Keeping Record
A welcome to Toria who has discovered my site through reading another, took a quick peek at the site she mentioned and it looks well worth a read. Am planning to work through it when I can grab a moment. Hope you continue with us Toria.
Don't know why I hadn't twigged it was the marrow in the bones that makes stock gel Jennifer, but pleased you gave this info for it is very useful. Often I reduce stock down just to get it 'thick' enough to gel, maybe to use for pork pies etc, but by breaking the larger bones am sure the stock will set even firmer. Thanks.
Doubt working on a (new) book will keep me away from this site Kathryn (and others who have also said something similar) as I cannot start the day without reading your comments and chatting back. Maybe my blog will be slightly shorter as I now have more writing I can get on with, but rest assured this site will keep going. With the mornings getting lighter, no doubt I will get up even earlier as have always found this is the best time of day to write, and in any case, the 'new book' is just a matter of compiling the best of "Taste the Goode Life" re0writing it, choosing the best recipes and putting them together with a lot more as yet unwritten, and so it is not like starting from scratch.
Your mention of darkening wood SweeterRita reminds me of how, in the olden days, people used to rub walnuts over light wood to darken it and help to remove scratch marks. Also there is talk of the 'dark' furniture (old solid oak etc) so often despised these days in favour of the lighter veneered flat-packs, soon being back in fashion again. No longer do we want furniture that needs constant replacing, nowadays it is 'green' to have furniture (or anything) that lasts. At the moment dark furniture can so cheap when bought from auction rooms and lasts just about forever. So, if living in an older house, always worth buying furniture this way, and even in the newer houses there are always smaller pieces that will fit it. When I think of how Beloved chose to put his grandma's little drop-leaf solid oak table (with barley twist legs) into an auction a couple or so years ago, so perfect for a smaller house such as the bungalow we will be moving to (only he didn't know that then) and which went for £35 - could just about cry.
A welcome also to Nicks who gave a nice mention of my banana bread, and on looking through my personal index believe the recipe in my book is the one shown on this site on 9th October '06. When I checked it appeared the same but noticed the recipe name was missing, but as it was the only recipe on that day it cannot be missed.
How lovely when a daughter makes something 'as good as mum's', even though at the time, you wish they hadn't been quite as good. There is nothing like wanting to still feel needed.
One other email that came in was from Tesco saying they had over 6,000 offers, but when I checked it went on to show only 100's of offers on foods, and the rest appeared to be reduced prices on other products, but have not looked further, and bet your bottom dollar when I get to the grocery section many of the the 'foods' will be either of the junk variety, or slide over into non-foods such as shampoo or something. Few offers are on products that we really could do with, but just enough to tempt us to start shopping, either on-line (where we need to spend quite an amount to warrant the cost of the delivery) or get us in-store (where we are tempted by seeing anything reduced).
When I first learned how to save money by cooking just about everything myself, it was because I kept a record of the meals I made (for 2 adult, four teenagers and one dog) and the food used from the storecupboard (for all I could afford to buy was one chicken a week - and that had to come out of family allowance which was a very small amount in those days), so knowing that eventually the stores would need to be replaced, it had crossed my mind I should know how much money I would need to do this when I next got paid my housekeeping (having already spent the current months before the month even started was what had put me in this predicament in the first place), and although I cannot now remember exactly WHY I kept notes, it was doing this that changed my life, for at the end of the month had discovered we had eaten far better meals than ever before but at half the cost of the normal food budget, and it was this discovery that led me to keep up the good work.
Many of the page-a-day diary's I still have from the late '70's - although later they did not cover food costings, and there were many empty pages, but the earlier books are still interesting in that the amount of money 'saved' each day (by making rather than buying) was listed, even though it might be only 3p. Other days it could be as much as £4. How this was achieved was also written down. The most details were always given in the earlier months of the year, possibly because I had plenty of stocks to work with - and this 'no-need-to-shop' during January has since stuck with me - but it was also good to read 'how-it-was-then' for there was a time (think in one February) when there was a lengthy lorry-drivers' strike, and other times food shortages (particularly potatoes), and how we all had to cope with this on top of everything else.
It was the high rise of the cost of potatoes that led me to begin serving rice and pasta far more often, and ever since then have rarely - if ever - served the boiled potatoes that previously would have been served with every main meal thorough the UK. When potatoes became cheaper again, and the discovery that eating 'plain boiled' had no real merit at all, this led to me serving them in other ways, in their jackets, creamed (luxury mash), small with skins left on, and roasted. Not forgetting the occasional chips. But plain boiled? Never again!
With the lack of potatoes - a truly British staple food - the other carbohydrates that took their place were so much enjoyed they have stayed with us since. Until then we had only had pasta in macaroni cheese or macaroni pudding, and as far as rice went, rice pudding was probably the nearest we got to it. Strange how we had got stuck in a rut - as most people do - until forced to change because of circumstances.
Circumstances are different now, but we can still change and try out new recipes, new foods, and how much more tasty and infinitely cheaper are the recipes that come from other countries who - in the past - have often been used to poverty so have learned to make the very best of the produce they have. We may not grow the same produce in this country, but they are imported, and even cheaper when we shop at ethnic shops rather than our normal supermarkets.
Back to keeping records. Perhaps now the blog has overtaken the handwritten diary. A diary being a 'log' of events, and the blog a short name for 'web-log', but will they remain for eternity, to still be read in a hundred or so years? The written word can last a long, long time, and can reveal so much of a life-style at the time of writing. Will our great, great grandchildren be interested in the credit crunch we are going through today? For that matter are our own children eager to know how things were for us during the war years? If only we had diaries that our own grandparents kept, how much we would feel they had left us a legacy of life they once had and would could experience it again through their own eyes.
Even now, when I look back on the one diary I kept - and that was 1952 - although it had little in it, some major events were written down. The King died (King George VI), and that was noted as being the day of our tennis club ball, so I was really miffed that it had to be postponed (teenage attitude - never mind the King, what about my dance?). It was the day I met the love of my life (during the October and yes, it was Beloved). During the early months was the first mention of an interest in food. There had been something on TV news of a Food Show in London (perhaps the first of its kind for rationing had only just finished), and at the time I wrote how good it looked (and considering it was in black and white at that time it must have been something to see).
Another entry, maybe a few years later when I was a bit pressed for time, decided I need to get into a routine to get all the housework and gardening done, so decided to do a 'time and motion' experiment. One evening go my diary and wrote down the jobs needed to be done the next day and the time expected to take to do each.
The day began with "6.30am get up then prepare breakfasts", "7.00am take the dog round the block while the family eat breakfasts", '"8.00am go up and make the beds/change the bed linen (as necessary)". "8.30am put the washing in the machine, also do the washing up of breakfast pots" etc. and so on through the day, ten minutes to do this job, twenty to do another, and because I had set a time, tried to keep well within it, saving a minute here a minute there. By mid morning had already managed to save 15 minutes, so got a coffee and sat with me feet up, feeling smug and that I had deserved it, and then up again to continue the chores. At that time I was really into self-sufficiency, so had the garden to deal with as well, but even that - perhaps because of the different approach - was dealt with far more efficiently.
Cannot say this perfect way was kept up, for very soon I fell back into my slobbish ways, doing only what I wanted to do when I felt like it. But it does prove a point. That we can do a heck of a lot more in the time we have than we think we can. Far too much time is wasted trying to avoid doing things, so although we never seem to have enough time to do half of what we want to, we really have all the time in the world.
There is nothing wrong in getting up half an hour earlier, and making a 'road-map' or 'time-plan' of work to be done the next day, it is surprising how much can be achieved.
In many ways this works exactly the same when home-cooking - just try asking ourselves "how much can be made for 50p" and if we bother to work it out (even better actually make it/them), we will be agreeably surprised, and do you know, this mention of making a 'time-plan' is exactly what I need if I am to get this book off the ground.
Time now for me to finish, for I have to leave the house in 15 minutes. Just time to say, that despite eating a lot more food over this last fortnight (mainly to try and keep warm) I had LOST the two pounds I had put on, so that is something positive, even though it only brought me back to what I was. Sadly my BP had gone up slightly (hardly surprising because the practice nurse was faffing about because she couldn't get the right cuff and when she did it wouldn't attach to the gadget properly) and this has led to me being advised to see the doctor again in case a change of pill was needed, the appointment being made in just under a couple of weeks. So that is about all the Goode life details I can offer up today. A life that can seem boring, but not to me it isn't, not while I have you to chat to.
Meet up with me again tomorrow - looking forward to it.
Don't know why I hadn't twigged it was the marrow in the bones that makes stock gel Jennifer, but pleased you gave this info for it is very useful. Often I reduce stock down just to get it 'thick' enough to gel, maybe to use for pork pies etc, but by breaking the larger bones am sure the stock will set even firmer. Thanks.
Doubt working on a (new) book will keep me away from this site Kathryn (and others who have also said something similar) as I cannot start the day without reading your comments and chatting back. Maybe my blog will be slightly shorter as I now have more writing I can get on with, but rest assured this site will keep going. With the mornings getting lighter, no doubt I will get up even earlier as have always found this is the best time of day to write, and in any case, the 'new book' is just a matter of compiling the best of "Taste the Goode Life" re0writing it, choosing the best recipes and putting them together with a lot more as yet unwritten, and so it is not like starting from scratch.
Your mention of darkening wood SweeterRita reminds me of how, in the olden days, people used to rub walnuts over light wood to darken it and help to remove scratch marks. Also there is talk of the 'dark' furniture (old solid oak etc) so often despised these days in favour of the lighter veneered flat-packs, soon being back in fashion again. No longer do we want furniture that needs constant replacing, nowadays it is 'green' to have furniture (or anything) that lasts. At the moment dark furniture can so cheap when bought from auction rooms and lasts just about forever. So, if living in an older house, always worth buying furniture this way, and even in the newer houses there are always smaller pieces that will fit it. When I think of how Beloved chose to put his grandma's little drop-leaf solid oak table (with barley twist legs) into an auction a couple or so years ago, so perfect for a smaller house such as the bungalow we will be moving to (only he didn't know that then) and which went for £35 - could just about cry.
A welcome also to Nicks who gave a nice mention of my banana bread, and on looking through my personal index believe the recipe in my book is the one shown on this site on 9th October '06. When I checked it appeared the same but noticed the recipe name was missing, but as it was the only recipe on that day it cannot be missed.
How lovely when a daughter makes something 'as good as mum's', even though at the time, you wish they hadn't been quite as good. There is nothing like wanting to still feel needed.
One other email that came in was from Tesco saying they had over 6,000 offers, but when I checked it went on to show only 100's of offers on foods, and the rest appeared to be reduced prices on other products, but have not looked further, and bet your bottom dollar when I get to the grocery section many of the the 'foods' will be either of the junk variety, or slide over into non-foods such as shampoo or something. Few offers are on products that we really could do with, but just enough to tempt us to start shopping, either on-line (where we need to spend quite an amount to warrant the cost of the delivery) or get us in-store (where we are tempted by seeing anything reduced).
When I first learned how to save money by cooking just about everything myself, it was because I kept a record of the meals I made (for 2 adult, four teenagers and one dog) and the food used from the storecupboard (for all I could afford to buy was one chicken a week - and that had to come out of family allowance which was a very small amount in those days), so knowing that eventually the stores would need to be replaced, it had crossed my mind I should know how much money I would need to do this when I next got paid my housekeeping (having already spent the current months before the month even started was what had put me in this predicament in the first place), and although I cannot now remember exactly WHY I kept notes, it was doing this that changed my life, for at the end of the month had discovered we had eaten far better meals than ever before but at half the cost of the normal food budget, and it was this discovery that led me to keep up the good work.
Many of the page-a-day diary's I still have from the late '70's - although later they did not cover food costings, and there were many empty pages, but the earlier books are still interesting in that the amount of money 'saved' each day (by making rather than buying) was listed, even though it might be only 3p. Other days it could be as much as £4. How this was achieved was also written down. The most details were always given in the earlier months of the year, possibly because I had plenty of stocks to work with - and this 'no-need-to-shop' during January has since stuck with me - but it was also good to read 'how-it-was-then' for there was a time (think in one February) when there was a lengthy lorry-drivers' strike, and other times food shortages (particularly potatoes), and how we all had to cope with this on top of everything else.
It was the high rise of the cost of potatoes that led me to begin serving rice and pasta far more often, and ever since then have rarely - if ever - served the boiled potatoes that previously would have been served with every main meal thorough the UK. When potatoes became cheaper again, and the discovery that eating 'plain boiled' had no real merit at all, this led to me serving them in other ways, in their jackets, creamed (luxury mash), small with skins left on, and roasted. Not forgetting the occasional chips. But plain boiled? Never again!
With the lack of potatoes - a truly British staple food - the other carbohydrates that took their place were so much enjoyed they have stayed with us since. Until then we had only had pasta in macaroni cheese or macaroni pudding, and as far as rice went, rice pudding was probably the nearest we got to it. Strange how we had got stuck in a rut - as most people do - until forced to change because of circumstances.
Circumstances are different now, but we can still change and try out new recipes, new foods, and how much more tasty and infinitely cheaper are the recipes that come from other countries who - in the past - have often been used to poverty so have learned to make the very best of the produce they have. We may not grow the same produce in this country, but they are imported, and even cheaper when we shop at ethnic shops rather than our normal supermarkets.
Back to keeping records. Perhaps now the blog has overtaken the handwritten diary. A diary being a 'log' of events, and the blog a short name for 'web-log', but will they remain for eternity, to still be read in a hundred or so years? The written word can last a long, long time, and can reveal so much of a life-style at the time of writing. Will our great, great grandchildren be interested in the credit crunch we are going through today? For that matter are our own children eager to know how things were for us during the war years? If only we had diaries that our own grandparents kept, how much we would feel they had left us a legacy of life they once had and would could experience it again through their own eyes.
Even now, when I look back on the one diary I kept - and that was 1952 - although it had little in it, some major events were written down. The King died (King George VI), and that was noted as being the day of our tennis club ball, so I was really miffed that it had to be postponed (teenage attitude - never mind the King, what about my dance?). It was the day I met the love of my life (during the October and yes, it was Beloved). During the early months was the first mention of an interest in food. There had been something on TV news of a Food Show in London (perhaps the first of its kind for rationing had only just finished), and at the time I wrote how good it looked (and considering it was in black and white at that time it must have been something to see).
Another entry, maybe a few years later when I was a bit pressed for time, decided I need to get into a routine to get all the housework and gardening done, so decided to do a 'time and motion' experiment. One evening go my diary and wrote down the jobs needed to be done the next day and the time expected to take to do each.
The day began with "6.30am get up then prepare breakfasts", "7.00am take the dog round the block while the family eat breakfasts", '"8.00am go up and make the beds/change the bed linen (as necessary)". "8.30am put the washing in the machine, also do the washing up of breakfast pots" etc. and so on through the day, ten minutes to do this job, twenty to do another, and because I had set a time, tried to keep well within it, saving a minute here a minute there. By mid morning had already managed to save 15 minutes, so got a coffee and sat with me feet up, feeling smug and that I had deserved it, and then up again to continue the chores. At that time I was really into self-sufficiency, so had the garden to deal with as well, but even that - perhaps because of the different approach - was dealt with far more efficiently.
Cannot say this perfect way was kept up, for very soon I fell back into my slobbish ways, doing only what I wanted to do when I felt like it. But it does prove a point. That we can do a heck of a lot more in the time we have than we think we can. Far too much time is wasted trying to avoid doing things, so although we never seem to have enough time to do half of what we want to, we really have all the time in the world.
There is nothing wrong in getting up half an hour earlier, and making a 'road-map' or 'time-plan' of work to be done the next day, it is surprising how much can be achieved.
In many ways this works exactly the same when home-cooking - just try asking ourselves "how much can be made for 50p" and if we bother to work it out (even better actually make it/them), we will be agreeably surprised, and do you know, this mention of making a 'time-plan' is exactly what I need if I am to get this book off the ground.
Time now for me to finish, for I have to leave the house in 15 minutes. Just time to say, that despite eating a lot more food over this last fortnight (mainly to try and keep warm) I had LOST the two pounds I had put on, so that is something positive, even though it only brought me back to what I was. Sadly my BP had gone up slightly (hardly surprising because the practice nurse was faffing about because she couldn't get the right cuff and when she did it wouldn't attach to the gadget properly) and this has led to me being advised to see the doctor again in case a change of pill was needed, the appointment being made in just under a couple of weeks. So that is about all the Goode life details I can offer up today. A life that can seem boring, but not to me it isn't, not while I have you to chat to.
Meet up with me again tomorrow - looking forward to it.
posted by Shirley at 6:56 AM
4 Comments:
Shirley
I can just imagine you setting up a 'going to work' routine where you go to work on your book.
OK. Boiled potatoes. How can we make them more interesting? That's got to be a good challenge.
I'd only straight boil floury potatoes, then perhaps add a little butter and chopped chives?
Of course boiled new potatoes are a different story.
I remember my grandmother never peeled her potatoes. They were served boiled, in their skins. Everyone then peeled their own potatoes and left the skin on the side of the plate. (This required fingers that were heatproof as the potatoes were v hot). More than slightly bizarre, but then she was a little strange in some of her habits.
Boiled potatoes, toss in some wholegrain mustard to serve with gammon?
I stopped keeping a diary when I was a teenager and discovered my mother was using it to snoop on me. Later in life I recorded significant events through quite obscure poetry that didn't reveal too much to anyone. I threw it all away when I 'reinvented myself' at the end of a relationship.
As for routines - when I was off with stress last year, one sign that I was finally recovering was when I established a routine - get up, housework (different rooms focussed on each day), out for one hour 'health walk', lunch, prep veg etc for dinner, then in the afternoon it was 'my' time for hobbies, shopping, gardening etc.
Yes, the house ended up v clean, the meals were all homemade and I decided I could become a housewife very easily indeed.
In Scandinavia boiled potatoes are always served with their skins on and peeled at the table to keep most of the goodness intact, which is directly below the skin. If you stab them with your fork then use your knife to peel them, no burned fingers :)
Hi, Shirley,
So glad to hear that you are thinking of updating 'Taste the Goode Life'. After all, what's good enough for Delia (re-issuing 'Frugal Food' 30 years on) is Good(e) enough for you! This is just the time when people are looking for guidance on how to make good, wholesome meals for reasonable cost. I really love the way you explain everything so clearly in the recipes and your 'chat' that accompanies them.
Pleased to see that you will still be chatting to us on your blog and wish you the very best with your book. I'll definitely be buying a copy.
Good(e) luck!
Stephanie
I'm another wanderer from the MSE Old Style forum! I remember finding your book when I was a student about 17 years ago. I'm looking forward to your new one.
Best wishes, Deborah
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