Foodie Friday: growing and cooking tomatoes, featuring Lindsay Bareham’s "The Big Red Book of Tomatoes"

I sowed my tomato seeds in early March this year, in the days which now seem like another world away.

This year they were Sweet Aperitif from Thompson and Morgan, my favourite little tomato of all time, which I buy every year, and for the first time, a selection of tomato seeds from the Sapore Italiano range from Blumen which I was given at a press day back in 2019..

I was impressed with a 100 per cent germination rate and such vigorous growth from every single plant. 

The San Marzano tomatoes have been so successful this year -  huge tasty tomatoes which I used in gratins and sauces. I'm definitely going to grow more of these next year, and can jars and jars of them to use in winter.

Meanwhile, the scintilla cherry tomatoes were prolific and  I used them in tomato tarts and eaten raw.

Ribelle tomatoes suit soups and are also good thrown on the griddle with a splash of oil to accompany smashed avocado on toast.

I grew the tomatoes in pots on the courtyard in full sun, and also on my allotment in raised beds. All of them did equally as well in both locations. So how have I been cooking them?

My go to book for more recipes, as always at this time of the year, is  "the big red book of tomatoes" by 

Lindsey Bareham. 

This is what I call a recipe book for life. A book to lose yourself in, to sit in a chair to pore over...with around four hundred, yes, four hundred recipes to drool over. There are recipes for every occasion, from tarts, gratins, soups and stews, to salads, ketchups and preserves for winter.

I've had this book for years - it was published back in 1999 by Michael Joseph - but its one I've returned to again and again, especially since  I started growing my own tomatoes. All the recipes which I've tried work...and that's because Lindsey took three years to research , cook and then write the book.

I've still not made borani though...it's a Persian dish involving tomatoes, rice, herbs olives and more, which cuts like a terrine.That is on my list to male shortly but I have made a recipe this autumn which I somehow had missed before. A recipe which was first published in 1806 in a book called "A New System of Domestic Cookery " and which Lindsey has updated.

Here it is - Mrs Rundell's  fresh tomato sauce

It is something which I thought wouldn't work but oh boy, it does, even if the first line reads

 "Put about 900g - 1.4 kg or more of very ripe tomatoes, whole and unskinned and into an earthenware or other oven pot. Add nothing whatsoever. Cover the pot and place in a moderate oven  in a moderate oven (325 degrees F, 170 degrees C or gas mark 3)

Leave for almost an hour."

I did so, but .what about a good glug of olive oil I wondered. I did as I was told though and the tomatoes cooked away merrily in my old lidded pyrex dish.

The recipe goes on

"Press them through a sieve or mouli."

 I did do this the first time, but since then I use my liquidiser as I like to keep the seeds in. 

The recipe continues

"Heat the remaining puree in a thick saucepan, adding for every 450g of tomatoes, a teaspoon each of salt and sugar and optionally, a little ground ginger or cinnamon, dried or fresh basil or marjoram, and crushed garlic if you like.

A tablespoon of port per 450 g of tomatoes has a wonderfully mellowing effect on the sauce. For immediate use, cook the sauce as soon as possible so that it retains its freshness of flavour ad bright colour.

Use immediately or store in the fridge or freezer."

 Now I can't make a tomato sauce without using garlic and I prefer to add basil, but marjoram also works well. I couldn't find any port in the booze cupboard either, but will definitely try some next time.

Mrs Rundell's recipe is a real winner, but so is Lindsey Bareham's book. I believe it's now out of print but I have seen second-hand copies for sale on a certain internet site, and I also think you get can get it on kindle.

This book deserves a reprint though as it really is the book that keeps giving. , in fact I would be lost without my copy.

In the meantime, I'm going to be flicking through this again as I fear I may be having quite a few green tomatoes to deal with during the next few weeks. I don't quite feel up to trying the green tomatoes and zabaglione tart featured on page 333, but i shall be cooking from this bookfor a long time yet.

Foodie Friday - cooking a courgette kuku

For an easy lunch or perhaps a light meal in the early evening, sometimes my thoughts turn to a tortilla or even better, a frittata. I've always liked Nigel Slater's broad bean frittata recipe, but the other night, I fancied something different. I still wanted eggs though, and luckily there's no shortage of eggs in our village. Willie and Kate's hens at the end of our lane don't know it's lockdown, and haven't been put on furlough.

I sat at the kitchen table, with a glass of wine, having a leisurely look through some of my cookbooks and I found the recipe I wanted in this book., which I got last year when I began ordering a weekly box of organic vegetables ....

 I soon found a recipe for a courgette kuku. I'm all for a bit of alliteration in a title, so was intrigued and not knowing what a kuku was, I read on eagerly.

It's a Persian version of an omelette, cooked in a pan on top of the stove, with lots of herbs and flavourings. Sounded good, but  did I have all the ingredients?

I quickly scanned the fridge and my spice cupboards.Garlic yes, turmeric, yes, nutmeg, ground ginger, ground coriander and cumin all present and accounted for. I knew there were plenty of chives and mint (the herb that just gives giving)  in the garden  and a huge jug of flat-leaved parsley . I didn't have any dill but pressed on regardless...

I set to work.....

And hey presto, within minutes, there was a lovely dish served with a side salad, yoghurt and some turkish bread to mop of up the tangy lemon and mustard salad dressing.

And that's it...the recipe advises to wait at least five minutes  before serving ...and yes, fritattas and kukus are usually best served when they are slightly cooler.

 I was very hungry though, so ignored the advice , slapped the kuku on our plates and started eating! Delicious......

 This kuku was full of flavour yet not over spicy. My husband and I both loved it, and I will definitely make this easy recipe again and again, adding other vegetables possibly. Who knew I would love a kuku?

How to cook a kuku

You can find the recipe here on the Riverford website

https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/courgette-kuku

Meanwhile, there's lots of other recipes, perfect for this time of year, in the  Riverford Organic Farmers Spring and Summer Cooking with a veg box, written by Guy Watson with Kirsty Hale , Anna Colquhoun, Rob Andrew and other Riverford cooks. 

One of my favourite recipes from this book is fish, fennel and tomatoes in a bag which I cooked last week, and a  rosemary and chard gratin. Another few weeks and the silver chard  growing in my garden will be just perfect for that recipe again -  meanwhile I reckon it won't be long until I cook another courgette kuku......

Foodie Friday : Sunday roast chicken with pomegranate molasses

I've always loved food but as lock down continues, I can't stop thinking about it - what have I got in the cupboards, fridge and freezer ,and what am I going to cook today ?

Living four miles from the nearest shop in the middle of the countryside means I’ve always had to make sure we don't run out of stuff, but now of course during lock down, I'm only going out shopping about once a fortnight.

We're eating very well but I can’t get used to cooking for just the two of us. It  maybe less time-consuming, but I’m missing having my family around for late Sunday lunches and I miss the noise the laughter, the news and gossip around the table. I miss everybody greedily eating with gusto.

So what will I cook for Sunday lunch then, that first one after lock down when we can all be together again?

It's a roast chicken recipe from Joanna Weinberg in her book "How to feed your friends with relish" which was published by Bloomsbury in 2007.

Why everyone loves this roast chicken recipe

I know you're all probably thinking what’s so special about that, but this one is cooked in pomegranate molasses and my whole family love it. So much so my daughter had to buy her own copy of the book. Last week I even got a text from my youngest son asking for the recipe.

Here's a photo of one  I cooked last Sunday.

 You may think it’s a little black or even burnt in places, but don't worry, it’s the molasses which give it colour and make the skin so tangy and chewy. The meat inside is moist with a zinginess thanks to ginger. garlic and cumin.

But one good recipe does not make a great cookbook. Luckily, Joanna's book has many recipes|I turn to time and time again. One is Manuela's chicken with tarragon and cream which was the favourite for Joanna and her siblings when she was young. Manuaela was the family's Portugese housekeeper, the absolute saint who cooked every day for six children of different ages with different tastes .

There's plenty of other stories in the book, even  how Joanna first met her husband Ed, at a dinner she cooked.

I like a recipe book with context,  which draws you in to the authors life and Joanna's book does just that .She takes us to parties, barbecues , Sunday lunches, afternoon teas and meals around the kitchen table with her friends and family.There's also lots  of useful tips on how to create the perfect event and cater for most scenarios..

I feel as if I’m there with her in the kitchen before her guests arrive,  having a  good gossip and a glass of wine and then being in the middle of her gang eating supper. It's an addictive mix of recipes that really work and being part of the author's world , something which always sells food books to me.

So would you like the recipe ? Here it is then ...

Roast chicken with Pomegranate molasses

Ingredients 

1 red onion 

4 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses 

1 teaspoon of ground ginger 

half a teaspoon of ground cumin

1 clove of garlic pounded to a paste

1 lemon halved

 one medium free range chicken 

Method 

Preheat the oven to 220°C gas mark seven, and finely chop half of the onion leaving the other half intact.

Mix the pomegranate molasses,chopped onion ginger, cumin, garlic and a squeeze of lemon together in a small bowl and set aside.

Stuff the remaining half of onion in the cavity of the chicken along with both lemon halves.

When the oven is hot, roast the chicken  for 15 minutes , then remove it from the oven and slather the pomegranate mixture over the skin .

Reduce the oven temperature and continue roasting the chicken for 45 minutes the skin will look black and charred  but fear not it will be delicious. If the bird is larger it may need an extra 10 to 15 minutes cooking.

Remove  the bird from the oven, loosely cover with foil and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.

And there you have it....it's so very  easy to make.

Joanna Weinberg recommends cooking this as part of a Middle Eastern wintry Sunday lunch accompanied by saffron mash and chickpea stew. This works well, but is also good with potatoes dauphinoise and vegetables too. I think its perfect for spring and summer lunches with roasted asparagus, perhaps a carrot and and peanut salad, or a fruity couscous. Or with the following....

Yes, that's my wonky writing...and yes, I write notes in cookbooks.

"How to feed your friends with relish" is still available as an e-book I believe, but copies are still available on Amazon or in secondhand bookshops.

Joanna's second book, also published by Bloomsbury, is "Cooking for real life". I just wish she'd get her skates on and write a third.....will there ever be a third one though?

A foodie Friday with mushrooms

As the saying goes "Never look a gift horse in the mouth."

I don't usually, but I was rather surprised  when my husband came home with some mushrooms which he had collected. Yes, he'd been mushroom picking.

He's never done anything like this before, yet here were some large specimens...

I must admit I was a little suspicious, he doesn't usually eat mushrooms. So were these all for me?

Were they safe to eat? 

I'm not being funny, but what my husband knows about different types of mushrooms could be written on a postage stamp.  He'd gone to play a round of golf, so why mushrooms now? I consulted the only book I have on mushrooms - a lovely present years ago from Claire Alexia, our cousin in France

Mmn. I still wasn't sure. Who had he played golf with?


 When he said it was our friend Keith I smiled.That man is a mine of practical information. He's an ex Marine who can forage for England. He knows his onions...and mushrooms too. Within moments those mushrooms were being sauteed in butter with garlic and leeks. Stock was added, and when they were cooked, the mixture was liquidised, and reheated with some grated nutmeg and a rather large slug of sherry and double cream. Sea salt and black pepper too.

I had loosely followed Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's recipe for a rather retro, rich mushroom soup. So comforting, so smooth, so delicious, even if I had run out of dry sherry and had to whack in some sweet as sin Pedro Ximinez.

I immediately put in an order with my husband for more mushrooms, and they came...some as big as my hands, some as big as my face. More soup followed.....

The other day, more mushrooms arrived.
 I just fancied them sauteed in butter, with cream and a slug of brandy. I started getting butter and cream from the fridge, when I asked if Keith had picked some too.

"Oh no, he wasn't there today" was the reply.

The butter and cream were swiftly put back in the fridge. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but in this case I made an exception and decided to wait until Keith is there too, when the "gift" is picked.......

Here's the link to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's lovely recipe online .....

https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/creamy-mushroom-soup

A foodie friday reviewing Sarah Raven's recipes on a Saturday

September and October mean apples, and I've been picking them at the allotment for weeks now. I have three apple trees, two are cookers and the other is a variety with the warmest, rosiest glow.

There's been quite a number of them, and I've been using them every which way I can.

So on my day off, it was time to hunt through my recipe books to make something different. I've already stewed pounds of apples ready for crumbles this winter and made a few apple cakes. But I wanted to make something different.


And I struck gold with this book from Sarah Raven, which was published back in 2007 I think....and I'm pretty sure I bought my copy about five years ago.

Now this what I call a generous cook book. And by that I mean, this is one of those labour of love books where the author has given we readers  her life time's experience of growing and cooking fruit and vegetables. This is not one of those  a hundred recipes a book if you're lucky type of thing ..one on a double page spread type of book. Oh no. It's not a fancy pants type of cookery book either, with long, infinitely long winded and show off recipes either.

It literally is full to brim of tasty, workaday recipes to make the most of the produce from your garden and allotment. And as I've begun to grow more vegetables and now have fruit trees, I'm discovering different sections of the book.


The first new recipe to try was celeriac and apple soup...another way to use up  apples. This is a pale, silky textured and comforting soup. The sweetness of the celeriac married with the sharp freshness of the apples worked really well for me. Unfortunately my other half wasn't so keen.

But he did like the next new recipe very much... ...a Kentish apple cake. Now, I've made a Dorset Apple cake before but never one from Kent, and it's quite different in method and texture.

Here's the recipe....

Ingredients
225g unsalted butter plus a little extra for the tin
350g self raising flour
1 tspn ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
110g of sultanas or raisins soaked for an hour in water
175g castor sugar
75g toasted hazelnuts , chopped
450g cooking apples such as Bramleys
grated zest of 1 lemon
3 large eggs
plenty of Demerara sugar for dusting

How to make

1.Preheat  oven at 180 degs /gas mark 4 and grease and line the bottom of a 20cm loose bottomed cake tin

2.Pulse the sifted flour, cinnamon, salt and butter in a food processor until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Put the mixture in a bowl and stir in the sultanas, sugar and toasted nuts

3.Peel, core and chop the apples and add to the other ingredients with the lemon zest. Lightly beat the eggs and put them in.

4.Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for one to one and a quarter hours or until firm to the touch. You may need to cover the cake with foil to prevent it from becoming too brown on top.

5.While it's still hot, sift over plenty of Demerara sugar, and let it cool in the tin or a wire rack.

As Sarah Raven says, it's a good cake for tea or you can serve it warm as a pudding with lots of thick cream. I've now tried both ways of serving...and both are equally as good!

The more I use this book , the greater is my admiration for the sheer breadth of recipes..and there are some lovely photographs by Jonathan Buckley.

Incidentally, you can still obtain personally signed copies of this book - Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook published by Bloomsbury  from Sarah's own website.

A day of cooking from the Riverford Farm Cookbook

I usually have Fridays off. Phew...I love the anticipation of a day when I perhaps meet up with my writer friends for a lunch where we all bring a dish, have a feast, and talk about books and our writing. If not, I'm probably at the allotment or in the kitchen cooking , or at this time of year, making jam.

Now, this is an old favourite cook book of mine, published back in 2008 by 4th Estate...which I found out about when I met the team from Riverford at a local food fair shortly afterwards..

That's what the cover used to look like - it has now been "customised" by my terrier Eric...who decided to rip the front cover off and chew some of the pages.





But as the saying goes, you should never judge a book by its cover, and this old battered copy is a trusted and tried favourite. Written by Guy Watson, an organic farmer who's been growing vegetables for years and years, and Jane Baxter , who seems to have worked everywhere, including the River Café, this is an immensely practical book with pages and pages of quick and easy, but above all  tasty and seasonal recipes to make the most of your vegetables.

I've made so many of these recipes time and time again...especially the delicious sweetcorn fritters on page 370 and the braised red cabbage on page 83 which is made every autumn and winter. But the whole point of these foodie Friday posts is to try new recipes from my ever growing collection of cookery books.

And so, I delved into the previously untried pages of beetroot recipes. You see, I've always hated beetroot. I can remember the yucky taste of beetroot in vinegar as a child, and I vowed with hand on heart, that when I was a grown up, and I could choose what I wanted to eat, I would never, ever eat beetroot again.

And it's a vow I've stuck to for years, until my friend Debbie made a gorgeous Ottoleghi beetroot and walnut salad. I was intrigued, this was really nice! So this year, for the first time, I grew beetroot, only three rows though...just in case, that recipe was a one off and I found out I still didn't really like it.





And as soon as they were big enough, I opened the Riverford Farm cookbook to try some new ways of cooking them.

And here is the recipe that I have tried first....and I fear this may become an addiction.

Beetroot Gratin

Ingredients

1kg of beetroot, peeled
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
100ml double cream
2 sprigs of summer savoury, chopped or rosemary or thyme (I prefer thyme)
sea salt and black pepper

How to make

1.Thinly slice the beetroot..it should be 2-3mm thick

2.Mix the garlic and cream in a small pan and bring to the boil.Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.

3.Put the sliced beetroot in a bowl and add some seasoning. Add the cream mixture and herbs and mix thoroughly so the beetroot is coated with cream. ( I must confess I added some extra)

4. Arrange in a 30cm gratin dish, ciover with foil and bake in a  preheated oven at 160 degs/gas mark 3 for 40 minutes.

5.Remove the foil and bake for a further 10 minutes or until the beetroot is tender.

And that's it. So easy and full of garlicky goodness which marries so well with the sweet softness beetroot. You will love it! Now I know you may think that's a rather sweeping statement. OK, I suppose it is, but so many beetroot haters I know simply adore this recipe.My son for one, and his girlfriend Ellie .She had joined us for supper last Sunday night for a roast. She was starving, but when she saw the deep pink creamy dish, she said an unequivical No!

"Try a teaspoonful "we all urged. She eventually did, with the greatest reluctance I might add, and before I knew it, she was piling her plate high. And she ate every mouthful.

I'm now making my way through the other beetroot recipes in this book. Chocolate beetroot brownies anyone?

But the Riverford Farm Cook Book isn't just a collection of tasty recipes. We learn how the vegetables are grown, there's tips on storage and preparation from years of experience from an organic grower, and the connection between growing organically and we are what we eat.

Meanwhile, I 've already decided that I'm definitely growing far more beetroot next year at the allotment!

A day of fancying a fritter from the wonderful Yotam Ottolenghi

So, it's Friday again, which means I've been going through my cookbooks to try a new recipe
Something savoury I thought, something without meat.

Yotam Ottolenghi sprang to mind immediately, but then it was decisions decisions....which book of his shall I cook from? I have two, "Plenty" and "Jerusalem", and I love them both. What shines from every page  of both books is a strong narrative and a sense  of continuity though cooking. Many of the recipes have survived  turbulent times, and years of change for families and friends mentioned in the books.

Last night, I wanted something tasty, yet not too exacting. I flicked through the pages of "Plenty", and there it was, a recipe I've been meaning to make for ages. Leek fritters.

Ok, I have a feeling that some of you reading this may be turning up your noses at the thought of a fritter, even perhaps channelling your inner Lady Bracknell..."a fritter?" But at certain times they  can hit the spot in a very satisfying way. Especially when leeks are involved. Plus spices.

So let's begin shall we?

Ingredients include leeks, shallots ( I used onions), chilli pepper, spices, egg white etc.....

How to make

After sautéing the leeks and shallots until soft, you gradually add all of the other ingredients...and at this stage the mixture is rather sloppy, as you can see by the state of the bowl....

I made eight fritters, and I'll definitely be making these again. They're so creamy, light, and the subtle spices don't overpower the lovely flavour of the leeks.

I may have eaten more than I should have, even though they're quite filling. In fact I did eat more than necessary, but my defence is M'lud, I simply couldn't resist just another bite, and then another....

There's also a coriander sauce to accompany the fritters, but last night, I just sprinkled them with a couple of squeezes of a lemon, and that was just enough for me.

Another recipe from "Plenty" I tried for the first time was a salad ,which I first encountered at my friend Debbie's house. Oooh I did enjoy it...a beetroot, walnut and orange salad - on page 15 of the book, if you're interested. The earthy sweetness of the beetroot, the crunch of walnuts and olives, and the sharpness of the citrus made a delicious combination.

So I made it, and in our eagerness to dive in and eat, no photographs were taken, but trust me, again, this recipe is a winner. But then again, for me, all of Yotam Ottolenghi's recipes are....I've not encountered one that's a dud yet.

He's also in that rare band of chefs and writers who  establishes a real connection with the reader. Whenever I read one of his recipes, I feel hungry, I need to make it...and I somehow smell the finished creation before I've even made it.

There's only one other writer who makes me feel that way, and that's the wonderful Nigel Slater.
Alas he doesn't run a restaurant, but Yotam does ,and I can't wait to finally get down to London to visit one of them. It could be dangerous though, I might decide to work my way through most of the menu and get stuck behind a table, unable to leave or waddle back to the train. But hey, that's a risk I'm willing to take.

The complete recipe for leek fritters can be found here  http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/leek-fritters-shop or in the book itself, which is so good, I refuse to lend it to anyone else.

"Plenty" by Yotam Ottalenghi ,published by Ebury Press, 2010.


 

An apple a day.....

 

 

This year has been a very good year for fruit at the allotments. Pounds of blackcurrants, gooseberries and some lovely raspberries, especially the autumn variety which have a lovely flavour.

 

But this year, the apple trees and plum trees are the starts of the show....they are absolutely laden with fruit. There's two of each, and the first apples to pick have been these - I think they're discovery apples.

  

 

The fruit trees are on the outermost edge of the allotment site about ten feet away from the road. There's lot of nettles around, so even though it wasn't cold exactly, I had a thick pair of trousers on, boots, and a long sleeved jumper and gloves on as I picked the fruit.

Oh and sunglasses, even if the sun wasn't shining.....I'm so accident prone, I tend to get caught in the eye by a rogue, sadistic branch or two.

Luckily I escaped unscathed and came home with these....

 



 

 

These are  tasty desert apples, so what am I going to do with them, plus the rest on the tree that Laura ,my friend and co conspirator at the lottie doesn't want?

 

I've already made a rather nice tarte tatin, a big waldorf salad, and have been taking some into work to eat with lunch. Well, you know what they say..."an apple a day keeps the doctor away."

 

And apparently this proverb from Victorian times is right. Well, so researchers at Oxford University said last Christmas time. Apparently, they calculated that if all adults aged 50 and over here in the UK were prescribed an apple a day , there would be 8,500 fewer deaths from heart attacks and strokes each year.

 

That's good enough for me! But I need some more recipes using dessert apples instead of cooking apples. I've been looking in my two "must go to "books on fruit by the wonderful Nigel Slater and the late, great Jane Grigson, plus the Riverford Farm Book has some good apple recipes in too...but I fancy something new!

 

 

 

 

 

 What's your favourite way of using dessert apples?




 

A what a bargain day

I nipped out at lunchtime the other day to buy some salad stuff from the market...the usual lettuce, tomatoes, some crisp celery, that sort of thing. That was all.

But as I walked away from the stall, I caught sight of a big mound of limes.....nine for 50 pence. Nine? For how much? Why were they so cheap? After all, in my local supermarket they are selling for thirty five pence each.  I took a few paces back, closely gave them the once over yet they were all perfect apart from one which was fine but a little yellow.

Two minutes later they were in my basket, despite the fact that I'd had no intention of buying a lime at all, let alone nine of them.

As I walked back to work, I began to plan some pork and lime burgers....an adaptation of a delicious Nigel Slater recipe, but what to do with the remaining eight limes...?

Then I thought of Lucy Cufflin's coconut, ginger and lime cake....which is an old stalwart from the time when we were both on a British Red Cross committee consisting of about ten women of all ages.  Every summer, some very generous people would open their garden in aid of the Red Cross, and we would provide the teas and sell cakes etc.

Lucy's cakes were always absolutely wonderful to look at and pretty tasty too. No wonder , as she is a cordon bleu trained chef, has her own food business and has written a cookbook, called Lucy's Food. so I'm going to make that cake later.

But what to do with the remaining seven limes?

Well, one or two of them will be used up tonight. In a delightful concoction. In a jug, with mint and alcohol.  Well, mint is still growing in the garden so I might as well use some....  

But what am I going to do with the remaining five limes?

I'd really like your suggestions please, so what are your favourite lime based recipes? I'd love to try out some of your suggestions.

And have you ever frozen lime juice? Does it taste good when thawed?

Today's track is by Jack Penate, which I've been singing along to at the top of my voice in the kitchen this afternoon. Boo and Winnie shot me withering glances. They don't appreciate my singing, but I'm sure you will love this song which is "Be the one"

 

 

A day on Radio 4's Food Programme...

I love food. That's why I'm not a skinny malinky kind of woman....I have curves. Ok, so they're perhaps more curvier curves than perhaps I should have...but hey...

It's not that I'm stuffing myself morning , noon and night....I'm not.....but I like to grow my own food.....
 

.

 

 

and cook. Sometimes the urge to cook just takes over...for example I wasn't going to bake today. No way, too busy ...but then I spotted the bananas in the fruit bowl....mmmn, a tad too speckly...and the next minute I was making this...a banana, chocolate and walnut loaf.

 

Food...growing, cooking and sharing it ... makes me happy. Even when I'm cooking a  recipe from someone I've loved and liked, and who's now not with us.......I like to remember the happy times
we shared...and using their recipes keep those happy times alive.

Over the years, I've collected quite a number of recipes from Granny, my lovely mum in law who died seventeen years ago, Mama..that's my gorgeous mum (who thank the lord, is still very much alive and kicking) and lots of friends. The recipe book has now lost it's  covers, it's so tatty and dog eared, and some of the pages are decorated with cake mixture splodges. But it's one of my most valuable possessions.

Cooking their recipes , the smells coming from the oven take me back to conversations, events, and meals gone by. I 've now transferred the  recipes to a new book...lovingly rewritten them out, just in case the original book completely falls to pieces one day...

This week, the addictive and always excellent " Food Programme "on Radio 4 looks at food and bereavement, carefully crafted by producer Anne -Marie Bullock ....and my darling daughter and I will be sharing our memories of Granny et al and talking about my recipe book during the programme.
.
Here's the link to what's coming up

http://bbc.in/12SIddD   


 Do have a look....and do listen on Sunday at 12.30pm or Monday at 3.30 on BBC Radio 4 on FM 92.5–96....or you can sit at your computer and listen on t'internet. Go on, you know you want to......

Today's track is called "Remembering "by the Avishai Cohen Trio.....