Research
It really is worth investigating the types of recipes your readers are interested in. I'm interested in finding out a little bit more about the kinds of
recipes and food you are most interested in.
Would you mind answering
the poll on the right, I can then look at creating those recipes as a priority.
It may be that you've recently tried to remove gluten/wheat from your diet, are suspicious that you have an allergy to dairy, or simply that you are looking for easy recipes that are quick to cook, don't need masses of ingredients and that your family will love to eat.
I simply cook from the heart and use the ingredients I have to hand, very much a "Ready Steady Cook" kind of method.
Why gluten/dairy free?
I've embraced gluten free cookery for all of us as our daughter is intolerant to gluten, also we use lactose free products as that also causes reactions. In the beginning this seemed daunting, but on investigation, it is really simple to cook one meal that all of us enjoy. It's so much easier now that the freefrom ranges in supermarkets are growing rapidly, hopefully with more companies thinking about making their products freefrom, the costs will start to drop.
I still find it confusing when looking at ingredients on packets, that wheat flour is used in so many different products that you don't expect. If you look at a packet of frozen chips, you wouldn't expect them to be coated in wheat flour, if the manufacturers swapped to potato flour, then everyone would be happy.
Cooking for others
I am still surprised that so many people have no idea about what ingredients are used to make a product. Conversations about taking wheat out of the diet and I'm asked is pizza ok, or pasta, can't you eat couscous. This is especially worrying when talking to people that work in restaurants or cafes. Perhaps it was the lack of cookery lessons in schools teaching children to cook the basics from scratch. They may have studied food technology, but that was more about packaging the product and the labelling rather than the creation of good healthy food.
Cookery lessons
I was lucky to be taught cookery at school and studied an O level in Food and Nutrition and still have my folder with the theory of nutrition and basic recipes. We were all taught how to use mince in many different ways (lasagne, shepherd's pie, meat loaf) and also to extend it using soya to save money. All the different types of pastry, from shortcrust (french apple tart), rough puff (sausage plait) and choux pastry (eclairs). Made cheesecakes, fatless sponges (peach flans with juice thickened with arrowroot), rubbed in cakes (banana and nut bread), whisked and creamed cakes (butterfly cakes were a favourite). Fresh fruit salads with homemade shortbread was also a favourite that always found it's way onto our practical exams. Also salads, preparing and cooking vegetables, white sauces (roux and all-in-one methods). There were many dishes made, taken home for parents to enjoy, both savoury and sweet, plus we were taught to washup properly. We all remember being called back after our lunches as the teacher wasn't happy with the state of the saucepans and we were introduced to wire scourers to get them shining bright again.
I made marmalade, pickles, lemon curd, plus yoghurt. We learnt about yeast and made fresh bread and rolls, then rich yeast dough was made into chelsea buns.
We learnt how to read cookery books, plan meals, organise cooking planners so that everything was ready in time, also we had to cost out the meal we cooked.
I've been lucky to pass this all onto our daughter who is now an accomplised cook, many of the recipes I created for her to use at school are on this blog, they are also on my
"Cooking with Kids" blog.
Our mission
We owe our children and grandchildren, good healthy food that they can prepare themselves without buying packets, I cannot believe that packets of sauce mixes are used when simply putting the butter, flour and milk in a pan and using a balloon whisk over a gentle heat gives the same result at a fraction of the price. My
all-in-one sauce method, is really simple and you can add parsley or cheese if you want a flavoured sauce.
Yes, new cooks can get a bit messy, but it's fun and so rewarding. My husband says "even your mistakes are edible" which is a great complement.
If you don't try, you never know what's possible, be brave, find a new recipe and try it.
I bought my jars from Hobbycraft and decided on the small jars as they make great gifts, but I also find that larger jars don't get used up as quickly and could spoil. The jars are really reasonable and come with their lids. The labels are really effective too.
