Isolation Cooking

So we're all locked down, you've stocked up the larder and fridge, bought enough toilet paper to decorate a whole block of houses at Halloween, and suddenly all the stuff you can't freeze and refrigerate is starting to get a bit, well, questionable. The tomatoes are getting squishy, the milk is getting perilously close to its best before date, and those bananas in the fruit bowl are getting quite brown indeed.

Do not fret, good citizen. Help is at hand. First, let's talk about those tomatoes. You can make a lovely marinara sauce or a salsa with those and batch-freeze it. There are literally squillions of cooking websites that have recipes for those, with variations ranging from the terribly complicated to the mind-blowingly easy.

Next, that milk. Good news, you don't have to eat massive great bowls of cereal to get through it in time. You can use it in many cake recipes, white sauces, cheese sauces, ice cream, smoothies, custard, add it to soups and even in a milk pudding, rice pudding, macaroni pudding...

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/737000/recipe/home-made-milk-pudding

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rice_pudding_85172

https://www.kenwoodworld.com/uk/cooking-with-kenwood/recipes/kitchen-machines-recipes/desserts/macaroni-pudding

But what of those bananas? Apart from slicing it up and putting on your cornflakes or in your porridge or in a sandwich with some Nutella or peanut butter (or both)? Well this is where one of my favourite ever recipe books comes into play. I'm talking about the Alice Bay Cookbook by Julie Wilkinson Rousseau. If you can find it, get it. It's packed with amazing recipes from Washington State's Skagit Valley.

And right there on page 33 is the BEST banana bread recipe EVER. Here you are.

Now, I'm presuming with all those groceries you stocked up on when you were panic-buying, you got a bunch of flour, right? Have you ever tried your hand at actually making bread?

Here's a recipe from a book I picked up from a charity stall recently. I am a sucker for old cookbooks, especially ones with terribly cheesy old photos and drawings in them. Here's the book:

It's a 1980 reprint of a book that was originally published in 1974, and therefore chock full of the kitschy pictures I love. And here's a basic bread recipe from those very pages.

Click picture to enlarge.

Right, folks. In the coming days and weeks I will be posting more recipes and pics, and since you're all stuck at home, and presumably running out of things to do, you'll have no excuse not to try some of them out. And if the results are good, you can make them again and again for friends, family and neighbours (especially if you have some neighbours who are needy and/or infirm).

Remember to stay safe, wash your hands and keep practicing social distancing. Just heard our Prime Minister in now in Intensive Care with Covid-19, and while I don't like the guy, I certainly wouldn't wish that on anyone. Stay tuned, and as always, 

Kooshti Sante!