Becky Bakes…

Earlier this week I was interviewed by Rob for his show on local radio. He’s quite a foodie and often comes up with a topic he wants to discuss and this time it was Easter. As usual I made notes – fairly scruffy, but a list of facts and details I might need. He caught me slightly off guard when he asked how many videos we have made, so I had to jump up (quietly) and find my sheet of statistics so I could quickly tell him 71. Phew. Then we got to the list…fish on Good Friday, Simnel cake, Easter nests, hot cross buns. I’ll let you into a family secret – they are known as “warm angry bottoms” in our house since we discovered “buns” wasn’t a good word amongst American school friends 😉 Also on my list was Columba, the Italian yeasted cake, like Panettone, but shaped like a dove. It’s more widely available now in this country but was new to us when we moved to Italy. We found a bakery nearby where I saw them being made, right next door to the DiSaronno liqueur factory. The smell was incredible, but the sight of all the cakes hanging upside down to cool so they wouldn’t sink was equally amazing. I’ve bought one again this year as it’s firmly a tradition for us. Do you have something special to eat at Easter?

What a week this has been – we started off in glorious sunshine, so spent the weekend mowing, pruning, weeding etc. but now we are back to winter. We have had hail, sleet and snow with very chilly temperatures. This inspired me to reach down the slow-cooker and make a delicious beef casserole. I don’t use it very often, usually for a beef/brandy/chilli/tomato concoction, but this time it was more conventional and very delicious. The bonus is that the house smells amazing whilst it bubbles away. I struggle to resist lifting the lid and giving it a stir as that can do more harm than good, letting out the warmth and lengthening the cooking time. Do you have a favourite recipe for the slow-cooker, or is it a gadget too far ?

This weekend marks the halfway point in the season of Lent. It’s also when we celebrate Mothering Sunday, never called Mother’s Day by me as that’s quite different and what we enjoyed when living in the USA. I suppose my insistence on the use of what might be considered an archaic name is due to my childhood, when Granny would describe how all the other staff working for the Walker family were given the day off to go home, but as an orphan she had no mother to visit, so stayed where she was, strolling in a park if the weather was good. It seems most of them took flowers to their mothers and if there was cake it was of the boiled-fruit variety, not the extravagant Simnel cake we imagine. That’s now symbolic of Easter, with it’s 11 balls of marzipan on top, representing the disciples, minus Judas. So this weekend will be one of cards and gifts – almost another birthday – not quite the same as it used to be, rather more commercialised sadly!

Many years ago my mother belonged to the W.I. (Womens Institute) and took part in the monthly challenge. One I remember clearly was to make a jar of lemon curd and I was given the job of creating a batch from which she would choose the jar she would enter. She was awarded second prize because the judge found a fleck of egg white but commended the “potting and covering” – always closely scrutinised by judges, myself included in later years. Whilst on holiday last week I spotted a jar of this delicious spread in an upmarket garden centre and felt it worth the investment, if you get my drift. Honestly it was utterly scrumptious, worth every penny and almost on a par with the home made version a dear friend makes from time to time. Do you remember the poster we used to have in school “if life gives you lemons, make lemonade”? I’d change that to lemon curd 😉

This week I was struck by just how flat our eastern county is, as we drove west through the Chilterns to the Cotswolds. There were so many Red Kites soaring over us and swooping down to pick off their prey as we traveled on, marveling at the hills and vales on our route. Journeys’ end was Shilton, just outside Burford, and a stunning cottage that was home for a few days. Always one to investigate local eateries, we came across “Huffkins” which looked interesting and didn’t disappoint. On asking the lady server what a Huffkin was, she replied “Just a bap with a dent in the middle”. Well. It would have been more helpful if she had described it in a little more detail… it’s actually a milk roll, flattened and prodded by the baker and it originates in Kent. I wonder if these restaurants are all over the south of England ? We came across another in Whitney, the home of Early’s who have been making blankets for over 300 years. These were shipped to America and turned into coats for the indigenous peoples who traded with the settlers. Not just a blanket! x

As a self confessed foodie, I can’t help but look on with sadness and fear for the people of Ukraine. To hear someone speak of hiding in a basement with 20 others without fuel or water, just carrots and potatoes to eat, is desperate. Politics aside, in the 21st century, this is a barbaric situation which should never have happened. All we can do is offer our support in whichever way we can, whether by donating money, clothes, medecine or blankets to try to help. Just to show that we care. Numerous vehicles have been setting off from our little town, laden with all manner of necessities. Anything and everything is needed – nappies, wet wipes, sanitary products. How impossible to stay clean, keep a new baby safe, care for aging grandparents, those unable to care for themselves. Where will it all end?

Shrove Tuesday has always been a great favourite of our family. For many years we held competitions to see who could eat the most…this entailed a huge jug of batter of course! I had a very old Tupperware jug, with a lid and a hinged spout and whisked together 3 eggs with plain flour and plenty of milk. As the transparent pancakes were made I often added a little more flour and milk to the jug so we could keep going. As far as I can remember the children might reach a tally of 12 or more pancakes each and claim victory! Of course they were served with lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar, then rolled and sliced to be eaten with a knife and fork. Now some people prefer orange juice – that’s fine too, as is maple syrup or honey. Scotch pancakes are much smaller and thicker as they’re made with Self Raising flour and the batter is very thick so they don’t spread. These are good with butter and for us Ski-Sunday on tv 😉 How do you like yours? x

We’ve woken to a sunny, calm morning after such a wild day yesterday. There were many warnings of the severity of storm Eunice and it seems most people heeded them, with schools, shops, libraries etc all closed for the day. Travel was badly affected with trees falling almost everywhere – even here in our little seaside town. Thankfully flooding didn’t occur here as far as I’m aware. We sat and listened to the gusts of wind across the chimney pots and watched some fence panels collapse into our garden. That was the worst damage we saw here but noticed the street lights were off when it got dark. I’d checked that the gas cooker would light with a match if we lost power, then made tomato soup….what else to do? Cuddle the cats, check on our family from time to time, looking at their pictures – garden damage mostly. Hopefully you and your families are all ok, but can get help quickly if it’s needed. Stay safe x

This phrase is becoming more relevant as the weeks roll by. We must all have noticed that the price of many basic foods has risen and with the impending utility bill hikes there are many people who are now “just about managing” and soon will find themselves tipped over the edge. Pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes – all ingredients I use regularly have gone up by frightening amounts. Here in our little seaside town we have a community pop-up shop in different locations each day of the week, where anyone can go to buy a bag of groceries for £2. In addition there are food banks to which those in dire need are referred. In both cases the items are all donated by charities and shops as well as shoppers… and that leads me to think long and hard about what we need to donate. Any item of food which needs to be heated will add to the heat/eat dilemma, so my feeling is that breakfast cereals are one of the most useful items, along with, for example, tinned tuna and meats. Disposable nappies, sanitary products, laundry necessities, toothpaste.. all these could be high on our list and if we add one item to the donation box each time we shop, there will be someone somewhere who will benefit.

This week I read another report about the amount of food wasted in this country. Top of the list, surprisingly, are potatoes. It seems that people feel any little sprout from the skin makes the potato unfit to eat. Simply throwing out a potato because there’s a sprout is a shocking indictment of our lack of knowledge and when money is tight it’s a dreadful shame that there are those who know no better. Second on the list were bananas. A blackening banana needs to be used and is fine in a cake or, as we often enjoyed them, in custard. There were lots of ideas suggested, including freezing them to use later. The simpler solution would be to buy fewer bananas ! Not unexpectedly salad leaves were high on the list and I find those bagged varieties quite a challenge myself. Washed in spring water with instructions to use them within one day of opening, they are often found on our compost heap. I’ve tried all sorts of ways to avoid wastage, even making soup with the sad leaves (it was dreadful!) But our local greengrocer sells growing plugs of salad leaves and these present much better value as they are happy in the fridge for a week or more and between April and October we grow our own in pots. So, what is the answer to all this waste of food and money? Education.