is that this is one of the best (and easiest) ways to learn how to make the most of our money. No matter what is written, it always works best when we do the work ourselves for this will prove beyond measure that we can gain control over our spending, and each new thing we learn usually leads to wanting to discover more. But even one effort can be worth it, for as long as we share the results, we all gain the extra knowledge, giving everyone a chance to spend that little bit (or a lot) less. Just remember "a penny saved is a penny earned" and even the smallest (regular) savings soon mount up to quite a sizeable amount. Don't come back and tell me you don't want to spend less on food. If so, why are you reading this?

So this time the challenge is to check the price of at least one ingredient that is probably sold, and that we might sometimes buy as a 'time-saving product' or something similar - against the same thing packed or sold in the usual way. My example to start the ball rolling is the new microwave snackpots of baked beans (sold in packs of 4 x 200g = 800g of beans) at £1.84 the pack. I checked the prices on-line yesterday - this being a very useful way to do it (so none of us need to waste time in the store) as they usually give the price per g or kg as well as the price of the package, making it very easy to make comparisons within seconds.

Yesterday I discovered (unless I have made a horrendous mistake - which is possible, I have to admit) the same brand of baked beans in a normal can (sold in the same store as the snackpots ) was shown to be 11p per 100g (so with comparison pricing, this worked out at 88p for the same amount in the snackposts) proving that the snackpots were priced at £1 more (less 4p) for the same amount of beans. Presumably because they were advertised as the packs being able to be heated in a microwave (but then decanted canned beans can also be heated in the microwave and the remaining half can of beans freezes well if not needed that week - so what's new?).
Something else I discovered (more for interest than any other reason) was that the same brand of baked beans, was priced at 12p per 100g just because the salt and sugar had been reduced. Sugar itself is an expensive ingredient, more costly than the same weight in beans, so adding less should reduce the price not raise it. So how can they justify charging more, albeit only a penny? But that is how the industry works.

There are many opportunities to check a multitude of products on-line. Take tomato ketchup, brown sauce or mayonnaise. It comes in glass jars, plastic bottles, bottles that stand right way up, others stand upside-down, some even come in tubes. Some packaging may well be more convenient than others, but many are not always easy to recycle. The main thing is - which give the best value for money as regards contents?

Then again what about the ready-prepared? How does the price of a pack of prepared Iceberg lettuce leaves(32p per 100g) compare with the price of a whole Iceberg lettuce? I have yet to buy another whole one so cannot check the weight, but am sure it must weigh over 8 oz (200g) which is the amount needed to equal the price. And Iceberg lettuce should keep for a couple of weeks at least in the fridge. Maybe longer. Bagged prepared lettuce has a very short shelf-life, two or three days at most.

There are so many ways that we can miss the opportunity to buy something exactly the same, but at a cheaper price. So - please readers - let us hear what you have discovered. It may be that farmer's markets sell their produce far cheaper (and fresher) than a supermarket or local greengrocers. Even the doorstep delivieries from the milkman - with free-range large eggs cheaper than from the supermarket, also cheaper Channel Island milk if I cared to buy it. Between us we should be able to find out how to buy everything at the best possible price.
There is always the problem that one store will sell some products cheaper than at another, but in the above instances, all we need to know is the difference in prices charged in one store alone, whichever that may be. The store needn't be named unless you wish to do so. It is mainly the difference in pricing (by weight comparison) due to the packaging that is the important thing.

Like Delia, sometimes I do favour the ready-made, particularly with some soups. Noticing yesterday that a well-known brand of soups had an offer of 5 cans for £2.00 (that's 40p each), thought that both the cream of chicken and the oxtail would make excellent substitutes for a sauce or 'gravy'. Just perfect for pouring over chicken or stewing beef when cooked in a slow-cooker. The own-brand oxtail sauce was even cheaper at 35p per can. Obviously home-made soups can be made quite cheaply, and would almost certainly be as good if not a great deal better than any of the canned soups - you have only to see the prices charged for the 'fresh' cartons of soup sold in the supermarkets to realise how much money can be saved with DIY. But for anyone who prefers to make up a gravy or sauce using a packet mix (as I sometimes do), then a soup is a much cheaper alternative and as the juices from the meat goes into the soup as it cooks, the flavour is even more improved. Any 'leftover' gravy could be heated (thoroughly) and eaten as soup the following day. Or frozen.

When I wrote down soup on my virtual shopping list, I kept clicking on 'next' at the bottom of each page of soups to see what else they had, and discovered there were 1432 different items under that section. I gave up after a couple of hundred. Several were repeated. Sometimes, something that has nothing to do with soup appeared, and I noticed something I had been seeking for months, so scrolling through all the products does sometimes make it worthwhile.

Over these many months I have tried to give as much info. as possible. From time to time,much had been metioned about the vitamin and mineral content of certain vegetables, and health-giving properties of individual vegetables, but this is a lot to take on board. Yesterday I tried to make it easier by suggesting we do the simplified version - just adding as much colourful produce to our plates as we can fit onto the platter. Personally, I get fed up with hearing about 'balanced meals' , so the easier we can make it, the better.

As well as the vegetables, I have covered various cuts of meat from the expensive to the down-right cheap cuts, including some offal. Proving also that there is no difference in food value (only time taken to cook) between the costly fillet and the stewing meats.
Not a lot has been written about fish, and this has to be because it is not one of my favourite foods apart from the canned tuna, sardines, mackerel, and salmon, which we eat with regularity. I love the fish that comes from the chippy, and do keep smoked haddock and kippers in the freezer, along with maybe a little salmon, and small and jumbo prawns. A trial serving of frozen tuna did not come up to expectations, and I have ordered a pack of mixed fish pieces to try, my plan being to make both a fish pie and a fish soup (chowder), but that is about as far as I can see at this moment. However, if anyone wants to know more about fish cookery, I have plenty of recipes and books on the subject. All you need to do is ask.

Strangely, because of my dislike of seeing any fish with heads and eyes, I have contemplated taking up fishing off the long jetty in Morecambe. I saw several fishermen sitting with their rods there, and free food (although I suppose I would have to have a permit), is very tempting. Being a fairly shallow spot, I suppose it would only be flat fish that would swimming around. However (the thought has just come to mind), I could perhaps fix up some sort of butterfly net, using an old hair-net of mine at the end of a rod, that I might be able to trawl along the side of the jetty (and hopefully no permit for doing that - "I was just experimenting the one time your Honour"), and maybe catch a few shrimps.

Free food - the very words delight me, and there is plenty around. Wild garlic, dandelion leaves, elderflowers and berries, blackberries, sloes. Mushrooms (but you need to know what you are picking), and wild herbs (the same caution applies). Even gardens can produce 'freebies'. The leaves and flowers of nasturtiums can be added to salads, their soft seed cases pickled to make mock capers. Blackcurrant leaves make a good 'tea', rose petals make good jam. Anyone got other suggestions for foods for free?

With fish being given a mention, today this is the ingredient I will be using in my 'uses for leftovers'. Although the first makes use of a can of tuna, which can hardly be called a leftover. Based on an American dish, where they call our potato crisps 'chips' (so what do they call their chips - is it French Fries?).
Mary's Fish and Chips: serves 2 - 3
7 oz can tuna, drained and flaked
1 pack cream cheese
1 tbls mayonnaise
2 tblsp sherry
2 tblsp capers
2 tblsp chopped parsley
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp grated onion
pinch salt
potato crisps (US chips)
papriks
Put all the ingredients except the crisps and paprika into a basin, blend together and chill in the fridge. Sprinkle over a little paprika and serve as a dip with crisps or tortilla chips etc.

This next recipe uses both left-over cooked rice and also cooked fish. Can be served either as a starter to serve 4 or as a main dish to serve 2.
Curried Fish Flake Salad: serves 2 or 4
15 fl oz measure (425ml) of cooked flaked fish, bones removed
1 lb (500g) cooked rice
2 tblsp olive or sunflower oil
1 tbls vinegar
handful of chopped parsley
4 tblsp mayonnaise
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 - 2 tsp curry powder or curry paste
1 rib celery, finely chopped
few cooked peas (0pt)
2 tsp mango chutney
Mix together the oil and vinegar to make a dressing and stir in the cooked rice together with half the parsley. Chill. Mix together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, curry powder or paste, and the rest of the parsley.
Add the fish, celery and peas. Chill this also. To serve, place rice on a serving platter and top with the fish mixture, garnish with the chutney.

This next uses a can of soup and is an interesting way to use up leftover cooked fish.
Worcestershire Chowder: serves 3 - 4
about 1 lb (500g) cooked, boned and flaked fish
2 tblsp butter, melted
1 can cream of celery soup
3 tblsp milk
1/2 a de-seeded green pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
toasted rye or granary bread
Put the butter into a saucepan and add the soup, milk, green pepper and the fish. Heat through slowly but thoroughly. Remove from heat and stir in the Worcestershire sauce. Serve at once with or on the toasted bread. Alternatively serve with jacket potatoes and coleslaw.

Often we have plenty of oddments, hardly to be called ingredients, but together these, with the addition of leftover cooked fish, or even using canned fish, can turn into a downright good dish. See what you think.
Fish Puffs: serves 3 - 4
12 fl oz measure (350ml) flaked and mashed cooked fish
pepper and salt to taste
1 tblsp finely grated onion, or onion juice
2 drops Tabasco (optional)
1 tsp very finely chopped parsley
6 slices bread, buttered and cut into cubes
12 fl.oz measure grated cheese (pref processed)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
8 fl oz (225ml) milk
3 tblsp sherry
dash Worcestershire sauce
Mash the fish with the pepper and salt, the onion, the tabasco and the parsley. Arrange the cubes of bread, the cheese and the fish mixture in alternate layers in a shallow greased baking dish. Finishing with a layer of the bread. Mix together the eggs, milk, sherry and W. sauce, season to taste and pour over the mixture in the dish. Bake for 1 hour at 170C, 325F, gas 3. Suggested servings: potato salad and green salad.

As regards our house sale, we now have two interested and possibly prospective buyers (one certainly has made an offer which we have accepted subject to...), we have yet to hear from the second who came for a further look yesterday. We are getting much more interest now that the adjoining semi next door is now on sale for an asking price of £55,000 more than ours. Facing the way we do, we get a lot more sunlight in the house, also have a lot more room for off-street parking. Otherwise not that much difference between the two. I have always felt we under-priced our house, hoping for a quick sale, but this might have put off people believing that a low price than average for the area means the place is falling to bits. Let us just hope we will be able to move sooner rather than later. If we lose the place I have set my heart on I will be more than upset. Leaving here will be bad enough, not moving to where we hope will make things even worse. Time now though for us to dig up one of our rhubarb plants and stick it in a large bucket ready to replant, also make sure we have a blackberry which rooted itself in one of our tubs, that can go with us too. Not that we will have much of a garden. The rhubarb may have to go into the front. Beloved has promised that I can have a greenhouse, southfacing, so looking forward to that. Everything else, herbs mainly, and some salads, will have to grow in tubs. But that is yet to come. Don't I just wish moving could be as simple as a 'beam me up Scotty', so that I could shut my eyes and open them in the new bungalow (with the furniture and all kitchen equipment in place).

As sometimes happens, I am getting cook's block as to what next to write about re food. Anything else I can write about in great length, as you will have gathered. But food, cost-cutting or otherwise, is what this site is all about, and presumably what you really wish to read about, so your comments, queries, suggestions and ideas will be truly welcome. Otherwise you might be sitting reading pages of nothing of particular interest whatsoever. And we can't have that.

A week today is Mother's Day I understand. This used to be called Mothering Sunday, where servant girls would visit their mother, often the only full day allowed off during the year, taking with them a fruit cake baked especially for her. This sort of coincided (as most of our feast days do) with the Roman feast of Matronalia, where sons would bake for their mother a cake using a fine flour called simla or some such sounding name. This led to our Simnel Cake which is now more usually eaten at Easter, with eleven marzipan balls on the top representing the Apostles (Judas not included).

The easiest way to make a Simnel cake is to buy a round fruit cake and a block of marzipan. Cut the cake in half horizontally, spread the cut surfaces with a little jam and roll out one third of the marzipan to fit. Place it between the two layers and press together. Divide the remaining marzipan in half, rolling out one piece to fit the top pf the cake (which has also been brushed with a little jam) and press this onto the cake, pinching the edges to look pretty. Brush all over the top with egg white. Using the remaining marzipan, roll into 11 balls and place these around the edge of the top (the egg white helps them stick), also brushing the top of the balls with egg white. Then pop it under the grill (carefully watching to see it doesn't burn) until the top of the balls and the centre of the cake top are turning brown. Leave to cool, then eat and enjoy.

And that is me until tomorrow. Have a lovely day.

Eat your Green, Reds, Yellows...

Another Saturday? Another moan? I will try not to. Having awoken from a rather vivid dream where I was in a supermarket and they were giving bags of stuff away for just pennies, I had filled my trolley with them and then sat down to find a way to use them up. I discovered a bag of crisps (I just love savoury crisps) but these were flavoured with strawberry, and I didn't care for them at all. There were other bags of assorted crisps, one had Pizza flavoured crisps, and other flavours I had never believed would be on sale (forgotten what they were now or I might just have been able to sell the idea). I also (in the dream) spent ages trying to line two round springform tin with sponge fingers, then filling them with strawberry flavoured jelly-soaked sponge, and not getting on very well, the fingers would not stay upright. Beloved had moved my jug of jelly as he said it was preventing him looking at the oven (??!!??). But - as I said, only a dream, but as dreams are meant to mean something, wonder what mine meant, perhaps more to do my obsession for not throwing food away. As always, my dream was in vivid colour and I can also taste things when in a dream. So today's posting is more on the colourful buy-the-best-eat-less theme. You will soon understand what I mean. It makes sense.

Starting with yesterday evening, both Beloved and I had a good supper: steak and mushroom pie, with plenty of parsnips and peas and gravy. Yet, having gone back to sit and watch TV, I still felt hungry. Not quite true, of course I wasn't hungry, I had just eaten. But I felt I wanted more food. Beloved also felt the same. I went out and got some cheese, biscuits and tomatoes. Beloved later got some a toasted teacake and (because I wanted one and there was only one left, he brought me some toast instead). No wonder I had dreams last night. I complained to Beloved that I had no reason to eat more, he said it was because I was cold, and in truth I have found it very difficult to keep warm these past few days.

Nowadays, food is eaten more as a comfort and a pleasure rather than being a means of keeping us alive and healthy. This in itself is an expensive way to live. We (not just us but generally everybody) do not need to eat as much food as we think we should - just so long as it is the right foods and as good a quality and as fresh as possible. Again, our bodies should be able to let us know (perhaps by feeling very fit), that we eat just the right amount. If we begin to feel tired and lethargic, then we are missing out on essential foods.
When I was quite young, I used to believe that suffering from malnutrition meant starvation. Later I learned it meant 'bad nutrition', otherwise eating the wrong foods. We can all eat an enormous amount of food, and still have malnutrition. So think on that.

Quality counts, and often is not always affordable, on the other hand, if we can get really fresh produce, maybe growing things ourselves, or from farmers markets, it does make sense financially, as the fresher the produce is (vegetables and fruits) the more vitamins they contain (as unbelieveably many can lose up to 25% within a hour of being picked). So the fresher the produce (in other words the more nutrients the produce contains), the less of it we need to eat. The less we need to eat, the less we need to buy. The less we spend the more money we have to pay for better and fresh quality foods, so it breaks even.

Root vegetables naturally have staying power, enough to last through those long winter months, so not so much of a problem with those. Avoid the pre-prepared produce, for as soon as this has been chopped or shredded, or mixed salad leaves torn from the plants, they will lose even more nutrients. I was told that some chemicals were sprayed on to prevent this, this may be true or not, but even if - well who needs to take the risk.

Fresh food (which may not be as fresh as it could be) does not always have to be the best option. All frozen vegetables are processed within hours of picking, thus keeping most of their nutrients intact. Peas for example have the same amount of vit. C as if just picked from your garden, podded and cooked immediately.
Canned vegetables also tend to keep their nutrients, and canned carrots can contain more vitamin C than when boiled fresh or frozen. Not that I would ever serve canned carrots - absolutely detest them. But it is worth a thought.

Plan your meals around colour. The more colour, the better balance of all the nutrients you need. There is so much produce now on sale that many have to be omitted from the lists below, but even though not mentioned, they can be just as important a food to eat.
One of the most important colours to have on a plate is green as these means the produce is rich in iron and vitamins C and A. Also containing other chemicals that protect against many diseases, so serve these regularly: broccoli, green peppers, green beans, peas, Brussel sprouts, courgettes, all leafy green vegetables (such as spinach, cabbage, lettuce, watercress, rocket, kale, cress, herbs etc), apples, kiwi fruit and avocados.

Beta-carotene, the plant form of vitamin A, is found in red coloured produce, this helping to protect against heart disease and cancer. Also the beta-c has antioxidents that protects against substances in the air caused by smoking and other unpleasantries. Tomatoes, when cooked, are particularly good to eat, also red peppers, red onions, red cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, rhubarb.

Other foods high in beta-carotene come in the yellow and orange fruits and vegetables. The citrus fruits being high in vitamin C; the bananas contain potassium and manganese. The best to eat are lemons, oranges, grapefruit, bananas, carrots, yellow and orange peppers, sweet potatoes, sweetcorn, pumpkins and squashes, apricots, peaches, mangoes, pineapple.

Although familiar with the three 'traffic-light' colours mentioned above, purple is now proving to be a very important food colour. In particular beetroot, which contains plenty of iron and magnesium. So serve plenty of beetroot, prunes, aubergines, blueberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, plums.

White coloured foods do not usually get a mention in lists such as the above. Perhaps this is because generally they are starchy foods: potatoes, J.artichokes, turnips, parsnips, rice etc, and we should not forget others such as the onions, garlic, fennel, beans sprouts and mushrooms, as all play a very important part in our diet.

For a well balanced and healthy snack, mix your colours. Try spreading some granary bread (toasted or plain) with butter, add a little avocado mashed with lemon juice, top this with some sliced tomato and red onion, sprinkle over some cress, finish with some rocket or lettuce leaves, and the final slice of buttered bread. Or make your own colourway.

What about a healthy pizza: top the home-made (or even a bought ready-t0-cook) cheese and tomato marguerita pizza with roasted vegetables of all colours and types. Add a few snippets of chorizo sausage or bacon if you want a bit of meat, or just finish off with shavings of mozzarella and/or Parmesan before cooking.

Make a healthy 'slaw' by finely shredding raw red cabbage and mixing with sliced apples. Add sunflower seeds, a little finely chopped stem ginger, then dress with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Red cabbage will keep for a long time if stored in a cool place, and since eating it recently, cooked with apples and a little vinegar and sugar, I am completely hooked. The following recipe is, eaten with crusty bread, is a healthy meal all by itself.
Warm Red Cabbage and Goat's Cheese Salad: serves 4
2 oz (50g) walnut pieces. toasted
1 small red cabbage, finely shredded
1 - 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 tblsp balsamic or red wine vinegar
2 tblsp olive oil
1 small red onion, halved and finely sliced
1 small white onion, halved and finely sliced
1 red apple, cored, quartered, and finely sliced
4 oz (100g) goat's cheese (or Feta cheese) crumbled
salt and pepper
chopped parsley
Put the oil in a frying pan and fry the onions for five minutes, then stir in the garlic, cabbage, vinegar and stir-fry for five minutes. Add the walnuts, apple, and cheese, toss together then remove from the heat, season to taste and pile into a shallow dish. Sprinkle over the parsley.

Several recipes have already been given for making dips. This next one is slightly different as it uses the pink-fleshed sweet potato as the main ingredient. Seasoned with a dash of Tabasco (or a seeded and chopped red chilli would make it even more fiery), it could also be blended with a small amount of curry paste. If you prefer it less spicy, then just opt for adding plenty of freshly ground black pepper and also the zest of the lime.
Spicy Sweet Potato Dip: serves 4
4 pink-fleshed sweet potatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
few drops Tabasco or chilli sauce
2 tblsp Greek yogurt
juice from half a lime
2 tblsp chopped coriander
salt and pepper
Roast the potatoes by putting them on a baking tray, flesh side up, in a hot oven (200C, 400F, gas 6) for about 20 minutes or until tender. Leave to cool, then scoop out the flesh and blitz in a blender or food processor, together with the garlic and Tabasco. When smooth, add the rest of the ingredients and blitz for another few seconds. Season to taste. Pile in a bowl and sprinkle over the coriander. Serve with crudites or tortilla chips, bread sticks or toasted pitta bread.

One more healthy recipe to give you today. Although this uses the dried (and flexible) pineapple pieces, other dried fruits of the same type can be used such as mango. Use the basic recipe adding your own choice of fruit and if all you have are sultanas, then sultanas it can be. Never feel that you need to stick exactly to a recipe, just keep the basic ingredients (flour, sugar, fats, egg etc) the same, then add your choice (to the weights given) of the remaining suggested ingredients.
Pineapple and Carrot Cookies: makes about 15
5 oz (125g) soft dark brown sugar
5 oz (125g) butter, softened
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp grated orange rind
5 oz (125g) plain flour
half a tsp baking powder
2 oz (50g) crushed branflakes
2 tblsp wheatgerm or porridge oats
3 oz (75g) flexible dried pineapple pieces, chopped
3 oz (75g) carrot, coarsely grated
Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add one tsp of the flour, the egg and the orange rind. Beat together. Sift the remaining flour with the baking powder and beat into the creamed mixture with the remaining ingredients until a soft dough consistency.
Drop heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto lightly greased baking sheets, leaving enough room for the cookies to spread. Bake at 190C, 375F, gas 5 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool on the tin for five minutes, then transfer to a cake airer to finish off cooling. These will keep for up to a week in an airtight container.

Yesterday evening, I took a second look at the posting written earlier that day. Despite my attempts to edit correctly, even leaving myself time to do so, more mistakes were discovered. I do not know why I miss them. Today I finish earlier than usual, we have more viewings, so 'things to do'. Even so, I have scrolled back and corrected what I discovered to be incorrect. No doubt I will find more. Sooner or later I will have to start right from the beginning (by beginning I mean September 2006) and edit the lot. Or does it really matter? I just don't want anyone to say "she can't spell". I can spell, I just type too fast. My grammar isn't all it should be, but then I have had little proper education due to the war years.
This new keyboard is a slightly different size than a previous one which doesn't help, so I sometimes hit the key next to the one I want. Sometimes, because I touch-type at great speed, I even type with the light off. I can see the screen, but not the keyboard. Yes, I know I am making excuses and even more excuses. There really is no excuse but incompetance. Better start pulling my socks up in case someone actually reads my blog.

Have a good weekend.

Breadwinners

Thank you for your comments. Janet mentioned that Victorian dresses were handstitched. When I went to visit The Bronte Parsonage in Haworth, I noticed the same thing - with the dresses there in the display cases beautifully stitched together by hand, and sometimes the sleeves were tied to the dresses rather than made up as they are today. This made it easier for the ladies in those days, and also in previous centuries no doubt, to carefully unpick their dresses, give the material a good wash, and then make them up again in a different style, sometimes reversing the material as one side may have faded. Or adding a new length if a strip had been damaged. . In the same way they would buy plain hats and then change the trimmings to go with different gowns. With no TV, there was always time to sew. Again a lesson on recycling.

Another thing I once learned when visiting a museum, where a gentleman was demonstrating some black and white, extremely fine embroidery, which he was doing himself, but needing to looking through a fixed magnifying glass, so that he could see each thread which he needed to pick up with the finest needle I have ever seen. Even wearing specs I could not see the work too well, so I took off my glasses and peered really closely, and I could see so clearlywithout using the magnifying glass and he told me that in the olden days only the very, very short-sighted (which I am) were able to do this specialised work. Without my glasses , and two feet from the end of my nose, the world becomes a blur. Do you know, this wasn't discovered until I was thirteen, and had grown too tall to sit close to the blackboard. Until then, I thought everyone saw in the same way as I did. It was sheer magic when I had my first eye test and found I could see clearly. Although it took some time to re-adjust habits, such as taking wide steps over a kerb (not being quite sure in the past where the actual edge was).

In my youth it was still common to learn how to knit and sew, and these skills proved very useful in my married years, as I could make both the children's clothes and mine. It helped a great deal that Beloved used to work for Sylko at one time, and with various fabric firms at other times. Initially I used the old type of Singer sewing machine where you had to turn a handle, later Beloved fitted this with a motor, and much later I bought myself an electric Singer that could do fancy stitching, buttonholes, pleating etc.
When the girls were very small I taught myself how to do smocking, then managed to sell some little smocked dresses, and made enough money to buy myself a little 'smock gathering machine' (which I still have). This had a long row of wavy needles, each to be threaded with cotton. All I had to do was push in the material, turn a handle to force it through rollers, and it would come out already pleated and threaded with the cotton. Saved hours of doing it by hand.

When we had our first grandchild, I made the christening gown, quite simply and very cheaply made in fine white cotton, and quite plain except for lace around the neck and sleeves, and along both edges of a front panel which I had smocked at the top, and embroidered in bands towards the bottom, all the smocking and embroidery being done with white stranded cotten. As part of the top band of embroidery, I stitched in (using chain stitch) the birth date and year of the child. Later a sister was born, the same gown used but with her date of birth embroided in a lower band.

After years of making birthday and other celebration cakes for my children, I got quite good at it, so then went on to icing (Royal icing in those days) other cakes that people had cooked themselves. I began with icing my daughter's wedding cake, and moved on to decorating wedding cakes that people had usually cooked themselves. This again brought in some pin money. After that, when I became more skilled at cooking overall neighbours who wished to host a family party, and prefered to spend time with them rather than slaving over a hot stove, would ask me to do the cooking in their kitchens. So just learning a few domestic skills, can help to fill the coffers from time to time, especially useful these days as fewer people bother with these skills. It will soon get to the time that anyone who can cook will be welcomed with open arms. And paid well too. So just making the point that it is always worth learning a skill, and in particular, learning to cook. You never know when it can come in useful.

Janet is asking for uses for canned sardines, other than on toast and in sarnies. Think I gave the date of the recipe for sardine pate, although of course this again is for spreading on toast, although spoonfuls of the pate or mashed sardines might also be able to be used as a filling for something like ravioli. As sardines have quite a strong flavour, then maybe sardines blended with cream cheese. Or how about sardine fish-cakes? Mix mashed sardines with mashed potato, using slightly more potato than sardine (usually equal quantities of each), plus some finely chopped parsley.
Sardines could be cut into strips and used for topping pizzas or other dishes such as pissaladiere (recipe given below), where anchovies are normally used. Admittedly chefs would stand back in horror at my suggestion of substituting sardines for anchovies, but it could work.
By the way, always eat the sardine bones (also canned salmon and pilchard bones) as they contain loads of calcium, and studies have shown "..that people with the highest calcium intakes have also the lowest levels of body fat - due to the fact that low calcium consumption results in an increase of vit D in the bloodstream, which signals fat cells to store more fat. Meaning your body reacts to a calcium deficiency by hanging onto fat for dear life". I learn something new every time I open a book.

Pissaladiere (Onion Tart): serves 6
approx 12 oz (350g) bread dough
3 lb (1.5kg) onions, thinly sliced
3 tblsp olive oil
2 tsp mixed fresh herbs, chopped (basil, thyme, rosemary...)
salt and pepper
12 anchovy fillets (or sardine strips)
few black olives, stoned and halved
While the bread dough is rising, make the filling by cooking the onions in the oil, over a very low heat, and covering the pan. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 40 minutes or until the onions are very soft. Add the herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a few minutes longer.
Cut the anchovies fillets in half lengthways (or cut the sardines into 24 strips). Grease a shallow baking dish, about 14" (35cm) in diameter, or use a greased Swiss roll baking tin for an oblong tart. Knock the risen dough back, punching with the fist and press into the chosen tin with the palms of your hands.
Spread the onion mixture over the dough, then make a wide lattice pattern across the top using the fish strips. Put half an olive, flat side down, in the centre of each diamond. Leave to stand for fifteen minutes for the dough to rise again slightly, then bake for 25 - 30 minutes at 190C, 375F, gas 5 until the bread base is cooked. Serve hot.

Bread being our staple food, and with so many of us now beginning to make our own bread, following the above bread-based recipe are a few suggestions on how to improve on a basic dough recipe:
walnut bread (a French speciality): add 8 oz (225g) finely ground walnuts to 500g dry bread mix, before adding water (you may need just a little extra water).
sunflower topped: use a wholewheat or whole grain bread dough, and after rising, shape into a round and sprinkle the top with sunflower seeds. Makes great toast or eaten with cheese and meats.
light rye bread: mix rye flour with brown or white bread flour then make bread in the usual way. Lovely eaten with honey or cheese.

Although not everyone has a bread machine or a supply of strong bread flour, sometimes we do run out of bread. Never fear, Shirl is here.
Starting with tea-breads as they keep well and are a cross between bread and cake, these are gorgeous eaten spread with butter. After the recipes for tea-breads come the plainer, but very simple soda breads which even though can be bought in supermarkets, traditionally were always made at home, and I feel still should be.

This first recipe for tea-bread uses dates, but if no dates, then substitute chopped prunes or large raisins or sultanas. Even chopped apricots. Or why not some of each? Just keep the weight of fruit the same then experiment to your heart's content. You could even add a tsp of mixed spice if you wish.
You will note that in both the following two recipes I suggest adding a tsp of the flour to the creamed butter and sugar when beating in the egg. This helps to prevent the mixture curdling, not that it really matters if it does, but it is better if it doesn't.
Date and Muesli Teabread: one loaf giving 10 - 12 servings.
8 oz (225g) stoned dates, roughly chopped
5 fl oz (150ml) strong hot tea (strained if using tea leaves)
3 oz (75g) butter, softened
3 oz (75g) light soft brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
8 oz (225g) self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 oz (75g) muesli (any kind)
Put the fruit into a bowl and pour over the hot tea. Leave to soak for half an hour.
Cream together the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, then beat in the egg with 1 tsp of the flour.
Sift together the remaining flour and the baking powder, and fold into the creamed mixture. Finally, add the muesli, fruits used, including the soaking liquid. Mix well together.
Pour the mixture into a greased and lined 2 lb (900g) loaf tin and smooth the surface. Bake for about one hour at 180C, 340F, gas 4 until risen and firm to the touch. Check with a skewer if uncertain.
Remove the loaf from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes or so, then turn out onto a wire rack. Serve sliced, warm or cold, with or without butter.

This next bread, despite it seeming too rich and sweet by today's health and safety standards, is made with all good things. Adults as well as children will find this immensely satisfying. The name I made up myself as being rather more interesting than just chocolate and banana bread.
Choccanna Bread: makes 1 loaf - givin 10 - 12 slices
4 oz (100g) butter, softened
4 oz (100g) light soft brown sugar
4 oz (100g thick set honey
2 eggs, beaten
8 oz (225g) self-raising flour
half a tsp baking powder
1 oz (25g) cocoa
2 ripe (weight incl. skins: approx 10 oz/300g)
little lemon juice
1 tblsp milk
icing sugar
Cream together the butter, sugar and honey until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg with 1 tsp of the flour. Sift the remaining flour with the baking powder and the cocoa, and fold into the creamed mixture. Peel the bananas and mash with a little lemon juice and just enough milk to form a soft consistency., and fold this into the mix. Spoon into a greased and lined loaf tin (size and cooking temperatures as in the above recipe) and level the surface. Bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours or until risen and firm to the touch. After 40 minutes or so, tent the tin loosely with foil to prevent it browning too quickly.
Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a cake airer. Dust with icing sugar and serve sliced, warm or cold.

One of the easiest breads to make is Irish Soda Bread (so why not let the children have a go), as generally (apart from the third recipe) this is made with ordinary, not bread flour. And - for what it is worth - the ingredients would cost less than 50p. So more to add to the list of cheapies.
The first two recipes are slightly different, but both use bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent because this works best with acidic things like buttermilk and/or yogurt (see below for a more detailed explanation of buttermilk). The third recipe uses two raising agents (the bicarb and c.of t. together make baking powder - but in this case work better used independently). You may, after reading the three recipes, like to try mixing and matching ingredients to make up your own version.

buttermilk:
"Buttermilk is what is left over after the butter has been churned out. Differing only from skimmed milk in that it is sour. It is a useful emulsifying agent and now recognised as a health-promoting product, sold in cartons in many supermarkets (often homogenised and doctored in the way the trade knows best). However, modern 'buttermilk' and 'cultured buttermilk' are respectively skim milk and soured skim milk"
Perhaps the easiest DIY way to make buttermilk is to stir a little yogurt into skimmed milk, or add a few drops of lemon juice to sour the milk.

Soda Bread: makes 1 loaf, serves 8
1 lb (450g) plain white flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 oz (25g) butter, diced
half a pint (300ml) buttermilk
Sift the flour, salt and bicarb together, then rub in the butter, gradually adding enough milk to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for a couple of minutes. Shape into a large round and place on a floured, ungreased baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep cross on the top of the dough and sprinkle with a little flour.
Bake at 200c, 400F, gas 6 for 30 - 35 minutes or until risen and lightly browned. The loaf should sound hollow when tappen on the underside. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold. Can be cut into wedges or sliced.

Farmhouse Style Soda Bread: makes 1 loaf - serving 8
7 oz (200g) plain white flour
7 oz (200g) plain wholemeal flour
2 oz (50g) rolled or porridge oats
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
half a pint (300ml) buttermilk
Sift together the white flour with the bicarb. then stir in the wholemeal flour, the salt and the oats. Gradually add enough buttermilk to make a soft dough, then continue as in the above recipe.

Home-Style Soda Bread: makes 1 loaf - serves 8
8 oz (225g) strong white flour
8 oz (225g) wholemeal flour
1 tsp each: sugar, salt, and bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
half an ounce (15g) butter
1 egg, beaten
7 fl oz (200ml) milk
Sift together the flours, sugar, salt and raising agents. Rub in the butter, and mix in the egg. and enough milk to form a soft dough. Knead until smooth. Continue as in the above recipes, baking for 35 - 35 minutes.

Finishing late yesterday, I did not give myself time to edit my blog, so when I returned to it later in the afternoon - needing to check out something - I discovered more typing errors than you could imagine. I was able to correct them (or most, for inevitably one or two get missed), so I apologise to early readers and suggest they might care to go back and read it all again, for there are subtle differences to the original posting. It is not yet eight of the clock, so have time to be more careful today.

As we progress with cooking, often we can include a little luxury yet still save money by making up some ingredients that can normally be bought, but at much more cost. Vanilla sugar is an example. Using the flavoured sugar, we can use this instead of adding vanilla extract (or use less of it).
Of course we need to begin with a vanilla pod (these are not cheap but one can last for a very long time) and try and find one covered with crystals of vanilla for this indicates freshness. To flavour a bag of caster sugar, just stick the pod into the bag and leave it there for a week to ten days to allow the flavour to be gathered by the sugar, shaking occasionally. Far better though is to have an airtight container for the sugar, for then all you have to do is replace the sugar as it is used up, as the pod will keep flavouring the sugar for years and years and years. Instead of buying caster sugar, blitz down granulated sugar in small quantities in a food blender until as fine as you want. Do this with demerara sugar and you get golden caster sugar. You could mix the two together.
If you need to split the pot and remove the seeds to flavour a custard for example, the pod can still be put into the sugar, but may not keep its flavour quite as long as one left whole. Mind you give or take a year or two, does that really matter?

Herb oils are another useful standby for instead of adding fresh basil to a pizza for instance, the basil oil can be added to the dough to flavour the pizza base, or be added to the tomatoes when making the sauce, or even drizzling over the pizza topping. You get the flavour without needing a constant supply of the fresh herb, which is not always available during the winter months. Other herbs can flavour oils, and all can make delicious salad dressings and marinades. All you do is select your chosen herb, crush the leaves slightly, using enough to loosely fill a glass jar. Fill the jar with sunflower or olive oil (or a blend of both), adding one tsp of white wine vinegar, then screwing on the lid and giving it good shake. Leave to stand on a sunny windowsill for two weeks, shaking the bottle every day. You can then either drain and bottle the oil without the herbs, or leave the herbs in the bottle and just top up with more oil as it is used.

Gain the best of both worlds by planting a Cape Gooseberry, otherwise known as Physalis. Originally grown as a decorative plant, it is also useful when making flower arrangements, and only recently have the fruits have become popular, and as the fruits (not the plant) are very expensive to buy, sold complete with their little papery skins (looking a lot like fairy lanterns), it makes more than a lot of sense to grow your own. After peeling back the paper skin, the whole thing can be used as a decoration or garnish, but it is the fruit inside the skin,the golden berry, that is eaten. It has a sharp yet sweet taste, and apart from adding to fruit salads or other dish, the fruits themselves make a lovely jam.

One herb which I used to grow was Angelica. This herb is tall, with flat ribbed stems, and makes a lovely addition to a flower border. Apart from candying the stems, the angelica stems can also be used to make a 'ratafia'.
In the eighteenth century ratafia was made from peach and almond kernels together with brandy, but the Victorians then used the name to describe any flavoured drink made with brandy, and angelica was often used. Even earlier, in the sixteenth century, this herb was so admired both for beauty in growth and also for culinary use that it was know as 'the herb of the angels'.
The recipe below makes a delicious liqueur either for drinking or for flavouring cakes, pudding and biscuits.
Angel Herb Ratafia:
8 oz (225g) Angelica stalks
8 oz (225g) sugar
half a pint (250ml) water
one pint (500ml) brandy
Remove all leaves from the angelica stems and scrub the stalks well under running cold water. Cut into small pieces and place into a large sterilized preserving jar. Add the sugar, water and brandy. Cover tightly and leave to stand in a cool dark place for 6 - 8 weeks. Strain through muslin and keep in capped bottles.
Variation: a pinch each of ground cinnamon and cloves can be added along with the sugar etc.
For re-cycling, it might be possible to dry out the strained pieces of angelica and then candy them in the normal way.

Thanks to all who have sent comments, and looking forward to receiving more. I have spent some minutes editing today's offering, so I hope there are less errors. Oh, just made one. Now corrected.

Worth Buying - Or Not?

Silly me, made an error in costing yesterday, the pineapple (15/- a hundred years ago, which took three quarters of the average working wage) should have worked out at today's comparison price as more than I said, which I gave as £75. It should have been £180 (3/4 of today's minimum wage). On the other hand, Beloved (who corrected my mistake, bless him), said that you can buy pineapples today for 75p (15/- in old money). So that is the one food that has stayed the same price. Now fancy that.

We would find it difficult these days to understand how Victorians managed at all. Just think, no electrical gadgets, heavy furniture needed lifting so that carpets could be removed and draped over the washing line so that all dust could be beaten out. Fires lit every day. Grates needed black-leading (a very dirty job), Dust everywhere. Washing done each Monday come rain or shine, no washing machines, no tumble dryers, just a heavy mangle and in winter all over the house to dry. No drip dries then, sheets were of linen or heavy cotton. Must have taken ages to dry. The windows all steamed up, which would freeze into pretty fern-like patterns when cold enough for frost and snow.Then ironing done with flat-irons, each needed heating on the range, wiped clean and then, as the iron got cold it was placed back on the range, another taking its place. Usually three heating up at any one time. There could hardly be time left for cooking as we know it today. Just something simple that would probably get on with cooking by itself, like a stew. No wonder each day had its own dish of the day. Never varying, apart from seasonal fresh produce. Washday (Monday) was always cold meat from the Sunday joint, with jacket potatoes. This being eaten in most homes until washing machines and spin driers became the norm. And even long after.

After the second World War rationing had ceased, and food/ingredients became more plentiful, prices seemed to stay much the same. I remember in the early fifties, food was very cheap, and so it stayed until the early seventies when decimal currency came in. Immediately prices rose just a little bit, then - then when the decimal halfpenny was dropped, they rose even more, and so have continued to rise. Sugar was subsidised for many years, but that was then stopped, and sugar prices have now risen along with everything else. This led to the 'bogofs' and loss-leaders that we know today. Rather like the points system of wartime when food had points value - lower the points value (for points now read prices) when there was a surplus, raise them when in short supply.

The problem with cooking is, as Janet mentioned. All that washing up. I totally agree. On the other hand, she is finding she is saving money, and has more in store. If I had thought about it years ago, I would perhaps have deliberately kept my savings and bought myself a small dishwasher. I may even treat myself to one in the new place. There is one there now, but the owner wishes to take it with her. They say dishwashers use less daily water than doing the washing up in the sink. Perhaps they do. Useful when on a water meter as we are, and will continue to be if I have any say in it.

On Richard & Judy the other day I happened to catch a piece about folk on the street sampling Delia's cheat version of Shepherd's Pie. It was also sampled in the studio. Everyone found it was very edible, but many believed it tasted like a ready-meal, and others those said it didn't taste as good as home-made. One student said using the ready-prepared ingredients was a good idea as long as they were cheaper than making it from scratch (Not!), and one older lady said it was a good idea making use of anything ready prepared as it saved a lot of time. But she looked as though she could afford to do that. I see Tesco's are selling the book at half-price, and am tempted. But what is the point? I do not need to know how to cheat, I do that all the time, but honestly, not by stealth.

What I mean by stealth - is that we are actually paying more for some foods, for while the prices appear to remain the same, the contents/weights in many cans and packets have been reduced over these past few years. So we need to keep an eye on that. I noticed Heinz Baked Beanz are now advertising packs of four little snackpots of baked beans, each of which can be microwaved. I do not yet know the price, but I bet you they will cost more, weight for weight, than buying a can of said beans. What is to stop us opening a tin, decanting into four microwave proof containers and freezing what we won't be using that week (or the remainder can be stored - not in its tin - in a covered container in the fridge for some days)? But there are always enough people to say "what a good idea". So no doubt they will sell enough to keep the manufacturers happy. I wonder if the micropot containers will self-destruct, or just make more land-fill. At least the tins can be re-cycled.

Despite my insistence that most things home-made will be cheaper than bought, it is worth checking because some things are not. Perhaps not a good example, but one that may prove the point, is cheese. Hard cheese takes at least a gallon of full-cream milk to make a pound of cheese, it takes a lot of time to mature, admittedly waiting time, but still cheese can be bought for the same price and sometimes (when on offer) less than the cost of making it ourselves. On the other hand, curd or cream cheese can be easily be made at home by draining home-made yogurts (with or without added cream).

Tomato ketchups, brown sauces, mayonnaise - again, plenty of recipes for these, but why bother to make? Similarly, is it worth buying a wide selection of spices, when we can easily use one of the quality curry sauces or pastes?
This is perhaps worthy of debate, but as we in the Goode Household eat curry often less than three times a month, in my case it is easier opening a can or bottle. All other ingredients would, of course, be as fresh as possible - apart from basmati rice which is said to be better when it is at least ten years old (after cropping). I read that the price of rice will be rising (what a surprise), so those who have bought up plenty, knowing that it keeps for years and years, will be smiling. Asian stores sell rice in large quantities, and cheaper than the smaller bags sold in supermarkets. So that is worth consideration. Just make sure it is stored correctly, air-tight containers and all that. We don't want weevils getting in. Although I suppose they have protein content of their own. Any port in a storm.

Many years ago I did much comparative pricing. Mainly because, at that time I was making just about everything myself, even cream, cheese and butter (from doorstep Channel Island milk). Yes, most of the time it did save me money, often a lot of money, but also most of the time I spent in the kitchen, working all day, to make these things, and this I found - at times - exhausting. Remember it wasn't just the cooking of the meals, but all the preparations, making home-made pasta, baking bread, making jams and preserves, siphoning the cream off the milk to make thick cream, clotted cream, cream cheese, butter, and not forgetting yogurt. With six to feed (plus dog - and yes, I even had to make dog-biscuits), you can see I was on quite a treadmill.
After a month of this, and realising I had cut my housekeeping by half (and it wasn't that I spent a lot in the first place) I decided to find out if I could make things somewhat easier for myself, find out what was hardly worth making, but above all what was far too costly to keep buying.
An example of this was the price of a pack of white sauce mix compared to the cost and ease of making it from scratch. All I needed to do was read ingredients on the pack to see how I was being conned. I think some packs contained just cornflour and seasoning, to be made up at home with milk, other brands might have contained the same plus milk powder to be made up with water (possibly both had other additives). Similarly packets of custard mix. It worked out so very much cheaper using storecupboard cornflour, seasoning and milk or milk powder to make the sauce, then adding grated cheese to turn it into a cheese sauce, or chopped parsley for parsley sauce etc. than ever to buy the packets for these. Likewise the custard was just cornflour and flavouring (similar to the dry custard mix we buy in tins), with or without milk powder accordingly. Putting the dry ingredients into a bowl takes just as much time whether from a packet or spooned from a tin kept in the storecupboard, and - as we have to add our own liquid - so why pay more for something that SEEMS TO BE time-saving, but really isn't?

Some things I do, but sometimes I don't. It is a great deal more convenient for me to soak overnight a whole packet of : butterbeans, red kidney beans, pinto beans, chickpeas etc. than soak and cook only the amount I need at any one time. After soaking, the whole lot is cooked (separate pans for different beans), so that they can be drained (a little oil run through them to stop them sticking hard together) then frozen, so always to hand to be used as and when I wish. But at other times, when freezer stocks have run down and I have not yet purchased more beans (the older they are the longer to they take to cook - so I don't keep a large stock) I then purchase cans of ready-cooked beans - many of which are quite inexpensive. And then, do you know, I sigh because I have to bother to get out the tin-opener and then clean the tin to be recycled. Problem with ring-pulls, sometimes the ring snaps off (so worth getting one of those cheap plastic gadgets made specially for opening ring-pulls, and makes the job so much easier), and I read that a few pence is added to the price of a can just for the convenience of having a ring pull. My friend, who stayed recently, bought her friend one of those can-openers which opens a can all by itself. You just put it on the top, sit back and watch the can being opened. But it needs batteries, and is expensive. Am tempted though.
But again, this is pure laziness, but with the excuse the older I get the weaker my wrists seem to be. But for the hale and hearty, why pay extra if we can do it ourselves so much more cheaply?

Is there a difference between the price of an uncut loaf and a similar but already-sliced loaf I wonder? I have not yet looked. But who prefers slicing a bought uncut loaf when you can buy it ready sliced? Our local bakery (sadly now closed) had a machine that would slice the loaf we had bought. Some supermarkets may do this for us even now. Home-baked bread naturally has to be sliced, and now the thought has come into mind that it seems no thin-sliced bread is sold anymore, and given that bread can be sliced in store, do we have much choice as to the thickness? Some medium sliced bread seems to be getting almost to toast thickness these days. Is that another stealth trick? Forgive me while I scamper downstairs and count the slices of one bought yesterday...
...job done. A medium white Warburtons has eighteen slices plus the two crusts. This seems pretty average, but a previous loaf we bought, a different brand but the same weight, surely must have had less slices because they were thicker (sold as medium not toasting bread) - just wish I had counted them at the time. Thin sliced bread used to be 24 or more slices plus the crusts. The weight of many loaves are standard (around 2 lb for the large loaves), and probably by law, they have to be, but with a big family, who need lots of sarnies for lunch boxes, with even one or two fewer slices to play with, will eventually need to buy an extra loaf to make up the shortfall - so have a right to feel cheated. If any of you feel like bothering, next time you buy a loaf, any kind, any brand, thick or medium, count the slices and see how many you get. Let us know.

Sampling food is another way to get value for money. This time the value may be more in the flavour than the actual quality. Does quality count over flavour? Another point worth debating. This is one reason why we prefer Tesco's cheapest sardines against the more (almost double the price) branded packs of sardines. Both the same weight. I ordered the more expensive by mistake (clicking the wrong button), but glad I did, for it proved we much preferred the flavour of the cheaper (I think around 35p a can and excellent value). We buy sardines by the dozen cans, each time we order, for we eat them each week, also they have a very long shelf life (I think b.b. 2012 from a recent batch) so any advance warning of an increase in price could see me stocking up.

Once upon a time (until now I used to think I had a very boring life, never did anything much with it apart from raise four children, but the more I remember and the more I write down, I think I was quite a busy bee at times...), as I was saying, once upon a time I used to work, for a short time, as a part-time Development Officer for the National Association of Consumer Groups. One day I will tell you more about this, but not today.
Many towns had their own consumer groups, and probably still do, and I went to visit one in Leeds, a town where you would expect several groups, but the only one being on the very edge of town, in Garforth. I arranged a cheese-tasting, and bought as many different varieties of cling-wrapped cheddar cheese as I could find in the supermarket: at least 13 different kinds, coming from all over the world. Added to these were the cheddars bought from the deli counter and cut to order.
The cheeses were cubed, put on numbered plates (a record kept so that I knew which was which), and there were two types, mild and mature. The deli saucers were mixed along with the others.
After tasting, everyone marked down which they preferred, and it did seem the second cheapest of the milds was everyone's favourite, and one of the middle-priced (cling-wrapped) matures was also the main favourite. Not one of the higher priced and/or quality cheeses was given a tick. What does this prove? Either no-one was a 'cheese-buff', or some cheap cheeses do taste remarkably good. Many deli counters will give you a sliver of cheese to taste before you choose which to buy, so take advantage of this, and buy what you prefer, not necessarily what you believe to be the best. However good something is said to be, if you don't like it, it is a waste. This I find with wine. Expensive wine does not move me at all. Some really cheap wines can be very good indeed. Recently we opened a bottle of red wine which had been shaken up a bit en route. The wine did not taste good until the dregs (which we later discovered) had settled in our glasses. We ended up leaving half a bottle, which I strained through kitchen paper - and you would be surprised at the amount of 'sludge' was left) and the clear stuff tasted rather vinegary it has to be said, I then mixed this with vinegar to make red-wine vinegar. So something good came out of it.

It is when we come to pre-prepared foods: the frozen ready-mashed or roast potato, the ready-chopped and sliced vegetables, the ready-grated cheeses that we need to stop and think. Check the price differences - by weight - between the ready and the yet-to-be-made-ready. See how much more it would cost us just to save that very little time, and then (suitably subdued) go home and do the job ourselves. I have always understood that cooked 'real' potato, once frozen, does not thaw out well, or even taste that good, so if the manufacturers have managed to sort that problem out, good for them.
One of the reasons why I prefer to sometimes use reconstituted instant potato is that it freezes very well indeed. Add a bit of cream and butter, plenty of seasoning, maybe some grated cheese, and you wouldn't know the difference from fresh. Maybe I will copy the presentation of the frozen mash. Spread it on sheets, cut it into circles then freeze, ready to use later. We don't always need to buy something to take advantage of how it can be used.

Yesterday, the weather being so cold, Beloved asked for a bowl (in fact he ate two large bowlsful) of chunky vegetable soup for his supper. This fitted nicely into my 50p challenge. It worked out at around 50p for two of us (three helpings in actuality), but not including the seasoning or toast and butter.
All the soup was made from was a little butter, 2 ribs celery, two carrots, two onions, one potato, a good lump of (frozen) home-made chicken stock, water and some pearl barley. Diced eggies sauted first in butter, then stock and water added, seasoned to taste, pearl barley added then simmer, simmer, simmer, until the barley is softened and the veggies cooked.

Having already mentioned that a good bowl of porridge will cost only pennies, other inexpensive breakfasts (well within the 50p limit) could be: boiled eggs, scrambled eggs on toast, poached egg on toast; beans on toast; or even poached egg on beans on toast. Fried or scrambled egg, bacon, and mushroom (all in the singular), plus fried bread might just squeeze into the budget allowance. Maybe adding a fried tomato (or one taken from a can of plum tomatoes) might just be an ingredient too far, but - allowing for other and cheaper breakfasts during the week, it could average out nicely. And - working within a weekly budget - averaging out is a magical way to keep costs down.
Costing out each ingredient separately proves just how much can be made within set limitations. So keep up the 50p challenge, and by the end of a week you should be quids in. And not even left hungry.

Mrs. Rosemary, thank you for the tip about the croc shoes. I will look out for these. I remember they fell out of favour, being a bit clumpy, but at my age, who cares?

Pleased also to read SweeterRita that your computer problems may have been caused by an ill-fitting switch. Sometimes when people switch on all their electric appliances on return from work, this can cause a reduction in electric power until the leccy board switch over. We often see our lights dimming for a few seconds around this time. With a loose plug, this might just cause the comp. to shut down. But who knows, comps have minds of their own. Let us hope you have found the cause and it doesn't continue.
Even being on Broadband, this still switches off (for some reason, just before 8.00am most mornings) so I have to reconnect (which may take some time as it keeps putting up 'unable to establish a connection'). Eventually it does. Possibly many people using the band at the same time just before going to, or just arriving after work.
Re bread mixes. Some time back I wrote about making up our own (I used the recipe that came with the bread machine). The flour, salt, sugar, milk powder were all weighed out, put into a bag, a lump of butter or lard pushed into the centre and the neck of the bag tied up. All that needed to be done was put the yeast (or water depending upon the machine) in first, then the bagful of mix tipped in, and finally the water (or yeast). Saved loads of time this way, and I used to make up about a dozen bags at a time, some white, some brown, and store them in airtight tins. The bags could be re-used.
For anyone who has a bread machine and wishes to try baking and sampling different types of bread, either making it wholly in the machine, or - as I prefer to do - mixing only the dough in the machine, then letting it rise in the tin, and baking it in the oven (mainly because it makes a longer loaf which cuts into better size slices for the toaster), it is worth buy a mixed pack of Lauke bread mixes (as sold by Lakeland). The pack contains, if I can remember, six different varieties of bread, from the plain crusty white (which is wonderful), through wholewheat, fruit loaf, German brown to multi-grain (another favourite) and more.
There may not be that much difference between the cost of a Lauke bread mix, although it does work out cheaper than a similar bought quality loaf, it is just that tastes so much better than a bought loaf, and - if kept in a bag (Lakeland now sell re-usable bags especially for keeping bread), in a bread bin, it does seem to keep fresh for longer than the normal bread made from scratch. The end of a multi-grain loaf seemed as fresh at the end of a week as it did at the start.
Recently I mentioned that a whole frozen loaf can be sliced far more thinly than when fresh. Can be done by hand but if you have an electric slicer - then very easy to do. Bread, unlike many foods, can be re-frozen once thawed. But do not keep bread in the fridge as this does it more harm than good and it will stale very rapidly.
With frozen bread, best to remove only the amount you need each day.

Calzone is a folded pizza, what could be called an Italian version of a Cornish Pasty and can make a filling meal in its own right. If making enough to feed several (and it always costs less per head the more you feed) it could well fit in to the 50p (this time per head) challenge. Fillings can vary, a good guide is anything that would normally top a pizza, even just grated cheese mixed with beaten egg so the final cost depends upon personal choice, but if using foods that some people (but not us) normally throw away (chicken scraps from a carcase etc), then this will help to keep the cost down. The recipe as given is cheap enough. Using this as a guide, then do what you will with it. I begin with the recipe for pizza dough which makes plenty, any surplus balls can be frozen after the knock down stage, then left to rise again once thawed. Also the dough could be made in a bread machine, which saves having to knead it by hand.
Pizza dough: makes 4 x 9"(23 cm) pizzas, or 6 calzoni (F)
2 lb (5oog) plain flour
half tsp. salt
1 1/2 oz (15g) dried instant yeast
approx 8 fl.oz (250ml) warm water
pinch sugar
4 tblsp olive oil
Sift the flour and salt together. Stir in the yeast and the sugar. Add 3 tblsp oil and enough water to make a firm dough. Knead well for at least 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Pour a drop or two of oil into the bowl and roll the dough into it to prevent a crust forming (or if making the dough in the machine, put the oil in a clean bowl, and add the dough to that and roll in the same way). Cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in bulk. Knock it back and knead for a few more minutes by hand (can be formed into balls and frozen at this point), then roll in the remaining oil and leave to rise again for 10 minutes. Divide into four balls, and roll them out thinly to a thickness of 1/4" for pizzas.

Calzone: makes 6
one batch pizza dough (recipe above)
a little juice from a can of chopped tomatoes (from a can)
1 1/2lb (750g) ricotta or home-made curd cheese
12 oz (350g) mozzarella cheese, grated
salt and pepper
4 oz (100g) thin sliced ham, cut into strips
Divide the twice- risen dough into 6 balls and roll each out into a circle as thin as possible. They should each be at least 9" 23cm) in diameter. Place on several oiled baking sheets. Mix the filling ingredients together and share between each calzone, spreading the filling over half the dough, leaving the edge clear. Moisten the edges with water and fold the uncovered half of the dough over to make a half-moon shape, pressing the edges firmly together. They can be twisted or pinched if you wish, as you might when making a pasty.
When all are finished, moisten the top of each calzone with a little of the tomato juice, and bake on a high shelf in a really hot oven 240C, 475F, gas 9 (drop to 220C etc if a fan oven) for about 20 minutes or until the calzone is crisp and brown. Eat hot.

Time has taken me over again, so had better finish. Look forward to hearing about more 50p dishes you have come up with. If we collect enough, we should all be able to cut down our weekly food expenses.
Meanwhile today, I will be costing, making and eating more frugal food. But more about that tomorrow.
See you then.

Crumbs of Comfort

Thank you for your comments, also about the info regarding kale as being the vegetable of 1000 heads. I knew I could rely on you to come up with the answer.

Mrs Beeton was certainly an interesting book to read. For one thing, food prices (relative to income) were very much more expensive than at first appeared. Also the Victorians seemed to have more knowledge about why they ate the foods they did, than we seem to have today. Apart from the laden tables of those that could afford to do this, they seemed to eat only enough to maintain their health and growth, understanding that food was for fuel rather than for pleasure. They were not obsessed with eating as many different dishes as we are today. Considering the tiny waists the ladies all strived for (controlled by tightly laced corsets) they couldn't really eat too much anyway.

In the marketing section of the book, it mentioned prices were as sold in London shops. Then went on to say that many fresh vegetables would be past their peak when they reached the shops, sometimes so stale they were hardly worth eating (country people fared so much better when the fresh produce-often grown in their own gardens - was able to be picked, cooked and eaten almost immediately. Not to mention the chickens they kept, almost certainly a pig, and a share of a cow). Country people were a great deal healthier than town folk.
Fresh butter was given a special mention, in that freshness seemed to depend upon how far it had to travel, also - despite Parliamentary enactments - both margarine and butter were often adulterated. Interestingly 'at certain times of the year, Australian butter which is good and pure, will be sold at a lower rate than our own', so it was even imported in those days, and considering cost of travel, how could it be cheaper? But cheaper it was. Somewhat like today, when lamb from New Zealand is cheaper than lamb reared in this country. Not to mention many other foods imported today which are cheaper than locally grown.
Adulteration of milk went on, but usually only with water, fresh milk being seldom obtained in London as it had often to be carried long distances, usually by cart which more often than not shook it up so much it started to separate. Mostly, town cooks would use condensed milk, one can to be mixed with 2 quarts (4 pints) warm water, and this used instead of fresh milk.

When it came to converting the pricing of foods from old pennies (d) to new pence (p), I hit upon a different approach, which avoided me converting at all. Asking Beloved what the minimum working wage was now, he said for a forty hour week it would be in the region of £240 (less tax presumably), but the 240 was a useful number, for in old money there were 240 pennies to the pound. So 1d then comes to £1 now. With a (roughly) minimum to average wage for a week being £1 in Mrs Beeton's time, then it was easy to work out how the price of food then and now, could also be shown as percentage of earnings then and now.

Twentyone vegetables were listed, but not all available at all times of the year. Seasonal prices were given ranging from low to the high. Practically all fresh produce was grown in this country, very little (apart from grapes and pineapples which were imported). Potatoes and beetroot were the two listed as being available all year round. Old potatoes (cheapest in the autumn) were between 9d and 1/- a peck (I have forgotten what weight a peck is- I am sure one of you will remind me). But remember, one shilling was one twentieth (5%) of the weekly wage in those days, which means - all things being equal - the comparison price for today would work out (one twentieth of £240) at £12 for a peck of potatoes.
Eggs were then a penny each upwards (according to size) - comparison price today makes that now a minimum of £1 each. So it seems most fresh foods are relatively very much cheaper now, with the exception of pines (by which I think was meant pineapple) which were 15/- each in old money. Imagine them priced at £75 each today.
Other prices showed fresh milk was then 3d a quart (2 pints), the cheapest fish being mackerel at 4d each.
Beef ranged from 7d for the cheapest cut, to 3/6d for a tongue, which today is one of the cheaper parts of the cow. Pork was priced much the same whichever cut was used. Mutton was cheaper than lamb.
Butter was 1/- lb (but varied according to county), cheese - not the varieties that we have today, was around 1/- lb. Cream from 2/- to 3/- a pint.

A lot of sense was to be found in the Mrs Beeton book. In particular one sentence which I paraphrase..."no better motto can be found for the cook than 'make the best of everything', and that is where the science of cookery comes in, teaching the constitutents and properties of foods, treating them as medicines, blending accordingly, so that out of the minimum of material we may get the maximum of good". Seeming to imply food was eaten only to keep healthy. And only the right foods at the right times. Today, much information is given as to the vitamin and mineral content of foods, and other good-health reasons for eating some, but we have never got to the stage of just treating foods only 'as medicines'. Perhaps the nutritionists maybe, but not in the domestic kitchen.

Mrs. Beeton says "there are five good reasons for cooking: to make it pleasant to taste, to make it easy for mastication (that's chewing to you and me), to facilitate digestion, to combine foods, and to economise by eating them warm".
The first four reasons I could understand fully, but the last? Heating food I thought was hardly economical, just think of the cost of fuel. But reading on learned something that had never occurred to me before:
"Part of what we eat is heat-giving food (today, recognised as calories, and that part I did know), which keep the heat of our bodies at a certain temperature... A simple illustration shows why warm food is more nourishing than cold. Imagine putting fresh coals onto a fire, then noticing the temperature of the room is lowered instantly, because some of the heat from the live coals is absorbed by the fresh coals. This is the case when cold food is taken into our bodies, for we use energy from our bodies to heat it up... It should be known that while hot food is not wholesome, warm food is not only more nourishing than cold, it also goes further, and therefore more economical.
In other words, when eating warm foods, the body does not need to expend energy heating up cold food (or even cooling down hot food), thus the body loses little energy (calories), therefore less calories need be taken in. This now seems so obvious. It was mentioned to Beloved, and he seemed to know all about it and he couldn't understand why I didn't. But how many of us do realise this when we prepare and cook our meals? Or am I just 'stupid and dumpling'. Do we need to concern ourselves with this thought now? Well perhaps, if trying to lose weight, then the knowledge that eating and drinking nothing but cold food in the winter could burn off more calories, I would not advocate it as it would certainly be unpleasant, and perhaps also suppress the body's immune system and all manner of viruses could dive in. Our body knows what it needs and when it needs it, we should just try listening to it once in a while.

Because food prices were higher in the olden days than (relatively) they are now, food was consumed mainly on an 'eat to live' basis. Enough of the right food and no more. If anyone felt hungry, then they had to wait for the next meal. Snacks were not the order of the day, although a piece of fruit might be allowed. Considering there was no central heating in your average small Victorian home, you would expect people would need to eat more than we do today, just to keep warm, but apparently not. Which is probably why they wore so many layers of clothes, and floor length at that.
Today, we do eat far more than we really need, so many calories taken in that youngsters can wander the streets wearing what I call 'summer clothes', their midriffs exposed to the air - whatever the weather. As I warned the young girl at the hairdressers, wagging my finger again, your body will put on extra fat just there to protect your body, and she agreed that this had actually happened, but she never knew why. Ah, well, I keep constantly covered up, but still put fat on. I look on this as my survival package, ready for the promised day of Armageddon, all I would need is water and I could live off myself for months.

Anyone these days, having a very tight budget to exist on, may take some comfort from the earlier paragraphs, for if we can get away from the ' I want to eat what I like...' to the ' need to eat only what is good for me...' we could then cut down dramatically the money we spend on food. Yes, I do know there are many of you out there who feel that going back to almost a subsistence level, war-time rations and the like, is something not to be considered, and of course we don't have to, and I am not urging anyone to do this. I certainly am not, still eating things I know are not good for me, just because I enjoy them. All I am saying is, that if and when prices rise (and rise and rise and rise), one crumb of comfort I can offer is that we should still be able to afford to eat enough to keep ourselves alive, and healthily too. Even eat enjoyable meals. As long as we know how to.

My personal approach is that always eating what we like when we like is pure luxury and should be appreciated as such and not taken as the norm. For one thing when we have it we enjoy it that much more. Like mincepies at Christmas. But also is probably old age speaking again. To me a washing machine (after rearing four children without one and treading sheets in the bath) is now - having one at last - a real luxury. Each time I use it I give thanks. A dish-washer for me would be another luxury (although Beloved, who often washes up now - so that he has an excuse not to buy one - is nearly as good). Anyway, it is far easier to wash dishes by hand than clothes). The one thing I want more than anything else are those 'touch-close' drawers for the kitchen (the ones where they pull themselves in those last few inches all by themselves), our units are very old and the doors stick unless I keep rubbing them with candles. Maybe the new bungalow will have them. Even an electric blanket would be a luxury, at the moment I cuddle a hot-water bottle. Another person's luxury might be a world cruise. Perhaps my sights are set too low. Am I sad or what?
Which brings me to a query of my own. What is your definition of a luxury? Do tell.

Coming back to the "how much can be made for 50p?", already your offerings are coming in. My 50p dish for today is porridge for breakfast. Made the Scottish way with water and salt, you could feed a dozen for 50p, certainly four if using milk and sugar.

Back to Mrs. Beeton, and by now you are wishing I had never opened the book. But this time she is not favouring English cooking, as she considers it being rather plain compared to other countries. She says, speaking about the French, "even the peasantry and lower ranks are remarkable for their talent in the culinary art. The secret is the fact that so many French women can cook well, their little children being given toy kitchens in which to commence their studies, and cookery has always been part of the education of the young French girls.
One decided advantage the French have over us is that they know how to make the most of everything in the way of food. Any good plain cook in England can send up an excellent leg of mutton with plain vegetables and, maybe, a Yorkshire pudding cooked to perfection; but a Frenchwoman would make a comparatively elaborate dinner out of the same material, or less."

In Germany "one of the branches of German cookery most esteemed by the English is the making of breads and sweets, in which we must confess ourselves most behind-hand. Here it is only in comparatively few households that we find people capable of making the more elaborate kinds of fancy cakes and pastry; and should we desire such it is toooften the fact that we (shock, horror) buy them....(and continuing - this time from the paragraph dealing with America)...One lesson we might learn from the Americans, and this is to make a greater variety of bread, breakfast, and cakes. There being a terrible sameness in this branch of cookery in England, and we seldom rise above white or brown bread, tea-cakes, muffins or hot rolls.
(When we visited America (New York State), about 15 years ago now, we saw some wonderful stores that sold umpteen varieties of bread and amazing selection of cakes. These shops all seemed to be German owned, so I suppose these skills were brought by grandparents when they emigrated to the US.)

But that was then, and this is now, and certainly today, with so much imported produce, and cookbooks and programmes showing how to make dishes from around the world, our level of cookery and eating has risen hundredfold since those days. No longer do we boil our veggies to a mush, no longer is 'good plain food' the order of the day - although admittedly some older folk still prefer to eat the way they have always done - and no harm in that, it is their choice, regretfully though many will never try something new. I remember the wife of a friend of my husband saying to me that she would never make a curry (which her husband - after visiting India when in the Navy enjoyed so much he kept asking for one), because - she said - you never knew what went into it. If she had to made it herself, I would think she would definitely know what went into it. Somehow, she couldn't understand that.

So today I leave you with a few recipes from Mrs B. and then the book can go back on the shelf, where it has sat for the last 30 years untouched, and will probably be never opened again. All recipes are written in the original way, no proper listing of ingredients, one below the other as we do today, and the method is somewhat harder to understand (but not always). But even this way of writing what used to be called 'receipts; was advanced, for previously they were simpler, in that it could read "a handful of flour - mixed with a spoon of sugar" rather than a given weight, and the oven "hot enough to brown a slice of bread in 5 minutes".

This first recipe is for soup, all made with vegetables now in season. Average cost 6d (making the comparison £6 in decimal coinage - so work out for yourself how much it really costs today).
White Soup: makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 lbs weight of any white vegetables: onion, turnips, artichokes, potatoes, celery. Half a pint of milk, 1 dessp of cornflour, 1 oz butter, white pepper and salt, 3 pints of water
Mode: Cut the vegetables in small pieces, and boil them in the water with the butter and the seasoning until quite soft. Rub through a colander, put back in the saucepan and boil with the milk. Mix the cornflour smooth with a little water or milk, add to the soup and boil once. Serve with dice of fried bread.

Sometimes it seems that what they ate then, we would not dream of eating now. But everything is worth trying once. Here is Mrs. B's version of 'sandwich spread'. Average cost, for this quantity then- was 5d.
Beans (potted):
Ingredients: half a pint of haricot beans, 2 oz grated breadcrumbs, 2 oz butter, 2 oz grated strong cheese, pepper, salt, cayenne and nutmeg to taste.
Mode: Bake the beans in a slow oven, then pound them smooth with a mortar, adding the other ingredients gradually. Put into pots, and run a little melted butter over them.
This makes very good sandwiches between thin slices of buttered bread or toast.

This next I include because it is simple, and I particularly like the comment at the end of the mode (method), although not having yet made any, I can safelyssay I doubt it would be a favourite of mine. Average cost then, exclusive of the jam, 6d.
Indian Fritters (Indian recipe): serves 4 or 5 people
Ingredients: 3 tblsp flour, boiling water, the yolks of 4 eggs, the whites of 2, hot lard or clarified dripping, jam.
Mode: Put the flour in a basin and pour over enough boiling water to make into a stiff paste, taking care to stir and beat it well ,to prevent it getting lumpy. Leave it time to cool, then break into (without breaking them first) the yolks of 4 eggs and the whites of 2, and stir and beat all well together. Have reading some boiling lard or butter, drop a dessertspoonful of batter in at the time, and fry the fritters of a light brown. Serve on a dish, with a spoonful of preserve or marmalade dropped in between each fritter.
This is an excellent dish for a hasty addition to dinner if a guest unexpectedly arrives; it being so quickly and easily made, and is always a great favourite.

This final recipe is showing how to make what I believe to be quite a simple dish. However, it is quite fun to read the explanation, for my mind was whizzing by the end of it. Just shows how we have progressed to writing out recipes with far more clarity. Average cost then 1/-.
Cheese (Macaroni): serves 6 or 7
Ingredients: half a pound of pipe macaroni, 2 oz butter, 6 oz Parmesan or Cheshire cheese, pepper and salt to taste, 1 pint milk, 2 pints water, breadcrumbs.
Mode: Put the milk and water into a saucepan with sufficient salt to flavour it; place on the fire, and when it boils quickly drop in the macraroni. Keep the water boiling until it is quite tender; drain the macaroni, and put it into a deep dish. Have ready the grated cheese, either Parmesan or Cheshire; sprinkle it among the macaroni and some of the butter cut into small pieces, reserving some of the cheese for the top layer. Season with a little pepper, and cover the top layer of cheese with fine breadcrumbs. Warm, without oiling, the remainder of the butter, and pour it gently over the breadcrumbs. Place the dish before a bright fire to brown the crumbs; turn it once or twice, that it may be equally coloured, or brown with a salamander, and serve very hot. If browned in the oven, the butter would oil and impart a disagreeable flavour to the dish. In boiling the macaroni, let it be perfectly tender but firm, and the form entirely preserved. It may be boiled in plain water, with a little salt, instead of using milk, but should then have a small piece of butter mixed with it.

Thank goodness today we have the more reliable hobs and ovens, rather than cooking over, or at the side of a bright fire. But it reminded me of a time when we had to put up with deliberate electricity cuts (some fuel saving going on I think it was), and - having only an electric cooker at the time - was still determined to serve up something hot for supper. So, by the light of candles and oil lamps, I lit about 8 tea-lights, balanced a cake airer above them, and was able to heat water to boiling, so could boil and poach eggs, cook pasta and rice, make omelettes, and fry bacon etc. Not to mention heating canned soups, beans etc. Could even make toast. Took a fair amount of time. But then nothing beats old Shirl. At a pinch I could have even cooked a stew over the open log fire.
However, this is one of the reasons I changed to getting a gas hob and an electric oven, as this seemed to cover all contingencies. With charcoal in the cellar, even the barbeque could be brought into use. Roll on Armageddon, I'm all ready and waiting. But must remember the matches (which again reminds me of something else - how my Dad showed me how to light paper by picking up the sun's rays with a magnifying glass), think my thick specs might serve the same purpose. Must try it sometime.
The sad thing is, I am now too old to enjoy the surviving, will just have to sit and tell everyone else how to do it, and they wouldn't take any notice anyway. Maybe, in my next life...

Finishing later than ever. Much time has been spent correcting the many typing errors, my fingers fly at speed over the keys, I type as fast as I think. Bet I've missed some.
Half-past ten, so as I've missed breakfast, had better settle for brunch. Am making a chunky mixed veg. soup for supper with added pearl barley. Will try and cost it out. I hope you will allow me chicken stock from the freezer as a freebie. After all it was made from bones which others might have discarded.
Time to stop nattering, I do go on, don't I? Oh, I can hear you all shouting 'Yes'! Sorry, I will try to control myself tomorrow. See you then.

How much Does it Cost?

Yesterday I hunted everywhere to find the two books mentioned yesterday and couldn't find them. Maybe they have been packed away. I hope I haven't got rid of them. So much is out of place at the moment. I am missing the cook-books I sold, wish I hadn't had to do that. However, I did find one book I had been looking for the other day - the one containing some recipes which use rice flour, so something good came out of it. In it was also a recipe for ice-cream, so I am able to answer at least a couple of queries using that book. Life is like that. Rarely do I find I am left with nothing to write about. Always a book falls from the shelf with something in it that ticks a box.

As happened yesterday, as I came across another cook-book, originally written around 1860. Didn't even know I had it. In the vegetable section there was half a page given to a herbage called 'vegetable of a thousand heads ' which grew in abundance in Yorkshire. When a farmer was asked what it was, he was told it was grown as animal fodder and not eaten by humans. The author picked some leaves and cooked them and said it was very agreeable and should be served as a vegetable along with others (which he did from then on). The book said the plant was about a yard in diameter (roughly a metre in new money), and it threw up thousands of heads around the root (hence its name). With no idea of what this vegetable could be (other than perhaps sprouting broccoli which does have many heads) , does anyone out there have any idea or knowledge of this they could pass on?

Then I began reading a couple of pages from a book called The Victorian Home, I have several books about Victorians - one of my hobbies being learning about domestic history, so I spent a happy few minutes reading about Victorian food. At the lowest level, where they were lucky to get meat once a week, and only enough for the men (being the breadwinners in the family they needed the meat to keep up their strength), the favourite meat for all classes was mutton, roast beef being very rarely served. As you went up the social scale, more food was available, and by the time you got to the landed gentry the meals were vast with a huge variety of dishes served. Any leftovers were sent down for the cook to deal with. It was pleasing to read that leftovers in those days were always treated with respect and made into dishes that could be eaten the next day: soups, hash etc. The servants (even the lower-middle class had servants), had their own very basic menu, but would be sometimes lucky to be allowed to eat the food that came down from 'upstairs' that couldn't be used again.
In general the Victorians ran a very tight ship and money was not thrown around as it is today. Linen was darned (I have several napkins from early last century which have been most carefully darned and I often look and wonder who was it that repaired them so beautifully). Sheets with holes in the centre were turned sides to middle, socks were hand-knitted and regularly darned, I even remember darning my best friend's brothers socks before he went back to university. Mainly because I fancied him. I made a very good job of it, but I doubt he gave me more than a passing thought.

Old materialsl went into the rag-bag, for there was much cleaning, polishing and dusting in Victorian days, rooms being packed with furniture, dust from the daily cleaning and lighting of fires, most covered with cloths (at one time, even piano legs were discreetly hidden by long covers, legs of any kind being very immodest in those days - which is where the expression 'show a leg' probably comes from). Charity did begin at home, where the lady of the house would regularly give her out-worn clothes to one of the servants, who might pass the worst down to their poorer parents, who then might then wear what they could and later cut them up and make rag rugs and patchwork blankets. Nothing at all, at whatever class level, was wasted.
In some ways this attititude and discipline could well have been what made our nation great. And look at us now.

Delving into Mrs Beeton while I was down in what I grandly call 'our library', it was interesting to see how she could suggest how much each dish was costed (usually excluding the fish or meat as seasonal prices would probably alter). A hearty pudding to feeds six or eight for around a total of 8d (and that in old money, which converts to 20p today). Of course food was cheaper then, but then wages were much lower, so as the book gives a list of food prices, I must try and convert them into decimal currency and see what the difference is today. Wages in those days probably began at £1 a week or even less - to maybe a massive £4 or more, so a servant or two (at 25p a week wage and their keep) could then be easily then be afforded- a good cook could save even more money than it cost to pay their wage. Methinks prices of some foods today might not be quite as expensive (relative to wages earned today) as we believe.

Being able to work out the cost of each dish was something I did when I first began my cost-cutting-cookery. Firstly for my own pleasure, because it made cooking a lot more interesting and fun (at that time I did not enjoy cooking at all). So I set my own challenges, 'make a main course for £1' (this was to feed six - later, as prices went up, to feed four), or 'a pudding for under 50p'. Or even 'how much can I make for 50p', that being the most interesting challenge of all, for it is just a matter of getting out the cheapest ingredients (useful things like eggs, flour, eggs, milk powder, sugar, a little fat...) and finding out what could be done with them. Seeing the ingredients itemised like that, it is easier to visualise what could be made: pancakes, pasta, pastry, biscuits, plain scones, drop scones, fatless sponges, steamed puddings, suet puddings.' Some of these alone (pancakes for example) would fit into the ' 50p pudding to feed four'. Other goodies (pasta, pastry, maybe very thin omelettes) could form the base of the ' main course to feed four'. On a good day I could even manage three courses to feed four for £1.50. Some of these I believe were published in Living Magazine, or was it Woman's Own? Perhaps even both. During those Golden Years, I think I had recipes in most of the well-known mags. Even commissioned to write articles in Good Housekeeping. How posh is that?

The trick when doing this type of challenge is to begin with the two cheapest course - the starter and the dessert. Obviously you can't beat a soup for cheapness, possibly served with a few croutons or Melba toast, and if doing this today I would probably use those discarded parts of the cauliflower and the rind of Stilton (as mentioned previously) as this would work out very cheaply indeed. Then pudding would be planned, possibly something aiming for something around 50p or less, which leaves at least £1 for the main dish. Not a problem if it is to be something like a vegetarian lasagne (cheese being the protein, also protein would be used in the pudding - after all it needs to be as balanced a meal as possible ). Not as difficult planning the menu when you break it down in that way.

So girls and boys. I throw you all a challenge. Make something that costs no more than 50p, it doesn't matter what it is, soup, main dish, biscuits, and to feed more than one if possible, but only one if that is all that can be done. No cheating, every ingredient has to be accounted for (you can have seasoning for free) , no fruit pies where all you do is cost the pastry, the fruit being free from the garden - and not everyone has free fruit, although I will allow the use of ingredients that might normally be discarded (as my cauliflower stalks and leaves). By next Monday I hope some of you will have have risen to the challenge and won't let me down. For we all hope to hear what each (and everyone - oh, I wish) has done. And yes, for those who haven't the time (excuses, excuses), you can always work it out on paper instead of doing it for real.

Believe me, just proving to ourselves it isn't that difficult to make an inexpensive dish, will start us all on the road (as it did with me) to controlling our expenditure, being very much more selective about the food we buy, the dishes we choose to make and becoming able to adapt recipes to cut the costs even further. Think about it, how can you possibly lose?

Finger wagging again, what has got into me this week? Where has the happy, chirpy, Shirley gone to? Blame it on the press, everyday there is something about rising food prices, rising fuel prices, being fined if you put one thing in the wrong wheelie bin. This country is getting even worse than George Orwell's 1984. I cut my finger yesterday cleaning out a tin (as requested by the council). I have done this before, so perhaps it is time the worm turns and I sue them for a change. You wouldn't believe how glad I am to be old, at least I have happy memories of the way-it-used-to-be-in-my-youth which is more than this country will be offering the youngsters of today. For those that remember, it was around the time of the start of the threat of nuclear warfare that seemed to changed young lives. Before that, plans could be made for the future, earning a good living, get married, have children, grandchildren, nothing to really fret about at all, truly a good life was there just within reach, as long as you worked hard for it. Then came the Cuban Crisis, and fear crept in. Well, hardly crept, a full-blown, almost instant fear. So was there need to plan for the future, if, as seemed to be, there would probably be no future at all. It had now to be enjoy the moment, for good or bad, and who cares what happens next? Somehow we never got back to the way is was and still should be. Even could be, but it takes more than the government to get us back on track. A lot we have to do for ourselve. Stand up and be counted.

During those years I joined what was a later version of the Home Guard. This time called Civil Defence. I was put the section called Ints and Ops (Intelligence and Operations) and learned a great deal about atomic warfare. Still have the instruction books. We once were to be given a lecture on radiation, I got to the classroom first and went and sat at the end of the room, on a big box which was taking the place of the lecture table) swinging my legs. Some time later others came in and I went and sat in my proper seat. The lecturer came, complete with geiger counter which he switched on and moved around the room. As he progressed up the room the clicking became faster and faster and of course, the radio-active element was in the box I had been sitting on.

Apart from spending much of my C.D. hours in a bunker, sticking flags on maps. We once did some fire drill. We were taken to a special fire-training place where there was a concrete building in which fires were it. We had to change into overalls and wellies. I was so vain in those days all I could think about was how the oversized overalls make me look so slender and vulnerable. Anyway, the fire was lit and I was told to go in and put it out, being warned to keep my head down or I would inhale the smoke. The man who lit the fire had put it behind a couch, which just about fitted the small space, so I had to raise myself up to direct the hose-pie onto the fire. At least I put the fire out, but breathed in too much smoke, so was dragged out by my feet, and dumped onto an easy chair which was sitting on the a pile of wood scraps. In hindsight I think I must have look just like a guy on top of a bonfire waiting to be lit. Perhaps not a guy, postive thinking makes me think more like Joan of Arc before her bonfire was lit. But I survived.

One thing we learned was how to prevent radio-active rays getting at us indoors, if a bomb had been exploded some many miles away, we might be alright, although the house might be collapsing around us. We were told, exploded t a lesser distance, just don't bother, we would eventually die anyway. We had to cover windows, and doors with as much padding as possible because all windows would be blown in. Also told how to make a small shelter in the room (like a tiny greenhouse), and cover this with layers and layers of kitchen foil, shiny side out to reflect away the rays. Keep water in there, and a bucket, and stay there until rescued. Never to leave the shelter for any reason whatsoever. With three children (then, one came later) the outcome didn't bear thinking about. I worked my way up through the ranks, even was in a promotional film although I never saw it, but handed in my uniform (regretfully as I looked really good in it. Looked a lot like a policewoman apart from the buttons being black instead of metal, and this got me into a cinema for free more than once). I told the powers that be that I couldn't possibly leave my children if war began, even though they tried to persuade me. I don't think evacuation had crossed my mind, anyway, war then would be an instant thing, no time to prepare. Being a mother was my main priority. I just bought loads and loads of kitchen foil just in case. Bottles to fill with water, a couple of buckets. And then prayed. It really was as bad as that for a time. For those with more imagination than was good for them I suppose. Like me.

Apologies to readers who come to this site expecting nothing but cheapo recipes. Of course I give plenty of these and am not usually so serious with my ramblings. But after all, this is also all about the Goode Life, warts and all, and maybe memories help to build up a picture of what life was like for everyone, not just us, and as I write each day, what life is like for certainly us, if not everyone else. Moving house is probably causing me more stress than I realise, and I find when stressed it always helps to moan about something (a trouble shared is a trouble halved). Or maybe it is all due to age and I am, after all, just a grumpy old woman. Certainly Beloved (who has been called 'Mr Grumpy' by at least one recipient of flowers he has delivered), is acting his age. Together we can happily sit and grump for hours on end.

Back to a semblance of normality. And rice flour - a couple or so recipes coming up, and although the original recipe uses brown rice flour, plain white rice flour would work just as well, although as with any brown 'flour' there might have to be an adjustment of liquid used. Start with less, you can always add more.
Also one basic vanilla ice-cream recipe to end todays posting which might be of use (SweeterRita was asking), although this is not meant to be used in a machine. Although it might work. As ever, experiment.

Date Muffins: makes 8 large or 12 smaller muffins
2 oz (50g) butter or margarine
2 oz (50g) soft brown sugar
2 eggs
7 fl oz (200ml) buttermilk*
4 oz (100g) cornmeal (NOT cornflour)**
4 oz (100g) white or brown rice flour
1 rounded tsp baking powder
2 oz (50g) dates, stoned and chopped
Cream together the butter and the sugar, then beat in the eggs. Once thoroughly mixed, stir in the buttermilk. In a separate bowl, mix together the cornmeal, rice flour and baking powder, then gradually fold this into the batter mixture, finally stirring in the dates.
Divide the mixture into muffin tins, preferably lined with paper cases, and sprinkle the top with a little more sugar. Place the muffin tin on a baking tray in the top halfof the oven (doesn't matter which shelf if a fan oven) and bake for 20 minutes at 200C, 400F, gas 6 for small muffins, 25 -30 mins for the larger ones.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in and on the tin. Then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling. Best eaten freshly baked, barely cool, split and spread with butter.
variatons:
banana and muffins: add one very ripe mashed banana to the batter before adding the flour, in place of the dates. Or add 2 oz (50g) dried fruits, sultanas etc, or chopped no-soak apricots, instead of the dates.
cheese muffins: omit the sugar and dates from above recipe and substitute with 2 oz (50g) grated Parmesan*** beaten into the butter, and season with plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Then continue with the recipe. Sprinkle the tops with a little more cheese before baking.
NOTE:
* instead of buttermilk, use semi or fully skimmed milk to which has been added a squeeze of lemon juice. Or use half plain yogurt and half semi-skimmed or skimmed milk.
** cornmeal is sometimes called maize meal and is very similar in texture to rice flour. There is no gluten in either, so presumably the muffins could be made with all maize/corn meal or all rice flour. The raising agent being the baking powder.
*** to make a cheat's Parmesan, unwrap some mature Cheddar cheese and leave to dry either in the fridge, or faster at room temperature. Dry cheese grates very easily using the finest part of the grater, and looks very like Parmesan. Obviously the cheese does not need to dry out like a rock, but the outer parts can be grated to be stored in a lidded container, then the block replaced to dry out a bit more, grated a bit more and so on.

Herb and Olive Bread: serves 6 - 8
4 tblsp light olive oil *
7 oz (200g) cornmeal
4 oz (100g) white or brown rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 tsp salt
4 medium eggs**
9 fl.oz (250ml) buttermilk or yogurt
4 oz (100g) black or green olives, stoned and chopped
Mix together the cornmeal, rice flour, baking powder, herbs and salt. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk or yogurt and oil, then pour this onto the dry ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, stir together until well mixed, then stir in the olives.
Spoon the mixture into a pound loaf tin (11 x 21cm), which has been oiled and lined. Smooth the top and then bake at 180C, 350F, gas 6 for 50 - 60 minutes. Use a skewer*** to test the loaf has cooked right through, then cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out. Eat within a couple of days as this is not a long-keeping loaf.
Note: * make our own light olive oil by filling a bottle half full of sunflower oil, then topping up with olive oil, giving it a good shake to mix.
** if using large eggs, you will probably need only 3
***to test with a skewer: stick the skewer into the centre of the cake/loaf. If it comes out clean and dry the baking is complete, if not - then cook for a little longer and test again.
Lakeland used to sell little cake testing sticks which worked really well. I used them a lot. Now I see they have a reusable cake tester, so that will be top of my next order. Well worth getting one. Or ask for one as a pressie.

This ice-cream can be made without using an ice-cream machine.
Basic Vanilla Ice-Cream: serves 6
3 eggs, separated
2 oz (50g) sugar
2 tblsp water
7 fl.oz (200ml) double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract*
Put the egg yolks and the sugar into a bowl with the water, and place over a pan of simmering water. Although it takes longer to make the custard, this method prevents it curdling. Whisk together very gently to break the yolks, then stir continuously until it begins to thicken enough to coat the back of the spoon - to test this, draw your finger down the back of the spoon and it should leave a clear path.
When thickened, remove from heat, but keep stirring until cooled. The bowl could be stood in cold water to help it cool faster.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then (no need to clean the beaters when beating the whites first) beat the cream with the vanilla until the same thickness as the whites and custard. Fold the custard into the cream and finally fold in the whites. Pour into a 1 litre container, cover and freeze. To serve, run a knife around the ice-cream and turn out onto a serving dish, serve sliced with a pouring chocolate sauce.
*Note: vanilla extract is far superior to vanilla essence, but - although seemingly far more expensive - there is a lot in the bottles compared to the small (and very thick glass) bottles of the essence. Admittedly the extra is dearer than the essence, but on working it out the cost there is not as much difference per spoonful as you would expect. So always buy the extract. That is the real thing. The essence is not.

Again time has run out. Really, I should try and keep these posting shorter. I can bore for England if truth be known. Beloved has decided he would like Chinese Take-Away tonight, goody goody, I can now go down, spend a happy half-hour arranging daffodils I have been waiting to open, and get out a pad of paper, my trusty calculator, and see if I can make any sense of Mrs Beetons price list. Cold and frosty outside, with a fog suddenly appearing. Not that we have fog any more, just thick mists. Remember the olden days when people had real fires, the mists came down and the smoke stayed down and we got real pea-souper, what was called smog? Times when you couldn't even see your feet, and sometimes fell off the kerb. Always the good old days. Sometimes perhaps not. Even so I would rather be back then than now.
Oh dear, starting again... Best leave you and do me maths.
Bye-eee.

Taking it for Granted

First, replying to your comments.
SweeterRita, re your query about how much water to add when making dough in the breadmaker. It does sound as though you need twice as much water using that packet mix, than when following the machine instructions, although I don't know why this should be. But I would follow packet directions. Usually the machine heats up as it makes the dough, but use tepid water if that is what the packet says (keep the packet, and if it doesn't work out correctly, write to them and complain - you may get sent replacements). When I make a 2 lb loaf it usually takes around 14.2 fl.oz water (400ml), the 2 lb being the total weight after baking. Lift the lid halfway through the kneading time and see what it looks like. If it has held together and not over-wet, then it should be fine. You could always add a little more ordinary plain flour if you need to.
You were also asking about amounts of ingredients when making ice-cream. It depends on the capacity of your machine, and it should have come with a recipe book or some instructions. I will see if I can find some recipes for you, but a good guide is half whipped sweetened double cream and half cold custard, then flavouring added. That's not much help is it? However, I find the ready-made canned custard (sometimes sold in packets) freezes very well, and that saves me making it from scratch.

Sharron, there are several pates already posted on this site. Some don't require cooking, such as sardine pate (6th Nov 06), smoked mackerel pate (26th Oct 07), and there is a cooked chicken liver pate recipe on 1st Jan. 07. When making potted beef, the easy way is to mince or process cooked roast beef, then blend with a little softened butter, a grind of pepper and a grating of nutmeg to taste, working to as smooth a paste as possible. Pot up into small containers and pour over a little melted butter to seal. Keep in the fridge for up to a week, for longer keep in the freezer, once the seal is broken eat within a couple of days.

Anonymous (you forgot to put your name at the bottom of your comment), thanks for asking, my leg is almost back to normal now, apart from some rather discoloured skin, which is hidden by fairly thick pop-socks. There is a need to be very careful not to knock my leg or foot as the skin is very thin (although I keep catching my toes now and again and a heavy board fell onto my shin recently and that took some time to heal). I have been told not to walk on a beach unless I wear shoes. And there was me wanting to paddle. Perhaps not in Morecambe Bay for I may well be sucked under by the quicksand (can I hear Beloved shouting Hurray?) . Maybe there is a bit of a beach further down the coast. And maybe I will paddle after all. Just a little bit.

The title today comes from taking advantage of all the foods we are able to buy these days, and in every case, almost all are now taken for granted now that 'seasonal' produce is available all year round. Well, here at least.
So I would like to bring to your attention something I read about, on the children's page of all things, in yesterday's Sunday paper, a website (freerice.com)where you could play a game testing our knowledge of the meaning of words, and for every word we get right, twenty grains of rice are 'won'. No need to give our name or anything, just log on to the site and start. All the grains 'won' are collected and then bowlsful given to people in Africa I think it is. I spent nearly an hour this morning on the site and 'won' about 10,000 grains, several bowlsful (you can see the bowls fill up as you go). I learned lots of new words, and could have gone on, but I can always go back and do them all over again if I wish. A free site, the money comes from the advertising. So while we who have access to the Internet almost certainly have enough food to fill our tums, then let's log on and do something positive for those that don't.

Downstairs I have two books, one called 'Round about a Pound a Week', the second is' Working Class Wives'. In both books women were asked to write down what they spent their money on (£1 a week wage being the norm). It was similar in the second book and so very enlightening. We, who are now so lucky, just don't realise how our grandparents (or great, greats) used to live. Later this week I will give some of the lists. We think we are hard-up, scrabbling around on little money, yet by the standards of early last century we eat like kings. With so much food on sale at prices we can afford, we can feel deprived if the occasional luxury is beyond our means.

And yes, there are people who are on benefits who really find it very difficult to find enough money to feed a family. The problem with Social Security is that they will not be pinned down to admit to setting an allowance 'just for food'. They always say enough money for food is included in the benefit, and if you have debts to pay off, then hard luck. It would be much easier, healthier and more sensible to give tokens or food vouchers so that a family can be assured of having enough to eat.
Free cookery classes (with a free creche as well), could be of even more help. Perhaps with the ingredients provided free and the students can take home their dishes. There are times I wish I was Prime Minister and could sort this country out once and for all. Get all the ministers to live on a basic pension for three months, preferably during the winter. That would make them think a lot harder about how things really are.

In another newspaper article I read about how research was being done re bad-behaviour, and it was proving that given good nutriton and correct supplements, the 'naughtiness' (let's call it), was reduced dramatically.
Some few years ago I once went for a job working as cook in a bail hostel. All the food, vegetables etc, came in cans, and all I had to do was open cans, heat up the food and serve. I suggested buying the vegetables fresh as I had no objection to preparing them, and it would have cost less anyway. There was a pretty dreadful menu already worked out. Canned potatoes, canned carrots, canned meats... I mentioned, that with home-cooked meals inside them, the inmates might begin to be healthier and feel better about themselves. But this idea was not taken on board. Who cared how the inmates felt? Certainly not the management. It had to be canned food or nothing. So I didn't take the job.
But don't you think that this proves something> That junk food, or ready-meals, or anything else with additives, can often do harm not just to health, but an attitude to living? It does seem to be that people brought up on home-cooking seem far happier and less prone to throwing bricks through windows and all that nonsense. Healthy children use up their energy on sports fields rather than feeling lethargic and draping themselves over fences on street corners, with just enough energy left to grab someones handbag.
It is Monday, I should have given up my finger wagging as the weekend in now over. But the morning is cold, the heating not yet come on (oh, yes it has, just), and the free bowls of rice are giving me guilt feelings.

So today I delve into my new cookbook that Beloved brought back from the Canaries. It explains how increased poverty in past years meant that the islanders could only eat what they grew themselves, and many of the recipes in the book are traditional to that time.
Mind you in that climate, quite a lot does grow, and all the year round. Some of the ingredients we would now find quite expensive if bought here. But I have chosen a few recipes that I hope will be of interest to you.

Starting with salad - the suggestion below I presume means making a choice from the list, but I suppose, for a party, you could go mad and offer the lot. It also shows how varied the ingredients are that come from that region.
Canary Island Salad:
Salads can be made with a variety of ingredients: On a bed of lettuce can be placed sliced tomatoes, avocado, onion, grated carrots, grated cheese, grapes, sultanas, apples, oranges, olives, celery, prawns, sardines, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, asparagus, sweet red peppers, corn cobs (sweetcorn), with mayonnaise, oil and vinegar or honey. Salads are very healthy and nutritious.

This next recipe sounds very good, and as it is served sliced I would expect the cream to be whipped (it didn't say) before blending with the prawns and melon balls, also keep the balls in a sieve to allow excess juice to drain off. Personally I would mix some cream with some mayo and some yogurt to cut down the richness.
Stuffed Melon:
1 melon, cream, prawns and sugar. Quantities depend on the size of the melon and individual taste.
Slice the top off the melon and remove the seeds. Using a melon baller, scoop out the flesh into balls. Decide the amount of cream necessary, and sweeten to taste, mixing it with the prawns and the melon balls. Fill the melon with this mixture and replace the melon 'lid'. Chill for at least an hour to settle. Serve on a tray garnished with slices of orange. Cut in slices to serve.

Quantities are not given for the following recipe as it says 'these can be varied according to taste'.
"Carajaca":
Liver, garlic, red pepper, oil, vinegar, oregano (marjoram), paprika, bay leaf, thyme, wine, water, salt.
Chop the liver and fry gently with a little oil and garlic. Pound together the red pepper, paprika, oregano, and quite a lot of garlic, then add the mixture to the pan with the liver. Cover the meat with wine and water and simmer slowly to bring out the flavour.

Simply named, this next however does sound rather delicious. Suggest using Little Gem lettuce leaves as they are curved and work as containers. This dish is served as a first course.
Chicken breast:
Chicken breast, pineapple in syrup, mayonnaise, lettuce and salt.
For each breast of chicken fry with a little salt only. When cooked, cut into pieces, and when cold place on a lettuce leaf. Decorate the plate with mayonnaise and small pieces of pineapple. Pour a little pineapple syrup over each piece of chicken.

Recently, trying to discover recipes for beef, I posted a recie one where a pieces of fillet steak had a pocket cut in and was stuffed. This Island recipe is somewhat similar, but the meat is treated differently, then rolled around the fillings. Definitely worth trying.
Stuffed Steak:
Fillet of beef, ham, firm yellow cheese, slices of salami, a few cloves of garlic, parsley, oil, salt, bread crumbs and eggs.
Slice the fillet into steaks and beat each until very thin, and sprinkle over each a little pounded garlic and parsley. Place on each on a slice of ham, a slice of cheese and a slice of salami. Roll up the steaks and secure with a cocktail stick. Coat in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs, and fry over a moderate heat.

Chorizo is a spiced sausage, and one I am particularly fond of. This is the given recipe to make your own, although I am sure there ought to be more to it that this. But perhaps some foods are far more easy to make than we might imagine. I might just have a try using a very small proportion of the ingredients.
Canary Chorizo:
6 1/2 lbs (3kg) pork meat with fat
9 oz (250g) paprika
9 oz (250g) garlic
18 fl.oz (half a litre) vinegar
2 dried peppers
a little black pepper
Mince the meat and blend together the other ingredients, adding to the meat with the vinegar. Mix well in a glass dish, cover with a cloth and leave for 8 days. Every 24 hours knead the mixture well, adding a little more vinegar if it seems too dry. After the time is up, fill sausage skins (natural or artificial) and tie with a strong cord every 2" (5cm). These keep for a few months if kept in the fridge.

This dessert recipe, as you will see, uses five of everything, to serve five people presumably, so easy to adjust amounts to feed as few or as many as you wish. Although the recipes says 'fry each plate of mixture...' I am assuming, like similar type omelettes, the contents of each plate would be slid into the pan, not frying the plate itself. Sometimes I wish recipes would be a little more explanatory.
Banana Omelette:
5 bananas
5 eggs, separated
5 tblsp powdered milk
5 tblsp sugar
oil for frying
Peel the bananas, placing each separately onto five plate, and mash one at a time. Beat the egg whites with the sugar, then add the powdered milk and - still beating - add the egg yolks and share between the five plates. Fry each plate of mixture (see above)in hot fat in a small frying pan. To turn the omelette over, pour the oil from the pan, and place another oiled frying pan on top, turning the omelette over and cooking on in the second pan. When cooked, serve sprinkled with sugar and a little lemon juice.

This next has to be included today as the one recipe which my husband wistfully believes are worth me making. Considering the ingredients, I doubt he will be in for much of a treat. However, the power of a name can do much, and he is very taken with the name. Worth remembering when you are serving what I call 'pauper's food', give whatever it is a rollicking good name and you get away with it.
As to the measure of 1/2 a glass, I can only assume this is similar to 1/2 a cup (4.fl.oz). But easily adjusted by adding more or less flour as needed.
"Young Ladies Thighs":
2 (1 kg) self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 lb (500g) sugar
half a glass each of oil and milk
Mix together the eggs, oil and milk, then add enough flour to make a firm dough. Knead well. Take a little of the dough at a time and roll it by hand, shaping with the fingers. Fry for a few minutes until cooked and golden.

From my second Canary cookbook I discovered a recipe using marrow, the translated name being "Angel Hair" (another good name to give a very basic dish).
Cabello de Angel:
1 large ripe marrow (with hardened skin)
sugar
2 sticks cinnamon
zest of one or two lemons
Peel the marrow and remove the seeds. Cut into large chunks and boil until tender. Drain, chop and wash two or three times, drain well then weigh.
Put the marrow into a saucpan with its weight in sugar, add the cinnamon and lemon zest, plus 2 glasses of water for each 2 lb (1 kg) marrow. Simmer until golden, stirring continuously. Serve cold.

These last desserts would be far too sweet for me these days, but as many of you have requested recipes which use condensed or evaporated milk, coconut etc, thought someone might enjoy them.
Lemon Sweet:
8 lemons
1 small tin of cream
1 tin evaporated milk
8 tblsp sugar
Beat everything together, pour into a mould or serving dish. Although this can be eaten a few hours after making, it will firm up if chilled for at least 24 hours.

Cream Sweet:
1 tin condensed milk
1 tin cream (same size)
1 pkt plain biscuits
2 oz (50g) dessicated coconut
syrup, coffee or fruit juice to soak the biscuits in
Beat the milk and cream together. Place in a dish with alternate layers of the soaked biscuits (the biscuits have to be placed quickly before they disintergrate - I suggest dipping a few at a time, lifting them with a fish slice perhaps). Finish with a layer of the cream mixture and sprinkle with coconut.
Variation: custard or chocolate blancmange can be used instead of the cream.

Finally, although this dessert is given the Island name of 'pie' (the recipe says that pears could be used instead), it is far more like a creme caramel.
Apple Pie:
2 lbs (1kg) apples
5 eggs
750g can condensed milk
9 oz (250g) sugar
water
Peel and core the apples and simmer then gently in a very little water until soft. Drain then mash or liquidise. Beat the eggs well and mix in the condensed milk and the apples. Make a syrup with the sugar and a little water, dissolving the sugar then boiling it to a caramel colour, placing at the bottom of a heatproof dish (large souffle dish is ideal). Cover with the apple mixture and stand the dish in a roasting dish with water (bain Marie). and bake for 1 hour (no temperature given, but suggest 180C, 350F, gas 4. It should be set when ready. Maybe just a tremble in the middle.

Yesterday didn't know what an earth to cook for supper, so ended up doing cauliflower cheese, with some salad and bacon and fried mushrooms on the side. What a mixture, but it worked. I sat grating cheese by hand, seemed to take ages, and it was quite a few minutes before I realised I had the grater upside down. Burned a few calories off grating the wrong way at least. Was really not in a cooking mood yesterday, but as we begin another week, with the sun shining amd frost on the roof opposite my window plus a very red sky this morning, it was quite beautiful, but does that mean bad weather? Not that I will be going out this week, my life is almost permanently indoors these days. Good job I am quite contented being on my own. Plenty to do, books to read, TV to watch, cooking and more cooking. Yes, I believe today I do feel like cooking. So had better trot down and plan what we will be eating tonight. See you tomorrow.

Healthy Eating the Cost-cutting Way

Thanks for your message. SweeterRita, your memories of games that were played long ago brought my childhood back to me. All those toys and games were the norm, but you forgot the rolling the hoops, staggering around on stilts, and the endless games of marbles. When a young teenager, my best friend and I used to make our cut-out dolls (sticking a picture of a girl in a swimsuit or underwear from a magazine onto stiff card then cutting round her), then we sed to draw round her onto plain paper, leaving little tabs so that the clothes would hook/fit over and round the shoulders and tiny waist, and colour in the endless outfits we designed for her. We got quite good at it, in fact one of my friends enjoyed doing it so much she went on to be a dress designer. So we can learn much by playing. Children who are allowed to play at cooking, often progress to real cooking and taking it up as a career. All the top chefs of today seem to have begun experimenting with food at a very early age.
You ask about dough improvers. I have used them and they seem to work when making bread from scratch, although I tend now to take the easy route (turning more like Delia every day) using the readymixed bread packs (which include sachets of yeast) manufactured by Lauke (Lakeland sell them). Recently someone sent in a comment which indicated that the dough improver was particularly good with a certain type of bread, again made from scratch, I think the flour used was one of the multi-grain or the heavier brown flour.

As to using an ice-cream maker. This works well, although I wish I had gone for the more expensive one, only Delia (in one of her series) said that that needs to be kept on a unit and not be moved or it upsets the workings. So as mine has to be put into a cupboard when not in use, I opted for the one where you have to put the iuner container into the freezer a day before you need it. When we had a chest freezer, I got a spare container so that one was always kept in there ready to use. Now I don't have room in my freezer so tend to go back to making my favourite soft-scoop by hand.
The ice-cream maker does make wonderful ice-cream and usually comes with some recipes as a guide. But as with most home-made ice-cream it does tend to be rock-bard when it comes out of the freezer. If making for a party, and one batch would be enough, it could be timed to be ready for scooped directly from the machine where it is the right consistency if served and eaten immediately. Two ways can prevent ice-cream hardening too much, and that is by adding extra sugar, and alcohol. Too much alcohol prevents it freezing at all, so never use more than one-capful to each batch.
With home-made ice-cream, my favourite is strawberry, using fresh strawberry puree blended into the cream and custard in the machine, with maybe a dash of kirsch to ease the hardening.
Even with an ice-cream maker, as I said, I still keep making batches of my soft-scoop as this never hardens to rock-solid and, as the name says it is soft enough to scoop out. All I use for that is egg whites, sugar, cream, yogurt adding any flavouring I choose: (vanilla; rum and raisin; mint choc chip; fruit purees etc). Incidentally, adding a spoon of Nestles milk shake powder (chocolate, strawberry or banana) can give added flavour, I beat that into the cream.

Janet, thank you for your comments. At least one thing is for sure, my book will lean towards the budget side of cooking, as this is really all I know about. Any pictures in the book will prove how good frugal food can look (and hopefully taste as good as it looks).

This reminded me of two things worth mentioning. In a newspaper article yesterday it stated Delia has said it is OK to cook with battery-farmed chickens, as poor people cannot afford to buy the free-range. Again, this has brought tears of joy to the supermarkets who say the cheaper chickens are now being asked for again. It seems her book will be the block-buster of the year. Wish I could believe mine would have anything in it that people want to read, or even inspire people to change from one way of eating to another. Unlike Delia, I might expect some commission if I name names. At the moment on my blog I name names freely, if it is worth using or buying I say so, and they get free advertising. But mentioned in a book - well business is business.

The other mentionable was a menu sent to me by my friend who visited me recently. She and several other friends of hers are 'ladies that lunch'. They go out at least once, maybe even three times a week, visiting different places in the countyy, mainly having pub lunches where they often get good deals for pensioners.
When visiting here she always hopes we will go out for a lunch, if we do it is usually at the garden centre so that I can buy some herbs or something. I just prefer to stay at at home, and cook for her. And - looking at the menu, just wish she could understand why I prefer to eat at home. All to do with the prices charged. Although (grudgingly) I could afford to go out for lunch now and again, I do not feel would be getting value for money. I would rather stay at home, eat the same thing and spend any money saved on a bunch of flowers which would give me enjoyment for days.

Admittedly, restaurants do have to make a profit, so understandably their profit margin is high. Once upon a time pub-grub was very reasonable, but now, according to this menu, no more. Perhaps because this menu came from a pub which is part of a chain. Or is it that I have lost touch on how much one is charged these days when eating out.
In a catering book it gave a guide as to how much to charge - this was normally five times the cost of the ingredients (the rest covers the overheads, and interestingly this is about the same as those packs of ready-meals sold in the supermarkets i.e. cost five time more than the ingredients).
At home we don't have overheads (well we do, but as part of the household running costs we can ignore most of them), so when I see the cheapest starter on the menu is Home-made (?) Soup of the Day priced at £3.50 per head, (including a bread roll and butter), then I think any of us could provide that for less than 60p a head. More like 60p for four.
All the main grills were all over £7.00, often much more, although they did include grilled mushrooms, fried onions, vegetables, and a choice of potato: jacket, mashed or chips. But then how can justify charging as much and even more for the 'lite' meals, which, being lower in calories and fat, and not coming with all the above trimmings just some cooked vegetables or a salad) obviously use less ingredients.? In many cases, the ingredients in some dishes bear no relation to the prices charged. It seems they all have to start at £7. Sorry - under the grill section there was there was a vegetarian alternative: two bean burgers, with trimmings at only £6.50. ONLY!
So personally, if eating out, I would buy the dish that gives me the most value for money. One thing - many of the dishes had a little flag at the side with a reduced price if two people ordered that particular dish or other on offer, so two lunching-ladies (or any other pair) could choose certain dishes (not necessarily the same dish) , and pay (in this instance) £5 each for it. I have to say, if they can afford to sell them for £5, why not charge that in the first place?

The desserts made me laugh. The cheapest pudding in the world to make is Jam Roly-Poly (you will remember I gave the recipe for this about a week or so ago), but on the menu was priced at £3.50. Likewise profiteroles, another cheapie, they possibly gave you three, but again £3.50. I can make about 3 dozen of these (sans cream) for about 50p.

I know it is fine to eat out and I'm not suggesting we should all stop. It is absolutely wonderful when someone else does the cooking, and when Beloved was away, and if I had a car to drive, I would have eaten out everyday and blow the cost. Just for the sheer pleasure of it. The point I am trying to make is that we should not believe that the price we pay for a dish that we have enjoyed when eating out, bears any relation to the cost when made at home. So many times I have heard someone say they eating out because home-cooking is never as good, or they couldn't afford to cook it anyway. Nonsense. Home-cooking is often much better, and far, far cheaper. With the fashion now turning so obviously to the traditional home-cooking (cottage pies, fish pies, steamed puddings, fruit pies), we have a head start - and all made from scratch, none of your bulk-buying of pre-prepared foods as used in the pub chains where everything tastes exactly same whichever branch you decide to patronise.

So now I've had my moan (of course it is the weekend again - but by now regular readers will be expecting this), I will press on with some low-cost and fairly healthy options for a possible domestic menu. Not all healthy foods are expensive, although I grant you the organic varieties can be. Why not imagine that you would probably pay at least £15 per head for a proposed three course meal, and then work it out for yourself how much it will cost YOU to make. You don't have to actually make anything, most times I work things out like that on paper before I start. Just as long as we do all start cooking. Everyone will benefit, the family, yourself - just think about all the money you haven't needed to spend. Fresh flowers in the house every week of the year if you wish. Or a holiday in the Canaries. Did you know it is cheaper to fly there and back than take a train to London from Leeds?

The following recipes are adapted from those in a catering cookbook, all expected to serve 8 people, so allow for this when costing out. To feed four, reduce quantities (and cost) by half, although I would allow a little extra for seconds, not all restaurants give generous proportions, often dressing up the remainder of the plate with drizzles of jus, and a few strategically placed veggies.
Which reminds me (before I start on the recipes proper) that one year, for a birthday treat, Beloved took me to Windermere to a well known restaurant, now under different management. We were able to stay at the house, and this was very luxurious. For the meal I chose a platter which contained a small piece of veal on a very large plate, surrounded by seven different vegetables, with a good gap between each. Very small amounts of each vegetable, just a taste really. It was too long ago to remember what I was given, but I do recall there were three tiny new potatoes, three mangetout peas, a little carrot, perhaps two asparagus - honestly can't remember what else. All seasonal produce, but you get the picture.
At that time I was giving some lectures at one of the University departments - think it was one that dealt with Domestic Science or something. Anyway they wanted me to talk about cost-cutting. So I took them the menu, and we costed out all the ingredients for that particular dish. It came to £2.50. Admittedly some years ago, but it was a great deal more than five times the cost that we were charged. More like ten. OK it did come from the kitchen of a known TV chef now retired, although not even sure he was there at the time, but it just proves that we at home are perfectly capable of cooking something similar, just as good, and well within even the tightest budget (suggest chicken instead of veal).

Time now to take the professional approach.
Starting with soups, this could be anything you wish - menus usually give a choice, or maybe you have only one choice: the soup du jour, which is the chef's choice of the soup of the day, which can often be (and often is) made from yesterday's leftovers. I hasten to say this is sensible use of ingredients which were bought but not able to be used up. Not at all suggesting the soup is made from the trash can. Sensible chefs do not waste good food. And as we are now chef in our own kitchen, the soup du jour is our personal choice. Certainly the two recipes given would be priced highly enough if eaten out, as even cheaper ones to make could be offered. Carrot soup for example (a pub favourite).
Spiced Cauliflower Soup: suggested 8 servings
1 tblsp butter or olive oil
pinch whole cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 lb (700g) cauliflower florets*
1 tblsp ground cumin
1 3/24pints (1 ltr) veg. stock
salt and pepper
Put the butter or oil in a saucepan and fry the whole cumin seeds until they pop open and begin to flavour the oil. Stir in the onion and saute until softened but not browning. Stir in the ground cumin, then add the cauliflower and stock. Simmer until the cauliflower is tender. Blitz in a food processor to a puree (or rub through a sieve or mouli), and season to taste. Serve hot.
*Tip: remember that the outside 'frame' of leaves and core that hold the cauliflower florets together, should be kept to cook and make a soup, that - together with a flavouring of Stilton cheese - can be absolutely wonderful. Details were given a few weeks previously. If you prefer to make the above soup without the cumin, just crumble and stir in Stilton crumbs at the end instead.

Another spicy soup, this time using butterbeans and lemons. As mentioned more than once, dried butterbeans can be soaked overnight and cooked in bulk, to be frozen in small quantities to use later. Likewise lemon zest and juice can be frozen, so this soup could be, to the cook-who-plans-ahead, an easy one to make.
Although the recipe suggests cooking the (unsoaked) dry beans in the stock, I would personally soak them overnight in the stock and then proceed, so I give my version. Once the soup has been cooked, it can be left in the fridge overnight for the flavours to develop, and be reheated the following day. Or could be frozen for later use (wonder if any of the pub soups were freshly made on the day).
Spiced Butterbean Soup: serves 8
1 lb (450g) dry butterbeans
1 onion, finely chopped
3 pints (2.2 ltr) vegetable stock
zest and juice from 1 large lemon
1 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
Put the butterbeans, the onion, and lemon zest into a large bowl and pour over 2/3rds of the stock. Leave to stand in the fridge overnight. Next day, tip the contents of the bowl into a large saucepan, heat to a boil, then cook until the beans are soft. Add the remaining stock, the cayenne and lemon juice. Season to taste. Leave to stand overnight in the fridge. The next day it can be served as a chunky soup as-is, or pureed to a less chunky or totally smooth thick soup according to your choice. Serve hot.

Two main-course dishes coming up, one a vegetarian hot-pot, complete all by itself, the other a dish with which you would offer vegetables. I think it should serve 6 not 8, but then we are greedy eaters in the Goode Household
Somerset Hot-Pot: serves 8
2 onions, sliced
3 potatoes, sliced
8 oz (225g) pearl barley
1 cooking apple, sliced
3 parsnips, peeled and sliced
4 courgettes, sliced
1 tblsp chopped fresh sage
pinch of salt
good grind of black pepper
4 fl.oz (100ml) thick Jersey cream
1 pint (550ml) cider (or half cider, half water)
3/4 pint (425ml) vegetable stock
8 oz (225g) Cheddar cheese, grated
Into a large deep casserole dish layer the vegetables, in the order given (up to the sage),starting with the onion. The barley is layered between the potatoes and the apple. Either do one thick layer of each, or make several thin layers of each. When the layers are complete, scatter over the sage, and add the seasoning.
Pour over the cream, the cider and the stock. Cover and cook at 300C, 150F, gas 2 for a couple of hours. Check the flavour, adding more seasoning if required. Raise the heat to 170C, 325F, gas 3, scatter cheese over the top of the hot-pot, and bake - uncovered - for a further 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and turning golden brown. Take the pot to the table and serve from there together with a basket of fresh crusty bread to dip into the juices.

This second main course (although served in ramekin dishes could be a starter) is something you would probably find only in a restaurant as it is a souffle. However, the recipe is well worth giving as it can be made with any pureed vegetables, such as leeks, spinach, peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, turnips, squash, onions, and often a blend of several. This one is made with potato and (in this instance) broccoli.
Souffled Broccoli: serves 6 - 8
3 lb (1.33kg) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 lb (450g) broccoli, broken into florets
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 oz (25g) butter
4 eggs, separated
salt and pepper
Boil the potatoes in salted water for seven minutes (or until nearly done), then add the broccoli and garlic and cook until the broccoli is tender, but still has 'bite', and remains a bright green colour. Drain well, returning to the pan to gently dry off any excess moisture. Then turn into a warm bowl and mash together with the butter to a puree. Season to taste (I do not normally suggest blitzing potatoes in a food processor as it makes them rather less than appetising, but in this recipe it might work, however you could blitz the broccoli first to give it a bit of a start before adding the potato with the butter).
Beat the egg yolks until thick and frothy, then beat this into the pureed vegetables. Whisk the whites until thick then fold a little into the vegetable mixture to slacken, then carefully fold in the remaining beaten whites. Turn the mixture into a well greased baking/souffle/serving dish, roughing up the top with a fork. If you run your thumb around the edge of the mixture/rim of the dish, this helps it to rise up with straight sides. Bake at 200C, 400F, gas 6 (not time given, but suggest 25 minutes) until risen and golden brown. Do not open the oven door as it cooks or it will collapse. Let us hope you have an oven door with a window so that you can watch it rising and change coloour. Otherwise, fingers crossed.

For the first of the desserts, although it might seem expensive, it is very similar to the soft-scoop ice-cream recipe I gave months ago. So a batch could be made and then scoops served as ice-cream - or served in individual dishes as the recipe suggests, calling it 'an iced souffle'. Almost any fruit puree could be used, I suggest canned peaches (drained of syrup or juice (freeze this to make up jellies), cans of which are sold quite cheaply (loss-leaders?) at the supermarkets. Although the original recipe uses all cream, I have used a blend of half cream half yogurt as being less costly and less rich.
Iced Fruit Souffle: 6 - 8 according to ramekin size
1 can peach slices, drained
6 egg whites
12 oz granulated sugar
half pint (275ml) double creme, lightly whipped
half a pint (275ml) thick yogurt
Keep back a couple of slices of peach to use as garnish, and puree the remainder. Put the sugar into a small pan and add just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and when a little of the syrup when dropped into cold water, forms a soft ball, then it is ready. Remove from heat for the moment.
Whisk up the egg whites until very thick and have stiff peaks. Replace the sugar onto the heat and bring back to the boil, then very slowly (and very carefully) pour this into the whites while they are still being beaten. When all the syrup has been beaten in, stand the bowl in cold water to cool it down as rapidly as possible.
Meanwhile whip the cream to the thickness of the yogurt and fold them together, then fold this into the fruit puree, finally fold that into the meringue.
To serve as ice-cream, just spoon the lot into a lidded container and leave to freeze. Scoop out as required.
To serve as an iced mousse: wrap parchment paper around ramekin dishes, about an inch or so higher than the dish itself, then pour the mixture into the moulds and freeze. To serve, peel off the papers and decorate with a small sliver of peach or a sprinkle of grated chocolate.

The final recipe is one I remember from my youth. Not mentioned much these days but well worth making, a more upmarket version of an individual apple pie. When our crop of apples are ready, I peel core and freeze some whole ready to fill the centres and wrap with pastry (or I could fill and wrap, then freeze). They can be cooked from frozen, just allowing a little more time for the apple to cook - if so, tent with foil half-way through cooking to prevent overbrowning the pastry.
Apple Dumplings : makes 8
1 batch shortcrust pastry
milk or water
8 Bramley or large cooking apples, peeled and cored
1 jar (or part jar) mincemeat*
4 oz (100g) demerara sugar
Roll out the pastry fairly thinly, and cut out 8 circles, each large enough to wrap around an apple (get a kitchen paper and practise first to get the size right). Brush each circle of pastry with milk, then stand an apple in the centre. Stuff the hole in the middle with mincemeat, folding the pastry right round the fruit. Stand the apples on a baking sheet with the fold under. Use some of the pastry scraps to use for garnish, cutting out leaves and brushing with milk to stick a few onto each of the the apples. Brush the whole thing again with the milk and sprinkle over the sugar. Make a hole in the top to allow steam to escape and then bake for half an hour at 180C, 350F, gas 4. Serve hot with custard.
* Tip: if you haven't any mincemeat, soak some dried mixed peel with a little brandy or rum overnight and use this instead, or if only a little mincemeat in store, add this to more dried fruits adding a little brandy for an overnight soak. No brandy? Then use orange juice.
Leftover scraps of pastry should never be thrown away, stack puff pastry trimmings on top of each other (to keep the layers even), or just gather up short pastry scraps in a ball to be re-rolled later. They can be frozen.

The last time I looked at the clock it was 9.00am precisely. What with editing, and adding my memory of eating out in the Lake District, I seem to have spent more time than I intended for it is now nearly 10.30am, so had better get moving before you get bored.
With the sun shining again, make the most of it and have a good Sunday.

Advance Preparation

This past week we have been dealing with left-overs, and - if the left-overs have been planned (cooking twice as much needed ) - then that in itself is a form of advance preparation.
Although cook-once-eat-twice always saves on time, I have never been keen on preparing a big batch of a complete meal, say chilli con carne, or spag.bol, or chicken curry, or, or, or... then freezing it away in small quantities to be reheated later. It does make sense to do this, but I always enjoy cooking from nearly-scratch far more than reheating.

A good way to save time is to partly-prepare and chill or even freeze some ingredients. Yesterday was an example. I thawed out quite a large pack of minced beef as my husband asked for chilli con carne for supper. It would have been easy to turn the whole lot into a chilli and freeze the surplus in individual portions, but instead I fried chopped onion, added the beef, browned that off and added a can of chopped tomatoes, then simmered until the beef was tender and most of the liquid evaporated. It was then easy to divide into smaller amounts (which were later frozen), leaving some in the pan to add the chilli seasonings and the red beans for supper that day.
Later, the mince that had been frozen will be thawed and added to finely diced and sauted celery, onion and carrot, to make a bolognaise sauce (adding wine, mushrooms, dash of brown sauce and what you will). Even the Holy Trinity, as those three veg. are called, could have been cooked ahead and frozen.
Or instead beef gravy could come from the freezer, thawed and added to the mince and then packed into a dish to be topped with mash and cooked on to make Cottage Pie.
So partly preparing in advance then freezing, still gives the pleasure of actually making the dish on the day, without a lot of the hassle if made purely from scratch. Ingredients can even be thawed during the day and the decision made later as to which dish to make with them.

Likewise, cooked rice (to the al dente stage) can be cooked, drained, and quickly chilled, then frozen in small packs to be used later, although I prefer to soak rice during the day, then cook it around suppertime as then only takes about five minutes.
How often do we start a dish by sauteing onions? I could suggest cooking then freezing these, but as these also take minutes to cook, hardly worth the bother. However, a load of diced onion could be prepared in advance and then frozen in small packs. I believe these can now be bought alreadyfrozen and prepared, but why pay more for a few minutes work in your own kitchen that over time will save you pounds. Really, all these 'quickies' depend on how short of time we are. Personally I always prefer to use fresh produce, dry goods from the cupboard, and normally only frozen meats and vegetables and some fruits.

Yes, I have to say, looking in my freezer, there are very few 'ready-to-cook or re-heat' meals in there. Maybe a couple of steak and kidney pies my Beloved brought in because 'they were on offer'. Otherwise my freezer shelves are packed with basics such as assorted vegetables: peas, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, sweetcorn, string beans, broad beans. Some packs of home-cooked pulses: red beans, butter beans, pinto beans.
Tucked into corners are packs of home-grown fruits: blackberries, redcurrants and sliced apples. Sometimes soft fruits such as strawberries are bought when of offer, so that they can later all go together to make mixed fruit jam.
Two small drawers contain frozen meats: pave steak, minced beef, stewing beef, minced lamb, diced lamb, lamb shanks. Pork chops, chicken portions, chicken livers. Some packs of home-cooked and sliced cooked meats: roast beef, roast chicken, ham. Plenty of bags of home-made chicken stock. Some tubs of home-made gravy (lamb, beef). Not much room for much else. Sounds a lot of meat, but more a small amount of different meats, rather than vast quantities. This way there is a wider choice and - as ever - I make everything go twice as far, so I work my way through them and only need to replace the meats once or twice a year.

When there is a gap I might make a tub of ice-cream. But that is not all my freezer has to offer. There are narrow and deep shelves on the door itself. These contain packs of sausages, packs of short, puff and filo pastry, some frozen herbs (bay leaves freeze particularly well). Cubes of lemon juice and lemon zest, also some frozen lime juice and zest. Also some things I'm now not even sure what they are.

All the above are ready and waiting to be put together to make a meal of my choice. Having these foods to hand saves much shopping time which is better spent pottering around the kitchen (you can't sit down in the supermarket and take a swig of cooking sherry, but you can in the kitchen). With the veggies in the fridge side of Boris, and the cans and bottles in the cupboard my kitchen is my own shop. Everything ready and waiting to be used, once I have decided what to cook, and often that is a last minute decision.

Before I continue, a couple of comments to reply to: Valerie, I have heard of this cake made with tomato soup, in fact have the recipe somewhere but hesitated to give it as I thought it was a step too far. But as good cakes can be have beetroot, carrots, parsnips, even mayonnaise as an ingredient, tomato soup could be added to that list (not all used in the same cake I hasten to add). Will see if I can find the recipe. As you say, the recipe originated in America, where they seem to be particularly clever at using ingredients we would never think of using over here. You were enquiring about rice flour. I have discovered a recipe for an Indian dessert (given at the end of the recipe section below) which I may have given before, as there is a feeling of deja vu here. But better given twice than not at all.

Sounds like nostalgia time for SweeterRita who delights in listening to music from her youth. I well remember listeningin my green and salad days - for hours on end - to Guy Mitchell, Frankie Laine, Jo Stafford. We also had a wind-up gramophone where a new needle was supposed to be used for every record. they came in little tins with the His Master's Voice picture on the front. During the war, people used to use thorns from hedgerows as a substitute for the needles and they worked very well. I tried them myself.
We still have a little box with open compartments for keep the needles in, and one little section with a cover and hole on top in which to put the used needles. Now I keep my dressmaking pins in it.

Have you ever been to Carnforth stationn, SweeterRita, where they filmed Brief Encounter? It is just up the road from Morecambe and we went there and had our coffee in the station cafe where it has been kept exactly like it was in the film. Quite an experience. I believe we sat in the same seats, at the same table as the two lovers (perhaps not the actual seats, as used in the film, but you know what I mean). The station is still in use, we pass through it each time we travel to Morecambe.
Even travelling to Morecambe from Leeds is an experience, there are only two carriages, normally nearly empty at the time we travel, fairly slowly, stopping at nearly every tiny station (more a platform than a station) en route, including Giggleswick (love that name) , and when we first went it was spring, with the hedgerows full of white blossom and lambs skipping everywhere. Quite a times-past experience in its own right. When you get to Morecambe, even that has a times-past flavour. Hardly any traffic on the roads (compared to Leeds). Like stepping back half a century, or even more.

You ask for a recipe for haslet. This I have found, and it is very simple to make. I believe certain regions have slight variations as to the ingredients, and this one comes from Hampshire where some of my family live. I suggest halving quantities as it is better to make smaller amounts when trying something new for the first time. This means you may need to reduce the cooking time. It may freeze, it may not. Try freezing a slice for a couple of days and if it thaws out well, then interleave some slices and freeze, but eat within a month.
Hampshire Haslet:
2 lb (1kg) lean pork, coarsley minced
9oz (250g) stale white bread
milk or water
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp chopped sage
salt and pepper to taste
Break up the bread and soak it in milk or water, then squeeze out the liquid. Put the bread in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Run the lot through a mincer (or give a few quick pulses in a food processer). Form the mixture into oblongs and pack them side by side across a large greased loaf tin and bake at 180C, 350F, gas 4 for an hour and a half. Serve cold.

This next recipe is for a vegetarian biryani, which - in the original version - requires ten different spices. This is where I ignore that part and improvise by using a curry paste, sauce or even powder. If we ate Indian every day then it makes sense to make it the correct way. But as only occasional curry eaters, collecting a variety of spices mean manywould have lost their flavour in a few months and hardly worth using at all. I don't do throw-away, so the ready-made for once makes more sense. However, for the puritanical, at the end of the recipe I give the list of spices which would normally be added to the dish after the onions have been cooked and before the tomatoes were added.
Tip: scatter old curry powder around places where cats appear and scrape up your garden- this drives them away.

Vegetarian Biryani: serves 4 (V)
1 lb (450g) basmati rice
4 fl.oz (125ml) sunflower oil
2 large onions, sliced thinly
2 tsp grated ginger
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
8 oz (225g) chopped tomatoes
pinch salt
1 - 2 tblsp curry paste (medium strength)
8 oz (225g) Greek yogurt
8 oz (226g) potatoes, peeled and diced
6 oz (175g) frozen peas (thawed)
6 oz (175g) carrots, diced
4 fl.oz (125ml) water
4 tblsp chopped fresh coriander
Wash the rice thoroughly under running water, then place in a bowl, cover with water, and leave to soak for a couple of hours. Drain, then cook in salted, boiling water until al dente (not quite cooked). Drain and put to one side.
Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onions until golden, stir in the garlic and ginger and fry for a further minute, then stir in the curry paste and mix well. Add the tomatoes, salt and yogurt. Simmer for about 10 minutes, by which time the oil will have separated out. When this happens, add the potatoes and carrots
together with the water and cook until they are just tender, then stir in the peas and cook for a further minute. Remove from the heat.
Taking a large saucepan, spread one third of the cooked rice on the bottom. Put half the cooked vegetables on top adding a sprinkling of chopped coriander, place another third of rice on these, finishing with the final layer of vegetables, more coriander and rice on the top.
Wring out a clean kitchen tea towel and lay this over the top of the pan, then fit the lid tightly over the cloth and put the pan on a very low heat*. Cook on for 30 minutes.
Using a large spoon, carefully fold the rice into the vegetables and turn out onto a warmed dish. Ganish with the remaining coriander.
*Tip: if finding it difficult to keep the heat low (sometimes gas on a low flame can blow out), then stand the pan in a large frying pan which will act as a heat diffuser.
Note: the biryani can be layered in an ovenproof casserole, covered tightly with foil, then a lid, and cooked on for 45 minutes in a low oven 150C, 300F, gas 2.
Variation: cooked minced beef (as aforementioned) could be added to the vegetables, to reheat as they cook, then continue with the recipe.

Suggested spices which can be used instead of the curry paste in the above recipe. Add as-is to the pan after the onions are fried:
1 tsp each chilli powder, turmeric, ground coriander, cumin seeds, cloves, black peppercorns, cardamon seeds. 4 star anise, 2 bay leaves, and 2 cinnamon sticks.

Another unusual curry dish follows in that it is made with walnuts, the recipe being called 'a feast for vegetarians' - The translated name of the dish is Walnut Balls in Curry. Again, I advocate using a ready-made curry sauce, again either a Korma, or a Tikka Masala. Nothing too fiery.
Akhrot Ke Kofte: serves 4 (V)
2 tblsp sunflower oil
1 large onion, very finely chopped
5 oz (150g) walnuts, coarsely crushed
5 oz (150g) bread, soaked in a little milk
4 tblsp chopped coriander leaves
pinch of salt
1 jar or can of chosen curry sauce
cream or thick yogurt (opt)
Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onions until they become transparent, then stir in the walnuts. Fry for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat. Stir in the bread, coriander and salt, and knead into a stiff dough. Make cherry-sized balls and shallow fry, a couple or so at a time, until golden. Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm. Heat the curry sauce, stir a little cream or yogurt to taste (if using) and pour over the walnut balls. Serve hot, garnished with fresh coriander leaves.

As today seems to be leaning rather heavily towards curries, I include an Indian sweet which is simply made, simply delicious, and one way to use up bananas that might otherwise become over-ripe. Translated, the name is Banana Fudge, and a snack said to give instant energy. Not for anyone on a diet, but one piece now and again won't hurt. Will it?
Kele Ka Halwa: serves 4
5 fl.oz ( 150ml) ghee or clarified butter
20 oz (600g) bananas, peeled and chopped
8 oz (225g) sugar
half a tsp freshly grated nutmeg
half a tsp cardamon powder
Heat 2 tblsp of the butter in a pan and add the bananas and the sugar. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring all the time to avoid sticking to the pan. Drizzle in the remaining butter, a little at a time, until all the moisture has evaporated. The mixture should become stick and brown. Stir in the spices and keep stirring until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Overcooking will make it too hard.
Turn the halwa into a small, shallow, greased baking tin, press down and level the surface. Leave to cool, then cut into cubes or slices.

Firni (creamed rice): serves 4
3 oz (75g) rice flour
1 pint (450ml) milk
4 oz (100g) sugar
2 tsp rose water
2 tsp flaked almonds
Mix the rice flour with a quarter of the milk. Heat the rest of the milk, stirring in the sugar. When it reaches boiling point, pour into the slaked rice flour (as you do when making custard), then return it all to the pan and keep stirring until it has turned very thick. Remove and cool at room temperature (place a fitted circle of dampened greaseproof over the rice to prevent a skin forming). Stir in the rose water, then spoon into individual glasses, chill until ready to eat, then scatter over the almonds.

Two more lots of viewings today, so must get a move on and check Beloved has tidied up his things (his version of tidy not being quite the same as mine). The day starts sunny, so let us hope it continues. Nothing like sun shining into room full of spring flowers to make the place look comfortable and worth living-in. Perhaps baking a loaf and some biscuits might bring extra enjoyment. Nothing like the aroma of home-baking.
But as we have already provisionally sold our house, is it worth bothering? See how I feel later.

Now - as I am preparing to put my proposed book together, it would help me muchly if I knew what are the most sought after things you would look for in a cookbook. So often we buy a book and use hardly any of its recipes. My book I want to be used day after day. So is it to be more hints and tips, or just recipes and pictures? Perhaps something about our lifestyle? Or maybe not. I seem to have covered all this and more (apart from the pictures, and yes, I will get round to it one day) over the several months now that I have been writing my blog. but when putting the book together (and I have written enough to fill ten books), I need to know what should be left out. As the book will be for you, then let it be how you want. I just need feedback.
Many thanks in advance.

Take Five

The title today deals with dishes that have only five ingredients. In fact most dishes originated with very few ingredients, then more and more (usually assorted vegetables or flavourings) were added as the cook desired or could afford them. This is how receipts (as they used to be called) developed over the years - even centuries. Recipes tend to start with three main ingredients (think of the classic 'meat and two veg') and progress from there. Faced with a long and daunting list of ingredients that seem to be the norm today, it is possible to reverse the process and start leaving some out. Make note of the main ingredients and then include only as many more as you think you can get away with, or wish to. Not saying it could improve the dish, because that is what cookery writers are always aiming to do, but on the other hand, so many useful and comparatively easy recipes are neglected because we haven't one ingredient in the list, so think it won't work unless it is included. Improvise, substitute, leaving something out. Experimenting is half the fun of cooking. Maybe even three-quarters.
With recipes using few ingredients being ideal for the learner cook, they also make things easy for the more experienced - who may wish to 'add things'. So today's dishes will be based on these.

But before I begin, must mention a couple or so things which came to mind re your comments. Firstly a welcome to Stephen, a new name, and I hope one we will hear from again from time to time.
Marjorie mentioned cooking with canned soup, something she did not find favour with. I suppose a lot depends on the soup and the brand. Myself I do like to keep a few cans of condensed soup in my storecupboard as they can make an ideal base (undiluted) for vol-au-vents, stirring in other ingredients such as diced mushrooms (with condensed mushroom soup), asparagus tips (with asparagus soup), finely diced cooked chicken (with cream of chicken soup), and so on. Condensed oxtail soup (diluted with half or a whole can of water) make a quick and easy gravy in which to simmer stewing beef for several hours until tender. Great to use in one of those slow cookers. Even half a can of condensed can be used this way when cooking chicken (freeze the surplus soup).

Yesterday, serving my Cold Meat Platter, I added to my personal platter some meats from a small selection pack of Italian cured meats: Parma Ham, Salami, and Bresaola. My little treat to myself for Valentine's Day, Beloved being happy with just cold roast beef, ham, cooked sausages (I had forgotten to thaw out the pork pie and had run out of home-cooked chicken but he had enough with the chunky oven-fried chips; watercress, baby spinach and rocket salad; cooked beetroot; cherry tomatoes; pickle; and mayo. He was contented, I was more interested in sampling the Bresaola which I had never tried before - this was a cured beef rather than the usual pork which is more often cured (to be honest, after the sampling I would say give me good old English cold roast meats any time). But with Marjorie experimenting with her beef, wondered whether she had considered or even tried curing her meat. My head went into books again, and discovered Bresaola was made by curing fillet or other tender cuts of beef, matured for 2 or more months to a dark red colour, and because of the quality of the meat, is one of the most expensive of cured meats. Other countries besides Italy also cure beef, the German version being called Bundnerfleisch, traditionally made during the winter, in some regions being smoked. Also corned beef (not as we know it, but done the proper way), and Pastrami might also be worth experimenting with.
Surfing the internet I clicked on Bresaola - how to make and this gave some details, but clicking on cured meat came up with other more useful sites. Marjorie, let us know if you make any of these. By the way, you said you lost around a pound of beef when you use your industrial grinder (mincer to us), how come? Does it get stuck in the machine. The old way of clearing out meat from mincers was to push in a slice of bread (maybe a whole loaf using the industrial size) which cleaned the machine as it worked its way through, pushing out the little bits of meat stuck inside. This minced bread was added to the already minced meat (useful for making beefburgers).

If anyone watched Jamie Oliver last night, hope they were inspired to begin growing their own salad crops. The one thing he did, that I really do intend trying, is putting chunks of bread under joints of chicken when roasting. These gathered the drippings from the bird and turned into full-flavoured croutons to include in his Caesar Salad. Such a simple thing to do, why has no-one ever suggested doing that before? He is very clever.

Right, better get back on track and flick through my stack of recipes to choose a few with five or less ingredients. The first few use canned soups, and I make no apologies for this because it's the only way I can count several vegetables as one ingredient. Feel free to make up your own soup from scratch. I miss out the salt and pepper to avoid increasing to 'take seven' (cheating by sometimes including it in brackets). Season as you go, or at the table.
Fish and Vegetable Chowder: serves 4
10 oz (275g) firm white fish fillet
1 x 435g can Scotch Broth soup
half a pint (300ml) milk
1 x 326g can sweetcorn
grated cheese
Remove any skin* from the fish and cut the flesh into small chunks. Put the soup and milk together in a pan and bring to the boil, add the prepared fish and simmer gently for five minutes, add the drained corn, bring back to the simmer and cook for a further minute, by which time the fish should be cooked. Serve in individual bowls with a bowl of grated cheese to scatter over. Alternatively, top the soup with croutons which have been sprinkled with cheese and blasted under a grill for a couple of minutes. As regards seasoning, this can be done at the table to the individual taste.
*tip to avoid waste: Fish skin brushed with oil can be grilled and is said to make really crispy nibbles. Not that I have tried it. But it has been mentioned by readers.

Celery and Ham Mousse: serves 6
1 x 425g can cream of celery soup
half a pint (300ml) creme fraiche or sour cream*
1 sachet gelatine dissolved in 4 tblsp water
4 spring onions, finely chopped
8 oz (225g) cooked ham, finely chopped or minced
Mix the soup with the sour cream, then stir in the dissolved gelatine and the prepared onions and ham. Spoon into individual souffle dishes, or into one greased (or cling-film lined) loaf tin. Chill until set.
To serve, unmould onto a serving dish, or serve the ramekins as-is.
For presentation, garnish with hardboiled eggs (whites chopped and yolks sieved) and thin slices of cucumber.
*Note: fresh double cream can be soured by stirring in a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice.

If you will allow me the use of instant potato (which incidentally freezes better than the real thing), and the egg, and breadcrumbs to coat the fingers as one ingredient, then five ingredients this next will still be. A dish more for the children than adults, but useful in that there are many ways this could be adapted - include minced cooked chicken to bulk it up and make it more nutritious. Mashed vegetables could be also included and a good way to get picky children to eat veggies when they normally turn up their noses at them. The main thing is to make the mixture firm enough to handle before frying. Of course they don't need to be finger shaped. They could be burger shaped, or Bart Simpson shaped, had I included this recipe yesterday I would have suggested heart-shaped. Children often love to eat foods that spell out their name (did you see Jamie's cress growing in letter shapes, spelling POPPY, his daughter's name) which reminds me...tell you later.
Chicken and Potato Fingers: serves 4
1 x 425g can of cream of chicken soup
3 oz (75g) instant potato
2 egg yolks, beaten
3 oz soft white breadcrumbs
(beaten egg, dried golden breadcrumbs for coating)
Put the soup in the pan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and add the instant potato (you may need a little extra). Leave to stand for 10 minutes to allow the potato to absorb the soup. It should be thick and firm. Add the egg yolks and soft breadcrumbs (seasoning to taste) and beat until smooth. Leave to get cold, chill if possible. Roll out the mixture onto a well floured board to 1/2" (1cm) thickness, then cut into 8 or ten rectangles. If you wish you can pop them in the fridge or even better, the freezer for half an hour to firm up and make them easier to handle. Dip first into the egg, then into the golden crumbs (repeat if you like a thicker coating), then shallow fry for about 3 minutes on each side until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper. Great served with a good dollop of tomato ketchup.

No canned soup in this one (do I hear sighs of relief?). The flavour comes by using a harissa rub. Harissa is a fiery chilli paste and this oily rub is made by whisking 2 tsp harissa with 3 tblsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste . Giving the details now of how to make this keeps the ingredients in the recipe proper down to five. Well, sometimes I have to cheat. Yes, Delia, me too.
Moroccan Lamb with Couscous: serves 2
1 batch (see above) harissa rub
2 lamb leg steaks
5 oz (140g) couscous
1 oz (25g) toasted flaked almonds
2 oz (50g) raisins
Take one tablespoon of the harissa mixture and rub over both sides of the lamb steaks. Leave to stand whilst peparing the couscous.
Put the couscous into a bowl together with the almonds and raisins and pour over half a pint of boiling water. Cover the bowl and leave to stand for 4 minutes, then fluff up with a fork and pour in the remaining harissa oil/rub. In the meantime, grill the lamb steaks for 3 - 4 minutes on each side until well browned. Spoon the couscous onto two plates, top each with the lamb and garnish with optional chopped herbs such as parsley or coriander.

This next can be served as a side dish with a Chinese meal, with rice as a dish in its own right, or just use the batter recipe when wishing to coat other fried foods such as fish, or even pieces of fruit (in which case you could use lemonade instead of the soda or mineral water).
Crispy Lemon Chicken: serves 4
2 oz (50g) plain flour
2 oz (50g) cornflour
6 fl oz (175ml) chilled soda or sparkling mineral water
3 chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1 pkt ready-made Peking lemon sauce
Sift the flours into a bowl (add a pinch of salt) and make a hollow in the centre. Slowly pour in the soda water and mix until smooth. Do not overmix.
Dip each chicken piece into the batter and drop into hot oil. Fry for one minute until crisp (always making sure the chicken is cooked through - if the pieces are thick, allow a little longer). Drain on kitchen paper and serve at once (if doing a larger amount, cook in batches, then return to the pan for half a minute to heat through and crisp up again). Serve with the lemon sauce drizzled over.

Pizzas fit into the 'take five ingredients' very easily as one classic pizza requires only tomatoes and cheese as a topping on the base, so this could be included under 'take three ingredients''. The following pizza recipe uses potato as one of the toppings, and also blue cheese (any blue cheese would do, but coming from Leicestershire for us, it has to be Stilton). Still only three main ingredients, but to be fair I have included the oil and rosemary in the main list.
This is not your usual topping, but well worth trying. If making your own pizza dough, instead of baking two bases, this could be made as one, in an oblong shape, baked in a large oblong Swiss roll ring.
Potato and Stilton Pizza: serves 6 - 8
2 ready-made pizza bases
4 medium potatoes
4 tblsp olive oil
2 tblsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped
7 oz (200g) Stilton or other blue cheese, grated or crumbled
Slice the potatoes very thinly and put into a bowl of water. Leave to stand for 10 minutes to remove as much starch as possible, then drain well, rinse, then pat dry with a kitchen towel. Replace into a dry bowl and pour in half the olive oil, add the rosemary (season to taste) and toss well. Place the pizza bases on oiled baking trays and top with overlapping herbed potato slices, sprinkling over the cheese.. Brush any uncovered edges of the pizza with more oil (this prevents the dough becoming too crisp), and drizzle any remaining oil over the top. Bake at 200C, 400F, gas 6 for 25 minutes until crisp and golden and potatoes cooked through.

With rhubarb shortly coming into season, this common or garden version of tarte tatin is based on this, but other fruits could be used. This recipe makes the more expensive forced rhubarb go further by including apples. Normally, puff pastry is used for a dish such as this, but I have also made it using short pastry (one way to use up the scraps I gather together and save). Ideally, bake this in a special pan which has no long handles and can be used both on the hob and in the oven. Alternatively, cook the fruits and sugar first in a small frying pan and then transfer them to something like a shallow sandwich cake tin and then top with the pastry.
Rhubarb and Apple Upside-Down Pie: serves 4
4 stems rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1" (2.5cm) pieces
4 eating apples, peeled, cored and sliced
5 oz (150g) caster sugar
2 oz (50g) butter
10 oz (275g) puff pastry
Sprinkle the sugar into the base of a tarte tatin tin (or frying pan) and heat gently until the sugar has melted and browned to a caramel colour. Add the butter, a bit at a time, stirring until melted. Fit in the fruit as tightly and neatly as possible (when upturned the fruit is what you will be looking at) and cook gently for five minutes until beginning to soften (at this point the fruits/caramel may need transferring to a cake tin).
Roll out the pastry to about an inch wider than the diameter of the pan. Lay the pastry over the fruit and tuck the edges down inside the pan to enclose the fruit. Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes at 200C, 400F, gas 6, until the puff pastry has risen and is golden brown. If using short pastry it won't rise as much, but should still be golden.
To serve, place a plate over the pan and turn it over so the fruit is on top with the caramel oozing down over the pastry. Serve with custard or double cream or creme fraiche.

Finishing today with the 'tell you later' bit as the name POLLY reminded me of something. Some many years ago I worked with a young man who was an expectant father. He was also a collector of old gramophone records, and the gramophones themselves. Absolutely mad about them. Older readers will remember the names of many of those record publishers, 'His Master's Voice' to name but one.
Does anyone remember that when we were fed up with listening to the tunes, we could heat the records in the oven to soften, bring them out and place over a pudding basin, mould the disc around it, and let it harden. They made wonderful bowls in which to plant bulbs, having a hole already there at the bottom.
As usual I have strayed from the story... When the baby was born, a girl, she was given the name of Polly Dora. This means probably nothing to younger readers. But I am sure silver surfers will have got the connection.

I look at the clock on the comp. It says 8.30 and the next time I look it reads 9.12. Must control my fingers a bit more. Too much padding and not enough recipes, hints or tips. My main excuse being I think I said it all those first few months. Now I find it difficult to find something new to offer you. Perhaps some more requests and queries from readers will help. Hint, hint.
See you tomorrow.

Reviewing the Situation

As ever, many thanks for your comments. Marjorie, you mentioned roasting (in oil?) sweet potatoes in their skins, I presume the skins can be eaten, also baked (jacket) sweet potatoes, eat the skins again? It seems such a waste to peel anything if the skin can be eaten.
Donna, yes - you can make caster sugar by grinding down granulated sugar in a blender, and once it has turned into caster sugar, then empty the blender and grind down just a small amount at a time to turn it into icing sugar. It will never be quite as fine as the 'bought' kind, but when sifted is pretty much the same and useful for icing cakes, making butter icing, or for quick dissolving into liquids etc.
Sometimes I grind up demerara sugar to make a golden caster sugar.

This past week I have been noticing more articles in the newspaper re rising food costs. On the same day another article about many more supermarkets to be opened around the country spelling the doom of corner shops. This is a sad situation on all counts, and I feel I am having a few serious thoughts coming up. Bear with me.

Why we have become so lethargic when it comes to cooking our own meals, as it seems that too many prefer to buy the ready-made meals or ready-prepared ingredients? It can cost such a lot more doing that. Lack of time is always the excuse, and I say to myself (between gritted teeth) it is because much has changed over the last 100 years. It isn't just cooking, almost all domestic (and very money-saving) skills have fallen by the wayside. No-one thinks it is strange that we don't sew or knit many of our own clothes any more (as was fairly normal when I was a child - my mother even crocheted her 'net' curtains from fine thread), flowers are grown in the garden rather than vegetables. We even pay to have our windows cleaned (actually we don't need a window cleaner for our upstairs windows all have very ingenious hinges which can be unhooked so the windows turn half-way round and can be cleaned easily on both sides. That's Edwardian common-sense for you).

Some old skills are making a come-back: knitting circles are starting up again, patchwork is certainly being done (using a sewing machine rather than stitched by hand) even though new material is bought for this rather than using up old worn fabrics. Even hooked rugs are becoming fashionable. Could it be because many of these skills can be carried on whilst sitting down and watching TV? (I do remember pinning together squares for a patchwork quilt whilst watching Deidre and Mike Baldwin having some sort of affair, around the time that Ken found out. Must be years ago now, but I've always thought of it as the Barlow-Baldwin quilt ever since).
Despite the frugality of the times past, in Victorian and Edwardian times there were countless domestic gadgets to help the cook, housekeeper, servants. Some were downright silly, but we should remember that today the vacuum cleaner (now you can even buy one that cleans all by itself while we watch) makes life far more easier than brushing tea-leaves over the carpet to clean it, or having to lug big rugs and small carpets outside to bash them with a carpet-beater. And yes I do still have a carpet-beater used now only for decoration. And think about all these kitchen appliances of today. Each one does the work of a servant or three. You could say it is like having a kitchen full of robotic servants. Some of my appliances I even give names to. Boris (our fridge/freezer) being the one most mentioned.
Most of the time these time-savers are bought, used once or twice and then pushed to the back of a cupboard. The complaint being, they always need to be washed afterwards. Nowadays, dish washers do that for you. Even so, how lazy can we get?

It does seem that it is becoming the norm to have a TV in the kitchen. I do not know why. Is it to follow cookery programmes? Imagine slicing up foods while you try to follow what is being cooked on the screen (as in a recent cookalong with Gordon Ramsay) - oh, dear that's another finger chopped off. The family sitting round the table, or rather three-quarters of the table, eyes glued to the TV at the other end while they try and scoop food into their mouths (make a pizza mum, it's easier to eat while watching Neighbours). It could be the news that needs to be seen- but that can be listened to on the wireless (sorry radio, or is it now an I.pod?). Sorry, no. In the kitchen I can do without distractions like these. Only the radio will I allow, and at the moment that is up in the bedroom to listen to while ironing.

If any of the materials needed for the hobbies kept rising in price, people would would probably change to another hobby, for most are all about creating something (and I have never met a person yet who doesn't want to create something), and generally it doesn't matter what, just as long as you do. Cooking food is a delightful way to create (and do look on it as a hobby, art form and a skill rather than a chore then it becomes much more fun). The cook's efforts are always appreciated by others (or they jolly well should be), and will improve by the day to the level of many professional cooks. Food is food is food, and much of the pleasure of the dishes served in restaurants comes as much from the presentation as the actual ingredients, the presentation being an art-form in itself - 'looks too good to eat ', springs to mind.

This type of presentation is not at all necessary in a domestic kitchen, but this should never let us stop having a go if we want to make food look more tempting. Today for example. Valentine's Day. At the simplest level, cook something in the shape of a heart - a pancake perhaps. Or slice the fat cheek of a red bell pepper and you will find it will be heartshaped. A thin slice of this as a garnish is a lazy way to acknowledge the day, but better than nothing. Drizzle melted chocolate into a flat solid heart shape and when set plunge the pointed end into a bowl of ice-cream. Oh, use your imagination, I'm too old for Valentines, I might just make heart shapes from the pastry trimmings to stick on the top of the apple and blackberry pie I will be making today. But Beloved will probably be too tired to notice anyway. It will be Cold Meat Platter for supper tonight as he has been commandeered (on his day off) to deliver flowers for the florist, starting at 7.oo this morning, and - if he has the same hours as previous Valentine days - could be finished as early as 5 or as late as 7.30 this evening. So it has to be a meal ready for when he comes in, whatever time that will be.

Oh, dear - I feel I am sounding rather like a school teacher today. Wagging my finger at everything.
What worries me most is the rising food prices. So many of us work to a tight budget as it is, so where does that extra money come from, or do we really need that extra money at all? There are several ways we can tackle the problem. First review the meals we eat. Do we, most of the time, cook and serve the same type of meals - such as 'good plain food', 'traditional English', 'chips with everything' and so forth?
Even taking the first two - the plain and traditional. Go back to our old recipe books and the ingredients for most of these dishes are very inexpensive and old habits die hard. We believe cheap meals of bygone years are still cheap today. But they are not. Cod, which used to be one of the cheaper fishes can now cost as much as the best fillet steak. We still battle on, trying to cook what we know, yet finding it more and more difficult to find the money to do so.

The only way to cut kitchen costs is to use the least expensive ingredients as often, and as in as varied a way as possible. I avoid saying the cheapest ingredients, because that sounds as though they are poor quality. Fresh food prices can be very high some months, and a lot lower when in season, and this includes foods that cannot be grown here, imported from other countries. For example, at least once a year lemons are incredibly cheap, and that is the time to buy, for the zest can be grated off and the juice squeezed, even cut into lemon wedges or lemon slices, for all freeze very well.
Working our way through the seasons we can freeze some if not all of the seasonal produce, then eat the food all year round if we wish but at the lowest possible price. There will be people who say "ah, but you have to add the running costs of the freezer", which is true, but then over a year, the money saved should more than pay for not only that, but for other things as well.

Every country but ours seems to have developed a wonderful variety of dishes using the very simplest of local ingredients. And they still cook in this way. The problem with us is that our locally produced ingredients have become very expensive. Perhaps it is because of supply and demand. The more people here there are to feed, the less food to go round, so the price goes up. Also we have some of the best quality meat in the world, but the cost of raising these beasts increases each year, so again the prices keep rising.
So we could cut costs by using recipes that originated in the rural areas of other countries, which are often vegetarian, or use the cheapest cuts of meat. Even though many of the ingredients may not grow in this country, they are probably still cheap enough compared to others we might normally use.

Yesteday I mentioned sweet potatoes - the given price was 59p each. Carrots were priced at 6p each. Not necessarily the same size, but the ones I bought were pretty similar. I did not check where the carrots were grown. Were they English? I must check. Some large imported parsnips were delivered which were very good, and also a bag of Yorkshire grown parsnips (waving the flag for Britain) which were very slender and a lot more expensive. You can see my dilemma, do I urge everyone to buy British, or do I urge everyone to cut costs where they can, and not bother where the produce comes from? And then there is the Green Issue to consider, food flown in, all those air-miles and air pollution and global warming. If, as it seems, digital appliances use 5 times more power than the analogue, then the powers that be don't really seem to be bothering at all about fuel conservation. If they don't care, at my age, why should I?
On the other hand I believe in somehow 'always being alive', a sort of re-incarnation, so it does make sense to keep the world as we would like to be for next time we reappear.

If we do try and buy as many locally grown ingredients as we can, they we should use them wisely and avoid having leftovers. If leftovers there are, they should never be binned, at worst given to the dog, at best made into another dish.
In our local-area mag. they announced that a farmer's market would be starting later this spring, less than a mile from where we live. My life has been full of 'nearly but not quite'. I always seem to have decided a fashion was right for me just as it had gone out of fashion. The child allowance was given to all children (originally the first child did not receive it), just as my last child (who then became the first as the others had left school) also left school. And that is only two examples. There are others I now cannot remember, but did at the time.
So I can see the pattern appearing again with the farmers' market to get started just as we are about to leave the area. This time, just for once, either way it would work to our advantage.

So - with cost-cutting still at the top of my list, I continue with a few more ideas to use up those leftovers, starting with a lentil dish, but this would work equally as well using left-over split peas.
Lentil Cheese Casserole: serves 3 - 4
12 fl.oz measure (1 1/2 cups/350ml) drained cooked lentils
1 large onion, thinly sliced
3 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
salt and pepper
lemon juice to taste
3 slices processed cheese, cut into strips
tomato ketchup
Fry the bacon gently to release the fat, then stir in the onion. When the bacon is crisp and the onions softened, stir in the lentils and season to taste with s.p.and lemon juice. Turn out into one large, or three or four individual casseroled dishes and top with the cheese. Brown under the grill until the cheese has melted. Serve with a good dollop of tomato ketchup.

Lentil Balls:
10 fl.oz measure (1 1/4 cups/275ml) mashed cooked lentils
3 tblsp butter
4 tblsp flour
8 fl.oz (225ml) milk
salt and pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
dash cayenne pepper
1 slice bread, crumbed
1 egg, beaten
1 tblsp water
flour for dipping
bread crumbs for dipping
fat for frying
Melt the butter and stir in the flour. Whisk in the milk gradually, stirring until thick and smooth. Do not boil. Season with the salt, pepper, cayenne, and add the lentils, W.sauce, and the crumbed bread. When well mixed, leave to cool. Shape into round balls. Beat the egg with the water. Dip the balls into the flour, egg and breadcrumbs and shallow or deep fry until golden. Drain on kitchen paper. Serve with salad.
Variation: These can be formed around skewers thn coated and grilled, or they can be made into burger shapes and fried. The balls can be also skewered alternatinng between wedges of onion, peppers, sausages, bacon etc and grilled.

Would you believe it, I have found a recipe to use up leftover sweet potatoes, which could apply to any of the yam family.
Sweet-Potato Pie: serves 4
just under 1 pint (2 + cups) boiled sweet potatoes
4 slices toast, soaked in milk
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tblsp butter, melted
2 onions, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 tblsp sherry
4 tblsp single cream
Mash the sweet potatoes together with the soaked bread until smooth. Add the eggs and blend in the melted butter, onion and sherry. Season to taste. Pour into a greased shallow casseroled dish. Sprinkle over the cream and bake at 180C, 350F, gas 4 for 25 minutes.
Suggested serving, sweet and sour spareribs (recipe follows).

This recipe for spareribs uses the leftover cooked meaty sparerib (without the 's'). Spareribs (with the 's') we think of as the boney ones. But any chunks of cooked pork (or even ham) would do.
Sweet and Sour Sparerib(s): serves 4
2 lbs (1kg/4 cups) cubed cooked sparerib pork
2 tblsp sunflower oil
2 onions, sliced
5 tblsp brown sugar
4 fl oz (125ml/1/2 cup) vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce
6 fl.oz (175ml/2/3 cup) pineapple juice
6 tblsp water
half tsp salt
pepper to taste
2 tsp cornflour
2 tsp water
Saute the onion in the oil until softened, then stir in the sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, pineapple juice, water and the salt, adding pepper to taste. Then stir in the cooked chunks of pork. Simmer gently for 20 minutes.
Mix the cornflour with the water and stir into the sauce. Bring back to the simmer, stir once more then leave to cook for a further 10 minutes.
Tip: save the juice from a can of pineapple and freeze to use in a dish such as this. Pineapple cubes can also be added to the recipe if you wish.
Suggested serving other than with the previous recipe: boiled rice and salad.

Finally, today are a couple of recipes using left-over boiled rice, probably the most common left-over there is. The first recipe is for an omelette. You will note from the method the way of cooking the omelette is the way I do it, sides to middle, not like the scrambled version as mentioned yesterday.
Indian Rice Omelette: serves 3 - 4
about half a pint (1 cup) cooked rice
1 tblsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tblsp mild curry powder or paste
2 tblsp cream
4 - 5 eggs, well beaten
4 tblsp butter
pinch cayenne
Fry the onion in the oil until softened. Stir in the curry powder/paste and cook for one minute, then stir in the cream. Remove from the heat and stir into the eggs. Melt 2 tblsp butter in an omelette pan, and when hot, pour in the egg mixture. As the eggs begin to set, lift the sides and tilt the pan to allow the uncooked egg to run underneath. Keep doing this until the egg has set on top. When the bottom is golden brown, fill with rice that has been sauteed slightly in the remaining butter, seasoned with a dash of cayenne. Fold over and serve on a warm plate.

Although this next recipe seems to have lots of ingredients, they are mainly for the flavouring and you could alter the herbs if you wish. At this time of the year, onions often begin to sprout, so stand the root end just touching water, let the shoots grow, then cut them off and chop very finely as a substitute for chives.
Sour Cream Eggs: serves 4
about half a pint of cooked rice (1 1/4 cups)
2 tblsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
2 tsp tomato puree
5 fl.oz (150ml/3/4 cup) creme fraiche or sour cream
salt and pepper
good pinch paprika pepper
1 tsp finely chopped chives
1 tsp chopped parsley
1 tsp finely chopped capers
4 eggs
2 oz (1/4 cup/50g) cheese grated
2 tsp butter
2 tblsp milk
Fry the onion in the butter until softened, then stir in the garlic and fry for a further minute. Stir in the tomato puree and the creme fraiche/sour cream. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Season with salt, pepper and paprika. Stir in the herbs, capers and cooked rice. Turn into a buttered ovenproof dish. Gently flatten the surface then press the base of a tumbler into the rice to form four deep depressions. Into each break an egg, and sprinkle cheese over the complete dish. Dot with butter and sprinkle over the milk. Bake at 190C, 375F, gas 5 for 15 minutes or so until the eggs are set and the cheese melted. Serve hot.

My penultimate piece deals with a few hints and tips regarding Jerusalem Artichokes, which are in season at the moment. Some readers I know grow their own.
One of my favourite books is Dorothy Hartley's 'Food in England' and she believes that Jerusalem Artichokes should be served alone. Yet another cookery writer has a firm belief that fried or baked J.A's are the perfect accompaniment to roast chicken or meats.

Jerusalem Artichokes cause wind, so avoid second helpings unless you live on your own or can keep out of company for several hours if not days.

Allow twice the peeled weight of J.A's given in a recipe if the veggies are small and knobbly. The variety fuseau are the easiest to prepare (so less waste), and the one most widely grown.

Peeled tubers should be put into acidulated water (lemon juice added) immediately after peeling to prevent them going brown and should be cooked as soon as possible. Cook with cream and butter, but when eating raw dress only with olive oil,

Compatible herbs are parsley and tarragon. Toasted hazel and walnuts also are happy companions.

No need to peel the artichokes when needed to be mashed, if once cooked they are pushed through a ricer, or pressed through a mouli (vegetable mill). Mashed J.A's make an excellent topping for fish pies.

Peeled Jerusalem Artichokes can be eaten raw, either cut into thin slices and dipped in lemon juice and olive oil,or grated and added to coleslaw.

I have yet to cook the J.Artichokes delivered at the weekend, but am sure they will be enjoyed, albeit a luxury (compared to the price of carrots and potatoes).

Having a few probs. with the comp at the moment, so if I suddenly disappear for a day or two I will get my grandson to pop in a note to keep you informed.
Fingers crossed it will be OK until he can turn up to sort it out for me.

Is it worth it?

Yesterday, Beloved - who was still in a state of shock from returning from a warm climate to a cold one - was uncertain what he wanted for his supper. He regaled me of all the food he had eaten in the Canaries, and I was surprised he had stuck to what he knew rather than sample the regional dishes. He did mention part of their group requesting chickpea soup and it came to the table in a tureen which seemed to be mainly whole chickpeas rather than the mush he expected it would be. To my delight he had managed to buy me two cookbooks containing regional recipes, some very well worth sharing -but that will be later.

To whet Beloved's appetite (and I prefer to know in advance in case anything needed defrosting), I wrote out a menu with several dishes that could be made from fairly basic ingredients that I had in my cupboard, fridge and freezer. I don't normally bother making up a menu (although it can be worth doing if you wish to plan a week's meals in advance), but thought you might be interested in my selection, because - looking through the choices - you will see that several ingredients (minced beef for example), appear in several different guises. No chicken (shock, horror) for all I could find in the freezer were bags of chicken winglets which I did not feel like dealing with at that time.
supper menu:
Egg, sausage, baked beans, chips.
Cottage Pie with vegetables.
Chilli con carne with pitta bread and salad.
Spaghetti Bolognaise.
Steak and Kidney pie with vegetables.
Beef curry with rice and/or naan bread and side dishes.
Cold Meat Platter with salad.
Beef Casserole.
Fish, chips and peas.
Beloved chose the steak and kidney pie (already made and frozen to the point of thawing and baking so no little preparation involved). Normally, I don't see the point of serving potatoes with a pie, as the pastry forms the carbohydrate portion of the dish. However, yesterday I thought I would serve with the meat pie some parnsips and sweet potatoes as root vegetables, with brussel sprouts (Beloved's favourite) as the 'greens'. I had mentioned to him I would be serving sweet potatoes, but by the time he had aroused himself from what he called 'jet-lag' (as if), and had tucked into the meal, he looked bemused when I asked him if he had enjoyed the sweet potatoes. I had forgotten to serve them he said. But served them I had and he thought they were carrots. They did look the same colour.
One advantage with sweet potatoes and the parsnips is that they cook (in boiling water) quite rapidly, faster than ordinary potatoes would do. They would also mash up well, with a little butter and could be used as a topping instead of ordinary mashed spuds. However, this morning, immediately before I began my chat, I checked prices and sweet potatoes were £1.69 a kg; baking potatoes £1.78 a kg (although there were cheaper ones used as boiling spuds); and carrots 62p a kg. Considering the price, I see very little point in buying sweet potatoes for either nutritonal needs or flavour (as they have very little). Colourwise they look good, but then if mistaken for carrots, why not just serve carrots? You may not agree. Let me know.

For my own meal I ate the same veggies plus a 3 egg omelette which I decided to time myself making (as they do on Saturday Kitchen). Unlike all the chefs that seem to scramble their eggs in the pan, scuffling around with a fork as they cook, I pour mine into hot butter, wait about 15 seconds and then pull the sides into the middle, tipping the pan to let the uncooked egg flow to the gaps. When the top is set I fold one side over to the middle, flipped that over and turn it on the plate. Yesterday, beautifully golden brown, it took all of 50 seconds to plate up. Slower than some of the chefs, and considering how most of theirs are still runny in the centre, I could easily have taken 10 seconds off my time. If you want fast food, then I don't think anything can be cooked quicker than an omelette. A steak cooked rare perhaps, but here I am interested only in cost-cutting and time-saving.
Always remember, the nutritional value of meat has absolutely nothing to do with the price. What we pay for is more to do with speed of cooking than anything else. All meat becomes tender if cooked properly, the tougher (and cheaper) the meat, the longer it will take to cook. Often there is a lot more flavour than you get with the prime (and much more expensive) cuts, and ounce for ounce (any fat excluded from the weight) there is absolutely no difference in food value.

Today, still on a mission to prove that leftovers can make worthwhile dishes, we tackle the vegetables. Well, just a few as there is a mighty range of them. Many fall into the same category, brassicas for instance, so what suits one will suit another of that type.

This first recipe used cooked beetroot, either cooked from raw, or for speed use beetroot from those vacuum packs. With beetroot now seemingly added to the list of superfoods, we should eat more and drink their juice (mentioned in earlier postings sometime this last fortnight). Serving suggestions come from the American cookbook, so copy, or make your own choice from our more usual UK side dishes.
Main Line Beetroot Salad: serves 4
3 cooked beetroots, diced (about half a pint)
1 can new potatoes, drained and diced
OR 1 pint measure cooked potatoes, diced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 Little Gem lettuce
sour cream dressing:
2 tblsp mayonnaise
2 tblsp creme fraiche or thick yogurt
pinch salt
half tsp sugar (pref icing sugar)
half tsp made mustard (pref Dijon)
1 tsp vinegar
Put the prepared beetroot, potatoes, onions, celery and apples into a bowl. Prepare the salad dressing by mixing the dressing ingredients together. Pour this over the beetroot, and then fold into the other vegetables (mixing the beets with the dressing first helps to prevent the beets staining the rest of the veg). Chill well then serve in lettuce leaf cups.
Suggested serving: battered fish bites and buttered pumpernickel slices.

This next recipe is for another type of salad, this time one set in jelly. Sounds very strange, but these can be very good to eat. Children might also eat vegetables they would normally refuse, when served this way, and the choice of vegetables can be easily altered to suit. It would also work with a lime or orange jelly, according to what veggies are used. But for this recipe, stick to using a lemon. In light of what was written about beetroot juice earlier, you will see it is included in the recipe.
Beetroot Salad Ring Mould: serves 4 - 6
3 cooked beetroots, diced
1 packet lemon jelly
8 fl.oz (1 cup) beetroot juice and/or hot water
2 tblsp wine vinegar
juice of one orange
salt and pepper
2 ribs celery, diced
2 apples, peeled and cored, diced
2 tblsp chopped nuts (opt)
2 tblsp chopped chives
Little Gem lettuce, or other crispy lettuce
Dissolve the jelly in the hot beetroot juice/water. Add the vinegar, orange juice, and a shake of salt and pepper. Mix together thoroughly and chill, until just beginning to set, then fold in the beetroot, celery, apples, nuts and chives. Turn into a wetted ring mould and chill until set. Turn out and serve with the centre filled with crispy lettuce which has been dressed with a mayo dressing (or use the one from recipe above).

Now to the broccoli. In one of yesterday's dishes, left-over broccoli was one of the ingredients, but we need more ideas, so here are some more:
Hubbly Bubbly Broccoli: serve 3 - 4
about 15 little florets of cooked broccoli
Boiling water
3 tblsp butter
3 tblsp flour
12 fl.oz (1 1/2 cups/350ml) milk
3 tblsp sherry
salt and pepper
3 oz grated cheese (pref Gruyere)
Pour boiling water over the broccoli to heat it up and leave to stand while making the sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook for one minute, then gradually add the milk and sherry whisking until smooth and thickened. Season to taste.
Drain, then arrange a layer of broccoli in a small greased ovenproof dish, cover with the sauce and sprinkle with a bit of the cheese. Repeat the layers until the dish is full, and finally sprinkle over remaining cheese (adding more if necessary). Finish off under the grill, and serve hot when the cheese is brown and bubbling.

Broccoli with Horseradish Cream: serves 2 - 4
enough leftover broccoli to serve two or three
1 tblsp butter
4 fl.oz (1/2 cup/125ml) creme fraiche
1 - 2 tsp horseradish sauce (according to taste)
half a tsp mustard (pref Dijon)
salt and pepper
1 tblsp breadcrumbs
Melt the butter in a pan and saute the broccoli until heated through. In a small pan put the creme fraiche, the horseradish sauce and the mustard and a little salt and pepper and heat through. Place the broccoli onto a serving dish, cover with the sauce and sprinkle over the breadcrumbs. If there is any butter in the pan left from sauteing the greens, drizzle this over the crumbs. Grill for one minute, then serve.

Leftovers don't have to be a sorry state of affairs, you have only to try this next recipe to see what can be done with them. And it doesn't have to be broccoli, almost any vegetable could be used.
Gourmet Souffled Broccoli: serves 3 - 4
half pint measure (at least one cup) cooked broccoli
3 tblsp butter
3 tblsp flour
4 fl oz (125ml/half a cup) single cream
4 fl oz (125ml/ half a cup) good chicken stock
4 egg yolks, well beaten
1 tsp grated onion
1 tsp finely chopped parsley
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
pinch each salt, pepper and nutmeg
4 tblsp grated hard cheese
4 egg whites
Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the flour, cook for one minute then gradually stir in the cream and the stock and heat (BUT DO NOT BOIL) until thick and smooth. Remove from the heat.
To the beaten egg yolks, stir in the onion, parsley, W. sauce, and the three seasonings. Then fold this into the thickened sauce in the pan. Chop the broccoli fairly finely and stir this into the mixture along with the cheese. Whip the egg whites until stiff, then carefully fold a little into the broccoli mixture to slacken, then lightly, very lightly, fold in the rest of the whites, taking care not to lose the air beaten in.
Pour into a buttered souffle dish and bake at 200C, 400F, gas 6 for 25 minutes. Serve immediately.

This recipe makes use of left-over sweetcorn , although I usually serve only what I need using canned or frozen corn. However, sweetcorn is a good store-cupboard standby (canned sweetcorn) so worth including this recipe. Again, other vegetables could be substituted for the corn.
Blue Mountain Eggs: serves 4
1 can sweetcorn, drained
6 rashers bacon, cut in half
1 tblsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped or grated
1 tlsp chopped parsley
half a red and half a green bell pepper, finely chopped
dash tabasco or chilli sauce (opt)
4 eggs
salt and pepper
Fry the bacon until crisp, then remove and keep warm. Add the sweetcorn and the butter to the bacon fat, then stir in the onion, parsley, and peppers and keep stirring until cooked and beginning to brown. Drop in the eggs, one at a time, scrambling them around with a fork, mixing them into the veggies, until just set. Season to taste. Serve with bacon strips on top.

Running out of time as I have an early appointment. So my final recipe is a way to use left-over carrots:
Curried Carrot Fritters: serves 4 - 6 as a side-dish
about 16 fl.oz (450ml/2 cups) cooked carrots, finely chopped
8 fl.oz measure (1 cup) flour
1 tsp baking powder
good pinch salt
1 tblsp curry powder
1 egg, beaten
6 fl oz (3/4 cup/175ml) milk
oil for frying
1 lemon, cut into 4 or 6 wedges
Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Beat the egg into the milk and blend this into the flour. Beat until smooth and free from lumps (pour through a sieve if lumps are a problem). Add the prepared carrots. Put oil to the depth of 1/2" into a frying pan and when hot, drop in spoonfuls of the carrot batter, spacing well apart, and fry until golden, turning once. Drain and serve with lemon wedges.

Must dash. Another lovely sunny day. Hope you all enjoy it. Looking forward to hearing from you.

More Pot Luck

Thank you for your comments which I will deal with first.
Sharron (a new reader to this blog I believe, so welcome) mentioned an article wtitten some many years ago: How to feed a Family of Four on £24 a Week. Yes, Sharron it was one of mine, and yes I still have the copy (it was in Family Circle). A reader had asked me the very same question many months before, and looking back, I see it was exactly a year ago today that I gave details of the recipes in the article. So if you go over to Archives (right hand side of the page) and click on February 2007, scroll down to the 12th February you will see the first mention, and the following 13th, 14th, 15th Feb 07 also contains much of the info given in the article.
If you Sharron, and anyone else interested in cost-cutting, another Challenge I set myself was to feed my husband and myself for 10 weeks for £250 (which sounds an enormous amount, but works out at only £12.50 per head per week. To do this type of Challenge, it helped to build up a store cupboard at the start (everything was bought to keep within the budget, and if already in stock (sugar flour etc) was costed as 'bought'). All the details of the Challenge was written down, from the first mention - on November 20th 2006, to actual shopping lists - Dec. 18th 2006, and after Christmas, when the Challenge began properly (around 1st Jan. 2007). It carried on step by step until, very annoyingly I had to go into hospital in March. But by then the challenge was just about over, with plenty of food left for that missing week, so easily worked out to prove it could be done.
Obviously what we like to eat is not what anyone else may wish to cook, but there was ample food to make a wide variety of meals, and as details were given, it proved that you don't need to spend a lot to have good meals. The only thing you do need is some time to prepare, for much of it relies on home-cooking. Even so, I didn't seem to spend that much time as I like to keep all my recipes easy to prepare and quick to cook (discounting casseroles which can cook all by themselves). Attention-seeking dishes I can do without.

Reading through the earlier postings (2006/7) am beginning to feel those first few months were full of far more hints and tips that I have managed to offer during these recent months. There has to be a limit to knowledge, so always worth scrolling back to the beginning and whizzing through to see what is there. Having said that, there is always something new to chat about, so keep reading the old with the new.

On to Trudy who sent a comment re cabbages, and enjoyed making the stuffed cabbage (recipe posted yesterday). This seems to be cabbage season of year and I must try more varieties, as I tend to use only mainly the firm white cabbage and the red variety. Over-boiled dark green cabbage reminds me of childhood, when all vegetables were cooked within an inch of their lives. Now we have learned to cook veggies to just about al dente stage, and how much better they are for that. Even better eaten raw. It is only potatoes and sweet potatoes, that I believe need to be cooked.

Someone mentioned rice flour, was it you Valerie? If not, hopefully the reader who sent the query on how to use it will be reading this. When scrolling back I discovered recipes which use rice flour can be found on Nov. 30th 2006.

The comment sent from Donna is asking what to do with a glut of parsnips. Thanks to my son, who set it up for me, I was able to bring up my recipe index data base, type in parsnip, and it came up with the dates of all recipes previously posted as having parsnips as a main ingredient:
during 2007:
roast parsnip and cheese soup: 25th October
parsnip soup: 19th & 22nd October
maple syrup glazed parsnips: 20th October
parsnip and carrot mash: 19th October
mushroom and parsley herby pie: 19th October
parsnip hash browns: 23rd September
lentil and parsnip roast: 2nd July
and in 2008:
parsnip open tart: 30th January
parsnip patties: 31st January
Other recipes for casseroles etc, may, and some certainly will, have parsnips as one of the ingredients, but not listed as the main ingredient.

Carrying on with ideas to use leftovers, today deals with leftover chicken (or turkey). Being American based, I have had to use fluid ounce measurements to equal the cup measurements. So just fill a pint glass jar to the fluid ounces amounts needed.
(Interestingly, the book stated that 'a cup' equals half a pint - which in this country is not the same. In the US a pint is 16fl.oz, in the UK it is 20 fl.oz), so anyone converting recipes should bear this in mind and remember that one cup = 8 fl.oz.)
Chicken Brunswick: serves 3 - 4
16 fl.oz measure (2 cups) cooked chicken
1 can condensed mushroom or celery soup
2 fl.oz (1/4 cup) white wine
4 fl.oz measure (1/2 cup) crushed cornflakes plus 2 tblsp
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
salt and pepper
Blend the soup and wine together, add the chicken and half the cornflakes (you could use crushed crisps instead), add the eggs and season to taste. Place in a greased shallow casserole and sprinkle remaining cornflakes (crisps) on top. Bake for 20 minutes at 190C, 375F, gas 5.

Mexican Chicken: serves 3 - 4
16 fl.oz measure (2 cups) cooked chicken, cut into large chunks
1 tls butter or oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
half a green and half a red bell pepper, finely diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
4 oz (100g) mushrooms, chopped
2 tblsp flour
8 fl. oz (1 cup) water or chicken stock
8 oz (225g) chopped tomatoes
2 tblsp chopped parsley
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp chilli powder (or more to taste)
salt and black pepper to taste
Put the oil in a pan and saute the onions and pepper until softened, adding mushrooms and garlic towards the end. Then blend in the flour. Add the stock, and rest of the ingredients, stirring gently until slightly thickened and the sauce is smooth. Place the chicken in a shallow casserole and pour over the contents of the pan. Bake at 200C, 400F, gas 6 for half an hour. Serve with salad and crusty bread.

This next is a cold dish, but before I start the recipe, must mention a useful way to use up cooked turkey.
Cut into chunks and bind with a sauce made with a can of drained tuna, blitzed with enough double cream (add a little mayo if you wish) to make a binding sauce. This is good cold party dish eaten with a rice salad.
Superior Chicken Salad: serves 4
about 1 pint measure (2 cups plus) chunks of cooked chicken
4 fl.oz measure (1/2 cup) celery, sliced
same amount of carrot matchsticks
same amount of green bell pepper, minced
same amount of mayonnaise
3 spring onions (scallions) finely chopped
2 tlsp double cream
1 tblsp vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 Little Gem lettuce, cut into chunks
Put everything except the lettuce into a bowl and toss together. Chill for at least half an hour, then immediately before serving, add the lettuce chunks and toss again.

The final poultry recipe today is for left-over turkey, but would work just as well with chicken. Practically all the ingredients are 'store-cupboard' foods, so an easy one to put together.
An Easy Turkey Dish: serves 4
cooked turkey (or chicken) - at least 12 fl.oz/1 1/2 cups, diced
8 oz (225g) broccoli (fresh or frozen) cooked
1 tbls butter, melted
3 tblsp grated cheese
3 tblsp sherry
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
salt and pepper to taste
Place the drained broccoli in the bottom of a greased casserole. Drizzle over the butter, sprinkle over one tblsp of the cheese and add 1 tblsp of the sherry. Top with the turkey or chicken. Stir the remaining sherry into the condensed soup and pour this over the cooked meat, then sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Bake at 189C, 350F, gas 4, for about 20 minutes or until piping hot and the cheese has melted and turned golden.
Suggested servings: with boiled rice OR on slices of hot toast with a side dish of tossed green salad.

Beloved has now returned home, brown as a berry from sailing and subathing around the Canaries. So cooking will start again in earnest. I have been snacking too much and am sure I have gained a lot of the weight I have lost. Being on my own for one week (the first week I cooked my socks off for my friend who stayed with me) did not inspire me to cook a 'proper' meal, despite having all the necessary in the fridge, freezer and storecupboard. Have to admit to making do a lot of the time with cheese on toast, sarnies and more sarnies, soups and toast, marmite on toast, bananas on toast, until eventually the bread ran out and I couldn't be bothered to bake any. Then moved on to several pasta dishes (quick-cook pasta, stir in some garlic and herb Philly cheese to make the sauce, add some sliced mushrooms...). I ate quite a lot of salads and cheese and loads of tomatoes (which I love). Think I did cook some lovely chunky oven chips one night and had them with a (bought) Chicken Kiev from the freezer. Or was it two. Good anyway.
Knowing how to cook, and actually wanting to cook, do not always go hand in hand. On your own it seems more of a chore, cooking for someone else is always a delight.

Have not yet been downstairs but I bet you that in the middle of the hall, sitting on the rug, will be Beloved's assorted suitcases. They are not in the bedroom. Bless him, things are back to normal again. Must toddle down and start the day as I mean to go on. Cooking up a feast. On the other hand, perhaps we might have Chinese takeaway tonight. I have missed that.
Must stop rambling, it's a very bad habit to get into.
Back tomorrow.

Making the Most of It.

Thanks for comments, and so pleased it is Monday again, always the time when I look forward to the week ahead, knowing that something new will be learned. Good news on the house front, the prospective buyers came to view again, loved our house even more. So an almost certain sale, subject to their own being sold, and hopefully no long chain behind that. I loved the people, and feel we will be leaving our house in very good hands.
Having happily nodded off in my chair after their visit, the doorbell went again and it was a further viewing that someone had forgotten to tell me about. Interesting listening to their comments, more about houses in the area that they had just viewed, much higher priced than ours and not as nice as ours. Maybe we will have more than one family wanting to buy. I think our house flooded with sunlight, yellow daffodils happily nodding in every reception room, kitchen and on the half-landing windowledge, made the place look so welcoming.

Whilst the viewing went on, I kept myself busy looking through the cookbooks I had kept, and found an excellent one, published in this country around the 1950's, but certainly earlier in America, for the measurements were again, in cups. But this book was different in that it dealt with using up the leftovers of almost everything, plus a few basic recipes.
The author, in her introduction, recalls how "... she and seven other people sat round a table to eat a Chinese dinner, and were served forty-three different dishes at the one sitting. Obviously, it was a matter of a small taste of each one, but the cook then asked everyone what the main ingredients were. No one could agree, and the hostess, at the end of the discussion said that she had served only one main ingredient - chicken - but cooked in forty-three different ways."

This really is a lesson in itself, to show that leftovers needn't always end used the same way. As the book says - "start creating and it can be table-top magic". The advice following was to actually plan to have leftovers gaining both economy and time. Something I believe I have advised in the past - cook once, use twice.

Leftovers, together with a few staples: onions, sugar, flour, rice, pasta etc. can make umpteen different meals. But not only that. Today we have the great advantage of using a much wider variety of vegetables than we cooked with around at that time (in this country at least), so now we can mix and match to our heart's desire. Pot-luck recipes such as these are always flexible, so we can add or subtract according to what we have.

With Marjorie's query of using up cooked roast beef, still at the front of my mind, I began reading the leftover meat chapter, and found several recipes well worth following, which can be adapted according to the wishes of the cook. The amounts of meat are fairly minimal, so if you want to get rid of extra, why not chuck it all in and adjust the rest of the ingredients. So here come recipes selected for you Marjorie, and hope you (and everyone else) will find them inspiring enough to try them out:

Beef in Barbeque Sauce: serves 4
16 - 20 fl oz measure (a good 2 cups) 1" cubes roast beef
4 fl oz (1/2 cup) Worcestershire sauce
same amount of tomato ketchup
1 spoon made mustard
4 soft rolls
thinly sliced raw or fried onion
Arrange the beef in a shallow baking dish. Mix together the W.sauce, ketchup and mustard, and pour over the meat. Bake at 190C, 375F, gas 5 for about 40 minutes, turning the meat two or three times during the cooking. Serve on split roll with the onion.

The next recipe I have drastically adapted to avoid making the slightly complicated white sauce using canned consomme with flour. Also omitting Worcestershire sauce which I would never add to a strogonoff. Instead I would make it using a condensed (undiluted) mushroom soup with some added creme fraiche or (traditionally) sour cream. At a pinch you could omit the mushroom soup altogether. The choice is yours.
Beef Strogonoff: serves 4
1 thickish slice of roast beef per person cut into thin strips
plain flour
2 tblsp butter
3 onions, sliced
1 can mushrooms, drained (or 1/2 pint fresh mushrooms, sliced)
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 can condensed mushroom soup
3 tblsp sherry
5 fl oz (1/2 - 3/4 cup) creme fraiche or sour cream
salt and pepper
Saute the mushrooms and onions in the butter for five minutes, then stir in the garlic and cook until the onions are turning golden. Dust the meat with a little flour then add this to the pan and cook for a further minute. Stir in the condensed mushroom soup and the sherry. Heat thoroughly, season to taste and add the creme fraiche/sour cream just before serveing. Heat through and serve with plain boiled rice.

Stuffed Beef Slices: serves 4
4 slices roast beef 1/2" thick
four slices each thinly sliced ham and/or Swiss cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 slice bread, crumbed
3 tblsp oil
1 tblsp butter
1 tblsp flour
8 fl oz (1 cup) beef stock (can be made using a cube)
salt and pepper
grated cheese (optional)
Cut a pocket down the side of each slice of meat. Stuff a slice each of ham and cheese (or just cheese) into each pocket and close tightly, threading with a cocktail stick to keep it pinned together. Dip into the egg and then the crumbs and fry until brown. Remove from pan and keep warm. To the pan add the butter and stir in the flour, cook for one minute then whisk in the stock until thickened. Season to taste, simmer for 2 minutes to remove taste of the flour, then return the meat to the pan. Heat through and serve, sprinkled with the cheese (if used). The suggested serving is kidney beans and a salad. But am sure you will have a better suggestion.

Beef stuffed Peppers: serves 4
1/2 pint (275ml/1 1/4 cups) diced roast beef
4 green bell peppers
2 eggs, beaten
8 fl oz (225ml/1 cup) milk
pepper and salt
1 small onion, grated
1 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp mustard
dash cayenne powder
2 tsp chilli powder (optional)
2 slices buttered bread, crumbed
boiling water (approx 1 cup/8fl oz/225ml)
Cut the tops from the stem ends of the peppers. Remove seeds and fibres. Parboil for 4 minutes, then drain.
Prepare the filling by mixing the eggs with the milk, onion, parsley, mustard, cayenne, chilli powder and season to taste. Stir in the meat. Fill peppers to within 1/2" of the and top up with the buttered breadcrumbs. Place in a baking dish and pour round the boiling water. Bake at 350C, 180F, gas 4, for about 40 minutes, until the peppers are tender and the filling is firm.

Often people who refuse curries, will often enjoy this soup, despite it having curry powder as one of the ingredients. Alternatively use a little chilli powder or ground cumin , in either case start with a small amount, taste and then add more only if you feel you or your family would accept it. It is the heat from the spice that makes this soup taste so good, so a little spice is better than none at all.
Mulligatawny Soup: serves 4
3/4 pint (2 cups minimum) diced or minced roast beef
3 tblsp beef dripping or oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely diced
1 turnip, finely diced
2 green apples, finely diced
2 tblsp flour
2 tsp curry powder
salt and pepper
2 pints (5 cups) boiling water
1 tblsp chopped parsley
few thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
Saute the onion, carrot, turnip and apples in the dripping (0r oil) for about 10 minutes or until tender. Add the meat and stir together. Sprinkle over the flour and curry powder. Stir for one minute then add the water and herbs. Stir until thickened and simmer gently for five - ten minutes, season to taste. Remove bay leaf before serving. Serve hot, in individual bowls with a side dish crusty bread.

The following recipe uses more than one lot of leftovers. If you grate your own cheese and keep it in the fridge or freezer, have some tomato puree in the cupboard or freezer, then this can be assembled in minutes. As it bakes in 7 minutes, the only time 'wasted' is waiting for the oven to heat up. You could possibly heat the main casserole up in the microwave, then add the cheese topping and brown it off under the grill instead of baking.
Neapolitan Meat Pasta: serves 4
Left over pasta to feed four (spaghetti or penne is best)
12 oz (350g/1 1/2 cups) finely diced or minced roast beef
2 tblsp tomato puree
5 fl oz (150ml/ 1/2 cup) boiling water
1 beef stock cube
grated cheese
Blend the stock cube with the water and the tomato puree and mix that into the meat mixture. Sprinkle the bottom of a greased shallow casserole with some grated cheese, add a layer of meat, then a layer of pasta, and repeat with cheese, meat and pasta until all used up. Top with grated cheese and bake for 7 minutes at 200C, 400F, gas 6 until bubbling and browned.
tip: if keeping some cooked pasta, drain well then drizzle with oil and give it a good shake before chilling or freezing. Run hot water through it to separate before using.

This is a version of Dolmas: the stuffed vine leaves, and this is a particularly good way to use the (perfect) outer and dark leaves from cabbage which are often discarded. Caraway seeds go very well with cabbage, so if you have them, worth using.
Stuffed Cabbage Leaves: serves 4
about 8 oz (225g/ 1 cup) minced cooked beef
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tblsp parsley, finely chopped
2 tblsp breadcrumbs
half a tsp dried mixed herbs
good pinch caraway seeds (opt)
salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
8 large cabbage leaves
boiling salted water
4 fl oz (125ml/ 1/2 cup) white wine, or chicken or veg. stock
Mix the meat with the onion, parsley, breadcrumbs, dried herbs, caraway seeds, and some salt and pepper to taste. Blend in the egg.
Use only perfect cabbage leaves (to prevent the filling oozing out of any holes) and par-boil in the water (just enough to cover the leaves ) for five minutes. Drain and pat dry. Place a heaped tablespoon of the mixture on each leaf. Fold sides to middle, then one flap over t'other. Put fold side down in a shallow pan, packing them in tightly, and add the wine or stock. Cover and simmer gently for 25 minutes.
Suggested serving, boiled rice with a jug of hot tomato sauce for pouring over.

This final recipe is for stuffed zucchini (courgettes to the Brits), but I would think it would work just as well with either aubergines or use one small (deseeded) marrow which can be sliced for serving. Ponder over the recipe and decide the best way to deal with it.
Stuffed Zucchini: makes 16 halved courgettes/zucchini
approx 1 cup (8 oz/225g) minced roast beef
8 small zucchini (courgettes)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tblsp grated cheese (opt)
pinch nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 slice bread, crumbed
2 tblsp olive oil
1 tblsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tblsp tomato puree
8 fl oz (1 cup) beef or vegetable stock
Halve the zucchini (courgettes) lengthways. Using a small knife, and taking great care not to break the skins, carefully remove the insides.
Mix together the meat, egg, cheese, bread crumbs, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. When thoroughly mixed stuff the mixture into the zucchini skins. Melt the oil and butter in a frying pan, and when hot, brown the onion. Stir in the stock and the tomato puree. Cook for a couple of minutes then carefully place in the stuffed shells. Cover and simmer gently for about 25 minutes, adding a little hot water if necessary.
The suggested serving is buttered sweet corn and hot cross buns. Yes, well - it's their suggestion, not mine.

Now I have got my teeth well and truly into (no pun intended) making the most of leftovers, you can be sure more will be following, using other meats, fish and or vegetables during this coming week. If you have a particular meat or surplus of something or other that you wish to use up, send me a comment and I will do my best to accomodate your needs.
Oh, yes - fingers crossed I will get plenty of requests, so I feel a good(e) week coming up. Looking forward to chatting with you again tomorrow.

Be Prepared

Comments to reply to are queries by Donna (yogurt), and Marjorie (uses for roast beef). Recipes for these will follow the end of my 'chatty bit'. Hope your computer gremlins get sorted SweeterRita, it might be a virus causing the problem. These are easily removed (I understand) by someone who knows all about it.

The complete index of recipes needed updating, so details of where to find each month's recipes throughout the time this blog has been active will be at the end of today's posting. Each set can be highlighted then printed off, and no doubt computer literate readers will then manage to get them in alphabetical order along with the date they were published. I had to rely on my son to do this for me, and it is a great help when trying to find recipes in a hurry.
When I first began this blog I did not realise how popular it would become, so did not initially think about a recipe index. So it was some time before I managed to work through and make a list. Now, I make it easier for both myself and readers, by writing up the new recipes at the end of each month (or very early during the beginning of the following month).

Yesterday I leapt upon my TV supplement with glee, wanting to read all about How to Cheat at Cooking with Delia Smith. Have to say I was at first dumbstruck. In the Daily Mail itself there was a double page feature about Delia and her life, and her new book, so I began to understand how the series and book was aimed more at the working population, who had no time to cook and who had previously relied mainly on ready-meals. This will be the series to get them back to home-cooking, the time-saving way. Applause for that.

Then I discovered, after reading the first selection of recipes and shopping hints and tips, that many of the ingredients used were those bought ready-prepared up to the point of cooking: such as mashed potatoes, grated cheese and packs of fresh vegetables already shredded, chopped and diced. Quality counts, which is why the can of minced lamb was bought from M & S. This was time-saving to the extreme, and certainly a great way to start (if you can afford to). There was much good advice re using the freezer wisely, and I look forward to reading more next week.

But then my warped and twisted mind started asking: How much more would the ready-prepared cost? How much more packaging will there be to dispose of? How much more time will be taken shopping around (as advised) looking for the best? Does it take so much time to cook and mash our own potatoes (a doddle when you microwave a jacket potato then mash the flesh), grate our own cheese (fill a boxful in a very few minutes, less time if using a processer), shred our own cabbage (less than a minute by hand) , chop our own onions (again easy peasy)? Will cheating at cooking be counted as home-cooking, or will it be more an assembly process to getting a dish onto the table? On the other hand, maybe one thing will lead to another. If so, then hats off to Delia.

It has to be said, I tend to look at things always from the pauper's angle, from the life-style of someone who has never 'gone out to work' in the normal way (although some money was earned with later-in-life media work), and so has - during the raising of children- always struggled to make ends meet. I find it very hard to understand how money earned could be wasted buying the ready-prepared when we can save so much easily doing it ourselves. Delia admits to having a housekeeper, not cooking much herself (her husband does most of the cooking) and am pretty sure she has plenty of money. So she looks at it from an entirely different angle, and probably I am too old-fashioned in my outlook.
Even so, I do admit to having many 'prepared' foods in my stores: canned plum and chopped tomatoes, jars and cans of curry sauces and pastes, bottles of mayo. Dried pasta in all shapes and sizes. I am not fanatical about making everything myself, although I believe in trying to make nearly everything at least once, even if never again. Who knows when the knowledge might be needed? What I do believe in is cutting the cost of a meal rather than spending more just to make life that bit easier. Cooking does not have to be difficult or time consuming as I hope I have proved over these many months.

Often I wonder what 'real life' is like these days. I ask myself: Unless in highly paid work, how much of the working wage would a young mother manage to keep for herself once the nursery fees are paid, the cost of transport, extra clothes and make-up needed, fitting in the shopping with the extra expense of the ready-meals or quick-to-cook ingredients that need to be bought because there is no energy left to cook from scratch. Precious little in some cases. Is it all worth it? Nowadays, we tend to rely on others far more than in 'the olden days'. Knowing how to sew, knit, crochet (learned at my mother's knee) saved me so much money I wonder why youngsters are not taught these skills at school. Is carpentry still taught in schools? Certainly it would things easier for the DIY buffs. These skills are still used, needed and should still be taught.

Going out to work is maybe more a case of keeping an identity than filling the family coffers (unless you work for a family firm). That I can understand. It was only when I began doing the TV that I began to be me again, not just my children's mum and my husband's wife. And that felt pretty good. Trouble was I couldn't stand the stress, so now I am back, stuck firmly in my kitchen rut, but still keeping my identity. And enjoying every minute. 'Get a life' doesn't always suit everyone.

Back to the reason I am here. To fulfill your needs (patronising or what?). Seriously though, for Marjorie I have come up with some suggestions and one recipe (more will follow this coming week). Meat loaf seems a possibility; beef spread another (mince the cooked beef, blend with some softened butter and plenty of seasoning: salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste), pot up, pour melted butter on top to seal. It will keep with the seal intact in the fridge for a week or two, but best stored in the freezer in small containers. Use spread on toast or in sarnies.
As spag.bol meat sauce is made by first frying raw minced beef, then I see no reason why minced roast beef should not be fried, just long enough to reheat, then added to the remaining ingredients and cooked on in the normal way. Similarly this could work with chilli con carne. And don't forget Cottage Pie, the one dish for which minced roast beef is famous for (minced cooked meat in gravy topped with mashed potatoes and baked until the potatoes are golden).
Another thing I do with cooked roast beef is to slice and freeze it with its own (cold) gravy, ready to be reheated and served with vegetables, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. Other slices (without gravy) are frozen in small packs for easy thawing, ready for making sandwiches, or to include with the rest of the meats (ham, sausages, chicken, pork pie etc) for what we call my Cold Meat Platter.

Bubble and Squeak (named after the sound it made when frying) used to be popular with London's poor in the 19th century, but before that there was a more upmarket version made with slices of roast beef, either placed on top or layered between the vegetables. Today Bubble and Squeak is often served on Boxing Day with cold turkey.
Bubble and Squeak with Roast Beef: serves 4
12 oz (350g) cold roast beef
3 oz (75g) beef dripping or butter
3 onions, peeled and chopped
salt and pepper
1 lb (450g) cooked and mashed potatoes
6 oz (175g) cooked cabbage or brussel sprouts
Cut the beef into strips about 2" x 1" (5 x 2.5cm). Fry the onions in 1 oz (25g) of the dripping or butter, until light gold. Using a slotted spoon, remove onions and keep hot. Using the same pan, fry the beef for 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Season the meat to taste, remove from the pan, cover and also keep hot.
Put the potatoes into a bowl and mix in the shredded cabbage or sprouts. Melt half the remaing dripping in the pan and put in the potato mixture, pressing it down to fit the pan. Fry for a few minutes until golden underneath. Loosen the Bubble and Squeak with a fish slice and slide it onto a plate. Put a plate over the top and invert so that the cooked side is uppermost. Put the remaining dripping into the pan, and slide the Bubble and Squeak back into the pan to fry the underside to golden.
Serve the Bubble and Squeak on a hot plate, and top with the onions and finally the meat. Alternately, make double the amount of Bubble and Squeak , fried separately and kept hot to sandwich together with the meat and onions. Serve with a good beef gravy.

When it comes to making yogurt Donna, have to admit I do favour the EasyYo method, although I used to make it the more traditional way one upon a time. Basically, this was heating a pint of milk to just above blood heat then stirring in 1 good tblsp of living yogurt (although it seemed to work with any plain yogurt). The more yogurt you add the thicker it will be. Or strengthen the milk by stirring in some dried milk powder. Always let the tablespoon of bought yogurt come to room temperature or it will cool down the milk too much. Once made pour into a wide-mouthed thermos (preferably warm it up first by pouring in boiling water, leaving it to stand for five minutes, then pouring out the water then pouring in the made yogurt mix).
Fit on the thermos lid,lwrap the whole thing in a woolly scarf or something, then keep in a warm place for 8 hours (top of c.h.boiler or airing cupboard, or over a radiator). By then it should have set. When set keep it chilled in the fridge and make the next batch of yogurt using a tablespoon or two of the home-made. After about six batches have been made, it may begin to get a bit thin, so start again with another bought yogurt.

There is quite a yogurt club amongst the readers of this blog, so am sure several of them will come up with some tips for you. Look through the comments box over the next few days. If clicking onto an individual day (via the archives) the comments will come up in full view below the published page.

Now to the updated indexed recipes, these you will find as follows:
2006
Sept; Oct; Nov; Dec; all on 31st August 2007
2007
January: on 4th Sept o7
Feb; March; April; all on 6th Sept 07
May; June (parts 1 & 2); 7th Sept 07
July (parts 1,2,3) and August; on 8th Sept 07
September (parts 1 & 2) 30th Sept 07
October (parts 1 & 2) 23 October 07
October (part 3) 31st October 07
November (parts 1,2,3,4) :30th November 07
December: 1st January 2008
2008
January (parts 1,2,3) 5th February 08

Index for Media Moments given on 6th September o7

Face just about back to normal, sun is shining, only one viewing this morning (our prospectives making a return visit), and my new delivery of groceries to play with. Could be a fun day. Hope you all have a good day too.

More Fast Food

Welcome to Mrs. Rosemary, a newcomer to this site, maybe others also for I have found once it has been mentioned in the moneysavingexpert.com forum the hits rise dramatically. I really should check and see who has written what, but seem to have trouble sorting out that site.

Reading through another of my books (Have a Goode Year), and looking up what might traditionally be eaten at this time of year, I came across the following speedy dish under the section called Fast Food. The intro to the recipe is worth sharing again, but if not interested in history, you can skip that bit. I quote:

"Up to the days of Good Queen Bess, fast days were common. As well as the main fasts of Lent and Advent, each Friday and Saturday - later also Wednesday - was a day of abstinence from meat. These fast days were known as 'fish days' as fish was the obligatory food.
During the sixteenth centry fish was given up in favour of eating other 'fast foods' , although many people still avoided eating meat. This led to muttereings along the coast as fishermen felt they were being done out of good business.
Now, because the navy was recruited from the fishermen, it made political sense to pass an Act of Parliament to bring back eating fish on fast days. The official reason was that it was good for men's souls, but also helped to conquer the Armada.
Today 'fast food' means a quickly prepared dish, and - as you can't get anything much speedieer than a fish dish - it is still an appropriate name."

The above was followed by this and another fish dish. The first is as written, although today I might change it somewhat, perhaps serving the dried fruit and nuts as a side dish. Maybe adding the lemon zest to the rice to give it a bit of a zing. The curry powder and paste would probably be stirred in after the onions are cooked, and before the mushrooms (I might even leave the mushrooms out and add more apples and fish) and I would choose a mild curry such as Korma. So let's think of it as a dish to experiment with.
Hurry Curry: serves 4
8 oz (225g) long-grain rice
2 oz (50g) butter
2 onions, chopped
2 oz (75g) mushrooms, sliced
1 tblsp curry powder or curry paste
8 fl.oz (350ml) water
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2 tblsp mango chutney
1 oz (25g) each, sultanas and peanuts
12 oz (350g) cooked flaked cod or haddock
salt and pepper
Cook the rice in the usual way (I do one measure of rice to 2 measures of water less four tblsp). While the rice is cooking, melt the butter in a frying pan and saute the onions for 5 minutes, then add the mushrooms and fry for a further 2 minutes. Stir in the curry powder or paste. Fry for one minute more then slowly pour in the water, lemon rind and juice. Add the apple, mango chutney, sultanas and peanuts and cover the pan. Simmer for five minutes.
Flake the fish, removing any bones and skin, and add to the curry. Season to taste. If too dry add a little more hot water. Simmer for 10 minutes and serve with the rice.

This second fish dish takes only 20 minutes in the oven after the fish and potatoes have been cooked (this part could be done earlier in the day ready for a quickie supper). This could be prepared in total earlier in the day and kept chilled. If so, bake to make sure it is heated through. If making from scratch, where the fish and potatoes, sauce etc will be hot to start with, then just finish off under the grill. In the original recipe you will see I faffed about with removing slices from the lemon so that they could be served as a garnish with the dish, which may look good, but not much use as they can't be squeezed. Now I have a lot more sense. It would have to be lemon wedges or none at all. Suggest just cutting the lemon into six wedges, then cut two of the wedges into three and use those bits to flavour the stock. Or just use a small lemon, chop it up and use it all to flavour the stock and forget the wedges.
Mariner's Delight: serves 4
4 cod or haddocks steaks
water
1 lemon
1 1/2 lb (750g) potatoes, peeled
a little butter and milk
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 oz (25g) each butter and plain flour
1 tblsp tomato puree
2 tblsp sweet corn (canned or frozen)
3 oz (75g) Cheddar cheese, grated
Put the fish in a pan and cover with water. Remove four thin slices from the lemon and put to one side, then chop up the rest of the lemon and add to the fish. Cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the potatoes and mash with a little butter and milk. Beat in the nutmeg and season to taste.
Remove the fish from the poaching liquid (reserve this) and peel off any skin. Lay the fish in a shallow greased baking dish and sprinkle over the thyme (you could use parsley if you wish).
Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook for one minute, then slowly whisk in enough of the fish stock to make a pouring sauce. Mix in the tomato puree, the sweet corn, and half the cheese. Pour over the fish.
Pipe (or spoon) the potato around the sides of the dish and sprinkle this with the rest of the cheese. Bake at 200C, 400F, gas 6 for 20 minutes. If you prefer, cover the entire dish with the potato mash and finish off under the grill until crispy and golden.

Going back to times past, you would wonder how the fish was kept fresh when transported from the coast to the middle of the country. The fastest way in those days was by horse and cart I suppose. Perhaps the fish was salted or smoked, and certainly fresh-water fish would be caught and eaten away from the coast. I remember once, when I was working nights as a bar-maid, in a country pub (once a coaching inn), one of the regulars from the village gave me a whole pike he had caught that day. Everyone knew we were raising three (at that time) small children on a fairly low income, so I got given fish, smoked sausages, fruit from orchards etc. The other, younger, barmaid (who had just come from a finishing school in Switzerland), got given boxes of chocolates, perfume, one customer gave her a watch set in a gold ring then set her up in a flat. Have to say, at that time, looking at the fish that night, which was lying in the bath (where I had put it, covered in cold water on my return), I really wished I was younger, richer, and had a sugar daddy. I'd even settle for a box of chocolates.
When Beloved gutted the fish, there was another smaller, complete fish inside which the pike must have just swallowed. Although everyone says that pike flesh tastes 'muddy', ours certainly didn't and it was so huge, the flesh kept us in meals throughout the week and tasted wonderful, the texture seemed a bit like plaice. The one 'luxury' we had allowed ourselves was a fridge, in those days not so common as now, and so we had little wasted food.

Watching cookery programmes over the past few days I was pleased to see Rick Stein using dried tangerine peel in one of his casseroles as I remember, some weeks back, suggesting drying the peel for that very reason.
Also trailers are now being shown re Delia's forthcoming new 'How to Cheat at Cooking' series, although I was slightly aghast as how seeing tins being opened, including canned minced lamb. I cannot believe that Saint Delia would use canned minced meat, but let us hope How to Cheat won't turn into costly-to-make-meals (I still shudder when I think of Nigella's Express relying so much on the canned and ready-made). Mind you, if I could afford to buy so many fresh foods ready prepared I am pretty sure I would do as she did, now and again. Luckly I have never been able to afford tom because if so, I wouldn't be sitting here chatting to you.

Today I look forward to reading the Daily Mail (being delivered with my grocery order), and see what Delia has to say in the cookery supplement. Delia, bless her, will no doubt turn up trumps and I will just pout and wish I'd said it all first. In my golden days of my TV cookery, I was once given the title of The Poor Man's Delia Smith, and have never been quite sure whether that was meant to be a compliment or not.

Yesterday I was moaning about my face swelling up, and maybe because of the pill I took, it did not progress right round my face this time, just swelling up one cheek and half my lip. But today, although my lip has returned to normal, my cheek is still swollen. Still, as it is now Saturday again, I am in moaning mode again -regular readers will know that Saturday is not the best day of my week.

Only one viewing today, as the second were coming from another part of the country and have had to change their time slot to another day. So at least I get the afternoon to myself. Tomorrow more viewings. It has got so that I make sure the house is completely tidy before I go to bed, so that if I wake late, I don't have it to do once I have finished writing to you. Such routine is no usual for me, but it is working well. But when Beloved comes back next week, no doubt there will be a lot more clearing up to do - each and every day. So had better make the most of my solitude.

Even though I began this earlier than normal, time has whizzed past again, I must stop padding out the recipes with bits from my past life. Just as well you haven't requested to hear any of my psychic experiences. Normally I steer clear of anything like that, but strange and stranger things have happened all through my life. They would fill a book all by themselves. But back to reality, and back with you tomorrow.

Preparing for Spring

A query re frozen yogurt from Cheesepare, prompted me to look up a recipe published in The Goode Kitchen. So that will be posted up today, with variations in flavour, plus a few more recipes using yogurt, taken from the same book.
That mention of cardoman seeds added to rice before cooking does give a lovely subtle flavour, I also add a couple of bay leaves, and - if possible, leave the rice steeping with the leaves and seeds for several hours before cooking.

Someone (sorry forgotten who) mentioned they couldn't get their home-grown garlic to flourish, it began OK then died off. Recently I have seen that the trick is to put the cloves in the fridge for a week before planting, then they should be alright. So try again.
Watching part of Jamie Oliver's cookery prog. last night, he was talking about rhubarb and asparagus. We have had our rhubarb for umpteen years, so will certainly be digging up a root to take with us when we move. Maybe dig it up now and plant it in a container. My dad used to grow asparagus, and the secret with that is to give it a drink of salty water now and then. Asparagus grows wild in coastal areas, so salt is something it likes. A good use for the salty water left over after boiling pasta. Otherwise just sprinkle a little household salt over the soil now and again. Mentioning salty water, it is said that potatoes, cooked in their skins, taste wonderful when boiled in sea-water. Pretty sure I read that first in one of Fanny Cradocks part-works.

Now is the time to starting thinking about seed-sowing. This was the time of year I would start off my herb collection on the windowsill, start sowing a few seeds of tomatoes, again rearing on the windowsill. This I can't do now as I need to keep the place looking good for viewers. At the moment my windowsills are full of vases of daffodils and it makes the place look as though spring has arrived.

Now to frozen yogurt. One of the easiest yogurt 'ice-creams' is to mix together equal quantities of lemon curd and thick Greek type yogurt, put into a container and then freeze.
Freezing yogurt on its own needs some experimentation. There is a certain amount of water in yogurt - this can be seen once a tub of Greek yogurt has been started, and after some hours, liquid collects in the well left by the spoon. This could cause ice-crystals. A way to stabilise yogurt is to heat it and stir in some slaked cornflour, bring it to the boil and then it resembles a type of yogurt custard, and this method is often used when adding yogurt to a savoury dish to prevent it splitting when heated.

When I make my soft-scoop ice-cream, it begins with the Italian meringue (beaten eggs whites with sugar and water boiled to the soft-ball stage), then half whipped double cream and half yogurt are folded in, together with any flavourings. This works very well, so perhaps all yogurt could be used, omitting the cream. Fruit yogurts would work particularly well.

My recipe for frozen yogurt uses gelatine to help stabilise, also the mixture needs beating at least once after a short freeze, but with an ice-cream machine this would not be necessary. Like many home-made ices, it needs to be brought out of the freezer for about 15 minutes to soften slightly before serving. Soft-scoop ice cream is like its name, can be served straight from the freezer.
Frozen Yogurt: serves 4 - 6
1 tsp powdered gelatine
3 fl.oz (75ml) evaporated milk
2 0z (50g) sugar
10 fl.oz (300ml) yogurt
half a tsp vanilla extract
Sprinkle the gelatine over a little warm water, and leave to soften. In a small pan, bring the evaporated milk to not-quite-boiling, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and the softened gelatine. Stir until the gelatine has completely dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the yogurt and the vanilla. Mix well. Cool until the mixture has started to thicken, then freeze.
After one hour, remove from the freezer and beat the mixture well, stir in any chosen flavouring (see below) and return to the freezer.
flavourings for frozen yogurt:
strawberry: add 4 oz (100g) pureed strawberries.
lemon : add the juice of 2 lemons, more if wished.
pina colada: add 4 oz (100g) crushed pineapple and grated coconut to taste.
blackberry: add 4 oz (100g) pureed fresh or frozen blackberries.
chocolate mocha: add 1 level tblsp instant coffee to the evaporated milk before heating, and one tblsp melted chocolate after beating the partly frozen mixture.

At the time of writing the book I was into cost-cutting with a vengeance, so tended to substitute real cream for the cheaper and lower-fat non-dairy version, which works very well in a recipe such as this.
Yogurt Fruit Ice-Cream: serves 4
8 oz (225g) pureed fresh soft summer fruits
sugar to taste
squeeze of lemon juice
10 fl.oz (300ml) thick yogurt
5 fl.oz (150ml) non-dairy cream
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
Put all the ingredients, except the egg whites, into a large bowl and whisk together to incorporate as much air as possible. Freeze until the mixture begins to solidify round the edges, then fold in the beaten egg whites. Return to the freezer. This needs to be removed from the freezer for 20 - 30 minutes before serving.

Soaking dried fruit in yogurt, such as sultanas, raisins, apricots etc., thickens the yogurt dramatically if left overnight, as the fruits absorbs much of the liquid, so ending up with almost a cheesecake texture which can be used, spooned over a biscuit crumb base, as a cheesecake in its own right, or instead, make this version of a curd tart. The mint is well worth adding, but can be left out if you wish.
Yogurt Fruit Flan: serves 4
10 fl oz (300ml) thick yogurt
dried fruits (sultanas, apricots, raisins etc)
1 tblsp fresh mint leaves, chopped
8 oz (225g) shortcrust pastry
2 eggs, beaten
sugar to taste
Stir the dried fruit and mint into the yogurt and leave to stand in the fridge overnight. Line an 8" (20cm) flan dish with pastry. Stir the eggs and a little sugar into the thickened fruit and yogurt mixture and pour into the pastry case. Bake at 190C, 375F, gas 5 for half an hour. Eat hot or cold.

This is a tip, again taken from the book. The advantage with quoting this and the above is that I don't need to ask the author's permission, because it's me.
A tip for making yogurt scones: Why not substitute a fruit flavour yogurt for the fat and milk in a normal scone recipe? It makes very light scones. Scones are always best when freshly baked, so I usually make up a large batch and freeze them uncooked, bagging up when firmly frozen. Then two or three or more can be taken from the bag to be baked in the oven when it is on for something else. No left-over stale scones. They can be baked straight from the freezer, but if so add a further five minutes to the usual baking time.

Always on the look-out for waste-not want-not ideas, I came across this old method of making your own fat for frying. Some time back I mentioned how chicken fat (saved from boiling the skin, and carcass of a chicken) is somewhat healthier than some oils, so why waste something we get for free. Fat prepared in this way can be used for making plain cakes, for making pastry (instead of lard) as well as for frying. Keep the fats from different meats separate. Pork (lard) and chicken fats are the best for cooking, beef 'dripping' is wonderful on toast and for roasting potatoes etc., ask you butcher for extra fat when buying your joint, and for the best flavour, pour this from the tin after cooking the meat. Meat jelly collects at the bottom of a dish of chilled dripping and this keeps perfectly as long as the fat is left intact. Once cut, use up the jelly, either adding to a beef casserole, or spread on toast, then melt and clarify the dripping if you wish.
To clarify and render fat for frying:
Trim the fat from the meat and remove any meat or discolouration. Cut the fat into small pieces and put into a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for half an hour. This helps to keep the fat white. Remove the lid, and keep simmering, removing any scum from the surface. Continue simmering, stirring occasionally, until the water has evaporated and the fat has turned to liquid, looking like a clear oil. Cool, the strain through muslin. When cold, and kept in the fridge, it will form a hard cake. Either keep in a container, or wrap in parchment. Chicken fat (just skim the chilled fat off the top of a bowl of made chicken stock then reheat and strained) is excellent for cooking and can be used instead of butter for frying.

Just to prove the point that lard can be used when cake-making, here is a recipe for Lardy Cake, which is more a loaf than a cake as we know it. Originally baked to celebrate the harvest, different regions have different versions, baking it as it should be with layers of the lard filling, others mix the filling into the cake. Traditionally the fruit is kneaded into the dough, but I have seen more 'modern' versions where the fruit is put into the filling. So plenty of variations to play with.
Harvest Lardy Cake: makes 2 loaves or 1 cake
1 lb (450g) strong white flour
half a tsp salt
1 oz (25g) lard
2 oz (50g) sugar
1 oz (25g) fresh yeast
1/2 pt (300ml) warm milk
8 oz (225g) currants
4 oz (100g) sultanas
for the filling:
4 oz (100g) lard
4 oz (100g) soft brown sugar
1 good tsp mixed spice
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and rub in the lard. Mix the sugar and yeast to a smooth paste with 3 tblsp of the warm milk. Stir in the rest of the milk and add to the flour. Mix very well to make a smooth dough. Put into a large greased bowl, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes.
Remove dough from bowl and place on a floured surface, knead in the dried fruit, then cover and leave to rest for a further 15 minutes. Roll out into an oblong 18" x 6" (45.5 x 15cm).
Mix together the filling ingredients and spread this over two thirds of the dough. Fold the unspread third of the dough over the middle third, then fold the remaining dough over this. Roll out to the size it was before, the roll up from the short end as you would a Swiss roll. Cut in half (making two pieces, 3" long).
Place each piece, cut side up in a greased 6" (15cm) round tin. Cover with greased clingfilm and leave to rise again for 45mins.
Bake at 200C, 400F, gas 6 for 30 minutes, removing the cake immediately from the tin and allowing the filling to ooze over the top and make a sticky glaze. Cut into slices and eat warm.
Cake variation: Instead of forming it into two rolls, repeat the folding process again, and then roll out the dough to fit a small square roasting tin and bake as a slab cake. Brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle over with sugar and bake at 190C, 375F, gas 5 until cooked.

Am not a happy bunny today as I could feel the right side of my face beginning to itch when I woke. I took an anit-histamine pill, but this hasn't helped and already my face looks as though I have a tennis ball inside one cheek. I can only hope it will get back to normal today as we have two viewings tomorrow (have managed to change the grocery delivery time to arrive after the first has left, giving me the chance to put everything away before the second arrives), plus another on Sunday a.m., but I believe the latter will be the daughter of the potential purchaser who wants to buy my glass fibre egg-shell revolving chair (c.1960 with original covers) she discovered in our loft when they first came to view.
My lip is now swelling up, so by this evening, it will probably have worked all the way round and both cheeks and both lips will be swollen, but hopefully by tomorrow most of it will have gone down again. Obviously nothing to do with food and I have tried to keep my pens away from my mouth, so who knows what is causing this. Thank goodness today will be visitor free and I will hide behind closed doors.

All being well, should be back with you tomorrow.

Long Life Food

Thanks Jacqui for mentioning the BBC mention of beetroot juice being good for blood pressure. I looked it up on their news website, and they gave lots of details, so if not too late to look it up, it is worth doing so. It seems to work with the saliva in the mouth which is then swallowed (so presumably won't work if drinking it through a straw) and after three hours shows a drop in blood pressure which lasts all day. They have only tested it on people with normal blood pressure, which seems a bit shortsighted. Far better to have tested it on people who have higher blood pressure I would have thought. Interesting though.

Yesterday morning, for some reason I switched on TV and watched a schools prog. on BBC2, all about the living conditions of the Mayas, Incas, Aztecs etc. The bit I managed to see was about the leaves from the forests being made for ropes etc. to make bridges, and also how many of the leaves had medicinal uses - and that a high percentage of the medicines in the world are made from these natural products (over here aspirin is made from willow trees, digitalis from foxgloves...). Truly this earth is self-supporting as it seems possible that almost every illness could have a natural remedy, if we knew what it was. So it makes sense to eat sensibly, for more and more discoveries are being made by the day about the benefits we gain by eating our five portions of fruit and veg. I did read somewhere that in the Med. they like to eat twelve portions a day. So the more variety we can eat, the better.
Beetroot is definitely going to appear more often on the plates in the Goode household.

Valerie, you mentioned using soya flour. Not sure how long the shelf life is for that, but check the b.b. date and if short, freeze some also. I have a recipe for making tofu using soya bean powder, so will pop that in today's posting and if the powder and the flour are the same thing, then you might like to have a go at making some. Soya flour was introduced to us during World War II, and - being high in protein - was often made into mock pork sausages, which were not liked at all. Since then we have become more aware of the potential of soya, and have learned how to use it properly.

Whether or not the rationing of food during the war years had more beneficial effect that we realise, it does seem that many children who were reared during that time, right up to their twenties before rationing ceased, are now the pensioners of today, living longer than generations before, and (I have heard) will probably live longer lives than the more recent generation who prefer to eat junk food. And yes, a lot could be to do with advances in medication, but it was only last year that I was ill enough to see a doctor. I had hardly any need for medical attention up until then, so maybe the early rations, and later eating mainly home-cooked foods had something to do with good health, Beloved also is extremely fit and has eaten the same sort of foods as I have done, most of his life.

In some ways this tofu is very similar to the Indian paneer, and can be used in the same way.
Tofu:
Mix one cup (8 fl.oz) soya bean powder with 4 cups of water and let it soak for half an hour, stirring occasionally. Then put the mixture in a pan, bring it to the boil , continually stirring, then let it simmer for five minutes. Turn off the heat and add 4 tblsp lemon juice. Stir until the protein begins to curdle. Once curdled thoroughly, tip into a muslin cloth and hang up to drip as if making cheese. When fully drained it should have formed a firm white curd with little taste. This will keep in the fridge for several days if kept covered with water.

This next dish is a version (or maybe the same) as Woolton Pie, the recipe being an adaptation of one from The Ministry of Food War Cookery Leaflets. Not enoyed at the time, for the folk then- who used to be great meat-eaters - felt deprived in none appeared on their plates. Yet today I have seen something very similar to this recipes in one of the glossy mags as a 'healthy vegetarian pie'. What goes around comes around you might say.
Vegetable Pie with Cheese and Oatmeal Topping:
1 1/2 lb (750g) cooked, mixed root vegetables
2 tblsp chopped parsley
1/2 pint (300ml) vegetable stock*
1 oz (25g) butter, softened
2 oz (50g) mashed potato
2 oz (50g) porridge oats
2 oz (50g) grated cheese
salt and pepper
water
Put the cooked veggies in a pie dish and sprinkle over the parsley. Add the stock and season to taste.
Mash the butter into the potato, adding a pinch of salt. Mix in the oats, flour and the cheese. Mix to a stiff dough with a little water, and roll the dough out onto a floured board and use to cover the pie, trimming the edges neatly. Bake at 180C, 350F, gas 4 for about half an hour, or until the pastry is golden. Serve with green vegetables.
*Note: In wartime the vegetable stock would be the water in which the veggies had been cooked. Nowadays we can add a cube or boullion powder to give more flavour.

This coming weekend I will be having a grocery delivery, stocking up with some goodies to welcome Beloved back home the following week. I have been making do, using up what I have in store, but have plenty left, so am having a bit of retail therapy this time including some of the more unusual foods that I would normally not order such as Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes, and prosciutto ham. I feel it is time to experiment more, and serve something different. There are times I get stuck in a rut when it comes to preparing meals. Obviously I have a goodly selection of recipes under my belt, so to speak, but Beloved has his favourites, so I tend to work through the lot and then start all over again. Methinks I should start serving new dishes, maybe include some different mushroom varieties instead nuying of just the value pack of the ordinary ones. Blow the budget just for once. Let's live a little, and hopefully, eating good food, live a lot longer.

The recipe below is one I will be trying. The stock could be vegetarian, but I came across a very good reipe for stock, which is said to keep well in the fridge, but can be frozen. The stock itself does not have a strong flavour, but adds richness to soups, stews and some sauces. The jellied stock itself can be used when making brawn or to top up pork pies.
Jerusalem Artichoke Soup: serves 4 - 6
1 lb (500g) jerusalem artichokes
1 1/2 pints water
1/2 pints stock (see recipe below)
1 oz (25g) butter
a little single cream
salt, pepper
pinch of nutmeg
Peel and slice the artichokes , put them in a large saucepan and saute them in the butter for 5 minutes. Add the water and stock and season to taste with the s.p. and nutmeg. Simmer for about 45 minutes until tender, then sieve (or process/sieve) and reheat very gently without boiling. Check the seasoning, serve in individual dishes and add a swirl of cream when serving.

This is what one might call an 'austerity' recipe, nevertheless a very good one. Worth making in large quantities as they say it keeps well in the fridge (I would suggest best kept with the fat set on top to give a longer lasting life) or freeze without the fat in small containers. Do not season the stock, season the dish in which it is to be used. If you smile sweetly at the butcher you may find you get the marrow bones sawed into chunks and given free. Also ask him to split the feet. In the early days of last century the beef marrow, taken from the centre of cooked bones, was spread on buttered toast and greatly enjoyed by gentlemen.
White Stock:
2 pig's trotters
marrow bones
water
Put the bones and feet pieces into a pan and cover with water. Bring this slowly to the boil, removing any scum. Refresh with a little more cold water, again removing any scum. When all the scum has been removed, reduce the heat and simmer for 2- 3 hours. When cooked, sieve and pour into a bowl and allow to cool (see recipe below to use the up the meat). The fat can be removed from the jelly if you wish, but keep the container covered and when using, always reboil and allow to cool down to the temperature needed.

Jellied Pig's Feet:
After straining the stock, remove and dice the meat from the trotters. Put into a small basin with some chopped parsley and season with a little salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour over enough stock to just cover and leave to set in a cold place. When set, turn out and eat as brawn.

The final recipe today has a hint of times past as it is an American recipe for cookies which, during World War II, were mailed to husbands and sons overseas because the cookies could travel a six-week journey by sea, still arriving moist and flavoursome. They got their name because more often than not, the Germans captured and ate them before they got to their destination. The weights are in US cups, 1 cup = 8 fl.oz by volume.
German Cookies: makes about 5 dozen
4 eggs
1 lb (450g) dark brown sugar
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour*
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
pinch salt
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup water
Beat the eggs and sugar together until creamy, sift the flour before measuring, then sift again with the cinnamon, cloves and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture. Add the walnuts, mixing well, then spread onto a greased 12" x 18" (30 x 46cm) rimmed baking sheet (or use two smaller baking sheets).
Bake at 190C, 375F, gas 3 for about 20 minutes. Immediately spread a glaze of icing sugar and water over the top. Cool, then cut into small strips.
*All purpose flour has more gluten in than our flour. To make something similar, mix two parts of plain flour to one part of strong plain (bread) flour.

Must love you and leave you, the phone keeps ringing so had better go down and check who it was. Maybe more viewing. Two lots coming this Saturday, what's the betting the groceries are delivered at the same time.

Colourways

Thanks Jacqui. for your smoothie recipe, one of the ingredients being beetroot juice. I have yet to experiment with smoothies, having yet only only blitzed together banana and milk . Tend more to process foods rather that use my blender, as the one time I tried to make a smoothie in front of a number of people, I had not screwed the top onto the bottom part securely enough so it all flowed out from under the goblet part, all over the work surface and floor. This unnerved me so much it put me off using the blender, although the few times I have since, for soups etc. it has worked perfectly. Having Jacqui's recipe has inspired me to have another go, although by the time I read the comment I had already used the beetroot juice, cooking it with some red cabbage, apples, sugar, vinegar salt and pepper and a little more water.

The beetroot juice added even more colour to the cabbage, and it really does make a lovely hot vegetable to serve with meats etc. I finished off the last of the red cabbage and ate it on its own, still hot, but am sure it would taste just as good eaten cold. Many recipes for cooked beetroot suggest adding a pinch of ground cloves, which I don't do as, surprisingly, there is always a hint of clove in the flavour. Where it comes from I do not know, but there is that subtle flavour and I see no need to add more.

Colour is so important when it comes to food. It can lift a flagging appetite, and plays an important part when it comes to preparing food to be photographed. Often I am sure some ingredients, such as coriander, are added later to a recipe, as the photographer finds it necessary to garnish the dish with something green. Nowadays 'the something green for garnish ' is normally coriander (or flat-leaved parsley), in the past it used to be curly parsley or strategically placed peas. As not a lover of fresh coriander, I take the inclusion of it in most recipes as the food stylist's 'additive', so feel quite free to alter the herb or leave it out altogether.

Red is another important colour. Take a look at pictures of most savoury dishes and red or orange appears somewhere. If not in the dish, maybe the tablecloth. The red is generally tomatoes, but it could be a sliver or two or red onion, or red or orange peppers. Crusty golden brown croutons also lift a dish composed mainly of green leaves. How often do we see a wedge of lemon garnishing a fish dish, included in the ingredients just because (perhaps adding a bit of the juice to make it seem worthwhile)? I have yet to see orange wedges or juice used with fish but it really works just as well. Perhaps because the oranges are larger and then you ask, what do I do with the half not used? This then becomes too complicated for the cook, so back to the lemons.

Strip a recipe to its main ingredients and although healthy and completely unnecessary to include anything else, it could seem quite bland, taking us back to memories of times past when the older readers will remember 'good plain cooking' was about all that was served. Garnish was usually thought of as something you left on the side of your plate, and that was therefore wasted. Nothing wasted in those days. Nowadays garnish is incorporated within as well as on the dish, so - apart from bay leaves - I think we can eat just about everything put before us. So we could, and I believe should, make a meal look as enticing as possible, easily done by just adding colour.

Picture this - a dish of hummous with some corn tortillas place around for dipping. Not very inspiring. Sprinkle a bit of paprika on top of the hummous and it is immediately improved. But move on to a large platter, perhaps with three dips: a beige hummous, a green quacamole, and a creamy white garlic and herb dip. Surround this with a selection of raw crudites: carrot strips, red, yellow and green strips of bell peppers, alternated with white button mushrooms, sticks of pale green celery, sugar snap peas, tiny cauliflower florets... and there is a burst of colour, looking almost too good to eat. Include small breadsticks or tortilla chips and you have just about everything, colour, flavour, incredible textures, and a really healthy dish to serve. There are endless dips that can be made, so wonderful party food as well as family fare.

If serving chicken breasts (or a vegetarian substitute), then perk 'm up by topping with a crust before roasting. This could be breadcrumbs blitzed with berbs of your choice and lemon zest (with a bit of lemon juice or oil to bind), or something even more colourful such as blitzed red pepper, parsley, and olive oil. Served with pasta or salad, you have a colourful and tasty dish.

The Spanish tortilla (their version of an omelette) is usually made with potato, onion and eggs. The following recipe uses sweet potatoes instead of the normal chunks of 'ordinary' potato. and the peas and tomatoes turn the tortilla into something resembling a tray of gemstones. Don't worry too much about the weights, one large sweet potato weighs around 12 oz (350g), but if it weighs more or less, who cares? Make up any shortfall using more of the remaining ingredients, or include something else with colour.
Sweet Potato and Pea Tortilla: serves 4
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
8 oz (200g) frozen peas
2 tblsp olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
6 cherry tomatoes, quartered
6 eggs, lightly beaten
Cook the prepared sweet potato in salted boiling water for 6 minutes, then add the peas. When the water has returned to the boil, simmer for a further 5 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and saute the onion until softened, then stir in the garlic and fry for 2 more minutes, then add the sweet potato and peas. Stir to get an even display of colour, then push in the tomatoes, also evenly spread. Pour the beaten eggs over the vegetables, shaking the pan gently, trying not to disturb the vegetables (mainly for appearances sake) so that some of the egg flows through to the base of the pan, then cook over medium heat for about 5 -6 minutes until set on the base, and almost set on the top. Finish off by popping under a pre-heated grill for 2 - 3 minutes until the surface has set and just turning golden. Cut into wedges to serve.

This next recipe has crispy bacon as an ingredients, but this can be left out and a vegetarian substitute used instead (do they do vegetarian bacon?), or garnish with strips of red bell pepper for a touch of colour.
Blue Cheese Pasta with Broccoli and Bacon: serves 4
12 oz (350g) dried pasta shapes (any kind)
12 oz (350g) broccoli, cut into florets
4 oz (100g) Stilton or any blue cheese, crumbled
6 rashers streaky bacon, rind removed
200ml tub creme fraiche
freshly ground black pepper
Begin by cooking the pasta in a large pot of salted, boiling water. After five minutes, drop in the broccoli and continue cooking for a further 6 minutes, or until both the broccoli and pasta are 'al dente'.
Meanwhile, grill the bacon until crisp and cut or break into pieces. When the pasta and broccoli are cooked, drain - reserve 2 tblsp of the liquid - and return to the pan with the liquid, the cheese and the creme fraiche. Season with pepper to taste. Stir over a low heat until the cheese has melted, and serve, sprinkled with the bacon or alternative garnish to your choice.

With a recent query on Creme Fraiche and 'uses for', I have hunted through my books and have found the following:
Higher in fat than soured cream, creme fraiche can withstand high temperatures (although there are low-fat varieties in the supermarkets). Creme fraiche also keeps longer than normal cream, up to three weeks (I have found it keeps even longer).
Other than using plain as a topping for something like fajitas, or dolloped onto a chilli con carne; used instead of whipped cream to serve with a fruit salad or hot fruit pie, try the following:

creme fraiche sauce: To make a speedy sauce, stir some Dijon mustard, and dried rosemary (opt), into some creme fraiche. Stir this into a pan of cooked new potatoes to serve with lamb.

creme fraiche dip: blend together some crumbled blue cheese, Dijon mustard to taste, garlic and chives.

creme fraiche pasta sauce: stir plenty of grated parmesan cheese (or finely grated hard cheese), a tsp or two of lemon zest, a little freshly ground black pepper, and pour over a pan of hot drained pasta. Stir/toss together over low heat until heated through, then serve.

creme fraiche omelette: beat a tblsp or two of creme fraiche into eggs when making an omelette.

creme fraiche scrambled eggs: beat a tblsp of creme fraiche into lightly beaten eggs before scrambling, this makes them extra creamy.


Time moves relentlessly on. I am beginning to be a mite concerned as to the early spring we seem to be getting for yesterday I found a butterfly desperately fluttering against a window trying to get outside. Do I feed it with dilute honey until the weather gets warmer, or do I release it to the elements when it will surely die? I will leave a dish of honey nearby to see if that helps to keep it alive, and also move my vase of daffodils in the hope it can feed from the pollen, if that is what they do.
As I look through the window in front of me, I see the sparrows holding bits from the pampas, preparing their nests. in the eaves on the house next door.

When we first moved here, nearly 40 years ago now, we had many varieties of birds in the garden, sparrows, blackbirds, chaffinches, thrushes, robins, bluetits, bullfinches when the apple blossom was out, wagtails occasionally, and others now forgotten. We still see the occasional wren. Now all we have are the blackbird, sparrows, and the ever-increasing hoards of collared doves (who nest in our spruce fir), magpies (who nest in one of our apple trees) and starlings who descend to peck at our apples. There was a sparrowhawk clutching a sparrow in its claws the other day by our gate. Is it the larger birds killing off the smaller ones, or is it because the dogs, we and our neighbours used to keep, have now gone, leaving the area full of cats who continually climb the trees and catch the birds? I do hope we can tempt a variety of birds in Morecambe to our birdtable once we have moved, I would be pig sick if all the birds that came to our table were seagulls.

Back tomorrow.

Think before you Throw

Have just completed the three sections of the January index which will appear under this posting, under its own title. Nearly 100 recipes for last month which was not bad considering I missed posting anything between 3rd to 12th inclusive due to the comp. crashing.
Being Pancake Day today, worth reminding you that the pancake batter, variations, and recipes can be found in last month's postings, on the 13th January (08).

The title today comes from me having a bowl of beetroot juice which came from a pack of vacuum beetroot. Too good to waste I thought, so must come up with some ideas. Maybe I will freeze it and find a use for it later. Also, when finishing up a jar of Peppadew, I find there is about a quarter of a jar of quite sweet chilli flavoured not-quite-syrup left in the jar, so I freeze that for later use. Mixed with tomato ketchup it does make a good dipping sauce, also good added to any cooked dish containing chopped tomatoes as sugar is generally added anyway to balance out their acidity. With the slight hotness from the peppers, it gives a pleasant bite.
Too sweet to use with soup, but excellent added to a chilli con carne.

There are so many things we discard that could have a useful life beyond the waste-bin. Even the jars themselves are recycled to hold preserves and pickles. Ah, yes - another thought, save the vinegar from jars of pickled onion, once the onions have been eaten, keep it in a bottle and use to sprinkle over fish and chips. Or just chips.

Defrosting our large chest freezer in the past (no longer with us and Boris defrosts himself somehow, we never see any ice at all), the ice crystals were scraped down to the base, any useful bits of frozen food (one sausage, four brussel sprouts, one chicken leg and so forth) which had fallen out of packs were thawed and made into something (usually for the dog when we had one). Some of the ice was packed at the base of a metal bowl, a smaller bowl put inside and crystals pressed very firmly down the sides, making an ice sandwich between the two bowls. This was then replaced in the freezer, and when needed (or even before) warm water would be poured into the small bowl, which could then be lifted out, and the large bowl dipped into warm water, leaving an ice-bowl which could be used as a container - if you use a deep enough pair of bowls, it could be used to chill a wine bottle.
Similar bowls were made with ordinary water, first freezing some in the base of the larger bowl, then sitting the smaller bowl on top with a weight inside to prevent it rising. Water was then poured between the bowls with flowers pushed down, pansies look really pretty (just take care to get them facing outwards if you can), but I have used all sorts of flowers from daffodil heads to rose buds, or fern leaves etc. Then freeze the lot. To remove the inner bowl, remove the weight, pour in warm water to release, and dip the outer bowl as above. Store the bag in a poly bag. Makes a good container to serve scoops of ice-cream.
The ice collected from a fridge when defrosted, can also be used to top up car batteries.

Following up yesterday's queries re rice flour, I have yet to find my gluten-free cook book which gives recipes using this flour, although I hunted everywhere. Maybe it is one of those books already packed away. But I have some useful info on this ingredient: it can be used as a thickening agent, in the same way as cornflour, blending with a little cold milk, stock or water and stirring into the very hot liquid. Stir well to make sure the rice cooks evenly. Rice flour is best used within its b.b. date. If not using often, store it in the freezer where it can be kept much longer. Use at room temperature when making cakes.
Rice flour can also be used in doughs, cakes and batters. In some recipes it can be used instead of cornmeal (which is not the same as cornflour), a variety of this being called polenta. It is also similar to a fine semolina (which is made with wheat), and the three can be used in much the same way. So the sweetcorn fritters (01/03/07) could be made with rice flour instead of cornmeal. If using in cakes and doughs, use about one third rice flour to two-thirds of the flour in the recipe, and if self-raising flour is used, then add some baking powder to give the necessary lift, the amount depends upon how much flour is used. A level tsp should be enough for an average cake.
A couple of recipes are given below using rice flour, so this should give a guide as to its potential.

The first recipe contains no flour, and no raising agent. The necessary lift is given by the beaten egg whites.
Rice Cake:
4 oz (100g) butter, softened
8 oz (225g) caster sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs, separated
8 oz (225g) rice flour
Cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Beat the egg yolks with the lemon rind, and then beat them, a little at a time, into the creamed mixture. Whisk the egg whites to firm peaks, but not overbeating, then fold them, alternately into the mixture with the rice flour. Carefully spoon the mixture into a greased and lined 7" (18cm) round cake tin (see note below for correct preparation of tin), and bake at 180C, 350F, gas 4 for approx 1 hour. When cooked, remove from the oven, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling down.
Note: the best way to line a tin is to cut a strip of paper for the sides about 2" (5cm) deeper than the tin. Cut up one of the long sides about 1/2" up and about 1/2" between strips (a bit like making a fringe). Grease the tin well, sides and bottom, then press the paper around the sides so that the cut bits at the bottom spread out flat over the base. Cut a circle of paper, grease both sides of this and press down to cover the cut pieces of paper. this makes a flat base and the paper fringe underneath stops any cake batter oozing under. Normally it is not necessary to grease both sides of the paper, but for this recipe make sure the paper is greased after lining the tin.
tip: save butter papers (if any butter is left on them) to use for greasing tins, and also for covering pieces of fish or similar in the oven (butter side down of course).

This dessert recipe comes from India, the name meaning 'creamed rice' .
Firni:
4 oz (100g) rice flour
1 pint (450ml) milk
4 oz (100g) sugar
2 tsp rose water
2 tsp flaked almonds
Blend the rice flour with a little of the milk, and heat the remaining milk in a pan with the sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil and immediately stir in the slaked rice flour. Keep stirring until it has thickened. Remove from the heat and leave to cool (to prevent a skin forming on top, see tip below). Stir in the rose water and spoon into individual bowls then chill. When ready to serve, scatter the flaked almonds over the top.
tip: to prevent skin forming on this or custard for example, either stir regularly as it cools, or cover the surface with a fitted sheet of wetted paper, or sprinkle over sugar to cover - which can be stirred in when ready to use.

The other week I bought a large plastic jar of red lentils from the Indian ingredients shelf in the supermarket, which worked out cheaper than buying them in the smaller packs, plus I gained a useful storage jar. So my final recipe is a very flavoursome lentil pate - one to add to the pate collection.
Lentil, Carrot and Lemon Pate:
4 oz (100g) red lentils, rinsed and drained
4 oz (100g) carrots, grated
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 " (2.5cm) piece of fresh root ginger, grated
1 tbls oil
half tsp turmeric
1 lemon
salt and pepper
30 ml tub creme fraiche or fromage frais
1 tblsp chopped parsley
Put the lentils in a pan, covering with plenty of water. Bring to the boil. Fast boil for 10 minutes, then add the carrots, cover the pan, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the lentils are soft.
Meanwhile, saute the onion in the oil until softened, then stir in the garlic and turmeric, fry for 2 minutes then add the zest of the lemon. Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
Drain the cooked lentils and carrots, place in a blender or processor with the onion mixture and 2 tblsp of lemon juice. Blitz to a puree. Season to taste. Fold in the creme fraich or F.Fraise, and pour into lightly oil ramekin dishes. Cover and chill for at least 6 hours (overnight is better) until firm.
To serve, sprinkle the parsley over the top of the pate and serve with crudites, breadsticks or melba toast.

Spoke to Beloved on the phone yesterday, he said it is blazing hot in the Canaries and he was intending to lie on the deck and sunbathe. Alright for some I thought. He told me to definitely accept the offer on the house (made while he was away) so I rang the estate agent, and now it is confirmed. We have a sale. Unless something untoward happens as it usually does. The estate agent still accepts bookings for viewings, so I have another lot coming tomorrow (or was it today?) - better make sure the house is tidy just to be sure.
Now I need to go down and put the bins out (Beloved's job), trundling the heavy one full of paper all down the wet drive in the rain is not going to be fun. They only empty the paper bin once every four weeks. The black (waste) bin is virtually empty. Am tempted to leave them, but better not.
Back tomorrow.

Jamuary 2008 recipe index parts 1,2,3

january recipe index part 1

Fatless Sponge Cake 01/01/08
Drop Scones 01/o1/08
Uses for canned new potatoes :
potato salad 02/01/08
roasted potatoes, 02/01/08
prawn and potato curry 02/01/08
gingered potatoes with tomatoes 02/01/08
Spanish tortilla 02/01/08
Carrot and Orange cake 02/01/08
Brandy Snaps 13/01/08
Bagels 13/01/08
Basic Pancake Recipe 13/01/08
variations on basic pancake recipe 13/01/08
Rum and Banana Pancakes 13/01/08
Comparison Pricings of meat and fish etc 14/01/08
Baked Chicken with Stilton and Walnuts 15/01/08
Chicken Tikka Pizza 15/01/08
Chilli Beef Pizza 15/01/08
Peppered Cod with Citrus and Coriander 15/01/08
Chinese Pork Broth 15/01/08
Chilli Stuffed Cabbage 15/01/08
Cheese and Mushroom Risotto Patties 16/01/08
Lamb Pilau 16/01/08
Chinese Beef with Sticky Rice 16/01/08
Swiss Plum Tart 16/01/08
Varieties of Cabbage 17/01/08
Green Soup 17/01/08
Goan Cabbage 17/01/08
Bubble with a Sweeter Squeak 17/01/08
Cabbage and Bacon Bake 17/01/08
Crab, Corn and Rice Timbales 17/01/08
Banana, Honey and Orange Cake 17/01/08
Black Forest Layered Dessert 17/01/08

january 2008 recipe index part 2

Hummus di Tahina 18/01/08
Guide to Pasta 18/01/08
Speedy no-cook Butter sauce for pasta 18/01/08
Roasted Vegetable Pasta 18/01/08
Tuna and Pasta Salad 18/01/08
Pork Meatballs in a Spicy Sauce 18/01/08
Lentil and Tomato Soup 18/01/08
Persian Pilaff 18/01/08
Couscous Salad with Chicken and cashew nuts 18/01/08
Assorted salad dressings 18/01/08
Naughty but Nice Palmiers 18/01/08
Not your Average Strudel 18/01/08
Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce 20/01/08
Savoury Souffle Omelette 20/01/08
What shall I call it Today? with Fried Eggs 20/01/08
Individual cheese souffles 20/01/08
Crafty Cookies 20/01/08
Herby Dough Balls 21/01/08
Garlic and Herb Cheese Bread 21/01/08
Sticky Fruit Buns 21/08/01
Cuts of Pork/ cooking temperatures 23/01/08
Pork Chops with Apples and Mustard Sauce 23/01/08
Country Cottage Pie 23/01/08
Pork Stuffed Mushrooms 23/01/08
Pork Tourtiere 23/01/08

january 2008 recipe idex part 3

Pheasant Patties 23/01/08
Cuts of Beef/cooking temperatures 23/91/08
Beef Olives 23/01/08
Pot Roast of Brisket in a Mustard Sauce 23/01/08
Stewed Shin of Beef 23/01/08
Cuts of Lamb/cooking temperatures 24/01/08
Lamb Salad with Mushrooms and Mint Dressing 24/01/08
Stuffed Lamb with Plums 24/01/08
Caribbean Lamb 24/01/08
Turkish Kebabs 24/01/08
Food for Babies 25/01/08
Pureed Fish 25/01/08
Chicken and Sweetcorn 25/01/08
Apple and Apricot Puree 25/01/08
Sausage and Pepper Pasta 27/01/08
Turkey and Potato Tetrazzini 27/01/08
Offal: various 28/01/08
Fried Sweetbreads 28/01/08
Steak and Kidney Pie 28/01/08
Ox Tongue 28/01/08
Saxe-Coburg Soup 29/01/08
Devilled Lamb's Kidneys 29/01/08
Collop Monday Supper 29/01/08
Gale Aerta (Danish split pea soup) 30/01/08
Potted Pheasant 30/01/08
Hashed Meat with Beans 30/01/08
Parsnip Open Tart 30/01/08
Creamed Button Onions 31/01/08
Parsnip Patties 31/01/08
Jam Roly-Poly 31/01/08
Suet Pastry 31/01/08
Nelson's Cake 31/01/08

Alternative Uses

Quite a few comments to reply to, and just a little more to add to the recent memories, as SweeterRita has awakened more memories. Thank you for sending those details. In a little box, I still have the cover of a ration book, and some points left in the points book, not to mention my very own Identity Card. Forgot to mention everyone had to have these during the war. The number on the card was then taken over by the NHS and appeared on my medical card. As to groceries, probably butchers and greengrocers also, the housewife had to choose the one they wanted and then register with them and have to stick with them throughout the period of ration books. Although if you went to stay someone else, maybe inland for a short holiday, you would give your ration book to the landlady, and she could cater for you buying the extra rations allowed.
The meat allowance, although seemingly cheap (everything was cheap in those days, I remember potatoes being one penny a pound when I was married, and that was in old money), was fairly adequate as it could buy 12 oz to 1 lb of the cheapest stewing meat, a lot less of the more expensive. I have heard that horsemeat sometimes appeared on butchers counters, but that is only hearsay. Although a larg family could stretch the meat allowance when cooked in casseroles, even maybe a chop each now and again, if you lived on your own (which was rare in those days - many people stayed at home until they were married), small rations meant it was really hard to manage. The British Restaurant helped to eke out rations, for mid-day meals could be bought there, but only two courses allowed, and well balanced meals they were despite being fairly small helpings and not a lot of choice. I think the meals cost one and sixpence in old money. Not sure.

Despite the hardship of rationing and all that went with it. Spirits were kept high, much due to Winston Churchill who gave some great speeches. The worst things, apart from anyone killed in the Blitz, was the loss of young servicemen, waiting for that telegram to arrive - either missing believed killed, or killed in action.
This servicemen still being at war today, it is perhaps no comfort to say that is the profession the young men have chosen, but in wartime there was conscription, and every fit young man was called to service whether he wanted to or not. If you refused to fight, maybe for religious reasons, you might perhaps be able to go into the medical section and help with the wounded, but otherwise you were sent to prison. Only those with health or sight problems could avoid conscription. There was one alternative, go down the mines and hew coal.
Even after the war there was National Service when every fit young man was obliged to sign up for two years and train in either the army, navy and airforce, maybe even the marines. Beloved was a National Serviceman in the air-force. It was just after he returned back home that I met him for the first time, wearing his 'civvy suit' (a suit given to every man as he left the service, I think there were only two types of fabric used in mybe two shades). We were going to a dance and I remember him phoning up in panic because he had been ironing his suit and scorched it, having not other he managed to borrow his brother's civvy suit and wear that. It looked very similar.
Servicemen who had been injured, wore a special uniform (once out of bed) in what was called Hospital Blue, a very bright deep blue colour.

With very few men left in the country, it was up to the women to take control of the wheel and machinery, driving buses, ambulances, driving tractors, working on farms, working in munition factories making shells.

We should not forget the prisoners of war. Many were brought to this country and kept in camps. I believe they were mainly Italian, and considering the life our POW servicemen had abroad, they had a very good life here indeed. Allowed out during the daytime to work on the farms, we even had some helping in our garden. They were really nice I remember. Later, when the Americans came into the war, they arrived in this country in great numbers, with a large camp a few miles away from where we lived. They did not seem (to me at least) to do much fighting as they were always seen riding around in jeeps, immaculately dressed, throwing sweets and nylons to the children and girls. I met one on a tram once, he gave me some chewing gum (I was too young for nylons I suppose). Our young men hated the GIs as they were called (saying they were: Overpaid, Oversexed, and Over Here ), as the Americans were flirting with all the girls and many left with them when they returned to America as GI brides. I do not know why the GIs were here, they didn't seem to do much fighting.

Closer to home, Beloved, who had four brothers and a sister, was born a year before me, so knew a bit about the war. Leicester was bombed he says proudly, I think they did have a couple or so, one on the park (possibly more, but then he should have lived in Coventry and then he would really know what it was like to be bombed). Not to mention other great cities like London, and any city such as ports, or industrial cities that the Jerries targeted.

Beloved'