Thinking about food

Last night younger daughter arrived with her best friends and their fourteen  month old little girl.  Today Karen from An Artist's Garden was coming for lunch so this morning I set to work in the kitchen.

Yesterday I had produced two lemon drizzle cakes, one perfect, the other with a surprising hole in the middle.  However we agreed that this was fine as you could persuade yourself you were not eating yet another slice of cake but a bit more hole, with cake surround.

Today has been a day for making Somerset Apple Cake, carrot and coriander soup and now a beef casserole with a cheesy scone topping.

There was a small break there for going away and eating.

I love being able to produce good food from the contents of my fridge and store cupboard.   I love the fact that there is always enough in stock to know that I can turn out something good.  I would hate not to be able to cook.  Of all the skills I have acquired as an adult I think cooking and driving are the ones I most value, maybe even more than gardening!
What are yours?

Comments

  1. Oh, I don't know that I feel very skilled at it, but gardening, definitely. I'd happily never cook again. But then I imagine you're very slim, with all that cake talk. (Or on the other hand, very fat... no, I'm sure you're not.)

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  2. I worry that as a History teacher I have no what they call 'transferable skills'. I can write a mean essay but not much else.

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  3. I could cook properly by the time I was 12 - Roast Dinner on Sunday, followed by cream eclairs and scones was the norm. Being the eldest of a big brood, with parents who both worked 2 jobs, I got pretty expert at lots of 'adult' things at a very early age.

    Learning to be kinder to myself will be my greatest skill, should I chose to ever grow up :-) But I think the best thing I have learned as an adult (and it's a pretty recent acquisition too) is learning to say 'no' and not feel consumed with guilt.

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  4. Skills? - gosh I don't know. How to Google something I imagine. How to talk to people and the beginning and the end of their lives.

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  5. Driving, scone-baking, cat-medicating; order of importance can vary.

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  6. I don't mind cakes with holes in the middle. I can convince myself it's a low-calorie diet cake, like those pizzas which pretend they're diet pizzas just because of an itsy-bitsy bit in the middle which isn't pizzaed.

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  7. Learning to be very selfish and put me first in the scheme of things. Since I live alone, that's not too hard to do.

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  8. I know exactly what you mean, few things beat turning out great food for friends and family without lots of angst or emergency shopping. I think you've picked 2 of my top 3 - the third would be growing stuff from seed. Driving gives me independance, but illness means I often can't use it. The other two are a source of comfort and joy however rubbish I am feeling. Lovely post - lunch at your house sounds wonderful!

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  9. Lunch at your house IS wonderful Elizabeth - I am always deeply envious when I watch someone gently move about their kitchen and provide good food at a long table - heaven.

    Cooking and driving are the two things I do because I have to (from time to time)

    Skills that I have acquired as an adult? .... parenting, although obviously without the cooking and driving aspects of parenting.

    Thank you for a lovely visit and lunch and raspberry canes.
    K
    xx

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  10. I'm not a good driver, but the older I've gotten and with all the time in the world now I've discovered that I love to cook!
    And I've rediscovered crocheting.

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  11. You are so brave! I do notr like to cook to much -maybe because I have not children but it passes in my head from timne to time. Now I have the idea to cook mousse. I have everything ready in the fridge but did not decide if I want it with apples or with coffee. So, maybe it has to wait one day more...

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  12. Hi Isabelle - neither very fat nor very slim! Somewhere in between.
    Tim - tricky. There must be some call for great essays though!
    Zoe - I didn't learn to cook until after I left home. 12 seems ever so young. Learning to say no is a far harder skill though.

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  13. I find its amazing when people say they cant cook - it seems so natural to me. For me the most important skill is time management so that I can do everything I want to do

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  14. Driving has to be high on the list! Today, I have done a round trip to Cumbria to rescue student son with glandular fever, from his bedridden misery. At least, at home, he can be looked after; even if he does still feel rotten.

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  15. I like the idea of your polo like cake Elizabeth ~ it sounds a dieter's dream. Hope that you and Karen enjoyed nibbling on it. I am not sure what skill I most value but I do know the one I regret not acquiring, which is learning to drive. In my next life ..... :)

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  16. I'm with you on the cooking and driving skills. Absolutely vital. I think learning to touch-type has been a useful skill too.

    As for holes in lemon drizzle cakes - why do they do that? I used to be able to make perfect lemon cakes and then went through a phase of holey ones. Most odd! I'm beef casseroling today - with dumplings of course.

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  17. You just have to keep on about those cheese scones, don't you? Trying to kill me with longing, I know it!


    AAAaaaaaarrrgggghhhh..... *clunk*

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  18. Fennie - I like that! Not sure I have had enough practice at the end of life yet!
    Rachel - I can't claim cat medicating. Mine always manage to eject whatever tablet I am trying to give them!
    Fran - well they definitely are low calorie cake, stands to reason!

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  19. Nora - it is harder to learn to be selfish than people might imagine, especially if you have been thoroughly trained in people pleasing!
    Janet - I would like to be able to add growing things from seed but I have not achieved the same level of skill yet. Working on it. It is a challenge for 2011.
    Karen - Parenting. I suspect it took me a while to learn even what I know now!

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  20. I love cooking too, especially baking bread. And drawing - but does that count? I've drawn since I was child.

    Climbing taught me to tie knots, and kayaking to understand rivers and the tides.

    But most of all it is being a father; always learning, always a joy

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  21. *peeking around to see if anyone noticed I've died of longing for cheese scones*


    .... nope.

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  22. Elizabeth, I love being able to drive! I would feel so trapped if I were dependent upon someone to drive me about~I hope your visit went well. gail

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  23. I've always loved to drive, but taking care of my home, cooking and puttering make me happiest. Maybe it's a case of wanting what one doesn't have, and it's true that I don't have as much time at home as I'd like.

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  24. Learning to drive (got my license at 28 or something) was pretty nice. But my first apple pie was a cause for real celebration. Living in the States it was a very loaded event - "as American as apple pie" etc. - but luckily the pie was a hit, and gorgeous! Learning to parent would be on my list too.

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  25. Driving certainly is my skill, but cooking? i have a lot of luck with google i can say :))

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