Saving energy on the hob!

As part of the British Gas SmartMums campaign, looking at ways, to save energy around the home, I have been asked to illustrate some ideas on video.

So here's me, getting underway with Sunday dinner, demonstrating the advantages of using a steamer instead of a hob full of old saucepans.



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I’m a British Gas Smart Mums Ambassador, working with BritMums and British Gas to highlight energy issues in the home.

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"So who's nicked me wife?"...

...said the man with grey hair and trendy glasses, who commonly goes by the name of Almost Mr Average.

"I said...who the heck has nicked me wife?" he repeated, thinking I hadn't heard the first time.

But I had heard. I was just on my way back into the kitchen to get a serving spoon for the apple crumble, when the first comment came.

And I smiled...especially when I considered the evidence.

With a home-made sponge pudding for Friday's dessert and Bolognese for yesterday's lunch, followed by some home-made biscuits, he has been rather spoiled. And as for today, there was the home-made tomato soup for lunch, while the kids had the spaghetti version, which they call 'worms-in-mud'.

But I suppose it was the roast chicken dinner, followed by the apple crumble that I whipped up earlier, proved without doubt that the bodysnatchers had paid a visit.

No surprise he's been wondering what's occurring.

I was most definitely having what I call my Stepford Wives moment, where the seemingly perfect wife rises up like a pheonix from the ashes of can't be bovveredus.

You, see. This is how life is. I flit like Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to the kitchen.

I can cook and I can cook really well, but sometimes I just don't have the time to put my mind to it, the inclination to get off my butt, the imagination to whizz up something creative, the patience to follow a recipe or even the strength of mind to cope with my very teeny weeny kitchen, which has about as much workspace as a postage stamp. It feels so cramped it is most definitely the least desirable room in the house, yet it should be the heart of our home.

When I get like this, my inner chef goes AWOL! Yep, packs up the bags and leaves home without notice, leaving me with the capacity to do little more than conjure up anything that simply goes with slices of bread, pasta, cheese and raw vegetables. Desserts go AWOL, along with the chef and Mr A is left wanting...for weeks....and sometimes months on end! Even jacket spuds seem like an effort. And that's how bad it gets!

I convince myself I don't have the time and I make myself even busier. I then persuade myself I'm a crap cook, because I'm not even finding time to tackle the basics and eventually it needs the force of an army to get me back into the kitchen for any longer than 10 minutes.

But here I sit tonight, feeling like I have fed an army, fed them well and at very little cost (even the free-range-chicken was an end-of-day buy off yesterday's market for just £2) and the best thing is I've also got leftovers in the fridge ready to use-up this week. I'll add the remains of the tomato soup to the bolognese and throw in some chillis for tomorrow's lunch.. I'll mix up some custard and chop in the sponge pudding for dessert, perhaps with some pureed apple. I've also portioned out the leftover crumble into individual ramekin dishes for dessert on Tuesday. Now that feels posh!

And I shouldn't forget the chicken stock that's currently simmering on the hob, which can be whizzed up into a delicious soup with the chicken leftovers. Geez, I might even fall over myself with excitement and freeze it for later in the week!

So hooray, at last the Stepford Wife is back and I'm back to my ready-steady-cook self, enjoying myself in my very own experimental kitchen, just bunging in whatever I have to come up with some love jubbly delights. What's great is that this perfect wifey will be hanging about for a while, because that's what generally happens before she disappears in a puff again!

I wish I could bottle up the secret to guarantee her future return. It might mean that I could just snap my fingers in the future and get that wifey back in the kitchen cooking up a fantastic frenzy, when all else goes glum.

I don't know why this domestic demon returns. It might have something to do with the seasons. I love autumn and I love the puddings that accompany the transition into winter...It could even be that we're at home more,now that Mr A has finished his latest Open University stretch (yes it does seem like he's imprisoned in the world of study, when it's all going on)...It could also be that I've been given two huge bags full of cooking apples...

Or it might have been that I've talked myself back into my frivolous culinary ways while writing the latest chapter, provisionally called Can't Cook, Won't Cook. When I headlined all the excuses for not cooking from scratch, I realised that I was actually looking at a portrait of myself. And for each excuse, I produced many a reason to overcome estranged relations with the mixing bowl and oven.

So perhaps I shocked myself back into the kitchen.

Wahay! Well I'm so glad I did! So maybe that's the secret to getting the Stepford Wife back, to keep reading what I wrote. Ha ha! If it works for me, it'll hopefully work for others, because surely I can't be the only one who's trapped in this schizophrenic madness when it comes to cuisine!

I guess time will tell. In the meantime, I'll mention another reason for Mr A's relief.

His anniversary surprise on Friday was a home-made Cornish Pastie, with the aim of conjuring up memories from many a holiday spent in far flung Cornwall.

It wasn't quite what we both expected.

The pastry was as dry as stale bread and the filling was like chewing old socks. So it was just a bloody good job we had a whole bottle of champers to wash the experience down.

So that'll teach me for trying out new things on important occasions. The funny thing is on this occasion, I even stuck to a recipe. Now that's what I call sod's law!

[BTW - to see what surprise he got from the recycling bin, I've put an update on Friday's anniversary post. LOL]
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Colouring in the week: when the cooking gene goes walkabout

Has anyone found my cooking gene?

You know, it's the one that enables any domestic goddess worth her salt to nourish her family with delicious meals, any day of the week.

Well, mine went missing a while back. It jumped over the fence and legged it and it ain't come back. You see, it's not that I can't cook, I just can't be bothered.

Does anyone else get this? You know the thing, where food loses its inspiration and you can't think beyond the anti-climax of the next ham sandwich?

Recipes don't help either. Too many fiddly bits, and I'm not good at detail. If someone dares offer me a recipe, even in kindness, it's enough to send me running to the hills, (a challenge when you live in Suffolk). It's not that I'm ungrateful, it's that I have some kind of phobia of measuring spoons, jugs and weighing scales.

The real problem is that even my favoured Ready, Steady, Cook bung it all in approach has gone and done a bunk.

Personally, I blame it on changes in routine. It coincided with end-of-term and the beginning of the holiday. Then Mr A went back to work with the odd day spent in the office, the next banqueting at a conference, or the following coming back on a late-evening train from London with a sandwich. And now the kids are back at school. One part-time, the other full-time, while I'm always at home.

There are so many mixed-up appetites, I feel like I'm catering for an army of schoolgirls instead of a family of four.

Anyway, I think I've devised a cunning plan, or rather tripped over one when I wasn't quite looking.

It all started last Wednesday.

The kids came home from school and I cooked up some pasta. It needed to be quick because they were hungry. So I added some sweetcorn and then grated some cheese on top.

My eldest came rushing into the kitchen pleading starvation. Pasta isn't always his favourite dish, so when he begged to find out what was for dinner, I knew I needed to sell the idea to him.

I looked blankly, paused for inspiration and blurted.......

YELLOW!

He looked at me and said "err yellow?"

To which I replied.

"Yes, tonight's dinner is yellow".

Suddenly he called to his brother "Tonight's dinner is YELLOW".

And they both did an excited jig, finished their yellow dinner and asked if the next day's dinner could be ORANGE.

So ORANGE THURSDAY came and went with breaded fish, chopped carrots and an orange and rice salad.

Then there was RED FRIDAY with spaghetti bolognese, some chopped red peppers and reddish-brown pasta, followed by some delicious strawberries and raspberries.

So it looks like we've finally found the answer. The kids plan the menu with whatever colour they decide and all I need to do is come up with the goods.

I've got a feeling they might not pick GREEN again though.

I don't think that Spaghetti with runner beans and broccoli was quite what they were expecting!

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The Experimental Kitchen

Welcome to my experimental kitchen.

I know it looks pretty small and it really is this tiny.

This photo shows only half the room. The other half is about the same size.



It comes straight out of the comic book of modern house-building, which for a family of four, can only be out-done by marketing literature for London bedsits.

I used to think our kitchen was too small for proper baking, but since getting rid of the microwave and recently off-loading the breadmaker on Freecycle, I am grateful for the extra space.

And believe me, that's welcome space in which I can happily don my imaginary white coat and turn into the mad scientist that I become when faced with an ordinary bag of flour. All for the cause of reduced packaging!

However, after my recent successes in home-baking, I feel that I should be a responsible blogger and dispel any myths that I could successfully challenge Nigella in the royal court of domestic godessdom.

In all honesty, I feel more like Dr Frankenstein than a Domestic Goddess.

Take yesterday's experiment with Quiche Lorraine for example. I was suitably encouraged by Kate's comments on my Apple Pie post, so dug out an old recipe that's been knocking around since my college days.

Perhaps I should be ashamed to admit that it looked more like burnt pizza! Surely you'd expect something better from a woman bordering on 40 years of age. Personally I blame it on the old cheese and too much heat but do forgive me if that sounds like the onset of early menopause.



At least the culinary version of Frankenstein's Monster was more appetizing to the tastebuds than its visual appeal. It got the thumbs up from our resident food critic, aka Mr A, who even went back for seconds.

So perhaps my continued experiments with pastry have been worthwhile after all. I am even convinced that pastry-making is ready for a fashionable comeback.

And if that's the case, maybe I should consider a kitchen extension?

With a bigger space, who knows what I might achieve!

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The day I baked an apple pie

Yesterday, I woke up with a real desire for apple pie.

Why? I don't know!

I just wanted apple pie.

More curiouser...I felt the urge to make one.

The old me would have just gone out and bought one, but for my alter-ego, aka Almost Mrs Average, who has this thing about packaging and all that, this option is now generally a no-no!

Of course, it's pretty easy to get ready-made pastry these days and this has been a popular addition to my shopping basket over the years.

But yesterday, I took a step back in time and recalled the days when I used to make my own pastry.

The last time was circa 1988 when I was a student on a grant in Nottingham, with £2500 annual income to support me for the whole year. Back then I used to be able to cook up a mean apple pie to share with my friends.

So what happened?

I suppose things have got in the way of my appley pie delights...work, cheap supermarket deals, more disposable cash, kids and generally less time on my hands. When you think about my love of blogging as well as my regular dose of Corrie, I generally don't have the hour or so needed to dedicate to regularly making pies.

...but that's where I've been foiled. My poor memory must have got the better of me, darn it.

An hour...where did I get that from? Of course it doesn't take that long!

Yesterday I grabbed the flour, butter and lard, rubbed it into crumbs and bound it together with some water and within 10 minutes I had some pastry.

After leaving it to chill in the fridge, I rolled it out and shaped it into the pie dish, added the chopped apples and then bunged it in the oven for 50 minutes.

And there it was...a delicious apple pie, which required only about 20 minutes effort.

I am glad to have rediscovered the ease of home-made pastry. For something that seems to carry a veil of mystery, it really was that easy. It's almost like unpicking an illusion and discovering the reality that hides within.

I think only time will tell whether I' m a real convert or whether it's just a temporary blip of enthusiasm, but I'm pretty confident that there will be a few more pies in the Almost Average Household from now on!

The other big news today is that Almost Mrs Average is stepping out of Suffolk...well only for 5 minutes...when I "nip" over the border to Beds, Bucks and Herts!

If you tune into BBC Three Counties Radio at about 12.15, you may be able to hear me talking to presenter Jonathan Vernon-Smith about my rubbish, or rather the lack of it. So to any listeners who are visiting the blog as a result, may I extend a very warm welcome and thank you for listening to my rambles.

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Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

Do you remember our Ruby and how she decided to put her own bin on a diet.

Well, I managed to catch up with her yesterday and wow, what a difference!

She told me that her family's amount of recyclables is down almost by as much as 50%, which is amazing! This means they are no longer filling their landfill bin with packaging because of overfilling their recycling bin. These days, it can all fit into the recycling bin with room to spare. This means the amount of rubbish in their landfill bin has also shrunk over the last few weeks.

When I spoke to Ruby she told me "It's as a result of being aware of choices. I've tried not to have too many ready-meals and have started cooking properly instead. I've stopped buying vegetables in packs just because they look nice and have chosen loose products instead, using the paper bags provided by the supermarket."

"Cooking properly has made a huge difference and it's a fallacy that it takes longer to make something from scratch."

"Tonight I cooked a fish recipe that I found on the BBC Good Food website, which used haddock, prawns and Parmesan. It took about 15 minutes. It is fast food but it's fast healthy food and is so much better than buying over-packaged meals. I've also found it very therapeutic just pottering about and cooking. Another website I like using is BBC Food's Get Cooking where they have videos of chefs making things. The link to the site is: www.bbc.co.uk/food/get_cooking/main/"

I was amazed to hear this. When I first chatted to Ruby about her Rubbish Diet Plan, I was careful not to overdo it, as I didn't want to put her off. Even though I suggested buying products with less packaging I hadn't quite expected such a result on the ready-meal front. After all, it was such a major part of Ruby's busy lifestyle!

This is what Ruby had to say on the matter.

"I've always been suckered into the lifestyle portrayed on ready-meal packaging, which has lovely photos on the front, but it's nothing like that when you open it up. I've realised how much we're marketed to and it's something I would now consider complaining about as much as the amount of packaging itself. Supermarkets and producers need to stop such subliminal manipulation of consumers".

I can't help agreeing with her, especially with what I know from my own marketing education that I embraced in the early nineties.

Anyway, the other big news is that the Ruby Household has recently contacted the local council's waste and recycling officer to order a wheelie bin for kitchen waste*. This will also have an impact on their rubbish, so I am looking forward to that chapter.

All of Ruby's latest news will soon be available on Ruby's Rubbish Blog, as soon as she works out how to get her photos off her new camera.

I left Ruby to enjoy her new goodies that had just arrived from Lakeland. She couldn't help being very impressed with the packaging...no bubble wrap...just brown paper that can be easily recycled.

Isn't this great...Ruby talking rubbish. The best thing is...she seems to love the subject as much as me....

...RESULT!

*If you're not sure whether you are up-to-date with your local recycling facilities, why not "ring up your council". LETS Recycle has a list of recycling officers for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You never know what new options are available in your area. You may even find offers on things like Bokashi bins and Green Cones.

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