Husband is home. V.pleased. He’s been away for 11 days involved in international sporting event. Hoping he can be milk monitor and ensure next bottle doesn’t go off. Will use him. Ask him to choose recipe. Spend much time hinting I should make ‘fluffy tart’. Ignores hints. Picks most similar dish to his favourite meal in Cafe Rouge (we sometimes go there with Tesco vouchers).

The book

Week 3 / 50 Recipes for Cheddar Cheese / Recipe 5 / Rich Onion Soup.

Ask husband to get ingredients. Need beef stock and stout. Comes back with Oxo reduced salt beef stock granules and Guinness. Hope this is ok. Recipe doesn’t suggest otherwise.

Onions take ages to cook. Suspect I need bigger pan. They’re not going brown. Split onions between two pans. They cook. Add flour. Add stock. Seems like gravy. Discover we have can of Guinness from 2005 in beer fridge. Husband drinks that one (it’s ok). Use new one in recipe. Soup looks really brown. Simmer. Slice up baguette. Add cheese. Grill. Serve.

First recipe I’m not trying myself. Relying on husband. Verdict… onions were cooked well, bread and cheese were nice, but it’s gravy. Looks like gravy. Tastes like gravy. It’s nice gravy, but would have been better with roast beef and Yorkshire puddings. Gutted.

What it should look like

The bread and cheese were nice

It's all gravy

Next week: 50 Recipes for Potatoes: Hot Lightning (whatever that is)

Am shattered. Have started new job (love it, but adjusting to different hours). Admit to eating pizza and buying frozen chips. And ready meals. And pre-made desserts in ramakins I can wash up and use afterwards. Milk went off a week ago. Must re-focus. Back to canned tomatoes, still have half a tin left over.

Week 2 / 50 Recipes for Canned Tomatoes / Recipe 4 / Stuffed Courgettes

    I like courgettes. Have cooked Jamie Oliver’s courgette carbonara a number of times before (without bacon for me, with bacon for husband). Have picked recipe as it’s something owner of book made, probably - pencil marks in margin. Scoop out courgettes. Feels satisfying. Says I need to blanch. Think blanch means to boil quickly. Google ‘blanch’. Get distracted looking at ’blanch house’ a boutique hotel in Brighton. Looks nice. Think I could do with mini-break. Was nearly correct with blanching, must plunge in to cold water asap. Cook rice in microwave rice cooker. Check me out with gadgets, much easier than boiling in pan - always seems sticky that way. Use left over walnuts and parsley from last recipe. Impressed at multi-useable ingredients. Mix everything. Lots of it (even for 2). Have already halved courgettes as couldn’t fit in pan earlier. Put in casserole dish. Seems odd using parmesan cheese on top – think something like feta would be better. Never mind.

Says to put courgettes on top of tomatoes and water. Ignore this. Think it will make courgettes sloppy. Wait. Watch tv. See ‘Great British Bake Off’ is back on tv. Brilliant. Think last year’s winner Edd Kimber is super cool. And has lovely blog.

Remove courgettes. Was right. There’s water in bottom of casserole dish. Unsure whether this is from tomatoes or courgettes. Look’s good though despite filling over-spilling. Taste’s nice. Is substantial, healthy and has good flavour. Ask for feedback from neighbours Mick and Ann. Overall verdict: nice texture, good combo of ingredients. But cheese is wrong. Cheese that melts better would be nice (cheddar please), as well as more cheese and more seasoning. Gets 6 out of 10. I agree. Mick says he wants to be first on list for chocolate cake. Tell him it’s 50 recipes for cheese next. Then potatoes, then tuna, then cheese, then vegetables…. May have long wait.

Eat cheesecake from ramakin I can wash up and use again. Accept can not be fabulous all the time.

Picture taken from the book

Photographed on my garden table (better lighting outside)

Grew up with canned tomatoes. Mum served them (whole ones) with fry-ups. Now I mostly use chopped ones in bolognese. This book’s by Betty Jakens. Google her. Can’t find much. Google asks me if I meant ‘Betty Jenkins’. Discover she also wrote book called ‘Mixer and Blender Cooking’. Introduction is promising, says ‘canned chopped tomatoes can turn an ordinary meal into something that looks exotic, and tastes tangy and definitely Mediterranean’. Looking forward to exoticness.

Very excited. Now know two things about the owner of these books.

1. They liked Sainsburys

2. They once cooked for two people. In margin of stuffed courgettes recipe there are pencil marks which halve all ingredients. Recipe is meant for four people.

Week 2 / 50 Recipes for Tomatoes / Recipe 3 / Fish Plaki

Like fish very much but rarely bake it in anything. Usually just wrap salmon in foil.

Recipe says fresh or frozen cod or haddock. Have small freezer. Go for fresh haddock. No cod. Cod much less available since book was written. Very straight forward. Worry about parsley (didn’t buy whole plant, my

Recipe from book

herbs usually die) seems to wilt very much when cooking. Wonder if I was meant to just use leaves not stalks as well.

Neighbour Rob comes back with casserole dish. Is cleaner than when he borrowed it. Take advantage and immediately use casserole dish for fish. Pour mixture over fish. Wait.

Careful not to over cook. Forget to add lemon slices half way through.

Serve with broccoli. Decide it looks modern without lemon slices. Add lemon slices for effect. Looks retro. Tastes lovely. Fish moist, tomatoes tasty, very healthy. Would cook again. Compare mine to original photograph from book. Decide food can be made to look much more fabulous from arty angle. Also suspect my plates are from 1990.

This is what it looks like in the book

Forgot the lemon slices

Think my plates must be from 1990

 Next recipe: Keeping with tomatoes. 50 recipes for canned tomatoes / Week 2 / Recipe 4 / Stuffed Courgettes

I’m not done with bananas. If I’m honest I went with easy option to start with. Need to try something that at least hints at being savoury. Think ‘pork schnitzels’ or ‘trout caprice’ may be slightly ambitious. Need to cook something I’ll actually eat.

Week 1 / 50 Recipes for bananas / Recipe 2 / Banana and cheese loaf

Have run out of self-raising flour. Recipe is on hold.

Can not believe I ran out of sr flour. Used to have loads. Then had incident with weevils in cupboard due to lack of air-tight containers, so threw it all away.

Flour re-instated. Also bought paprika. Have everything else. V.g. Pleased recipe does not require unusual ingredients.

Carefully select music to accompany cooking. Snow Patrol to bake to. Roxette’s greatest hits whilst I wait for it to cook. Use rolling pin to crush walnuts. Doesn’t specify I do this. It just seems appropriate. Mix everything together. Seems dry. Neighbour Rob pops round wanting to borrow casserole dish.

Add another cheeky egg as eggs are quite small. Should have specified ’2 large eggs’. Like texture of mixture, feels rustic. Put it in oven. Wait. Check on loaf after 45 minutes. WOW. Looks amazing. Has totally risen. Put back in as it couldn’t be ready yet. Neighbour Ann knocks on door. Wants 2 oz of sr flour. I must be giving off proper baking vibes as everyone wants my stuff. Wonder if Ann had weevils too.

Check on bread. The top has burnt. Not again. Note to self: Stop getting distracted.

Leave to cool. Check recipe. Must store for a day before cutting. A DAY?

Impatient. Wait 1 hour. Cuts ok. Take 2 slices to neighbours Mick and Ann. Ask for feedback. General consensus: like it, would be lovely with some cheese and chutney (and I think a cup of tea), it’s more savoury than sweet, it’s unusual, nice texture, stodgy, feels rustic, better with butter, 8 out of 10. V.pleased.

Felt appropriate to use rolling pin

Taken from good angle

The finished product - what it actually looks like

Next week: 50 Recipes for Canned Tomatoes / Recipe 3 / Fish Plaki

Definitions of bananas:

That is all.

Have no idea how author found 50 recipes. About to find out.

Introduction is interesting. Apparently avocados can be ripened by putting them in polythene bag with bananas – v.useful, avocados from supermarket are always hard, fact.

Week 1 / 50 Recipes for Bananas / Recipe 1 / Ginger Nobs

Ginger nobs = biscuit with banana and ginger.

Next week: 50 recipes for canned tomatoes (have decided to go in list order).

Has been 4 weeks since I bought 85 cookery books and pamphlets in an auction (proper in-person auction not online auction). They cost £17. Bargain. Spent a further £5 on vegetable trolley to keep them on. Vegetable trolley now in living room. Not easy to find place for 85 books (even if some of them are very small). Not sure what to do with books. Suspect this is one person’s whole cookbook collection.

Two weeks later am secretly hoping I will be inspired to become very good cook as books are in such close proximity to kitchen. Nothing happens. Still intrigued about books, especially ‘Lakeland Limited introduces the Remoska’. Have no idea what ‘remoska’ is. Makes me smile.

Brings me to today. Need to do something with books. Hatch a plan. Will aim to cook at least one recipe a week from one book (in no particular order) and will write down what happens. That is all. Some books don’t have dates.

50 Recipes for Bananas, 1989
50 Recipes for Canned Tomatoes, Betty Jakens, 1990
50 Recipes for Cheese, Wendy Sweetser, 1990
50 Recipes for Potatoes, 1989   
50 Recipes for Tuna, 1989
100 Ways with Cheese, by Maggie Black, 1976
100 Ways with Vegetables, Anne Ager, 1976
101 Essential Tips Cooking with a Microwave, 1997
An Illustrated Cook’s Notebook, Juliette Clarke, 1989
500 Recipes Electric Mixers and Blenders, Marguerite Patten, 1973 
 
Baking with Botley Mills, Kate Easlea
Be-Ro Home Recipes for Self-Raising and Plain Flour, 1967
Be-Ro Home Recipes, Scones, Cakes, Pastry, Puddings
Burnt Cakes and Other Offerings, A Taste of Burrowbridge
Buying and cooking Vegetables, Mary Norwak,  
Cooking with the Remoska, Milena Grenfell Baines and Karina Havlu, 2003  
The Book of Yoghurt, by Sonia Uvezian, 1979
The Complete Book of Wok Cooking, Vicki Liley, 2005
Cooking for One, Molly Perham, 2001
Cooking with Herbs, Arabella Boxer, 1984  
 
Cooking with Herbs and Spices, Josceline Dimbleby, 1979
Cranks Light, Nadine Abensur, 1998  
The Cranks Recipe Book, David Canter, Kay Canter, Daphne Swann
Delia’s Kitchen Garden, Gay Search and Delia Smith, 2004
Delia Smith’s Guide to Fish Cookery magazine
Delicious Vegetables, Lyn Rutherford
Eat your Greens, Sophie Grigson, 1993
The Farm Fresh Cookbook, 1983
Farmhouse Fare: Recipes from Country Housewives collected by the Farmers Weekly, 1960
Favourite Farmhouse Recipes
 
The Fish Course, Susan Hicks, 1987  
The Fish Recipe Book, Marika Hanbury Tenison, 1983  
The Fish Recipe Book, Marika Hanbury Tenison, 1991
Food for Life Challenge, Recipes from the food for life challenge 2001, Portsmouth City PCT
Four Seasons Vegetarian Cookbook, Country life for butter
Friends of the Earth Cook Book, Veronica Sekules, 1980
The Frugral Cookbook, 1976
German Home Cooking, Oetker, 1963
Hampshire’s Country Recipes, Ann Gomar 1988  
Hampshire Farmers Markets Cook Book
 
Hampshire Food Festival Miss Fluffy Rice Recipes, 1963
Herbwide Naturally, Christina Stapley, 1993
Housekeeping, 1950
How to Eat, Nigella Lawson, 1998
Indian Vegetarian Cookery, Rafi Fernandez, 1986
Irresistible Vegetables, The Cookbook
Kitchen Pharmacy, Rose Elliot and Carlo De Paoli, 1991
Kingpin Recipes, Helen King
Lakeland Limited introduces the Remoska user’s guide
Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine Cookbook, George Foreman and Connie Merydith, 2003
 
Leith’s Cooking for one or two, Polly Tyrer, 1996  
The Little Brown Egg Book, 1975
The Little Brown Book of Greens, 1975
The Little Brown Rice Book, 1975  
Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery, 1982
The Microwave Planner, Annette Yates, 1986
My Watercress Book
Neff – Recipes with Your Neff Circotherm Oven
Not Only Spaghetti, by the cook to a Florentine Family
Organic, a new way of eating, Sophie Grigson and William Black, 2001
 
Oriental Dishes, Jo Logan, 1984
Pasta, Julia Della Croce, 2000 
Pasta Italian Style, Patricia Lousada, 1981
Plants with a purpose, Richard Mabey, 1977
Poor Cook, Susan Campbell and Caroline Conran, 1972
Rice, Beans and Pasta, Roz Denny, 1986
Rick Stein’s Food Heroes Another Helping, 2004  
The River Cottage Guide to Mushrooms
The Sainsbury Book of Cheese including Cheesecakes and Fondues, by Rhona Newman, 1982
The Sainsbury Book of Fish Dishes, Claire Gordon-Smith, 1985
 
The Sainsbury Book of Mixer and Blender Cooking, Carole Handslip, 1982
The Sainsbury Book of Quick Meals, Michelle Berriedale Johnson, 1980  
The Sainsbury Book Of Vegetarian Cooking by Carole Handslip, 1985
The Sainsbury Book of Wholefood Cooking, Carole Handslip, 1981
Scottish Fish Recipes
Share our festive ideas, Sainsburys
The Stir Fry Cook, Caroline Young, 1992
Vegetarian Cookbook, by Doreen Keighley 
Vegetarian Grub on a Grant, Cas Clarke, 1996
Vegetarian Pasta Dishes, Janet Hunt, 1987
 
Vegetarian Suppers, Jane Suthering, 1992
Vinegar Nature’s Secret Weapon, Maxwell Stein, 2001  
Wine and other drinks, Rupert Croft-Cooke, 1962
Wok Cooki, Carolyn Garner, 1991
World Cuisine Italy (1)