Friday 16 January 2009

Have any recipes been passed down to you from family members?

My dad has an ancient, probably antique, Good Housekeeping recipe book – it is in a red cover, and is like my bible! There are loads of great recipes in there, mostly traditional, and I have taken loads of my recipes from there.

As you know, I was a chef, and still am occasionally, and still, I refer to this to check on cooking times for meats etc.

There are a few others that have been passed down to me like the Chocolate Fridge Cake, which is a recipe that was given to my mum years ago by a friend in South Africa. There’s also gingered cucumber, salmon mousse, and a lovely one that was a recipe of my dad’s cousin who died 9 years ago with coconut and jam! It’s very tasty. Most of my cooking skills were taught to me by my mum as my Grandma has never liked cooking. She was a very good cook – I have never tasted, or never liked any mashed potato but hers! Even I can’t get it that good! Grandma still cooks for herself, but only simple things as she’s getting older, her sight is getting worse, and she doesn’t like cooking with oil.

I remember when I was little, she had this really cool thing given to her by, I think, the Blind Society – whatever it’s real name is! Royal National Institute for the Blind or something. It was a little yellow thing, longer on one side, that you popped into a cup and when you had filled the cup up with boiling water is made a bleeping sound to show that it was full enough. She hardly ever used it, but I thought it was cool!


Anyway, to get back to the topic, here is a link to just some of my recipes.

3 comments:

Shakespeare's Housekeeper said...

Hello Kat!
I haven't had any recipes passed down, per se, but my dad used to make the most amazing stews when me and my sis were kids.
I've never been able to replicate any of them, even though i've tried!
Mum was famous for her mince and mash- one dish- and 'cause hubby is vegetarian, i only cook Quorn these days...although lovely, it's not quite the same.

SH xx

aims said...

I have that cookbook!

I hardly use it since I got ill - The Man is the cook around here. He's far far better at it than I'll ever be and I wasn't a bad cook at all. He doesn't like my cooking much at all.

And - the problem is - I'm a celiac. Makes eating a problem. Huge problem. I hate it.

I was sick nearly the whole time we were away because trying to ensure your food is gluten-free at a restaurant is almost hopeless. People just don't know what you're talking about.

That is one of the reasons for the depression as the illness causes it and once I get gluten I'm sick for days. Even now that we are back home I am still ill every single time we eat as the damage it does last for months.

Fortunately The Man loves to cook for me and researches new recipes and tries and tries.

However - right at the moment - even soup makes me sick. Everything does. What a life huh?

Enough of my whining to someone who says they are a chef. I saw that and leapt right on you - :0)

Thanks for all your comments over on mine my friend. So nice to be welcomed back so happily!

KatduGers said...

SH - I don't envy you cooking with Quorn! I've only tried it once, and hated it! To be fair, that was about 15yrs ago (a friends sister was veggie, although she isn't now, a bacon sarnie changed all that!). It may have improved since then!

Aims - thank you for your lovely comment. I've never met anyone else who has that book! Not that I've met you, but you know what I mean! Being coeliac must make life very difficult. I'm sorry, I don't think I have any recipes particularly aimed at coeliacs, but I'll do my best in future!! Maybe you should post some of The Man's best recipes - could be very useful for other people. Or start a whole new blog dedicated to them!