Becky Bakes…

….want not. That’s a phrase that I’m sure many of us grew up hearing from our parents. They’d lived through the rationing during and after the Second World War, right up until 1954 when meat and milk became more readily available. Throughout my childhood there would be saucers on every shelf of the fridge, each one with a couple of roast potatoes, or some carrots, whatever hadn’t been eaten over the last few days. They’d be put into a cauldron of soup at the end of the week so nothing was thrown away. So I’ve always tried hard not to be wasteful. Imagine my surprise, then, when our local council decided to reorganise our rubbish collections and give us two bins for food waste. One to keep inside, lined with a recyclable bag, and then a much larger one to store all those bags until it is collected each week. Well, ours has never had more than one bag and in it there are tea bags, which hubby complains about in our compost bin as they don’t rot down. Also I put egg shells in there and chicken bones, that’s all. Any vegetable peelings go into the compost bins in the garden along with tree soft prunings and lawn mowings . Overkill by the council? I’d say so 😉

Not a word I use very often, but one we’ve heard frequently this week from the UK government. We are being warned about the risks of problems due to cyber attacks or freak weather situations when supplies of food, medecines etc. could be disrupted. If you looked into the cupboard under our staircase you’d see rows of shelves with several boxes of tea, packs of sugar, dried fruit, flour, herbs, spices…as you can imagine it’s all the ingredients I use on a regular basis. My parents did this too because they always lived out in the countryside with no shops within walking distance, so this apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. But this feels different, not least because power could be compromised too. Hubby has taken up the challenge to make us resilient, having bought a camping stove with gas cylinders, water, more tinned foods than I’ve ever considered…and long-life milk! It’s not about panic buying but having enough to get through about three days of problems – I think we have more than enough 😉 Are you ready? x

Weather-wise that is 😉 The first named storm of the year has delivered howling gales and driving rain, even to our eastern side of England. Other areas have been very badly hit, with power cuts and trees uprooted. We decided to continue with our planned visit to Norwich which was equally soggy. Undaunted we managed a little “seasonal” shopping and a delicious lunch at the Cosy Club – it’s worth a visit if you’re in the area as the building is spectacular, especially the conveniences in the vaults ! The menu is good too – my choice of smashed avocado on toast with a poached egg really hit the spot. We dropped off a batch of Shortbread biscuits too, which went into the kitchen of Emmaus House for the Chapter staff at the Cathedral. It’s always a treat to catch up with our favourite young people when we can ❤

Honestly, I don’t see how we can manage that. The reason this recommendation has arisen is because the quality of our soil is so poor that the nutritional content of our fruits and vegetables is much lower than ever before. It seems that whilst many people watch videos and programmes about cooking, not many of the younger generation actually cook from scratch. I’d love to proven wrong about that, if I’m honest, having spent so long teaching Food Tech, but there we are. So, back to ten a day. To achieve that we need to be making vegetable soup, ratatouille and roasting vegetables alongside our sausages, for example. Then there’s fruit salad, crumbles and pies. How realistic is it when fast food is the order of the day?

For many years we’ve implored everyone to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. All the pupils who passed through my classroom had those three words drilled into them ! Now it seems that unfortunately, most people in the UK probably only eat two or three portions. We know we need the vitamins, fibre and minerals provided by the colourful variety available to us, but whilst knowing their importance , we just don’t eat enough. In the news this week we learnt that our intake should increase to ten portions. I’ve recently been making Ratatouille to be boxed as two servings and frozen for later. The mixture of peppers, aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes with onions and garlic are such a good way of getting a variety of veggies. But we also need to know what a portion looks like – it’s as much as you can hold in your hand. Also it’s worth knowing that potatoes don’t count! This year they have been harvested early as the extreme heat and lack of rainfall means they’ve stopped growing earlier in the season, so they’ll be smaller than usual. As far as fruits are concerned ,berries are very valuable, so it’s a good idea to snack on blueberries, raspberries or strawberries to increase our intake. Happy eating!

We spent several lovely days in Somerset recently, meeting up with some of our favourite young people. I always feel we’re nearly there when we pass Stonehenge and was surprised to see so many caravans parked nearby but of course the solstice would have been a draw. Once Glastonbury Tor came into view I knew we’d arrived. Big mistake. The hotel was in the middle of nowhere, down the narrowest lanes I’ve ever encountered – not fun when you meet an eighteen wheel milk tanker, or a massive tractor. Anyway, the chef was excellent so we had a very good meal. Wells was beautiful, with babbling streams running down the sides of the roads, much to the delight of the pigeons. A little retail therapy was deemed essential, of course! We also had a magnificent steam train journey from Taunton to Minehead, waving to all the photographers in the fields as we trundled by. Lunch at the Crazy Golf was a risk but proved to be delicious and the return journey was at breakneck speed as we were late! What an adventure… 😉

There seem to have been quite a number of visitors to our little seaside town this week. Some of them have come with a party by coach and others just to have a day out, checking a place for the first time. Many of them are surprised that there’s more than the port, but a bustling main street too. We have lost important shops over the years, most significantly M&S, but also our banks and all but one building society. In spite of that, we still have many independent retailers – a delightful bookshop as well as a labyrinthine secondhand bookshop, a homestyle/giftshop, vintage and antiques as well as places to buy records, cd’s, textiles, yarn, cards, jewellery, fantasy collectables and much more. Let’s not forget our amazing butchers, bakers and greengrocers too. The challenge they all face is from internet shopping, “armchair buying”. That doesn’t help any of our “indies” who might have whole days without a customer. So please go shopping, in person and make life a little easier for those who have to pay rent, rates, utilities and wages 😉

Well, on the gnocchi front I’m afraid to admit defeat. I’ve tried several ways to make them more palatable and even hubby admits it’s not worth the bother! To get it really crisp you need to use a lot of butter in the frying pan, with a high temperature. Adding olive oil prevents the butter burning, but my apron looked very spattered by the time I’d finished 😉 One variation had paprika sprinkled on top which improved the flavour but still the texture was unpleasant. I’ve drawn a line under those blighters! Today we’re going to film another easy mid-week chicken dish and hope to have it uploaded soon. It has just 5 ingredients and is something I’ve been making for many years as it’s a favourite of all the family (healthy too). We had a Friday Foray to buy plants this morning and I’m afraid I experienced the worst cheese scone I’ve ever eaten from the bustling coffee shop. Great plants though. There should be a change to the seasonal page on the website too – obviously Autumn inspired, probably featuring all things apple related ❤

This is a date I will never ignore. We were living in Lexington, South Carolina, hubby was working in Manchester, New Hampshire. I’d taken the children to school and was helping an ex-pat friend make fabric pelmets for the tops of the windows in her rented house. Standing at the ironing board, the phone rang. It was her husband “Put the news on” I could hear him shout. She did and we watched in absolute horror as the second plane ploughed into the tower. She screamed. Their son was on a flight from England, was that his plane? She spent hours trying to find out where he was and thankfully his flight had been diverted to somewhere far away and she drove to collect him much later that day. I went home and turned on the TV. A ticker ran across the screen with updates of the school plans. They were locked down until it was considered safe to reopen, then every child came out of the door holding the hand of an adult – lunch ladies,teachers, caretakers, office staff, the school nurse… every one held on to at least two children. I remember phoning my parents in England, but I could barely talk. A terrible day.

Gnocchi ! (Pronounced “nyockey”) Try as I might, I find it hard to enjoy gnocchi – it’s that soggy, sticky texture that leaves me cold. However, recently I’ve come across a couple of recipes which looked quite appealing. So a trip to one of our bigger supermarkets meant I could investigate the range and found a brand which has to be fried, surprisingly, as well as the standard type which can be quickly boiled or roasted. “Rana” do various flavours as well as some with stuffing but I chose the plain ones so I could compare results. Frying “Rana” was disappointing as each little dumpling was very chewy and tough. Roasting the ordinary type was better but still not crispy even though I added olive oil with chopped peppers and onions. So my next experiment will be frying basic gnocchi with the addition of butter. Interesting but inconclusive so far. I’ll keep you posted – I’m hoping the results are worthy of a video 😉