Stealth Cooking 101

Some people go outside in the weekends, they ride bicycles and walk dogs. They fly kites and weed their gardens. I stay in my kitchen, chained to my Edmonds. Woe is me.

It’s not actually that bad. The balancing act can be difficult, trying to pretend I’m helping the husband on the latest DIY project while secretly cooking in the kitchen. I am superbly skilled in the art of stealth cooking and I rarely get caught. Or possibly the Husband takes pity on me and just pretends not to notice.

Under the guise of lunch I made Cream of Tomato soup and baked potatoes. Now baked potatoes is hardly even a recipe but I am happy to cross off whatever I can. Cream of Tomato soup turned out to be white sauce with tomato puree in it. Edmonds, really? Sometimes I truly wonder what you are thinking. The Husband actually quite liked it though and two recipes out of the way before lunch, that has to be some kind of a triumph.

While the potatoes were in the oven I had made a trip out to the shops, the butchers to be more precise, the Mad Butcher’s to be exact. I love a bargain although the gigantic trays of meat are sometimes a little hard to convince the Husband on, I also seem to spend the whole afternoon bagging things off into more appropriate sizes. Ahhh the things we do for a bargain.

While we I was there I bought some lambs fry. Offal. I figured if I bought it I might actually cook it. We’ll see.

Stock – I bought a big tray of soup bones so I thought I would make stock – from the recipe of course. It is just the same way I’d normally make stock, no browning of the bones though. The end result was stock, which I imagine I will have to find some time to turn into soup…

I also slipped into Countdown to buy some bunny litter seeing that it the only place where one can buy bunny litter. I also picked up a French stick – the Father in Law was in town and staying with us – I felt it was my duty to feed him. Garlic bread, despite the fact that it is one of the Husband’s favourites, had not yet been crossed off. I did have some slight issues with “Softening” the butter. I did my favourite trick of putting it in the microwave for too long, then putting it in the fridge until it is completely hard, then microwaving it again… an almost endless cycle. I left the spreading up to the husband, he did an exemplary job.

Three people can not eat Garlic bread alone – I made Spanish Sausages. Now I’ve been to Spain and I never saw anything like this. Not even close. I wonder where the inspiration for the name came from. Anyway – Sausages, wrapped in bacon, fried until crisp and then cooked in a casserole with sliced carrots and onions and tomato sauce (Heinz’s finest) and a small amount of water – cooked for an hour. It was actually pretty good, if you tarted it up with some interesting sausages and possibly revised the vegetable choice it would almost be fit for public consumption.

And for afters, because when there are guests there are usually afters, we had roly poly pudding. Suet dough, spread with jam, rolled up, wrapped in a cloth and boiled for two hours. When I took it out of the water the Father in Law said – “that looks like Roly Poly Pudding”. I said “it is…” Something in his tone possibly hinted at misadventures with english school dinners in early life but I chose to ignore it and he ate his portion without complaint.
So that’s 12 recipes so far this week which is pretty good. I set myself the somewhat ambitious target of 20 which may be pushing things a little. We shall have to see. Stay tuned…