Another Cooking Still Life

One of the greatest pleasures in life is spending the day cooking and pottering, especially after a tiring week at work. I decided on impulse to ask Di and Inge to come to dinner.

Lots of thoughts came together to produce tonight's choice of food, and blip.

During the week, the staffroom tables were invaded by the Book Club people's dubious collection of wares for sale - including the inevitable cookbooks. I remarked that I coud set up a shop selling cookery books; everyone else nodded in agreement, and Rhona, the school secretary, said that we all usually have only one or two recipes we like in these books. We should photocopy them and get rid of the rest.

It got me to have a good look at the cookery books in the kitchen cupboard. Rhona was right; but I DO so love cookery books. So, which ones could I think to part with?

The 9 huge folders of "Carrier's Kitchen" are definitely for the off. I don't think that I have looked at them for 20 years. I remember, however, religiously getting one magazine a fortnight for what seemed like years, till the collection was complete. I also remember spending about 4 hours of my life making one of his sauces, only to find that it tasted like an old man's smelly armpit. (I discovered that it wasn't Mr. Carrier's fault that I had failed to notice the out-of-date flour.)

And have I ever even glanced at the recipes contained in "The Omega Diet Cook Book", "50 Ways with Chicken", "The GI cookbook" (if only it had had something to do with hunky American soldiers......), "The Culinary Art of Switzerland". "Cuisine Minceur" (God, remember that bollocks? Arranging a radish and a spring onion on a plate as a main course....) or the countless Low-Fat, Low-Salt, Low Cholesterol books which I cannot be alone in having been conned into buying over the decades?

There are, however, one or two dog-eared, stained and crumpled books which will still be around in my kitchen when they ship me out of here. One of them is Delia's "Food Aid" book. I remember going to Waterstone's in Edinburgh 22 years ago to taste some of the dishes from the book, and to meet the wifie herself. Thus, the signed page you see in the photo. (Notice, too, that the book is not in one piece!)
I also remember meeting a lady called Catriona Thomson, who signed the recipe she had contributed - lemon and orange iced pudding, my choice of pud tonight. She told me she felt a wee bit guilty about being there, as it had been the milkman who had given her the recipe many years before.

A few months ago, I heard Sara Kennedy's show on Radio 2, and she was doing a segment about people's "claim to fame". Catriona Thomson had phoned in to say that hers was to get a recipe in a Delia book. Scotland truly IS a village.

Maybe Catriona is a blipper, in which case I would like to thank her for her great recipe.

My other courses tonight - carrot and caraway seed soup, and pork with cheese & cream - are also Food Aid favourites.

What can I say? If you are still reading this, may I congratulate you on your stamina.




Also, does anyone want some Carrier's Kitchen books? Free to a good home!!