Big family, small budget
This blog has been percolating for many years but I’ve struggled to find the right angle. Should I be positioning myself as a frugal cook, a fusion cook, a busy working mother or a scavenger trying to balance time, health and money? Eventually I homed in on what defines my adult identity: I am a wife, a mother of four and a teacher. The title ‘Years of Practice’ has been my typical response when asked by one of you ‘How do you know how to…?’
So here is a distillation of years of practice in the kitchen, drawing together what I want to pass on to my sons and daughters about the stories and methods behind the food you have eaten as you have grown up. You are all adept cooks yourselves who already have many of these recipes in your repertoire, and you haven’t relished everything I’ve served up to you. Some of my more unpalatable offerings have been banished to the dustbin of family legend, never to be repeated (whisky risotto, the ‘lean’ venison that turned out to be lamb’s liver, caramel salmon). The guiding principle behind my selection has been to record meals which have been enjoyed more than twice by at least two members of our family of six.
I’ll be sharing 100+ recipes, posting weekly over the next two years.
January 2020
Chicken in pancetta
Zita has pointed out an omission in the blog’s chicken section, and I agree that no family recipe collection would be complete without ‘Chicken in pancetta’. It is a comforting, home-made invention that often served as a special meal when we marked rites of passage: birthdays, heading off on travels, returning home from university. Feel…
Chocolate Crunch
On the Tarnóy side of the family, this is known as ‘Auntie Alison’s Chocolate Crunch’, whereas the Wilsons and the Chandlers call it ‘Granny’s chocolate’. Evidently, Great-Granny got the recipe from her sister-in-law (Auntie Alison) and it then became her own. She would invariably produce it as a tea-time treat whenever the grandchildren visited. I…
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Years of Practice 