Wednesday 17 August 2011

Cooking The Books

Liz and Jon are now cycling the Norfolk Coastal Path – on our bikes! We strapped them to the roof of the car [the cycles, not L&J] and went up to North Norfolk this morning. Having satisfied ourselves that all was well with our intrepid pair, we drove off in the opposite direction towards Hunstanton.

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Seeing a large sign saying “Book Sale” we stopped, and went back to a house whose front drive was full of plastic crates of secondhand books. They were all sorted into categories, and the lady explained they’d inherited the libraries of 3 maiden aunts, and they had their own books, and they wanted to downsize. We spent a little money, then went into Hunstanton for lunch.

After lunch, we looked in a few charity shops, also a Discount Store, where Bob bought a large crowbar for £2.99 [explanations later!] then pootled back to Cornerstones, via Swanton Morley Fishing Lakes, where we picked a couple of pounds of blackberries.

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I bottled some, and then made a double-crust blackberry and apple pie, using the remaining berries, and the last of the windfalls.

Then we had a rather explosive evening meal.

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Inexplicably, one of the glass tablemats suddenly shattered – I had just taken the plates from the first course into the kitchen, and was about to return with the pie, when it just…went!

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It was rather like the effect you get when a car windscreen goes. But it was quickly cleared up, and nobody was injured. Here are our bargains

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On the top, a red retro Pyrex dish [20p] and a slim blue volume “Good Puddings and Pies” [10p] both charity shop finds.

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The book was published in 1947, and includes delights such as Herodotus Pudding and Boiled Angels! I plan to try some of these when I get back to Leicestershire.

For years Bob has lamented the loss of his mother’s “Radiation Cookbook” [I was always suspicious of the name, it sounded like something to use in a Nuclear Fallout Shelter] But an outlay of 20p this morning got him a copy of the 17th edition [pub1934] “That came from one of the aunts” said the lady

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This series was produced for owners of New World Gas Cookers, and is a wonderful ‘basic’ cookbook produced between the wars. The final book “The World Guide To Cooking With Fruits And Vegetables” is quite modern in comparison – from 1973.

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The green cover is decorated with asparagus spears. Inside, it lists almost every fruit,vegetable and herb you can think of [and many you have never heard of], and gives an appropriate recipe. There are hundreds listed, including

ackee, alecost, carambola, fra-fra, guarana, huckleberry, jackfruit, kudzu, locust beans, manioc, mugwort, persimmon, quandong, quinoa, salsify, sapodilla, thimbleberry, ugli, wampi, xuxu, yam and zucchini.

Bob is growing some salsify this summer – it was a crop his Dad always grew for Mum, as it is very popular in Belgium. The book was a little more expensive, at £2 – but it is so informative!

This evening, Bob’s made another loaf – and Liz has texted to say they have arrived safely at their first overnight stop. I went for a short run, and it started raining – on one side of the road I could see the most beautiful sunset, and on the other, a brilliant rainbow. A lovely end to a glorious day!

5 comments:

  1. Will you still use your remaining glass table mats...or will you issue safety goggles to guests?
    Jane x

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  2. You are such industrious bees! Don't you LOVE old cookbooks? It sounds like you are having a nice time.

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  3. Wow, good finds. Glad the exploding glass didn't hurt you.., my mind went off a search as to why that might have happened - sounds a bit like a creep or fatigue effect.

    Glad the recipe is boiled angels not boiled Angelas though. You must post that at some point (tne angels recipe not a boiled Angela)

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  4. What a shock to have a mat explode like that, but glad you werent hurt.
    I remember buying Ugli fruit years ago, a little like a very large grapefruit.

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  5. thanks for the comments - we have carefully checked all the mats. We bought 2 boxes of 4 back in 2009, and three of the remaining mats appeared to have faults - so we have binned them, in the interests of safety. Perhaps those 4 were from the same faulty batch?
    Yet again blogger is refusing to let me post as myself [if I get annoyed, Catriona, I may become a Boiling Angela!] But this is definitely me - love and blessings to you all xx

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