Dinner: Eating and Providing

I used to do a great deal of entertaining. Most of it involved food. Usually it involved providing dinner for up to 12 (the number in my 'dinner party circle'). However I prefered 10 which was the number that would fit very comfortably around my dinner table.  As it was not uncommon for a couple not to be able to come there was rarely a full complement anyway. That was all so long ago. Now unless I have visitors staying I rarely cater for more than three or four.

I was wondering to myself the other day whether this was because giving dinner parties has gone out of fashion or because of changing social intercourse.  On consideration there are various factors.  

Many of the social crowd that I was part of have died or left the Island. Most of my friends are of a similar age to me and, frankly, much as we all love getting together and even sharing food together, none of us wants to spend two days preparing and cooking a meal for a dozen  people.  So life is much simpler. 

The reason this subject popped into my mind was that, despite getting rid of most of my cookery books, the remnants still account for 18" of bookshelf. 

I last gave friends dinner last weekend and I am just about coming to terms with the fact that we  thoroughly enjoyed the meal (you can tell when people are just being polite!) and that the wonderful "home made" beef steak pie was 'home made' by one of the local butchers. The three local butchers that I and my friends shop at all vie for which can make the biggest variety and the best beef and steak and kidney pies. Not only that they all make their own lasagnes and all manner of things. It's one of the advantages of having local butchers one of whom at least still has a farm with it's own livestock. 

Tomatoes

I love tomatoes. I have eaten tomatoes most days for years........until recently.

I bought some (I always buy "The 'Best" salad tomatoes) in a different supermarket (there is a grand choice of 2 in Stornoway) to usual.

The skins were so tough that eating them was a chore. Peeling them (using the usual boiling water method) proved virtually impossible. I put them aside for mixed grill.

Back to my usual supermarket and, lo and behold, they were no better.

Okay, I realise that they are all grown in Spain under greenhouse conditions and that they have been bred to reduce damage. However I am perplexed as to why, all of a sudden, I have become so aware of the hard skins that I may well curtail my eating of tomatoes until all my different varieties grow in my polycarb later in the summer.

I will, of course, keep my eyes open in the Supermarkets and hope for improvements. There is no real substitute for a good ripe tomato in one's salad.

Taste and Flavour

When I was a wee child in Sunday School for some reason I used to sing "Thank you for your taste and flavour" instead of "Thank you for your grace and favour". Possibly because as a weenie I could understand the former but not the latter.

In actual fact it was probably simply a false memory generated a little later in life when I thought it would be funny.

Many years ago in the Sixties my mother succumbed to a very bad bout of 'flu. She was in bed for a while with the doctor in attendance. She recovered. However her ability to taste diminished. Later in life after another bout of 'flu her ability to taste reduced considerably. Oddly my ability to taste also diminished after various bouts of 'flu. My last one was at Christmas 2000. My ability to taste is now very poor but seemingly random. Some things I can taste quite well and many not at all. Like my mother I realised that for me texture is far more important than flavour when eating many foods.

My parents were very active until their late 80s and 90s but, obviously the energy they expended as they got less active decreased as did their need for food. However Dad still enjoyed his food whereas Mum did not. For her food was simply fuel although I remember she developed a liking for packetted Vesta Curry in her mid '80s. I assume they were meat although my mother had never really enjoyed eating meat. However they were very easy to prepare when they were still living in their own house. She also loved omelettes.

All this has come back to me in the last year or so now I've reached 80. I still enjoy cooking but really only for other people because that provides an incentive to do something interesting. I find cooking for myself a chore which gets in the way of other things I want to do but my body still needs fuel.

I eat exceptionally slowly which adds to the boredom factor. So I have routines for getting through meals when I'm alone. Breakfast I do Wordle and Words with Friends. Lunchtime I do a crossword. Dinner I usually watch the news. 

What does food mean to you?

Cookery Books

This morning I read Jabblog's post about about cookery books and the collection or otherwise thereof.

I was married to a lady who was a superb cook and hostess (and mother for that matter). After we were married my wife announced that she would do the cooking and the ironing and I would do the housework.  I asked if that was negotiable and the reply was in the negative. Having said that I can't say that I did all the housework all the time.  However, I was not allowed into the kitchen to cook. 

So when we separated I had to rely on what knowledge I had gathered and cookery books. I was fortunate in that my Mother believed in her children being taught all the elementary aspects of running a house including cooking. I thoroughly enjoyed cooking and a dinner party for 12 (the maximum my table can take) held no fear whatsoever and as people kept accepting invitations I assume that they were reasonably happy with the results.

As for cookery books, like any other subject in which I became engrossed, I collected many. Very many. Far too many. Indeed a few years ago I had a massive cull of my bookshelves and, despite a few recent purchases including "Bosh" I only have 21 now (just counted!).  Having said that most of the time when I want to try something new now I search the internet for ideas and rely on my books for old favourites. In addition I have a folder with favourite recipes and tips in it and I also keep quite a lot of recipes on my computer.

The Hamlyn Books were my originals and I still refer to them. By far the most important at one time when I was doing a lot of dinner parties was "50 Great Curries of India". I learned a lot about curries but they can take days to make and I rarely make them from scratch now.  I've kept the book though because my late son gave it to me because, I think, he was friendly with the author's son. 

Whilst writing this post I thought I'd see just how popular cookery books are these days. The answer according to Google is that a great many are written and published. and bought - many probably as presents. Many end up in Charity Shops and apparently some are used. 

Heinz Vegetable Salad

Cro posted this morning about his love of Heinz Sandwich Spread. It is a love that I share. However, Cro, eats it spread on toast. Yuk. It has to be on bread - preferably home made - and, to be really decadent, with vintage Cheddar or Red Fox cheese on the side.

The mention of Heinz Sandwich Spread made me think of Heinz Vegetable Salad and that made me think made me think of the Heinz products that have disappeared since my youth. The only one I really mourned was Heinz Vegetable Salad followed by the Potato Salad. For some reason the consistency of bite and the flavour are completely incapable of replication.

Heinz obviously stopped it because they were no longer making it profitably. I wish that they had sold the recipe to a niche market delicatessen company so that those mad enough to pay premium prices for it could still savour it.

 

WYSIWYG

For very many years one of the things that my brother (CJ) and I have done when having breakfast or morning coffee in each other's company is the Times 2 Crossword.  Now that my Sister-in-Law (Jo) has arrived on Lewis she has joined us. 

Today, when Jo and I were doing the crossword, one of the clues produced the acronym WYSWYG from the clue "What you see is what you get." When I said that, Jo was unimpressed. She had never heard the term. Later CJ was similarly unimpressed and had not heard the term. 

It seems to me to have been around for years and was in common usage. Am I alone? 

It poured all morning. The view through the window rather reminded me of an Impressionist painting.

Today was a day of food preparation, cooking and baking. I have a rather too many courgettes(zucchini) from my polycarb so decided to make carrot and zucchini cake. It was rather overdone despite giving it less time in the oven than the recipe said.  CJ and Jo like salads so I made a bean, pulse and many other things salad to go with the evening meal. A bowl of humous followed and a tray of cornflake crunch. Then my fail-safe desert/pudding - an Amaretto syllabub - to finish off. 

Perfection

Why? Why does all our food have to be perfect? If I grow vegetables then I eat them in the form that they come out of the ground or off the plant, bush or tree. Supermarkets, on the other hand, insist on perfection. It may be bland or tasteless but at least the shape will be perfect. I was in a major supermarket a few days ago and I happened to see some lovely looking Hereford strawberries with the following label:

I bought a punnet:

Some of them were a bit misshapen but they were absolutely delicious. At a fraction of the price of the 'perfectly shaped' ones they tasted even better.

It made me wonder exactly why we demand perfection or whether it's just that supermarkets only provide perfection and that marketing is leading.

Either way I would love to know what price perfection adds to our food bills.

The First Time....and The Last

I have a problem. By inclination I am vegetarian. I do like some meat and I do eat it. I like fish. I can catch a fish, kill it, gut it and cook it. If I do, though, I can't eat it. I much prefer it if someone puts fish on a plate for me. Today I decided to have a frozen breaded fish for dinner. So far as I can recall it's the first time I have ever bought frozen breaded fish. It will certainly be the last.

One would expect from the packaging that what one was purchasing was predominately fish.  Does 54% fish constitute predominantly? It is, marginally, the largest constituent in the package but not what I had expected.

 

 It was certainly the least appetising form of fish that I have ever had placed on a plate before me.

 

 

I ate the 'missing' bit. The rest made its way into the bin: not even the compost heap merited its presence.

David's Quiche

Me "I must get a blog done."

David "How about a photo of my quiche?"

Here it is.   Now it's was.   Delicious.

The Watermelon

Today Jeffrey cut up The Watermelon.  It deserves a capital T W on the basis that it's the largest one I have ever actually seen for sale.

Thankful Thursday

I knew that this was going to be a strange day when I realised that I had taken a bite out of my Marmite toast before my peanut butter toast at breakfast.  Now it's not that I have OCD but when I have toast for breakfast I have one piece with Marmite and one with peanut butter.  I cut them both in half.  I start with peanut butter, then have Marmite, then peanut butter and end up with Marmite.  I never vary.  It's not that I'm a creature of habit either but I've been doing this for over 50 years except for a few years when I decided that I would have peanut butter and Marmite together ie one on top of the other, on the same piece of toast.  But that was more than 30 years ago.  So this morning when I accidentally bit into the Marmite toast first I wondered whether this was a portent of things to come today.  I've come to the conclusion though that as I'm not superstitious, touch wood, the day is unlikely to be affected.

The family decided that I'd taken the whole incident remarkably calmly though so I've decided that today I'm thankful for the fact that I've never had to go without breakfast and have the support of a loving family.

Fast Food in France

Whilst I'm on the subject of things that amuse me as we were driving out of the supermarket this morning I spied a slot machine for hot pizza.  I thought that France was the land of haute cuisine and discerning eaters.  Hmmm.

The Good Food Boutique

We have a delicatessen in Stornoway.  It opened last year and appears to be doing well.  I’m really pleased because it offers an opportunity to get some of the more unusual foods (including cheeses!) that can’t otherwise be obtained without a trip to the mainland although I should add that the Co-op has a huge range of fresh foods which would put some mainland supermarkets to shame.  The real reason I’m posting this though, is that I just love the name!

Yum and Yuk

Last night I went to Steve's for dinner. His partner, Suz, is up from Edinburgh 'enjoying' the dark, dreary, days that have followed the hottest, driest and probably sunniest April on record here on Lewis.  It's a strange old world.  But then I expect people have been saying that for centuries.  Suz did the cooking and after green pea and mint soup which was absolutely delicious she produce loin of lamb cooked so perfectly - just so that there was no blood (neither Steve nor I are too keen on blood oozing out of our meal) but still pink enough to satisfy a Frenchman.  It was accompanied by, amongst other vegetables, roasted beetroot.  It's the first time I can recall having roasted beetroot in this country although it's a common dish in New Zealand.  Steve keeps a substantial cellar of very passable wines.  'Nuff said.  We eventually got to bed.  A most enjoyable evening.  Yum.

I travelled home mid-morning with my wipers and headlights on.  I've been doing odds and ends in the house all afternoon with the most dreary weather imaginable engulfing the house.  It feels like the winter and I've had the central heating on since I got home.  Yuk.

Ah well.   I'm being picked up by Pat and Dave in under an hour and we're going to friends' for dinner. 

Tomorrow it's the Grand Prix from Barcelona.  I think I'll have a nice easy day and do some blogging and chill.  

It's a hard life.

A Weakness of Will

J'ai dit qu'il était très délicieux*.   The result was a gift which has just broken my resolve.   I've been trying to think which culture it is that, if you admire something, then the possessor must give it to you.  I remember hearing that Queen Victoria was prone to taking a rather unfair advantage of that.  Qui sais?  Anyway Sophie the (French) hostess on Friday had provided Terrine de Canard aux Abricots brought directly from Donzy en France.  Les ingrédients étaient Chair de foie gras de canard, oeufs, apricots, sel, poivre, armagnac (foie gras of duck, eggs, apricots, salt, pepper, Armagnac).   It was absolutely decicious.   So delicious, in fact, that I've just been unable to keep up my resolve just to have an apple for lunch today because I have eaten over-well for the last two days.  Ah well.  The waistline will just have to stay as it is for another day.

* I said that it was very delicious

The Results

No.  I’m not talking about today’s football nor yesterday’s tennis nor, indeed, today’s F1 GP.  I forgot to post the pics of the Christmas cakes.  I’ve made another two since the last post and they are just about to be given their first feed of brandy and then wrapped up in silicone paper and foil until the next feed:

A Cynical View of a Jar

Before I start this post I should explain that I am referring to British Marmite (also sold in Australia and New Zealand as My Mate).

I love Marmite.  I love the Marmite jar.  I love peanut butter.  I detest the Sun Pat peanut butter jar.  Why the difference? 

Well firstly I should ask what the similarity is.  The similarity is that they are both almost impossible to empty completely with a knife because of their shape.

What is the difference?

The Marmite jar is iconic.  It has been the shape it has since the 1920s and derives from the shape of the original pot which was an small earthenware pot, similar in shape to the kind of French casserole dish called a 'Marmite' (pronounced MAR-MEET). I had always assumed that this was where Marmite obtained its name but the Marmite website simply says that this may be where Marmite gets its name from.

Back to the point.  The Marmite jar was conceived long before the idea was ever likely to have entered the mind of a marketing guru that there could be difficulties getting the last of the contents out of the jar.  Indeed recently the Company introduced an ‘upside down’ squeezy jar with the specific objective of getting the contents out of the jar more easily.

On the other hand the Sun Pat jar is relatively recent.  If my memory serves me correctly Sun Pat peanut butter originally came in a slightly tapered jar which was wider at the top than the bottom.  More recently the jar you see above was introduced.  A jar which it is almost impossible to empty with a knife.  Think about it.  If you create a jar which when thrown away (or cleaned for recycling) still has, say, 2% of its contents inside then that creates a percentage increase in sales equal to the amount left in the jar.  Or to be exact the difference between the amount left in the new jar and the amount left in a jar which can be emptied to a greater degree.

OK so this was a pretty arcane posting.  But it doesn’t alter the fact that I just don’t like the new Sun Pat peanut butter jar.  So why do I buy it?  Because the Coop where I shop doesn’t sell its own brand.  Perhaps I’ll start going to Tesco for their home brand.

Oven Ready or Ready for the Oven

The Christmas cakes before they spent the best part of 5 hours in the oven. 

An Early Start

Last year my eight or so weeks away in Glasgow attending The Beatson for radiotherapy meant that I just didn’t get to make the six Christmas cakes that I usually make for some of my friends.  I am determined to get back on track this year so today I started by preparing the ingredients for a mix and bake tomorrow.  The dried fruit is now soaking in brandy ready for the off.  All as per Goddess Delia’s recipe I’ve been doing this since I was confined to barracks after a heart attack in 2000 and discovered that people actually like what I did.  That’s a huge incentive isn’t it?

A Frustrating Afternoon – In Perspective

Yesterday – for it was yesterday when all this happened – I had one of those afternoons which provided me with lots of opportunities for losing my cool.  I  didn’t and for that I am quite proud of myself.  When Gaz and I went to bed last night it was well after midnight and I sat in bed and wrote a post but didn’t quite finish it.

I woke this morning to a text from a friend in New Zealand who was told today that she has cancer.  Perspective can be a wonderful thing and after a long phone conversation all of a sudden the fact that I didn’t save the post before I closed down Palin last night seems completely unimportant. 

So what was my irritation yesterday?  Quite simply: computers and printers and cellphones.  Gaz needed to copy and scan some forms in the morning and the printer and Henry (the PC) just couldn’t get on together for some reason.   However Palin and the printer were quite happy except that it seemed that new cartridges were needed.  New cartridges didn’t solve the problem and it looks as if, after spending ages getting the printer operating on both computers, the print head is dead.  Irritating (and costly).  I shall try the other printer this morning.  I also decided to download some music to my cellphones so that I could use them as MP3 players in the car to save having to take/remember my iPod every time.  Could I get the software to function correctly?  In a word: no.  Gaz had fortunately for him gone out for the afternoon!

A few years ago I so craved for life to be simpler.  I still do.  But now my life seems more complicated than ever.  And all because I have this belief that computers and cellphones and things that ‘aid’ communication are so important.  They are.  But gosh do they occupy time when they are being recalcitrant.  Perhaps I should just sit at my roll-top desk with my huge array of fountain pens (I love fountain pens) and write letters. 

If I did that, however, how much poorer my life would be.  I would not have met some of you, dear readers, for a start!

PS:  The afternoon might have been frustrating but Gaz and I had a great evening.  Mushrooms stuffed with Charley Barley’s black pudding, fillet steak with béarnaise sauce and asparagus, my special brulée and cheese and biscuits with a fine old port.  After dinner we sat and watched the special election edition of Have I Got News For You which I had recorded.  Good food, good wine and, most importantly of all, the company of a good friend.  What more could any man want?

Answers on a post card to…….