Email to myself  27 July 2011

We had friends for dinner last week at a wim. It is always a form of stress for me when it is short notice.  I try to act as though it is easy, fast and efficient but preparation is essential.

I made Jo Seagars beer bread which we had with smoked salmon and the dip we all used to make in the sixties using Nestles tinned cream and a packet of onions soup.  I mixed some lemon juice and horseradish into it and with the soft fresh bread it was delicious.  Filling but delicious. Sprnkly some finely chopped chives over the salmon to take away the raw pink nakedness of the salmon

I am glad that I was filling because the leg of lamb was very small.  The lambs we killed this year didn’t do well and really had not fat on them and as we all know fat equally flavour. Because it was a last minute decision the lamb was frozen so I wrapped it in foil with two sliced onions, cloves of garlic, a little rosemary and roasted it very slowly for 6 hours.  It fell apart but it was family hold back.

I always keep plastic bags of stale cut up brioche in the freezer or emergencies such as this and it is very easy to whip up a bread and butter or Queen pudding.  The husband always insists on lots of raisins and I added a good slosh of rum to the egg and sugar mixture.  Delicious.

The husband has been in wellington and I relish the thought of some time alone eating leek and pototo soup with a poached egg in it or perhaps brown nutty toast with bacon and tomato on it.  I have been making mayonnaise with the last of the summer herbs before the frosts get them. I love it loaded with dill for fish or just on toast with avocardo.

Inevitably he rings from wellington to say that the case has settled and is coming home, cant bear to spend the night away from me.  He arrives home starving and wanting dinner at 9.30.  I have come home and because it is just me had an early bath and gotten into the ‘jarmies’. So it is a quick rattle around the ridge to find some minced chicken which I had managed to buy at the super market on special, it had been destined for the freezer, so it was quick Pad Thai. It is not possible to make a small pad Thai so we have had to eat it for two nights and I  will freeze what is left.

We have ‘those’ welcomes for new staff at work, it seems to be every Monday at the moment, and it we are not welcoming someone then someone is having a baby or leaving. Leaving and a baby require the signing of a very large cared and a donation for some terrible gift that I know they won’t treasure forever. 

 When I retired from work last time the person who was in charge of buying my present has the presence to ask me what I would like.  We settled on a rose which now climbs up the side of the warm cottage wall and flowers all though the summer and gives me warm thoughts of the wonderful team that I worked with at Grey Lynn.

Each morning tea requires a ‘plate’. Thought is reqired as to what on a Sunday night.  This week I found a recipe on the back of the grated mozzarella cheese packet for cheese and kumera fritters. So I made little ones to take for the morning tea and some chilli sauce.  They were quite nice but probably a waste of cheese. i Also added a teaspon of grain mustard to give the mixture a little more strength.

Sunday evening we went to the step daughters for dinner and I took the pudding.  Apple crumble.  I have found the best topping that children like just plain and crusty over pulpy hot apple with custard, ice cream and cream.  All three are preferable really, actually compulsory, to hell with the heart; either indulge of don’t have any of it.  It is the mixture of hot and cold on the palate gives that eye closing pleasure which certain food combinations occasionally give one.

I am yet to find the right kind of apple two cook.  Stewed apple used to be one of the main stays in my childhood food memories.  My father had had to have his teeth removed at a very early age as a result of gum a disease which was very common in NZ just before the second World War.  Thus his false teeth hurt him so most of the things my mother or the cook made seemed to centre around mince or stewed apple. Or some  other kind of very soft over cooked stew.  One of the favourites was pineapple and tomato casserole.  It really was delicious and I have resurrected if for a change. This mixture does very well in the crock pot and forms a think brown gravy and the pineapple seems to have some kind of tenderising effect on the meat. 

‘Childhood food memories’ play a huge part in our adult food habits.  The husband was bought up in a Jewish household with a grandmother who had an ample bosom and extraordinary  cooking skills. He talks lovingly of her chicken soup with homemade noodles and her gefilta fish balls. His sister makes lemon honey and fudge that she brings when she visits, things she learnt to make as a child.

Bread

Leg of lamb

Bread and Butter pudding

Leek and potato soup

Mayonnaise

Chicken pad thai

Cheese and kumara fritters.

Miranda's fudge