A light shower freshens up the garden, I let my squawking hen out, she demands her freedom every day. Fill up, once more the fat balls for the birds. I have tree sparrows, coal tits and jackdaws feeding hungrily on them and also of course the starlings who are raising a family underneath the roof next door, the babes always clamouring for food.
Watched Nigel Slater, probably the only cook I admire for his gentle ways and enthusiam, he was travelling in Lebanon, and was very complimentary on all the food he tasted. It did bring home the message that you eat what the agriculture of your country provides. Rosewater and Orange water to flavour, what pictures it brings to the mind as he collected with the owner, who had planted many types of fruit and roses, the fragrances of roses and fruit. In fact it was two sisters that had started this company and a table full of delicious fruit preserves and jams was laid before Slater.
Coincidentally talking to my son later on, only to find he was also interested in Lebanese food and had sent me some photos of what he had cooked last night.
Is the whole nation turning into cooks I wonder, my daughter is always asked at breakfast by her almost grown-up children what she plans to cook for tea, and has been concocting sophisticated complicated dishes for them. What will happen in the future though as Brexit drives its heart through the country.
Me on the other hand, drags out the Dorothy Hartley's book on 'Food in England' to see if she makes potato pastry, I very much doubt that pomegranates are to be found in either Kirkby or Pickering! He has offered to buy me a book on Lebanese cookery, but will I use it? or more to the point will the poor postman have to hump even more parcels to the door?
Mark has also been out walking, there is a path not far from his home that leads up the hills that surround Bath. His goal is Beckford's Tower, and I see from the photo he sent me Kelston Round Hill in the distance and the village of Weston.
And those lovely buttercups in the foreground. Imust say I am making better and more interesting meals for myself these days. Oh and you can buy pomegranates in Leyburn.
ReplyDeleteToo far to come for pomegranates Pat ;). Will try and find different types of food in the Co-op and show willing.
DeleteThere's nothing wrong with a potato pie. My mother would have described a lot of what we eat now as nasty foreign stuff (well, that's the polite version).
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh, our children are so cosmopolitan nowadays. Everything is offered to them on a plate, they should have lived in the good old days, on squelchy cabbage, grey tasteless mash and semolina pudding, not forgetting faggots, liver and kidneys ;)
ReplyDeleteI have a book on Lebanese cooking too. Gathering dust, though the recipes sound very tasty. Tam has been in the driving seat for many of our evening meals recently (though Keith has plain and simple of course!)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely photo of the scenery around Bath.
Yes, the only thing though is you have to climb a hill to get to the top. You are lucky to have Tam at home to help out with the cooking, my vegetarian cook books sulk on the shelf as well. Basically because I cook with what I have in the way of vegetables.
DeleteI am not sure I would get pomegranates round here either but then I can't say I have looked. I am glad to hear that we are turning into a nation of cooks it is far better to cook for yourself from scratch than buy all those ready made meals that are full of all sorts of ingredients that don't sound like food to me.
ReplyDeleteThough both my children are quite old, I feel that they are adult now as well;)
DeleteThe countryside is so lovely when it is kissed by springtime. The birds around here are singing and mating and I expect to find some nests under my deck soon. They might be there now but I have not noticed.
ReplyDeleteI have tried quite a few Middle Eastern foods in restaurants. The flavors and aromas are outstanding. They use spices that I do not have in the house so other than hummus, I have not cooked any of this type of food..
Well cooking fads come and go, vegan meals are the hot topic now, but it has always seemed to me that vegetables grown in hot countries are much better to cook with, than the forced varieties we find in our local shops.
ReplyDelete