Grannymar

Why I don’t add photos to my Food Mondays.

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/08/betcha-cant-eat.html

And how about this for an idea…

Recipe in Rime

There is no way I could compete.

Foods I Crave

• A ‘BLT’ Sandwich – made with grilled tomatoes, smoked bacon and lettuce.
• Traditional Roast Beef dinner – shared with a large group of friends because it takes the longer cooking of a large joint to bring out the flavour.
• Olives stuffed with garlic – just because I like them
• Raspberries – with a little ice cream
• Mammy’s Christmas Pudding – a reminder of my childhood
• Good Coffee – that tastes like it smells
• Pistachio nuts – like the great big bags full that a patient brought me from Turkey when I worked in the USAF Hospital in Wiesbaden.
• Danish pastries – the real thing that I gorged on tasted on a holiday in Denmark.
• Death by Chocolate Cake – even if it doesn’t agree with me
• Sweet Mince Pies – I have been known to have them for breakfast!!

Foods I dislike with a passion

• Porridge
• Mashed Potatoes
• Oysters
• Salted Peanuts (Whole)
• Whiskey
• Milk
• Bread & butter pudding
• Fast food Burgers
• Sauces made with a Roux ( butter, flour and milk)
• Milk Chocolate

What’s on your list?

On the 16th December 1756 George II granted to the Earl of Donegal the right to hold: ‘Two fairs yearly at the Town and Lands of Ballyclare’.

At first the fairs were markets for buying and selling animals and goods but soon they grew to four in a year. The May and November fairs became the most important as it was there that the farmers hired their labouring men and servant girls for the next six months. The May Fair was traditionally held on a Tuesday in late May but in the nineteenth century such was the demand for horses that the Monday was given over to the trade.

Local farmers needed horses to plough and transport their produce, while Belfast traders sought carriage horses and sturdy animals to pull carts. Any of the bakeries alone would need a hundred animals. The great days of the horse fair ended with the First World War and growing mechanisation.

Old photo thanks to Ballyclare Historical Society.

This photograph was taken in 1907 the Thatch pub on the left was replaced by an Ulster Bank branch. The small cottage on the extreme right is the oldest dwelling in Ballyclare where the Presbyterian minister hid some United Irishmen after the Battle of Antrim in 1798

In the nineteenth century the working day was from dawn to dusk the May Fair day was the only break in the year when young farm hands could be free to enjoy some simple fun.

This year’s Fair began yesterday with the Main Street again echoing to the sound of horses being exercised and dealers shouting, while the area around the Town Hall saw the return of Cullen’s amusements, a Continental market and live music performances. The local football ground at Dixon Park played host to a Shetland pony show, a Teddy Bear’s Picnic and a display by the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI) Dog Team.

The Fair will reach its climax on Saturday 24^th May with the Mayor’s Parade and a host of activities in the Sixmile Park, including a rodeo show by visitors from the borough’s sister city of Gilbert, Arizona, helicopter rides, Trialstars Motorbike Team, World of Owls, a climbing wall, laser clay pigeon shooting and a military vehicle show. The festivities conclude with a fireworks display at 10pm in the grounds of the Leisure Centre.

When I was young the choice was porridge or corn flakes.

Corn flakes were invented in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1894 by brothers Will and Dr. John Kellogg. They baked some boiled wheat on a baking tin, the doctor was called away on an emergency, and they rolled out the stuff the next day. The result was flakes.

Dr John Kellogg was an Adventist who used this recipe as part of a strict vegetarian regimen for his patients, which also included no alcohol, tobacco or caffeine. The diet he imposed consisted entirely of bland foods. He believed that spicy or sweet foods would increase passions. The foods were therefore experimented in a psychological ward with great success. In contrast, cornflakes would have no aphrodisiac property and lower the sex drive. I doubt the modern adverts mention this fact.

John was interested in the sanatorium, which he owned, while Will who served as the business manager of the sanatorium, decided to try to mass-market the new food. He sweetened up the flakes with malt and bought the commercial rights from his brother.

Will Kellogg started the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company on this day in 1906.

Well now you have had your cake, and eat it. You have had some soup, so today we will try a main meal. This is so easy!

Chicken Portella

Serves 4
Preheat oven to 170°C

1½ lb Chicken pieces

3 tablespoons Mayonnaise

1 small carton Natural Yoghurt

3 teaspoons Curry Powder (I use a medium one)

1 jar tomato pickle (or tomato chutney)

Dash of White Wine or Vermouth (Optional)

½ lb Mushrooms

Small carton fresh whipping Cream

Mix everything except the mushrooms and fresh cream together in an ovenproof casserole dish. Cover and place in oven for 1½ hours. Half ways through cooking add mushrooms and 10 min before the end of cooking time stir in fresh cream.

Serve with Wild Rice and Peshwari Naan Bread.

Now I am sure I have made some mistake here. Rap my knuckles if you see one!

Brown bread was a staple food for all of my life. There was only one day in the year when mammy didn’t bake it, that was Christmas Day. I have used and abused changed this recipe over the past 30 years.

In my young days mammy used Odlums Wheatenmeal and it was a nice coarse mix. Over the years we noticed the meal became finer. Liking a coarse loaf we changed to Howards One Way extra course Wheatenmeal. I have never found it in Northern Ireland so I replenish stocks when I go south. Visitors coming north are trained to check if I need some before travelling to see me.

Wheaten Bread

Preheat oven to 200° C

12ozs Wheaten Meal

4ozs Plain flour

2 tablespoons Bran or Oat flakes

1oz Margarine

¾ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

½ tsp Salt

½ tsp Cream of tartar

11ozs Buttermilk

½ of one Egg beaten

1oz Sesame Seeds

1oz Sunflower Seeds

1oz Pumpkin Seeds

Sift Plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar & salt in a bowl. Rub in margarine. Add wheaten meal, seeds & either the bran or Oat flakes. Make well in centre add beaten egg and buttermilk and mix well. Flour 2lb loaf tin and pour in mixture. Even out and mark into quarters. Bake in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes, reduce heat to 180°C and continue cooking for a further 30 minutes. Test – cooked when sounds hollow to a tap on the base of the loaf. Remove from tin, wrap in clean tea towel and leave on cake rack to cool.

~~~~

Wheaten bread freezes well. I double the quantity and make two loaves at a time. When they are cold I half the loaves and freeze three portions. If I pull one out of the freezer at night it is well thawed for breakfast.

I am a mammy cook. I have no professional training and my collection of recipes has grown with each year I have lived. In my young life we used pounds, shillings and pence for money and pounds (lbs) and ounces (ozs) for cooking. I was never quite happy with the move over to grams! My weighing scales has a clock type face with both sets of measurements. So when a recipe appealed I copied it as it was given. So long as I kept to one or other measurement not mixing grams with ounces I was fine.

So some of the older items will have Lbs and ozs, while the others will have grams. I am not into translations and conversions.

I located the following weights and measures conversion table. It was in Prima magazine about 15 years ago. I hope it is helpful.

Under the title of each recipe on the left will be the number of servings if applicable, while on the right the oven temperature is set for ºC which I use in my fan oven.

I will use only the recipes that have made a regular appearance at my table.

Steph from The biopsy report is a steadfast and witty commenter here on my blog. I am not sure that she has forgiven me yet for scaring her cat the other day. In the hope of making amends I will officially unveil my Food Mondays with the lemon drizzle cake she asked about.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

180°C

4ozs soft Butter

6ozs Caster Sugar

6ozs Self Raising Flour

4 tablespoons Milk

Grated zest of 1 Lemon

2 large Eggs

Pinch of Salt

For the lemon Syrup:

4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon (Juice 1½ large Lemons)

3ozs Icing Sugar

Butter a 2lb loaf tin and line with baking parchment. Place all the cake ingredients in a bowl or mixer and beat for 3 minutes, until well blended. Pour into cake tin, smooth top and bake for 45 minutes. Remove and leave to cool in the tin on a cooling rack. Gently warm the lemon juice and icing sugar in a pan until sugar dissolves. Prick cake all over with a fork and spoon the warmed lemon syrup over the top. Leave until cake is cold before turning out. Serve sprinkled with icing sugar.

Enjoy.

When you think of your mother, how and where do you imagine her? For me it has to be in the kitchen wearing a pinafore with hands covered in flour while baking, or standing at the cooker stirring or checking a saucepan or casserole dish before moving on to the next stage of preparation of a meal.

I mentioned making soup the other day and Steph from The biopsy report asked if I had any interesting ideas. My favourite at the moment is Broccoli & Almond. It is one of my regulars at this time of year. I have been known to consume a pint of it with a couple of slices of my own wheaten bread for lunch. As my father used to say ‘It is good enough to put hair on your chest!’

Alas I am no Humble Housewife, you get to make your own pictures!

Broccoli & Almond Soup

Serves 4

1 red Onion peeled & chopped

2tbsp Sunflower Oil

2 pints Chicken stock

2ozs ground Almonds

1 Bay Leaf

5 fluid oz’s single Cream

1 lb Broccoli florets Pepper & Salt

A dash of Vermouth or White Wine (optional)

(I use one bunch of broccoli florets and stalk chopped finely)

In microwave safe bowl cook onion for 45 seconds on High.

Add chopped broccoli, ground almonds and 6 oz’s of stock and cook for 12 min or until tender stir twice. In food processor with knife blade attached or blender process mixture until smooth. Return to the bowl add remainder of stock plus half the cream and season with salt & pepper. Cook covered on High for 4 min. Just before serving swirl in remaining cream and booze.

The recipe came to me for microwave cooking but I make the soup on the stove in the traditional way and think the flavour is better. At this stage I judge the weights etc by looking at them in the pot!

Note:

Making this soup for myself I leave out the cream and add extra liquid as I have problems with dairy products. You may wish to sweat the onions in butter. I have it fresh the day I make it and freeze the remainder in portions suitable for one person ready to pull out on days when I don’t feel like cooking.

Well of course you don’t, but bundles like these were a common sight in the outside Loo’s during the first quarter of the last century. Things have certainly changed since those far off days.

Moistened Toilet Tissues in a Tub are now the order of the day. Every bathroom seems to have some. The sales blurb suggests we use them together with regular toilet paper to leave us feeling cleaner & fresher than ever before.

The claims made about them are:
soft
strong
enriched with Aloe Vera
flushable
dermatologically tested

“Brilliant” I hear you shout. “I couldn’t live without them!”

I have to admit I have a box in the house and one in the car.

But should we really flush them down the loo? Are they really Bio-degradable?

Are they really doing our tender skin a service?

Let me tell you a little story.

I was sitting in the hairdressers early one morning a few years ago, fidgeting patiently waiting for the Toyboy stylist to arrive and work his magic on my tender locks. The waiting area, like all Dentists and Doctor’s surgeries, had the usual bundle of tired well thumbed Ladies magazines to calm the frustration.

Picking one of these to while away the time it opened to a page of handy tips. Always willing to learn something new I read through the items on the page.

Steep dentures in water with Vinegar added to remove stains.

Add fabric Conditioner to a footbath to soften hard skin on the feet.

Use wet wipes as a quick stain remover.

This last one stuck in my mind and at some stage I had reason to try it. It worked! I tried it again several times and it always worked. I started on the outer side of the stain and worked to the centre. Now you know why I keep some wipes in the car.

Now it happened that on a bright June day I was hosting a lunch for an eminent gentleman and his good lady wife (both wearing collars backwards); to round off the numbers I had invited a couple of other folk as well. One lady wore not just her Sunday best, but her Very Best Outfit (VBO); anyone would think we were expecting Royalty! Lunch was to follow a church service of indeterminate length so I prepared a cold buffet. A dressed salmon was the centrepiece with colourful salads and accompaniments.

When all were gathered the hunger pangs were evident so without delay I sorted everyone with food while Jack saw to the drinks. The day was a cook’s delight, everyone seemed to be enjoying my efforts and helping themselves to more of this or that. Mrs VBO informed everyone how much she enjoyed baby beetroot as she tried to cut into one. The baby beet objected and jumped off the plate and hit her ample chest before rolling all the way down the front of her light turquoise Frank Usher dress before falling to the floor.

In her embarrassment she reached for her napkin to wipe the mark. I pleaded with her not to touch it and asked if she would accompany me to the bathroom. I used the moist wipes and the red stain vanished. We returned to the table and continued with the meal. No more was said about it so I phoned the next day to make sure there was no mark left by the wipes. She assured me that all was fine and there would be no need for dry cleaning.

On another occasion I was helping friends with preparations for another group lunch. My friends had recently moved to a new house and purchased a large dining table with a dozen chairs. The chair seats were upholstered in a winter white fabric. That day we had a rather crowded table with extra chairs added where possible. Several of the guests were elderly and some with unsteady hands.

When the guests were gone we set about clearing up the table and the room. I removed the chairs to vacuum under the table and horror of horrors one guest had dribbled the carrot & coriander soup! The evidence was plainly to be seen on one of the chairs. The hostess ran with the chair to the kitchen and was about to attack it with water. Once more I pleaded with her not to touch it. She did not have any wipes so I went to my car for my box. I worked on the stain which by this stage had a couple of hours to set. It took me some time but eventually I was pleased with the result. Again I phoned the next morning worried that I might have left a water type mark. “Grannymar” she said “Where did you put that chair? I have gone over each one and can’t tell which chair had the stain on it!”

Now hang in there, this is the last one and it is against me! Last November when I was staying with my Aunt in Dublin we were enjoying a bottle of Red – well they say the red wine is good for the heart! We adjourned to the lounge with the refilled glasses and honestly I don’t know what happened, but suddenly my hand was wet and the red wine was all over her peach velour sofa! My mind raced; two matching sofas and a chair to recover would make an expensive bottle of wine. I asked if she had wipes and to my relief she did. Once again the wipes did their work and removed the stain.

If the moist wipes work so well on all these stains, what do they do to our skin?