Uninspired...

Backblipped 06.09.18


A bit of an uninspiring day all round really, until I found my knife sharpener and gleefully set about sharpening my blunt knives (that have been driving me mad for weeks!) then promptly cut my finger as I was about to make dinner.

There was that split second delay preceding the sharp intake of breath as I felt that shiver as the gleaming knife edge sliced my flesh, a spurt of blood followed by some very bad words that were only stopped by me automatically shoving my finger in my mouth to stem the flow!   

David jumped into action and got me the box of plasters from the cupboard  can't reach, while I cleaned said finger (pointy one, left hand incase you're interested :-) smeared it with sudocrem and wrapped a plaster around it.  Then it was back to chopping the onions and mushrooms whilst trying to ignore the new pulse that was now throbbing away merrily at my finger tip.

For some reason I had a notion to make the Chicken Fricassee recipe from my Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook.  This cookery book (I found out not long ago that it was in fact written by Mary Berry) was the first cookery book I bought after getting engaged in 1988 (just realised that means I have had it 30 years!!! :-o ) and the first book I made recipes from for dinner guests after D and I were married.  And yes, you've guessed it, Chicken Fricassee was the main meal of choice for entertaining back in the day.

I think the dinner party menu back then consisted of homemade tomato and orange soup (recipe from the same book, still a favourite and still made at some point every Christmas season :-) with crusty bread (shop bought) the Chicken Fricassee served with plain boiled white rice, with chopped fresh parsley forked though it once cooked (very sophisticated lol!) and finished off with either strawberry cheesecake or profiteroles (both shop bought.)  

For many years I kept a note of what I served family and friends when they came for dinner to make sure I didn't give them the same food twice in a row.  I still have the notebook and it serves as a diary of all the entertaining we did in our early married life and I enjoy flicking through it and remembering the particular meals and the faces round the table and on certain memorable nights, some of the conversations too!  

It also makes me laugh out loud at the memories of some of the trial and errors I experienced when making some dishes for the first time but also how adventurous I was at times.  There's quite a few dishes I wouldn't contemplate making today because of the faff involved (one that comes to mind is a recipe for minestrone soup that had me chopping a multitude of ingredients that took hours.  And I'm not even that fond of minestrone soup!)  Nowadays my cooking is all about maximum taste for minimum effort! :-))

But, I digress.  

Despite being severely injured, I bravely carried on with the Chicken Fricassee and it in no time at all we were sitting down tucking into a bit of early 1990s nostalgia.  In fact after David had eaten his first mouthful, he closed his eyes and said, "It's 1993 and I am back in the dining room at BH Road!"  

Ah happy days :-))