FOOD FACTS AND COOKING TIPS...

...From Someone who has been Cooking for Over Thirty Years and has Learnt Almost Nothing

This smiley banana-y face marks the beginning of my New Series of 'Food Facts and Cooking Tips'.

I hope you're excited.

I am a Big Fan of The Great British Bake Off, of Delia Smith, and especially of anyone who can produce a delicious and nutritious meal using 6 ingredients or fewer.  (More than six ingredients and I lose concentration).

However, I feel there is a gap in the market for the rather more basic cooking tips and info.
This is a hole I intend to plug. (Ooh,  sounds rude).  And so I begin...

PASTA IMPERFECT ...

... Or, Why am I not Rich Enough to have a Cook?

Sometimes I am just not in the mood to cook.  At all.

Sometimes I can't even think of what to feed everybody let alone organise providing it. 
Sometimes I am just so darned tired or fed up or lazy that even uttering the words "I don't want to cook" feels like way too much of an effort.

A couple of nights ago I was definitely in a Not Up For Cooking Anything Much mood.  Quick and Easy was the order of the evening. 
I would rustle up some Macaroni Cheese (or Macaroni and Cheese as our American friends call it) to fill the family's hungry tums.


And, because I hadn't given up the fight completely, I would be bunging in some Bits of Ham. 
Stand back Heston Blumenthal.

PRINCE GEORGE OF CAMBRIDGE*

*This Post is not about Prince George.

Not the Prince George

Prince George is largely irrelevant.


Only to this story!  Heck people, Prince G is not irrelevant!  Nothing shakes your world like the arrival of your First Born, Prince of the Realm or not.

This post is about a George - Saint George.

Or, actually - not.

But it is about my world being shaken, so you may want to take a moment to prepare.

Deep breath and ... ready?

ON DISCOVERING THE DISHWASHER IS BROKEN...

...Or, What a load of Bologs

Sooooooo, it was Sunday morning and the only day of the week when we get a lie-in. 
Feeling rested and refreshed, Mr W got up and offered to make everyone a cooked breakfast.  I took the opportunity to have a lovely bath.

I love the smell of a lovely bath.  Can't have too many products in the bath water because I have the Skin of  a Princess; but the odd splash of a baby product, coupled with the smell of what I can only assume is chlorine, and my nostrils are happy.

There are two smells finer than that of a lovely bath.  One is the smell of a cooked breakfast, and the other is the smell of a cooked breakfast that someone else has cooked.

IT MAY BE NOVEMBER...BUT REMEMBER, REMEMBER...

 

...Or, Well Hallo(we'en) Again!

 

I know, Hallowe'en has been and gone - and, in England at least, most people have moved on to Bonfire Night preparations - but I can't resist dragging it out a little longer.

It's been a busy week with all The Family home, and certainly our most Time-Consuming Project was the Haunted Gingerbread House. 

COOKING WITH KIDS . . .

Or...The Trouble with Cooking with Kids

(I am of course referring to the act of cooking alongside children.  Not using them as an ingredient).

Nothing can be finer, can it, than spending time cooking with your kids?

Well, yes, frankly - plenty of things are finer.  Earwax removal... Filing Tax Returns...Paper-Cuts....

I am quite sure there are about a gerzillion parents who adore cooking with their offspring.

I am not one of them.

In the heady days of Summer Last I made the mistake of declaring in public that I would teach each of my children to cook.  I can laugh now...