Cooking and me

Not my usual topic but I have been enjoying the extra time in the kitchen recently.

I always used to think eating food fell into 2 categories – fuel and social. We all know we need food to sustain us and most of my meals were simply that, fuel to keep me going. Then there is using food as a social occasion, family meals, celebrations etc. Food is a good focal point to bring people together, discuss things and generally a good incentive to spend time with other people.

I usually remember events and occasions by what I ate first then all the other details drift in. For example I could tell you what I had to eat on my first day at school but very little memory of what I did for the first few years there.

I love cooking have done for quite a while, the combination of very logical steps to follow when making a recipe or the spontaneous throwing together of ingredients to see what happens. Mixed with the very tangible end result. It also engages all of the 5 sensors and can be as creative or as simply as you feel at the time.

I also enjoy cooking for others to see the happiness on their faces when they eat something good, it is a rewarding feeling and needs no communication. I bake which makes me happy, they eat and smile which makes them happy.

Recently my baking and cooking has been for other people, usually work colleagues appreciate sweet treats and I enjoy making them. Making things which are easily consumed by many like brownies and cookies with the occasional sausage roll thrown in to keep the savoury palettes happy.
These days I am just having to eat all my own creations.

So 5 weeks in to lock down and I have still yet to go food shopping. I have been making do with local produce, delivered or collected. A very nice Farm box deliver once per week gives me what I need then I top it up with some eggs from an egg shed.

My new cooking project has been eggs. They are in good supply from local hens and I don’t need to see anyone to buy them as they come out of a vending machine on a farm.
Eggs are a very versatile cooking ingredient so I have been experimenting. The standard hard boiled, soft boiled, poached, scrambled, fried, omelette, in cakes, in cookies.

Then I tried more elaborate souflette omelette, cinnamon buns and cloud eggs gave me good practice at splitting eggs. Various frittatas using the farm veg as filling.

I also like to batch cook therefore reducing waste, planning ahead and making it easier to have good meals for days to come.

This does lead to two problems, one I never label food so always have freezer surprise and two I have a lot of the same meals until I brave going to the shops again.