Back in July I bought 85 cook books at auction. Was a random purchase. Auction is once a month. Is like a house clearance auction. Have been back every month. Have since bought cappaccino maker, foot spa and coffee table. But no more cook books. Until now. Discover there’s another box in this month’s auction. Look closer. See there’s a Mrs Beeton. Or maybe two. And someone’s own handwritten recipe book. Other people seem interested in box. Not sure what to do. Can’t stay for whole auction. Taking mother-in-law back home after village firework display. Should I even buy more cook books? Have nowhere to store them. Do I need more books? Husband seems concerned I may take over living room with books. Decide to leave it to fate. Place maximum bid I think books are worth. If I’m outbid then was not meant to have them. Wait several hours. Miss a call. Check answerphone. Discover mother-in-law won three handbags she placed bid on. And the books….? Yep got them! Was close though.

Oh dear. I have more books. Will have to add them to list. No longer cooking my way through one person’s collection of 85 cook books and pamphlets. Now have 135. Only one duplicate. Now to find somewhere to put them…

100 Ways with Cheese, Maggie Black 1976,

100 Ways with Eggs, Anne Ager, 1976

Beeton’s Book of Household Management, 1989 edition

The Book of Garnishes, June Budgen, 1986

The Book of Salads, Lorna Rhodes, 1989

Cake Decorating, Janice Murfitt, 1986

Chicken, Linda Fraser, 1997

The Chocolate Lover’s Cookbook, Patricia Lousada, 1987

The Colour Book of Low Fat Cooking, Carol Bateman, 1981

Colourful Entertaining Cooking for the Hostess, Audrey Ellis, 1975

Cook & Book, Swiss International Hotels

Cookery in Colour, Marguerite Patten

Cook Happy, Josephine Terry, 1946

The Dairy Book of Home Management, 1980

Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course 1996 edition

Delia Smith’s Cookery Course Part 1, 1981

Delia Smith’s Cookery Course Part 2, 1981

Delia Smith’s Cookery Course Part 3, 1981

Delia Smith’s One is Fun, 1985

DK Pocket Encyclopedia Herbs, Lesley Bremness, 1992

Dutch Cooking, Heleen AM Halverhout,

Egon Ronay’s Guide to the Best in Freezing, 1975

English Electric E70 Self Clean Cooker Book

Essentials Pasta, Christine McFadden, 2001

Exciting Flavours of Asian Cooking

Farmhouse Cooking, Liz Trigg, 1997

Fast Fresh Food, Louise Pickford, 1998

Fondue Cookery, Alison Burt, 1973

Food and Cooking in Roman Britain History and Recipes, Jane Renfrew, 1985

Food and Cooking in Medieval Britain History and Recipes, Maggie Black

The French Farmhouse Kitchen, Eileen Reece, 1979

Good Housekeeping’s Cookery Book, 1966

Good Housekeeping Kitchen Log Book, 1985

Handwritten Recipe Book

Italian Farmhouse Cooking, Judy Bugg, 1994

Jill William’s Book of Freezing, 1974

Just for One, Katharine Blackmore, 1988

The Lean Plan, 1984

Lesley-Anne Ivory’s Spice Jars cards

Low-Fat Cookery, Wendy Godfrey, 1990

Mrs Beeton’s Cookery Book

Novelty Cakes & Other Novelty Food, Janice Murfitt, 1987

Pasta, Anna Del Conte, 1998

Pasta, Linda Fraser, 1998

Rick Stein Cooks Fish, 1987

Slim and Healthy Cookery

Stanford and Westenhangar Golden Jubilee Recipe Book, 2002

Sweets without Sinning, Gwyneth Dover, 1990

Thorn Cookery Book

Woman’s Own Book of Casserole Cookery, Jane Beaton, 1967

Am starting to learn more about person who owned collection of books bought from auction. So far have identified:

1. They liked Sainsburys (many books in collection are from supermarket)

2. They once cooked for two people (ingredients for recipes for 4 people have been halved in margins)

3. They were a busy housewife / working woman (many books have this theme – cooking nice things quickly)

4. Had some connection with Hampshire (must have, were once willing to go to Botley to get flour)

Like last book, next book is also connected with a product. Whatever happened to company’s which produce baking ingredients also publishing books of recipes? Am sure mum’s favourite recipe book was one she got free with something, or she sent off for it. Hang on. Will phone and ask. Estimated duration of call to ask question and get response = 7 mins. Stay there.

Am back. Was 17 minutes. Got slightly distracted. Mum started telling me about man she saw at bus stop other day laughing hysterically. Went to have a nose. Said ‘I was never going to believe what she saw’. Saw man with big dog with goggles on in sidecar on motorbike. Said to mum ‘am sure I’ve seen that too’. Turns out article on dog is today’s metro. Think mum should be journalist. Get back on to book. Mum recalls being given Stork margarine recipe book at school in 1967. Learned to cook from it each week. Was told by teachers she had to buy Stork margarine. Says she used to try and buy cheaper one and disguise it as family didn’t have much money.

Shocked at school’s attitude to corporate sponsorship of domestic science lessons in 1960s. Mum says she’s thrown book away now. Probably a good thing. Must have spent thousands of pounds over the years buying Stork margarine.

Feeling nostalgic. Remember having bacon roll as child. Suspect now this may have been from mum’s Atoria suet recipe book she also had. Decide not to use Be-Ro flour. Rebelling against brand names. Use supermarket flour instead. Suet pastry recipe v.straightforward. Mix flour, salt and suet in bowl with cold water and roll out. Feels fatty. V.worried about fat content. Am not going to be eating it (not eaten meat since was 16). But husband is. Worried about husband’s belly. Starting to discover cooks of many traditional recipes from 40 or 50 years ago were less concerned about fat content of recipes. Read with interest article about Mrs Beeton by Xanthe Clay, thinking that old recipe books are fab, but times and tastes do change.

Cook bacon, onion and parsley. Roll out pastry, spread on bacon mixture. Roll up tightly. Cook. Take out of oven. Looks v.fatty. Warn husband. Husband is hungry. Doesn’t care. Says to serve with tomato sauce or a good brown gravy. Picture is of peas and carrots. Husband wants neither. Serve with chips. Husband’s verdict, is very tasty, stodgy, would eat again, but not often. Salad anyone?

** WARNING this blog post has taken me 2 weeks to publish due to big embarrassment factor. Have finally stopped cringing. Only continue to read for entertainment value **

Am in an adventurous baking mood. Oh yes. Have been gaining confidence with baking. Have no idea what ‘Botley Mills’ is though. Discover very quickly. It’s a type of flour. Mill is in Botley in Southampton. Book says ‘all flour named in these recipes may be purchased from Botley Mills in 12kg or 32kg packs. These can be delivered on a C.O.D basis or purchased by personal call’. Sounds like a lot of flour. Not to worry. Use a lot of flour. Ask husband if he fancies trip to Southampton. Asks why. Say it’s to collect big bag of flour. Husband doesn’t reply. May need to check they have some in stock before planning flour road trip. Google Botley Mills. Puzzled. Says it’s a pet food seller. Look up heritage. Says this ‘Commercial white flour production continued at Botley until 1990 and stoneground flour until 1993, when for economic reasons production ceased’. Is a shame. Tell husband we’re not going to Southampton. Husband is not disappointed. Decide to use supermarket flour instead.

Week 11 / Baking with Botley Mills by Kate Easlea / Croissants

Sieving flour and salt, making well and adding wet ingredients seems v.straight forward. Very similar to making Jamie Oliver Pizza dough. Roll dough into oblong? How big an oblong? My oblong is not very big. Kitchen work surface is small. Get distracted. Day dream of more kitchen work surface. Write mental note for Christmas wish list.

1. kitchen island (will tell husband it can live in living room)

Cover with dots of butter. How many dots? How big should dots be? My dots are about

On Christmas wish list - kitchen island

half an inch big. Fold pastry. Refridgerate. Add more dots of butter? Doesn’t say. Add more dots for luck. Keep folding. Put in fridge again. Take out. Is it meant to expand? Roll out dough. Cut in to triangles. Roll each triangle? Confused. Not following recipe very well. Feeling baking disaster is imminent. Place on baking tins. Decide to cook anyway. Maybe they’ll puff up in oven. Don’t puff up. Throw in bin. Feeling deflated (me and the croissants). Have since seen Great British Bake Off. Seems copious amounts of butter is needed for croissants. Even the lovely Holly who did them fabulously admitted they weren’t the easiest things. Need a lie down. Follow some deep breathing exercises.

Was looking forward to croissants for breakfast. Need to boost baking confidence. Must bake something else. Google bagels. Find recipe for these. Cook like doughnuts. Is good fun. Come out looking ok. Breathe sigh of relief. Will revisit Botley Mills when have had more practice. Until then, croissants are meant to be bought, not baked.

How often do you hear the phrase ‘we’re all living busy lives now…’? Constantly if you ask me. Working, commuting, looking after children, doing housework, socialising, date nights with partner, watching Prison Break box set because you’re 6 years behind everyone else (ok, last one’s just me). Hear constantly that we’re busy. Think we are all busy. Maybe this is nothing new. Many of books published over last 50 years have similar theme: cook nice things quickly. This one’s no exception. Introduction says ‘no longer does the busy housewife have to spend hours whisking and beating. These exhausting and tedious tasks can now be done by her electric mixer or blender a fraction of the time.’ It goes on, ‘the busy mother with a small baby can now make up her own nourishing baby foods as they are a simple matter to prepare and her baby will certainly thrive on the number of foods which can be made in to a variety of baby foods…’ Did women ever have time for cooking?!

Love buying cake out. Expensive though. One slice or cupcake can easily be £2+. Feeling frugal. Already have something in common with Marguerite Patten.

Week 10 / 500 Recipes Electric Mixers & Blenders by Marguerite Patten / Recipe 10 / Economical Cut and Come Again Cake

Have an interesting relationship with mixers and blenders. Three months ago got butter stuck in hand blender whilst making custard creams. Used finger to scoop it out. Blended finger. Still have finger. Very lucky. Have also managed to break one of sticks on hand mixer. Decide to buy new mixer. Aspire to have cream-coloured-large-posh-multi-functional one from department store. But not at £400. Cake would not be very economical. Buy £4 one from supermarket instead.

Sieve dry ingredients. Add butter. Love tip ‘where mixers have a high speed you must use a very large bowl so that flour doesn’t fly in all directions’. This is very true. Manage to get flour everywhere due to bowl being too small. Add everything else. Mix by hand. Very easy. Put in tin. Crossing fingers. Cakes baked recently seem to stick to pans. Wait. Remove cake. Cake comes out ok! Has risen nicely. Looks like the kind of cake relative might have in storage for when you pop round. Cool cake. Husband tastes tests cake. He likes it. Nice, moist, fruity, simple, very good. Recipe said cake was a ‘one-stage cake’ and is prepared in 2-3 minutes once ingredients are weighed. Agree, very quick. Even for those who live busy lives.

Admit I’m slacking. Since cleaning microwave and implementing savvy shopping have re-discovered joys of making food quickly. Know this is not meant to happen. But can’t resist a sparkling appliance. Have also discovered 8pm-9pm is optimum time for finding reduced items in supermarket. Everyone’s watching Holby City. Apart from shift workers and other ready-meal-seeking-bargain-hunters. Must re-focus. Hoping next book will be full of extravagant, complicated, satisfying recipes.

It isn’t. In fact, it doesn’t have a single recipe. Oh dear. Fearing next week will be full of microwaveable quick cook creamy mushroom pasta.

Week 9 / An Illustrated Cook’s Notebook by Juliette Clarke

Book is lovely. Is a notebook to write recipes in. With pictures. And inspirational quotes. Slightly disappointed to discover pages have nothing written in. May have given more clues to owner of books. Only know so far that owner:

1. Liked Sainsbury’s

2. Cooked for 2 people

Look through book. Quotes make me smile.

‘No matter where I take my guests, it seems they like my kitchen best’ Pennsylvania Dutch Saying. This is true. No matter how small your kitchen. Had halloween party in 2004. Decorated everywhere. Apart from kitchen. Everyone spent all night in 4ft x 8ft kitchen squished up against cupboards.

‘In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection’ Curnonsky. Maybe. Sometimes things look simple. Like croissants. Or brandy snaps. Or steak. Getting them just right – not v.simple.

‘If a man be sensible and one fine morning, while he is lying in bed, count at the tips of his fingers how many things in this life truly will give him enjoyment, invariably he will find food is the first one’ Lin Yutang. Hmmm. Man case study aka husband is not in house. If I asked him top three hope he will answer 1) me 2) cat Hiro 3) steak. Will ask later and report back. Need other men. Ask twitter followers. Here is selection of answers: socialising, food and drink, holidays, learning something new, Guinness, shouting ’180′ during re-runs of ‘Bullseye’, Luton Town FC, beer, sight of a beautiful woman smiling at you, family, work, motorbike, daughter, photography, days off exploring England. Hmmm not sure when quote is from. Common theme is drink. And family. Maybe drink would be followed by food. Am sure quote is correct.

Ok. Feeling inspired using words of wisdom to create moments of enjoyment. Will ask family to come over for simple beer in tiny kitchen.

Have had microwave longer than have had husband. Is fairly basic. Microwave not husband. Is 8 years old. Mum’s been trying to convince me to get new one which grills and bakes. Says I could cook a whole chicken, or bake a cake in new ones. Hmmm, nice. Not convinced. Microwaves are for re-heating and de-frosting stuff. Scared of book. Was published in 1997. May have been written for ultra-busy-high-powered-sex-and-the-city types who’s un-used cookers may sparkle due to eating out and occasionally popping home to re-heat food.

Discover book is not 101 recipes, but 101 tips for using microwave. Breathe sigh of relief. Love tip 4, ‘don’t dry socks in the oven’. Seems obvious? Quiz husband about this. Says on adventure weekend as teenager he tried to dry tea towels in actual cooker. Came out smoky and crunchy. Recommend book for 13 year olds about to embark on outward bound courses.

Tip 11 ‘convert cooking times’ talks about adjusting times for 500, 600 and 700W microwaves. Mine is 800W. Think most now are 1000W. Wonder if microwaves of future will cook food in seconds not minutes. Like in Back to the Future part 2 where Marty’s daughter puts pizza on ‘hydrate level 4′ and it’s done in 3 seconds. That was set in 2015. Not sure microwaves will be that souped up in 4 years time. Shame.

Book gives much detail on times needed for cooking vegetables, pods and seeds, roots and tubers, fruits, pulses, grains and cereals, pasta, fish, beef, lamb, pork, poultry, veal and offal. Veritable feast of uses for microwave. How exciting.

Decide I’m not feel brave. Pick useful tip instead.

Week 8 / 101 Essential Tips Cooking with a Microwave / Deodorize your microwave

Here’s my defence. I do regularly clean microwave. Genuinely I do. Just not in some time. Look in microwave. Is splattered with colourful dots. Tip says to wipe inside with bicarbonate of soda dissolved in warm water. Looking forward to this. Have seen ‘Kim and Aggie’ on tv doing similar stuff. Have never made DIY cleaning fluid before. Seems very straight forward. Wipe microwave. Is coming up clean. Very pleased. Wonder if there’s market for new product, ‘bicarb-cleaner’. Decide to hold off applying to Dragon’s Den. Will check labels of products in supermarket to see if others have realised power of revolutionary ingredient. Add mixed spice to jug of water and heat on high for 3 minutes. Ask husband to smell microwave. Expecting fabulous response. ‘Nothing’ he says ‘it smells of nothing’ Still feeling positive. Nothing is better than something horrible.

Delighted. Second book in series aimed at busy office worker. Am v.busy at the moment. Book is also from 1976. Learn in introduction that ‘the English are renowned for reducing them (vegetables) to an inedible ‘mush’ by soaking them in advance and then cooking them in excess water for a prolonged time.’ Have to admit some relatives used to be like this. Have childhood memories of floppy beans boiled in heavily salted water. Don’t know anyone who does this now. Suspect government sent out subliminal messages (along with the 5 a day thing) to the nation during the 90s calling for vegetables everywhere to no longer be floppy.

Buy lots of vegetables since don’t eat meat. Tends to be pre-packed cool ones like mange tout, mini sweetcorn and broccoli. Decide to challenge myself. Pick 80s style veg and childhood meal.

By Anne Ager

Week 7 / 100 Ways with Vegetables by Anne Ager / Recipe 9 / First day Bubble and Squeak

Remember eating bubble and squeak in days after Christmas. Was only way mum could get me to eat brussell sprouts (still detest them). Used to have it with leftover turkey (did used to eat meat, stopped during teenage phase in 1996, phase didn’t stop). Start to shred cabbage. Cabbage has got brown stuff in. Convinced cabbage hasn’t gone off. Remove brown stuff. Have read recently we throw too much food away. Determined to eat cabbage. Husband isn’t back until later. Won’t tell husband. Can’t tell him he has to be on cabbage-watch as well as milk monitor. Is husband’s birthday soon. May suggest he might like new fridge. Big American-style one.

Slice potato and put in pan. Add water. Doesn’t seem like much water. Simmer. Wasn’t enough water. Pan burns a bit. Add more water. Am sure mum used to mash up potato rather than slice. Fry onion. Add cabbage and potato. Fry. Doesn’t seem very crispy. Too much oil? Serve. Tastes ok. Makes change from mashed potato. Wouldn’t make effort to cook on ‘first day’ though. Good way of using up left over veg. Even the ones with brown bits in.

Very excited about book. Read blurb on back, says ‘recipes in these books show how the simplest and most inexpensive foods available everywhere can be easily prepared by the busy housewife, or the office worker, in interesting, delicious and nutritious ways’. Love it. Am very busy office worker on a budget but still have to do the housewife thing too. Although I let milk go off again this week. V.embarrassing. Fabulous zumba-going-friend from Coventry came over at weekend. Made tea, asked if she wanted sugar, went to put milk in, was lumpy. Had to make cappaccino using Dolce Gusto machine bought from auction for £5. Thankfully she liked it. Advised I buy smaller bottles of milk to minimize risk of milk-gate happening again.

Week 6 / 100 Ways with Cheese / Recipe 8 / Cheese Scones

Bear in mind book is from 1976. Introduction makes specific reference to cheese being suitable for pensioners, ’most hard or semi-hard cheeses can be stored for a week in any cool place. Cheese can thus be a boon, especially for disabled or elderly people if they find shopping a problem.’ Google ‘boon’. Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick. Google ‘boon definition’. Means ‘beneficial’. Makes more sense. Am loving watching ‘The Great British Bake Off’ at the moment. Feel a need to bake (something quick, given that I’m a busy office worker).

Recipe is very simple. Need mustard powder though. Never bought mustard powder before. Supermarket on way home doesn’t sell it. Frustrated. Ask twitter followers for help in tracking down elusive mustard powder. Seems it’s not so elusive after all. Larger version of same supermarket sells it (next to actual mustard in case you can’t find it either). Everything is in old measurements. Look back at introduction. Author Maggie Black states ‘when converting large quantities (to metric) one obtains slightly less of the finished product than when using ounces and pounds’. Interesting. Sift dry ingredients, rub in butter. Butter has shot up in price! Used to be £1 for a pack, is now £1.20. Have no idea why. Maybe demand for baking ingredients is pushing up price. Add cheese. Use red leicester. Don’t ask, cheddar had gone off too. Mix with milk to make dough, pat and cut. Nice. Put in oven. Take out. Lovely. Allowed to cool briefly. Husband wants one. Gets the thumbs up. Basic scone recipe, very easy, cheese on top adds flavour. Doesn’t make many though. Good if you need quick baking fix (and have cheese that isn’t green) 6 out of 10. There are no pictures to compare them to. Convinced this is how they’re meant to look.

Next week: 100 Ways with Vegetables.

I like tuna. Chunks not flakes though. The most creative thing I make is tuna and pasta bake with a packet mix. Husband’s not keen on tuna. Ask him to pick recipe. Looks through book. Doesn’t like anything. Oh dear. Ask him to pick a page between 8 and 62. Crossing fingers for page 18 – devilled vol-au-vents. Quite fancy 80s revival. Imagining meeting up with very lovely yummy mummy cupcake baking friend. Me to them, ‘have you been doing any cooking recently?’ Them to me, ‘yes have made some fabulous cupcakes… what have you been cooking?’ Me to them ‘Well it just so happens I’ve made some devilled vol-au-vents…’ Them to me ‘wow that sounds impressive, tell me more…’ This is not how the conversation will go. Instead, page 23 – mediterranean eggs. Erm, ok.

Week 5 / Recipes for Tuna / Recipe 7 / Mediterranean Eggs

Feeling positive. Recipe gives me chance to use up ingredients in fridge. Don’t need to buy anything spesh. Dice onion. Eyes seem to water much less than when I originally peeled onion. Dice pepper. Chuck in pan. Says to peel and de-seed tomatoes. Really? Decide not to do this – life’s too short. Add tuna (not Mediterranean at all, appears to be from Seychelles). Then eggs. Have got lots of eggs at the moment. Farmer neighbour has chickens. I’d quite like chickens in garden. Am aspiring to this one day. Not sure it’s economical at the moment. Eggs cook very quickly. Discover I still have lovely flavoured bread to toast. Will go fabulous with eggs. Go to slice. Don’t get very far. Bread is green. Sigh. Have to use remnants of other bread. Season, dish up. Taste. Not bad. Very quick snack. Cheap. Seems to make lots. 6 out of 10.

That’s the last of Sainsbury’s ’50 recipes for…’ books. Think I’m glad. Need some variety now. Have emailed supermarket asking how many more books there were in series. Seem good value for 75p. Have lots of ideas. Will probably return to them (still need to make vol-au-vents).

Next week: 100 ways with cheese

Quick and easy

Finding ’50 recipes’ series v.hit and miss. Wondering how many books Sainsbury’s made like these. Maybe they stopped after many people experienced French onion soup / gravy-gate like me. Think I’ll email them and ask. Look at next book. It’s potatoes. My potatoes always go green and sprout alternative life forms. Back in 1989 book says Sainsbury’s sold 40 varieties. Will ask them about situation now.

Learn valuable tips. Must store pots in cool dark place, as light makes them develop ‘solanine’ which can give belly upsets. Quickly remove pots from fridge. Need bigger kitchen for storage purposes. Cupboards full of dusty gadgets (for future ref, gadgets don’t include remoska – bit concerned about that) so leave in carrier bag hanging on cupboard for time being. Husband not a big fan of pots, thinks they’re stodgy. Decide to manipulate husband into being open minded. Pick something he associates with good times. San Francisco, 2008, Pier 39, chowder.

Week 4 / 50 Recipes for Potatoes / Recipe 6 / Smoked Haddock Chowder

Pick Desiree potatoes. Says they’re good for mashing. Is third time recipes have required fresh parsley. Buy plant. Vow to keep it alive at least until next book. Halve ingredients listed. All going well, celery and onion simmer nicely. Add flour and water, boil. All ok. Check recipe. Add smoked haddock. Re-read. Oh no. Must have gone round supermarket in daze. Haddock’s not smoked. Is white, not yellow. Chop it up anyway. Must be similar. Cook fish (much longer than 5 minutes that smoked would have needed). Husband comes home. Says something smells good. Great! Feel like domestic goddess like in 1950s adverts. Should be wearing apron and puffball dress with hair perfectly coiffed, (make do with scraped back ponytail, work clothes + comfy top and slippers) will try to remember next time to wear pink Harrods apron with cakes on that mum bought me two Christmases ago.

Chowder is rocking. Add a little bit of flour for luck and super fast thickening. Season and add parsley. Nice. Not pretty. But it’s not meant to be looking at pic in book. Dish up. Husband’s verdict: it’s lovely! (says this twice) Parsley could have been chopped more finely, but is filling, good consistency, tasty, wants more, recalls eating chowder in San Francisco. Mark out of 10? 9 he says. Brilliant.

What it should look like

Parsley needed to be chopped more finely

Not very pretty