The good thing about the year drawing to an end is the food I cook to ward off the blues of the golden season!
I've been on one of my favourite sites 'Retro Food Recipes' (see my list of favourite sites below somewhere) and it's made me want to do all things creatively culinary!
I know Chicken Kiev is naff, likewise Beef Strogonoff and Lancashire Hot Pot but these dishes are so perfect in every way that I must make them immediately. I've made Chicken Kiev many times of course and it never fails to please, especially when the first puddle of hot garlic butter oozes out. I'm getting quite excited.
Reading 'Retro Food Recipes' has certainly got my juices flowing but it's not only the grub, it's finding out that my beloved Mary Berry wrote a book in 1977 called 'Day by Day Cooking'. I'm in a flap over this because I thought I knew all the books Mrs Berry had written. I've got some of them but this one is new to me. Gotta get it.
Some time soon I'll post a list of my favourite recipe books, it'll be a hotch potch list because I'm a hotch potch kind of cook.
Got womanly things to do today.
These womanly things consisting of:
Deciding which skirt to wear. Running the car engine for five minutes because I don't want to stall at the mini-roundabout again. Talking to pigeons. Packing a banana in my handbag in case I go a bit funny on the train.
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Yellow Rose Poem
I haven't written much poetry lately so this next offering came as a surprise to me. It's a little sad because I feel a little sad and I promised myself I wouldn't post anything maudlin, but emotions dictate otherwise. And there is indeed a flower in my front garden, not a pink rose like before, but a yellow one. It's scrawny and looks young and disappointed. Disappointed because it's missed the summer and now has to rest its delicate head on a brick wall.
Crouched, the single flower hovers,
between rampant old foliage
and
a freezing death
This beautiful flower
hangs its head
waiting like a frightened child
for the punch from Winters fist
My heart is out there with it
but can offer nothing but
warm tears
We suffer together.
Crouched, the single flower hovers,
between rampant old foliage
and
a freezing death
This beautiful flower
hangs its head
waiting like a frightened child
for the punch from Winters fist
My heart is out there with it
but can offer nothing but
warm tears
We suffer together.
Christmas Food and The Perfect Toad
Seeing as Christmas isn't too far away I thought I'd better make a start on the menus. Er...what? I say. Because as much as I like to think I'm adventurous I always end up making the same things.
And here they are:
Salmon Puffs. A recipe I cut out from 'Family Circle' magazine twenty years ago. They go well with a nice pint of Port. And are especially good when watching late night violent Christmas films.
Mincemeat Cake. A fabulous homely Krimble cake from my favourite cook, Mary Berry. As it's baking it fills the house with warm spicy aromas. It really does.
St.Stephens Pudding. A Delia Smith recipe and a pudding even my Christmas pudding hating Dad likes. He asks me every year to make one and lug it up to London, so they can re-heat it in the microwave. I do and they do. It's less heavy than the traditional Christmas pud and I serve it with custard. Never cream. Please don't fight me on this. OK?
Minestrone Soup. Yep. Soup. I make this on one of the days when I'm so zonked from shopping and erecting baubles that four pints of soup is all I can muster. Keeps us going for a couple of days. Serve it with a giant cheese scone. Well, six inches in diameter actually.
Sticky Toffee Cakes. These are fabulous. Similar to Sticky Toffee Puddings but these can be served cold as well as hot. They possess all my favourite things...Dates, coffee, brown sugar and cream. Eating this and I'm in puddingy cakey heaven.
Yule Log. Oh dear do I love that log. Made with chestnut puree and covered in whipped cream. I will not stick an inch of plastic holly in it like I did last year. No. I won't.
Mince Pies. Stupid. Always made in fluted bun tins. Always stick. Made with butter pastry instead of margarine pastry, it is Christmas after all.
Latimer Beef. Mary Berry recipe. Always have this Christmas Eve. Have braised red cabbage with it and jacket potatoes. I make this dish all year but it tastes nicer somehow with bits of tinsel floating on the top.
Cooked Breakfasts. Fried bread, black pudding, eggs, tomatoes and bacon. Maybe a giant flat mushroom too.
Trifle. Simple strawberry, but I do overdo it on the flaked almonds.
Glo cooks a lot and today is no exception.
Toad-in-The-Hole, made with decent bangers and quite a lot of onions. The one thing that drives me bonkers with Toads is the Battle with the Batter. Toad batter is notoriously difficult because it sometimes doesn't rise as much as Toadie lovers demand. It can be a bit flat in the centre and rise like almighty pillars at the sides. I used to stare at those pillars in disbelief. But then I found what I consider to be the perfect batter recipe. It's from a skinny flicked-to-bits paperback book called "Goode For One" by another fav cook of mine, Shirley Goode. The recipe serves One, funnily enough, but the batter rises magnificently if put in a smallish roasting tin. Thanks Shirl.
I always like to personalise recipes, put a little bit of me in it if you will. So when I make today's Toad, a spoonful of dried sage will go in the batter along with a chopped onion. But the most important part of the Toad is his sausage so I use the best I can get my hands on.
That's enough culinary for now.
Thank you.
And here they are:
Salmon Puffs. A recipe I cut out from 'Family Circle' magazine twenty years ago. They go well with a nice pint of Port. And are especially good when watching late night violent Christmas films.
Mincemeat Cake. A fabulous homely Krimble cake from my favourite cook, Mary Berry. As it's baking it fills the house with warm spicy aromas. It really does.
St.Stephens Pudding. A Delia Smith recipe and a pudding even my Christmas pudding hating Dad likes. He asks me every year to make one and lug it up to London, so they can re-heat it in the microwave. I do and they do. It's less heavy than the traditional Christmas pud and I serve it with custard. Never cream. Please don't fight me on this. OK?
Minestrone Soup. Yep. Soup. I make this on one of the days when I'm so zonked from shopping and erecting baubles that four pints of soup is all I can muster. Keeps us going for a couple of days. Serve it with a giant cheese scone. Well, six inches in diameter actually.
Sticky Toffee Cakes. These are fabulous. Similar to Sticky Toffee Puddings but these can be served cold as well as hot. They possess all my favourite things...Dates, coffee, brown sugar and cream. Eating this and I'm in puddingy cakey heaven.
Yule Log. Oh dear do I love that log. Made with chestnut puree and covered in whipped cream. I will not stick an inch of plastic holly in it like I did last year. No. I won't.
Mince Pies. Stupid. Always made in fluted bun tins. Always stick. Made with butter pastry instead of margarine pastry, it is Christmas after all.
Latimer Beef. Mary Berry recipe. Always have this Christmas Eve. Have braised red cabbage with it and jacket potatoes. I make this dish all year but it tastes nicer somehow with bits of tinsel floating on the top.
Cooked Breakfasts. Fried bread, black pudding, eggs, tomatoes and bacon. Maybe a giant flat mushroom too.
Trifle. Simple strawberry, but I do overdo it on the flaked almonds.
Glo cooks a lot and today is no exception.
Toad-in-The-Hole, made with decent bangers and quite a lot of onions. The one thing that drives me bonkers with Toads is the Battle with the Batter. Toad batter is notoriously difficult because it sometimes doesn't rise as much as Toadie lovers demand. It can be a bit flat in the centre and rise like almighty pillars at the sides. I used to stare at those pillars in disbelief. But then I found what I consider to be the perfect batter recipe. It's from a skinny flicked-to-bits paperback book called "Goode For One" by another fav cook of mine, Shirley Goode. The recipe serves One, funnily enough, but the batter rises magnificently if put in a smallish roasting tin. Thanks Shirl.
I always like to personalise recipes, put a little bit of me in it if you will. So when I make today's Toad, a spoonful of dried sage will go in the batter along with a chopped onion. But the most important part of the Toad is his sausage so I use the best I can get my hands on.
That's enough culinary for now.
Thank you.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Just What The Doc Ordered.
Just having a quick five minute sit down before I make a Tea-Bread.
Went to charity shop and was grabbed by the vases by a jolly talkative volunteer. When he saw what was in my arms; small rose embossed glass bowl, a grubby old 8 inch plastic Santa and a thick 10 inch Frankincense candle he made a merry quip about getting it all in for Christmas. I smiled weakly and sneezed over him. That shut him up.
Popped into Somerfields. Got bottle of seasonal bleach, whatever that is, and a piece of rump steak with a reduced sticker stuck on it. I'm happy:)
Now Tea Bread, curtains and glass of Port. Medicinal.
Went to charity shop and was grabbed by the vases by a jolly talkative volunteer. When he saw what was in my arms; small rose embossed glass bowl, a grubby old 8 inch plastic Santa and a thick 10 inch Frankincense candle he made a merry quip about getting it all in for Christmas. I smiled weakly and sneezed over him. That shut him up.
Popped into Somerfields. Got bottle of seasonal bleach, whatever that is, and a piece of rump steak with a reduced sticker stuck on it. I'm happy:)
Now Tea Bread, curtains and glass of Port. Medicinal.
Birds and Bowls
What with all the hullabaloo over 'The X Factor', (apparently it's fixed), the government's I.D. Card scheme (it's unwelcome) and the sudden snap of cold weather (it's winter, nearly) I feel like going back to bed and never getting up again. But I won't. Because even with all these awful things happening I still need to change the curtains, moisturize my legs and look for big bowls. Life goes on.
So after I've clambered on the sink bypassing Monty, I'll attempt and I do say attempt, attempt to re-introduce a cottagey feel to the kitchen with the re-introduction of a nice bit of net curtain and brightly coloured bowls set upon the windowsill. Then tea.
I'm not sure if I should go out today on account of me still bearing bravely a truly awful cold, had it for nearly two weeks and the blighter shows no signs of abating. Maybe I should pop to the shops and spread it around a bit!
What to cook tonight, now there's a question, probably plump for Chicken risotto followed by a good helping of steamed syrup pudding. I need to gain some weight you see, because yesterday I went into the garden and the sparrows laughed.
So on Glo's to do list:
Cooking a bird.
Stirring fattening mixtures.
Heading down with head down to the local shop.
Turning into a frilly housewife with big bowls and lacey curtains.
Scouring Monty's tum with a Brillo pad.
Tea.
Feeding Birds.
So after I've clambered on the sink bypassing Monty, I'll attempt and I do say attempt, attempt to re-introduce a cottagey feel to the kitchen with the re-introduction of a nice bit of net curtain and brightly coloured bowls set upon the windowsill. Then tea.
I'm not sure if I should go out today on account of me still bearing bravely a truly awful cold, had it for nearly two weeks and the blighter shows no signs of abating. Maybe I should pop to the shops and spread it around a bit!
What to cook tonight, now there's a question, probably plump for Chicken risotto followed by a good helping of steamed syrup pudding. I need to gain some weight you see, because yesterday I went into the garden and the sparrows laughed.
So on Glo's to do list:
Cooking a bird.
Stirring fattening mixtures.
Heading down with head down to the local shop.
Turning into a frilly housewife with big bowls and lacey curtains.
Scouring Monty's tum with a Brillo pad.
Tea.
Feeding Birds.
Monday, 24 November 2008
Desperate Housewife
Here I am goofing in the office nearly two years ago. I've put it on here because I need to see something funny on this bleak and dismal day.
I'm stopping now because this is supposed to be breezy blog, not a whining old blog. Er...I've got a cold and a backache. My left eye looks a bit odd. I'm fed up with Sainsbury's sending me money-off vouchers, just lower your prices you tight-fisted old crows. Monty is being an almighty pain in the neck today, he ran into the garden after seeing a pair if pigeons on the fence, he then got all wet and tangled in my Maple tree/shrub/bush. Silly puss.
I had four sausages in the fridge so I put them and two carrots and half a pint of apple juice in a big green dish, will casserole them for tonight. But I don't want them I want another curry.
I've cancelled an appointment with my hairdresser on account of two facts. 1. I'm in a right bad mood and 2. She talks too much.
Things I Love: Curry and Lipsticks.
Thank You Goodbye.
I'm stopping now because this is supposed to be breezy blog, not a whining old blog. Er...I've got a cold and a backache. My left eye looks a bit odd. I'm fed up with Sainsbury's sending me money-off vouchers, just lower your prices you tight-fisted old crows. Monty is being an almighty pain in the neck today, he ran into the garden after seeing a pair if pigeons on the fence, he then got all wet and tangled in my Maple tree/shrub/bush. Silly puss.
I had four sausages in the fridge so I put them and two carrots and half a pint of apple juice in a big green dish, will casserole them for tonight. But I don't want them I want another curry.
I've cancelled an appointment with my hairdresser on account of two facts. 1. I'm in a right bad mood and 2. She talks too much.
Things I Love: Curry and Lipsticks.
Thank You Goodbye.
Saturday, 22 November 2008
Silly Saturday
Just popped in to say I bought two hats today.
One is a very proper grey beret with a little winkle on the top and the other is a very naughty black trilby with no winkle anywhere.
I made a curry tonight and drank Port with it then I had chocolate now I feel glurky.
I need to get my hair cut.
Monty is asleep on a selection of box files.
"Take That" are guesting on The X Factor. I fancy Gary Barlow. I do not fancy the other one.
I saw the most fantastic Jasper Conran handbag today in Debenhams. It was so gorgeous and perfect I modelled it in front of a big long mirror but I had to put it back because it cost £75. And I only had £10.
The skin on my knees is very soft.
One is a very proper grey beret with a little winkle on the top and the other is a very naughty black trilby with no winkle anywhere.
I made a curry tonight and drank Port with it then I had chocolate now I feel glurky.
I need to get my hair cut.
Monty is asleep on a selection of box files.
"Take That" are guesting on The X Factor. I fancy Gary Barlow. I do not fancy the other one.
I saw the most fantastic Jasper Conran handbag today in Debenhams. It was so gorgeous and perfect I modelled it in front of a big long mirror but I had to put it back because it cost £75. And I only had £10.
The skin on my knees is very soft.
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