Category: Personal

Weekend Cooking

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

My food thoughts this weekend have been coloured by a passage I read in 100 Days on Holy Island: A Writer’s Exile by Peter Mortimer. He spent some time out at sea in a lobster boat catching not just lobsters but velvet crabs and large brown crabs. They’re brought to shore alive, because as Peter writes;

For some reason, humans consider it the height of culinary sophistication to boil a lobster alive in front of restaurant diners’ eyes. (page 89)

I’m not a vegetarian, although I’m edging that way. And this highlighted, yet again, for me the problem I have with being a carnivore – we have to kill a living being in order to eat it.To be confronted with it in person would be beyond me. I know the arguments for and against but having watched Jamie Oliver on one of his TV series (in Italy I think) kill a sheep I’ve only rarely bought lamb – also remembering my granddaughter’s disbelief that anyone could actually eat lamb!

I like crab but Peter Mortimer’s description of how he dealt with cooking the two crabs he was given at the end of his fishing trip also made me think hard about what I eat:

Millions of creatures and animals were slaughtered every day – humans, too. Here I was, anguishing over a brace of crabs. Except you could read of endless deaths. But needed to see only one.

Something of that morning’s experience, something of fishing’s inevitable brutality, had stayed with me, as if here I was about to square the circle, as if I were destined to perform this act of murder to resolve the day.

The two crabs interlocked their claws, as if seking safety in numbers. Their live presence filled the kitchen and though I turned my back on them it made little difference. (page 91)

He did the inevitable and cooked them, dropping them into cold water and brought them slowly to the boil as he’d read that was the most ‘humane’ way. And then he found that the smell of their boiling was nauseous and

… their clattering noise was intolerable. (page 91)

If I had to catch and kill my meal myself I’d soon become a vegetarian!

Happy Birthday BooksPlease!

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

Three years ago today I began to write regularly on this blog and this is my 846th post.

I started out very tentatively but now feel at home here. My intention at the beginning was to keep a more detailed record of what I was reading, but I soon realised it’s also a good place to record places we’ve visited; actually my first posts were mainly about places rather than books!

I also discovered memes. I had no idea what these were, ‘memes’ up till then were something I’d read about in Richard Dawkins’s books. Booking through Thursday soon became addictive and most weeks I still take part. Actually you could do a meme each day of the week if you want to and I then realised that this was taking me away from reading, so I’ve cut down on them.

Then there are the Challenges. I thought them too difficult at first and didn’t take part. But soon, when I realised that you don’t actually have to complete them I found that they’re a very good way of learning about new books and also of getting down to reading some books off my tbr piles.

So, after three years of blogging what has changed? I written about most of the books I’ve read – see the tabs above for my book reviews and indexes and I’ve learnt a lot, found many other book bloggers who share my love and enthusiasm for books and added loads of books both to my tbr piles and my wishlists, but most of all I’ve enjoyed it all immensely. I love the contact from all over the world and the comments I’ve had -I hope you all keep on visiting!

Weekend Cooking – Family Recipes

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

I’ve been watching BBC 1’s series The Hairy Bikers – Mums Know Best, which has made me think about my family’s recipes. I have my Mum’s recipe book. She didn’t really need recipes as much of what she cooked was by instinct. Even though the recipes give quantities in pounds and ounces she didn’t use scales, but measured ingredients by spoonfuls until she thought it was right. In fact she didn’t use recipes much at all – there are no meat or poultry recipes in her book and the only fish recipe is for cooking salmon – which is so brief – – “to cook half and hour to three quarters”. There are jam recipes and one for Green Tomato Chutney.

The majority of the recipes are for cakes and biscuits – Lunch Cake, made with lemon and sultanas, Ginger Cake, various Fruit Cakes, a Swiss Roll – made with dried egg, Chocolate Cake, Date Loaf, Bakewell Tart, Bun Loaf, Malt Loaves, Parkin and an Easter Cake which is rolled out when mixed and baked on a greased oven plate and which I don’t remember her making.

One of my favourites is Parkin, made with medium oatmeal, brown sugar, margarine, lard, flour, syrup or treacle, baking powder, ground ginger, milk and water.

 I loved this!

Visit Beth Fish Reads for other bloggers who are participating in Weekend Cooking.

Would I tell You Lies? The Answers

Published on by Margaret4 Comments
When Kay guessed the true answer straight away I thought I’d made this too easy and then I got a little worried when some of you wrote that you think I’m a good liar! Some of the statements were partially true but only one was absolutely true:
 

1. FALSE – I can’t play the piano at all, never mind passing Grade 5 with merit. I had a few lessons at school when I was thinking about being a teacher and was pleased to give up the lessons when I decided I didn’t want to be a teacher. My finger span is not broad enough for one thing.

2. PARTLY FALSE – I can’t speak Welsh. My Taid (grandfather) taught me how to count up to 10 and to say “good night” and “shut the door” in Welsh but that is all and I can’t remember the numbers now. I was 5 when Granny and Taid came to live with us and each evening I must have left their door open because after saying “nos da” they always added “caewch y drws”.

3. FALSE – my mother-in-law did indeed teach flower arranging. I never went to her classes and although she did tell me the basics I never entered any competitions and have never won prizes for my flower arrangements.

4. FALSE – I haven’t been to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I only got to the second level when I was staying with my French penfriend. I haven’t got a head for heights!

5. TRUE – I had dancing lessons from an early age and have danced the French Can-Can on stage. I was in a Youth Club and for a couple of years we put on a show. One year with three friends I danced the Can-Can, ending by doing the splits. Kay asked what I wore. We wore the traditional Can-Can costumes -here’s a photo. I’m the second from the left (it was a long time ago).

6. PARTLY FALSE – I did love diving and wanted to learn to scuba dive on holiday in Cyprus, but I chickened out.

7. FALSE –  Frederic, Lord Leighton, a Victorian painter and sculptor is no relation to me, although my father was also called Frederick Leighton. I’ve been looking up my family history and can’t find any link whatsoever.