A blast from the past

Yesterday I wanted to make a meat loaf with some pork mince I had in the freezer, so started to look for a recipe. I normally make one with beef so I roughly knew the ingredients but knew I had a recipe somewhere. Well, I was now on a mission to find one and an hour later with nothing found I went to a cupboard out in the garage and there in the deep dark depths of a long forgotten drawer FULL to capacity with old recipe books - I found this one covered in dust and in a very sorry state, dating back to 1980.

does anyone remember these M&S cook books? I used to collect them on a regular basis back in the day.

I served it with mustard mash (as all the tv cooks seem to do it this way) and fresh runner beans and gravy, as opposed to the barbecue sauce.  Mmmm it really was nice but I forgot to take a picture. So today we had the cold leftovers sliced with salad and this was equally as good.

Now my hubster is a serious hoarder, he won't throw anything away - storing stuff in the garage, loft space, boxes, cupboards - you name it, its there (although he hasn't realised yet that I am apt to sneak stuff out of the house in the direction of the local charity shop from time to time) - but that's neither here nor there. So bringing in this cook book was no mean feat I can tell you. I mean it was a case of Pot calling the kettle black! Anyway this book has got so many lovely recipes that I haven't cooked in years that I haven't the heart to put it outside again and it's now going to take pride of place on my kitchen shelf. 

I was going to type the recipe out but I guess if you tap on the picture it should enlarge. Enjoy.

Bye for nowx

Leftovers

I normally cook a Sunday roast most weekends and very often use the leftovers to make either a Shepherds/Cottage pie, depending on whether its lamb or beef. Chicken is normally turned into a pasta and chicken bake or something similar. Today however, I've made some Rissoles. I haven't made these for a long time. In fact I used to have a Jimmy Young Cook book back in the 70s which was very popular at the time, all the recipes coming from members of the public and cobbled together to produce a selection of everyday meals - my rissoles being one of them. This book hasn't been around for years and like many other obsolete items in our house is probably in the dark depths of my loft - another story.

By courtesy of Google

My sisters and I are in the throes of putting together a cook book of all the meals we can remember from our childhood that our mum used to make us as well as our own favourite recipes we've cooked or baked over the years. This, we intend passing onto our own children, to be passed on and on and on. More about this another time when finally published/printed.........

Anyway my sister happened to still have her Jimmy Young book and I was delighted to find the old recipe for rissoles and I took a photo of the recipe on my phone.

So here it is...

Savoury Rissoles

12 ozs leftover minced cooked meat
2 tomatoes
1 onion chopped (I blitzed the tomatoes and onions together in food processor to make them finer)
1 tablespoon dry sage and onion stuffing mix
2 standard eggs, separated
3ozs fresh white breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon gravy browning
salt and pepper

Method

Mix the minced meat with the tomatoes, onion, stuffing mix and gravy powder. If the mixture is too dry add a little water, then bind together with the two yolks and one egg white. Season to taste. Roll with floured hands into little sausage shapes then dip in the egg white and roll in the breadcrumbs. Fry in a little oil until golden brown. Serve with creamed potatoes and peas or mushrooms.

I halved the quantities for the two of us but I found the mixture very moist so added a bit of flour. I didn't have any gravy browning so that might have helped. Definitely wouldn't use all the egg and probably next time would add more stuffing mix. Trial and error comes to mind.

So here they are (not quite the sausage shapes intended) just about to go in the fridge to firm up before cooking tonight. 

See you soon x

Fishing around the freezer

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments recently and apologise for not replying at this time. I love getting them, they make my day.

I always buy fresh meat, poultry and fish and then freeze for another day. Vegetables are normally fresh but occasionally buy frozen peas or runner beans when they're not in season. Well today I've been having a tidy-up in my freezer as I like to leave some space for the run up to Christmas, mindful of the fact that some of this food will have to be eaten by its use-by date. Anyway I found a few packs of fish where only one or two odd pieces were remaining so decided to make a fish pie using Cod, Haddock and Salmon which I sliced and diced.

 

Made some parsely sauce (packet)  and added to the mix

Topped it with freshly mashed potato and

 

Tah-dah - here it is waiting to go in the oven (for about 30 minutes)

I just wish I'd had some parsley for the top!

Sometimes the simplest of ingredients make the best of meals -

and all from the odds and ends floating around my freezer.

 

Do you have a favourite quickie meal?

 



A taste of France...

It's taken a whole week to get back to some kind of normality after our trip to France. Our feet haven't touched the ground since we got back and the week has flown by. Anyway here's  a taster of our stay in Provence.

We stayed in Avignon a beautiful and fascinating city known to be the cultural heart of the Provence region. The Palace du Papes was the headquarters of the Catholic Church from 1309. The building's heavy fortification reflects the violent nature of 14th century religious life.

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting The Luberon area was a delight - this regional nature park which is known to be one of the most appealing areas of Provence with its limestone cliffs, river-hewn gorges, rugged peaks and rustic villages, was the inspiration for Richard Mayle's 'A Year in Provence'

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the street life in France where markets are held regularly and pavement cafes are in abundance. Two in particular were Arles and Uzes.

 

How lovely to be able to buy your fresh fruit, vegetables, cheeses and meat from the local market. We don't have anything like that locally except perhaps for Borough Market in Southwark.

 

I do love an Antique Shop - and this is something that the French do well - many village streets were lined with shops and stalls selling all manner of vintage goods.

 

We were very lucky with our weather, the sun shining most of the time, so we were able

 to indulge in quite a lot of Alfresco dining - just heaven.

I hope you've enjoyed this little taster - no pun intended - and I'll continue with more of our travels in a day or two.

Bye for now

Valentine's dinner and memories

First of all welcome to my new follower at Blueberry Heart.

This weekend I hosted a Valentine's dinner for my two sisters and their hubbies. We had a really lovely evening. The menu comprised of -

Grilled halloumi with basil dressing
and roasted vine tomatoes

Homemade Focaccia bread

Aubergine Parmigiana with mini roasted lamb joints

Panna Cotta  (individual heart shapes) with raspberry coulis

***************

The Aubergine dish is a great favourite of ours and taken from Jamie Oliver's Italy book

So that I could dish up six plates of food and get them onto the table before they got cold, I daren't take any photos!

It really did look like this

I made table gifts for my sisters which were the fabric hearts I told you about a while ago. They were delighted, as I was with the result.

I also hung a collection of hearts gathered from around the house, on my willow twig arrangement, an idea I got from Heidi at allmyscatteringmoments - thank you Heidi.

My sister surprised the two of us with a gift that she had put together in the form of a memory box with items and snippets about our parents and their wedding. She and I have been tracing our family history for years and this was a lovely idea especially as our other sister has not taken part in our research and this enabled her to see the results.

This prompted me to realise how I have neglected some of my own research. I really must get back to it - when I have the time....

I have always kept my own memory box since I was first married - forty one years ago. I opened it this morning to take a peek.  Needless to say I have sat here in my study for several hours, pouring over some of the bits and pieces inside.

The contents include Orders of Wedding Services - mine, daughter's, son's; daughter's first ballet shoes from three years old; all manner of 'special' birthday cards, anniversaries etc.; old autograph books from my school days; a menu from my day on the Orient Express, which happened to be the day after Princess Diana died (isn't it strange how we always remember what we were doing when something shocking happens in the news); tickets to Ladies Day at Royal Ascot; letters from special people; children's old school reports; medals and certificates for ballet and football; press cuttings; telegrams; locks of hair; champagne corks. I even have a small box with a few of the children's first milk teeth (how sad is that, but couldn't bear to throw them away!)

The list goes on, but I wouldn't be without my treasured possessions for all the tea in China and it would be one of the first things I would save in an emergency. Well I have now spent ALL morning on this - but what pleasure it has given me, revisiting past times and remembering lovely people, events and places!