Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Fanny Cradock

Cooking, prison style, is one of the many aspects of this life that lead, through necessity, to invention. We can cook with just about anything, the most basic set up being an old tin of Marvell and tapers of newspaper or loo roll.

The sporadic introduction of microwaves was a revelation. Not that anyone forked out for a microwave cookbook; we threw stuff in and nuked it, trial and error. We seem to get by, in the limited sense that no one has yet died.

It was with some hesitancy, then, that I told the Editor that I would have some supper ready when she came in from work. Cooking, especially with gas, was a proposition I had previously had little to do with. When there are two cats sitting and watching every move it only adds to the pressure.

Scrambled eggs, beans and toast. Not a mixture to shake the foundations of the House of Blumenthal, but I've lived on worse. The cats were the most disappointed. Such is the beginning of my training in domesticity.

5 comments:

  1. The thing about cooking Ben is not to be afraid of either failure or trying something. This has been my mantra as a family man who was almost always home before my wife so the evening meal fell to me to prepare. Take choux pastry for eg, it's mostly the application of elbow grease. After that you can make profiteroles and eclairs. Dip in melted chocolate (place bowl over simmering water, not touching. Add choc and a little butter. Stir until melted) and fill with cream and you will melt a woman's heart. it's dead easy. Works well gluten free too.

    Read cookery books and try things. Enjoy

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  2. Hi Ben
    Hopefully the days of cooking in a kettle are over for you, no more cell toast(bread on the hot water pipe).
    Keep up the good work.

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  3. Today I had my first encounter with a Dyson. Just when did vacuum cleaners begin to look like a collaboration between JCB and Ann Summers?!

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  4. Er! Cats prefer Chicken! And they don't like vacuum cleaners, whether or not they are a "Butch", or "Bitch" vacuum cleaner?
    The one thing Cats always thought of as a bit of a "Bitch", was the person who invented the vacuum cleaner! They were never impressed with the noise, that makes sleeping almost impossible, for a Cat? =D

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