This Page

has moved to a new address:

http://farmersgirlkitchen.co.uk

Sorry for the inconvenienceā€¦

Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service
----------------------------------------------------- Blogger Template Style Name: Snapshot: Madder Designer: Dave Shea URL: mezzoblue.com / brightcreative.com Date: 27 Feb 2004 ------------------------------------------------------ */ /* -- basic html elements -- */ body {padding: 0; margin: 0; font: 75% Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #474B4E; background: #fff; text-align: center;} a {color: #DD6599; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;} a:visited {color: #D6A0B6;} a:hover {text-decoration: underline; color: #FD0570;} h1 {margin: 0; color: #7B8186; font-size: 1.5em; text-transform: lowercase;} h1 a {color: #7B8186;} h2, #comments h4 {font-size: 1em; margin: 2em 0 0 0; color: #7B8186; background: transparent url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/bg-header1.gif) bottom right no-repeat; padding-bottom: 2px;} @media all { h3 { font-size: 1em; margin: 2em 0 0 0; background: transparent url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/bg-header1.gif) bottom right no-repeat; padding-bottom: 2px; } } @media handheld { h3 { background:none; } } h4, h5 {font-size: 0.9em; text-transform: lowercase; letter-spacing: 2px;} h5 {color: #7B8186;} h6 {font-size: 0.8em; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 2px;} p {margin: 0 0 1em 0;} img, form {border: 0; margin: 0;} /* -- layout -- */ @media all { #content { width: 700px; margin: 0 auto; text-align: left; background: #fff url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/bg-body.gif) 0 0 repeat-y;} } #header { background: #D8DADC url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/bg-headerdiv.gif) 0 0 repeat-y; } #header div { background: transparent url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/header-01.gif) bottom left no-repeat; } #main { line-height: 1.4; float: left; padding: 10px 12px; border-top: solid 1px #fff; width: 428px; /* Tantek hack - http://www.tantek.com/CSS/Examples/boxmodelhack.html */ voice-family: "\"}\""; voice-family: inherit; width: 404px; } } @media handheld { #content { width: 90%; } #header { background: #D8DADC; } #header div { background: none; } #main { float: none; width: 100%; } } /* IE5 hack */ #main {} @media all { #sidebar { margin-left: 428px; border-top: solid 1px #fff; padding: 4px 0 0 7px; background: #fff url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/bg-sidebar.gif) 1px 0 no-repeat; } #footer { clear: both; background: #E9EAEB url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/bg-footer.gif) bottom left no-repeat; border-top: solid 1px #fff; } } @media handheld { #sidebar { margin: 0 0 0 0; background: #fff; } #footer { background: #E9EAEB; } } /* -- header style -- */ #header h1 {padding: 12px 0 92px 4px; width: 557px; line-height: 1;} /* -- content area style -- */ #main {line-height: 1.4;} h3.post-title {font-size: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0;} h3.post-title a {color: #C4663B;} .post {clear: both; margin-bottom: 4em;} .post-footer em {color: #B4BABE; font-style: normal; float: left;} .post-footer .comment-link {float: right;} #main img {border: solid 1px #E3E4E4; padding: 2px; background: #fff;} .deleted-comment {font-style:italic;color:gray;} /* -- sidebar style -- */ @media all { #sidebar #description { border: solid 1px #F3B89D; padding: 10px 17px; color: #C4663B; background: #FFD1BC url(http://www.blogblog.com/snapshot/bg-profile.gif); font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0.9; margin: 0 0 0 -6px; } } @media handheld { #sidebar #description { background: #FFD1BC; } } #sidebar h2 {font-size: 1.3em; margin: 1.3em 0 0.5em 0;} #sidebar dl {margin: 0 0 10px 0;} #sidebar ul {list-style: none; margin: 0; padding: 0;} #sidebar li {padding-bottom: 5px; line-height: 0.9;} #profile-container {color: #7B8186;} #profile-container img {border: solid 1px #7C78B5; padding: 4px 4px 8px 4px; margin: 0 10px 1em 0; float: left;} .archive-list {margin-bottom: 2em;} #powered-by {margin: 10px auto 20px auto;} /* -- sidebar style -- */ #footer p {margin: 0; padding: 12px 8px; font-size: 0.9em;} #footer hr {display: none;} /* Feeds ----------------------------------------------- */ #blogfeeds { } #postfeeds { }

Saturday 14 September 2013

My First Cook Book and Croque Monsieur

I've posted about my first cook book before, but here it comes again courtesy of some nostalgic tweets and Facebook posts from Claire at Foodie Quine when she found was reunited with a copy of The Brownie Cookbook, her own first cook book. Claire and I have set up a Linky so that you can join in and tell us about your first cookbook too.

I thought I would make something from My First Learn to Cook Book by Ursula Sedgwick, illustrated by Martin Mayhew.  The book which was a gift from my Great Aunt and the illustrations are probably my favourite thing about it and probably why I still have it.   The book features a full range of recipes and includes a section on Safety in the Kitchen and Weighing and Measuring.

There is an eggsellent section on EGGS (sorry), Boiled, Fried and Scrambled, then on to the more exotic Ox-eye Eggs and Eggs in Tomatoes.  Then on to Egg and Egg Whisk with instructions on how to whisk an egg white, how to separate eggs and what to do with the yolks leading you on to make...Meringues, Apple Snow and Baked Alaska.  I used to read that recipe again and again, I must have made it too, as there is dried on egg white on the page!  The chapter finishes with a delicious Chocolate Mousse.

More Sweet treats follow with Crispy Crackolates, Peppermint Creams, Marzipan Dates and Coconut Ice.

Fat and Flour...make Pastry, and also Fruit Crumble, Zoo Biscuits (including how to make your own cutters), Quiche Lorraine,  Fruit Tartlets and Sausage Rolls.

Butter, Eggs, Flour and Sugar are for Baking this chapter starts by explaining basic techniques like creaming the butter and sugar, folding in and beating.  Greasing your tin and flouring the tin.  Oven Dos and Don'ts and how to tell if your bakes are 'done'.  Finishing by telling you how to get the cake out of the tin.  Reading this again, all I could think of was how useful this would be for contestants in the Great British Bake Off!
Baking recipes are Chocolate Drops, Fairy Cakes, Birthday Name Cake and Ice Cream Gateau.

 And so to Cheese and Meat are for Lunch or Supper.  Croque Monsieur was another one of the recipes I enjoyed reading and I loved the little cat with his French beret.  So I decided to make this recipe for my lunch the other day.


You will need:  bread, butter, cheese (Cheddar or processed Cheddar), slices of ham.
Spreading knife, slicing knife, frying pan

1. Butter the slices of bread on one side
2. Take half the slices of bread and cover them with thin slices of cheese.
3. Cover each with a slice of ham, and second slice of cheese and finally the top slice of bread - to make a sandwich.
4. Turn on the heat and leave on low.
5. Melt a small knob of butter in the frying pan.
6. Fry the sandwiches slowly, so that the cheese has time to melt,.  When one side is golden brown, turn and fry the second side.

I managed to slightly burn the bread, probably should have had the heat down a bit.  Anyway, it wasn't completely incinerated and I was able to eat the lovely oozing cheese with the salty ham and crispy toasted bread.  Remember there were no sandwich toasters or Pannini makers in the home when this book was written.

Other recipes in this chapter are Cheese Baked Potatoes, Pizza Pie, Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and Kebabs.

The final chapter is about Fruit with some more unusual recipes using fruit jams, fruit juice, fruit flavoured jellies and fruit itself.   Fruit Fried Sandwich, Baked Bananas, Lemon Fizz, Knickerbocker Glory and Fruit Salad.

Apart from the fact that the measurements are not in metric, this book has stood up well and would still be appealing to the child aged 7-12 it was aimed at.  All the basic cooking and baking techniques are there and it's presented in a really fun way.

Labels: , , , , ,

5 Comments:

At 15 September 2013 at 15:24 , Blogger Choclette said...

Love this book and I love it that you've just used it again after all these years. I felt so nostalgic when I used mine a couple of years ago to make crackolates. Mine resides at my mother's and I very annoyingly forgot about this event when I was there yesterday or I could have picked it up. Not sure I will be able to get it now, but I guess I could link up to my last post.

 
At 15 September 2013 at 16:16 , Blogger Cele said...

Darling illustrations!

 
At 17 September 2013 at 04:35 , Anonymous Jacqueline @Howtobeagourmand said...

I'm so impressed that you have managed to keep hold of your first cookery book. Kudos to you.
Never tried to make croque monsieur at home - I must bookmark this page!

 
At 19 September 2013 at 16:34 , Blogger Choclette said...

Yay, I managed to get hold of it after all. Yours looks in much better condition than mine.

 
At 4 May 2015 at 11:31 , Blogger Unknown said...

Wonderfully decadent.

 

Post a Comment

I love to read your comments and try to reply when I can. I have had to enable comment moderation due to high levels of spam, so it may take a little time before your comment is visible. Please let me know if you make one of my recipes or if you have any questions I will try to answer them. Janice

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home