Becky Bakes…

You might remember we had a lovely holiday in western France just after Easter, staying on the beautiful sandy coast of the Vendee. Whilst there we ate some delicious food in restaurants, I made some pretty decent meals too, as we were self catering for some of the time. Everything tasted wonderful, so I came home full of enthusiasm to recreate some of the things we ate. There was a very slow-cooked lamb dish with a herby sauce I described to our lovely butcher at the top of the road. He struggled to work out which cut of lamb had been used but we settled on rump. These were vacuum sealed for me to cook them sous-vide, a process I haven’t employed before, but the slow-cooker provided a perfect water bath. Imagine my shock/horror when the packages expanded and threatened to burst during the 6 hours they were floating around! Did it work? Not really. Then there were the gallettes. I even had a tutorial (in French) about the perfect way to create them. Buckwheat flour was easy to find in a health food shop, but could I get the consistency right? Having tried several times and failing I decided that It’s better to enjoy the moment whilst on foreign land and look forward to the next time we can enjoy them when travel to these fabulous places 😉

We first started to make videos during the pandemic, when our son found himself at a loose end – he works in the events industry and of course there were no events. He suggested filming me making a Victoria Sandwich, editing it and then uploading to You tube. It went well and we made more. Eventually life returned to normal and his work became busier and busier to the point that lately he hasn’t had a moment to work with us. In the meantime Richard has taken up the challenge and been filming, recently he’s got the hang of editing too, so today we were able to bring you another video. It’s Little Lemon Curd Tarts and I’m hoping the use of that last word won’t mean we fall foul of the algorithm which took down a previous video. Vocabulary seems to be tricky sometimes, so I’m going to keep an eye on the visibility and restrictions in case I’ve breached some unknown protocol 😉

Over the last few days we’ve had ripe tomatoes and two cucumbers…tomatoes fresh from the plant don’t last long though as they taste amazing warm and just picked. When we bought the greenhouse, the plan was that I’d be able to have a pot of freesias just inside the door – we’d share it. Well I can report that hasn’t happened 😉 My reason for requesting a pot was that an old friend, who we lost earlier this year, had a lovely pot which smelled wonderful when the door was opened. I can’t complain though, as we have peppers and salad leaves along with tomatoes of all colours and sizes, along with lots more cucumbers to come. It’s a lovely time of year, the leeks are doing well as are the beans. French beans are our favourite and already we’ve picked several handfuls. How does your garden grow? x

…the jasmine’s in bloom. It’s a song I love which speaks of July being dressed in a tune. Only this week there was a magical tune audible in our little High Street – it was coming from the “crocodiles” of children walking from the railway station to the beach, with cries of “I can see the sea !!” All the schools have now finished for the holidays and many parents are calling for the holiday to be shortened to four weeks. Now, it’s just my opinion, but I think six weeks is great, although the end of term should be brought forward to early July when the weather is better. Children need time to relax and do nothing. They need to make a tent , read a book, paddle, play with their friends and wonder what to do next (the word ‘bored’ has always been banned in our house) Getting messy in the kitchen is always a treat for little people and I appreciate that child care is an issue for many and that’s where grandparents can help. We made a new video this week which is waiting to be edited, but it’s perfect for little hands. It’s Little Lemon Curd tarts and is perfect for tiny helpers to get involved, so look out – it’s coming soon! 🙂

It’s been wall to wall coverage of Wimbledon for these two weeks so if you aren’t a fan, then it must have been a pain! For me, it’s been brilliant. I started to play at secondary school and even represented the school in a match against a prestigious Bedfordshire school. Did we win? Honestly I can’t remember, but I loved it. Later I watched the Dewar Cup tournament played in Nottingham with Nastase as a star competitor. A trip to Wimbledon centre court was a dream, but once was enough. So many people and such heat, which has been the situation this year. No wonder spectators have been taken ill, sitting in the extreme heat. It’s been great fun messaging friends who are watching the same match, though, sharing our thoughts about the grunts and groans of certain players as well as “ooh”s and “aah”s when a serve hits the spot or a rally of several shots creates excitement. Strawberries and cream in a cardboard box doesn’t appeal though 😉

Somewhere, at the back of a high cupboard, I have a book called “Listeria Hysteria”. It’s with “Panic Nation” and “You are what you eat”. Where are these books? I’m not sure. But Listeria is a dangerous bacteria causing Listeriosis and is particularly dangerous to pregnant women, young children and the elderly. Quite where elderly kicks in, I’m not sure so I’d rather say people over seventy whose resistance might be reduced. Listeria has been found in a number of foods but this time it’s blueberries and seems to be the ones grown in Georgia, USA. Blueberries are useful fruits as they have a mild flavour and are good eaten raw but equally good when put into muffins, as they pop and create pockets of juice. For now, though, I think we need to be watchful – look at the label and check where they were grown. Stay safe peeps xx

We’ve had such a busy week. Just now I realised that it’s so important to have those moments when nothing much is happening and even this afternoon I spent time with a friend just sorting through buttons. Why? you might ask… well my Macmillan group was given yet another jar of very old, stale fastenings. Not just buttons, but snap fasteners, and suspenders with hooks and eyes. We never know what we’ll find and many of them smell nasty, so today they were washed and rinsed, dried in the sunshine before we started sorting. Lots were thrown away – broken, damaged or plain dirty. But the action of trawling through them is quiet and relaxing – just what we needed after such a busy week. 😉

Goodness me, it’s hot. It’s a lot hotter in South Carolina though and we’re able to keep an eye on the temperature there as we have an old friend from Lexington staying with us. She’s become an intrepid traveller spending a week in Kent, visiting London, Whitstable and Canterbury before taking Eurostar to Paris – and now in sunny Felixstowe. So of course we took a trip to Norwich yesterday, lunching at Bread Source and wandering the cobbled streets. She missed out on macarons in Paris so we sampled a selection for dessert last night. Today the National Trust will entertain and inform us at Sutton Hoo. Catching up with her family news has been a joy – who knew a farm with horses and chickens/hens could have a vicious rooster?! He attacked so many people, old and young, that he was finally(summarily) dispatched. I’ll spare you the details, but could he have been plucked and eaten, or would he have been a tough old bird? We shall never know 😉

Looking back I’ve always been fascinated by food, whether “helping” my mother or Granny in the kitchen at an early age or being transfixed by Miss Hobby, my first Cookery teacher. She was of the jolly-hockeysticks brigade who had a very sensible way of teaching. She left the High School and Mrs.White arrived, with tales of her husband and his motor bike. Then we moved house and I met Mrs. Maltby and Miss Gatley who took an instant dislike to me and declared I’d never make any good of myself…So a variety of influences by the time I was eighteen. Fast forward to life today and the influencers now seem to upload videos to tik-tok, strangers, yet widely admired by the young people of today. Parents no longer seem to have any input, rather having become sidelined and declared old-fashioned. We have a wealth of experience to share and some wisdom too, so take a moment to consider who is the best person to ask. x

A couple of news items caught my attention this week. The first is the proposal to offer free school lunches to all children whose families receive Universal credit in England. That’s great as long as the quality of the food is taken into consideration when the costs are looked at. Let’s not go back to re-heated pizzas and Turkey Twizzlers! The second item is a bit more complicated. Essentially we’re being told that obesity should be blamed on the highly processed and refined foods that we’re all presented with. Apparently we can’t be bothered or don’t know how to make wise choices to cook with fresh ingredients. Bring in Henry Dimbleby – the champion of Cookery in schools. He rightly pointed out that many schools don’t offer Food Tech/Home Ec/Cookery in schools at all and they get away with that because OFSTED never look at those lessons. Absolutely true. I know this from experience. I’ve prepared for inspections just like all other subjects, yet never has an inspector crossed my threshold. I even invited one in, as he passed by, but he declined to come in. Bring back proper Cookery lessons so that consumers understand about their food – but train the teachers too! (That’s another story….) x