Flying saucers

Somethings just don't change much lol

Doonhamer nostalgia.............

Close to the Academy where I went to school, there was a cafe called The Doonhamer - doonhamer being a coloquial term for someone from Dumfries. They served wonderful ice-cream drinks - Coke, lemonade, cream soda, limeade, Vimto, with a big scoop of vanilla icecream in. I had a sudden craving for one today, and it went totally against the grain, but we shot out for Coke (never have it in the house) and cheap, bought vanilla ice cream. You can see the result above ! lol Was absolutely wonderful, and the taste brought back all sorts of memories.
Tehre were two cafes close by the school - the aforementioned Doonhamer, very much a homely caff, chips, drinks, filled rolls, etc. The other was the coffee shop at the wonderful 'Opus', now sadly closed; the trendies at school went there for black coffee in hand thrown pottery mugs and cheap cigarettes, posh salads and nice cakes, but more expensive than the Doonhamer. I divided my time between the two, being me, but have very fond memories of both.
Ah............  lovely!

Just found a link to the Donnhamer, now a trendy bistro type place, seemingly  ;( Ah well, the march of change and all that!
http://www.qype.co.uk/place/240887-Doonhamer-Restaurant-Dumfries

Crumbles.....

... as in the puddings. We love crumbles here, and I was brought up on them as a cheap, filling pudding, using home grown fruits in season. This is what I do now. A friend recently told me that crumbles came about in WW2 in reaction to difficulty in obtaining eggs - rather than make a sponge pudding, it was just the flour and marge/butter and a small amount of sugar. I never knew that. Nowadays, people do all sorts of weird (I'd like to say and wonderful here, but I'm afraid it's not...........) things to their crumble mixes. They add coconut, muesli, oats, cereals, all sorts of unnecessary thing; you can't beat a good plain crumble. With good fruit, it needs no further addition or embellishment.
Take half fat to flour and rub it in and add a spoonful or two of sugar and mix. That's it. Simple. I use butter in mine, as I don't have margarine in the house, and it makes for a lovely crumble. Spoon over cooked fruit in a pie dish and into a hot oven until bubbling around the edges and golden brown all over. We like ours with anything - custard, cream, milk, fromage frais, whatever is available.
The very best bit is the bit that sticks to the serving spoon, which is the cook's perk while the water's running for the washing up lol

Whoopie pies

I believe these are being unleshed on Britain as we speak........... An American classic it seems, being introduced here by Harrods.

2.50 each. I shan't be hurrying to Harrods at that price! Especially for the lurid green one........

Pass the sones.........

Wartime chocolate pudding

This is from the Wartime Kitchen and Garden; the recipe was posted up on the Creative Living forum, and proved very popular. It was popular in our hosue too, where the small size of the portions was the only criticism lol. Well worth making; I used butter, though, as that's what I had. I very very rarely buy/use margarine.


Wartime Chocolate Pudding

2 oz margarine
1 oz sugar
1 cup grated carrot
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 cups flour
1 heaped tbsp cocoa
1 tsp bicarb
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
½ pint milk
A little vanilla essence

Cream the margarine with the sugar and stir in the grated carrot, syrup and the rest of the dry ingredients. Add milk and a few drops of vanilla essence. Mix to a fairly stiff consistency. Put into a greased basin and steam for 2 hours.

The nostalgia of baking

I should think that most people have a fond nostalgia for baking, usually family baking; the scent of fresh baking wafting through the house, or stopping you in your tracks as you enter the front door; the smell of fresh bread, sponge cakes, crisp shortbread, fresh scones, rich dark fruit cake...........
One of my fondest memories of my granny was her scones - small, floury and as light as air, baked in her range in the front room of her cottage; served with butter and bramble jelly or lemon curd, or a dollop of rhubarb and ginger jam. Brought up in Galloway, childhood memeries abound - drop scones straight off the girdle; Black Bun and shortbread at New Year;clootie cumpling; floury rolls and breads; Selkirk bannocks; Dundee cake;sticky gingerbread; scones of all types, my favourite being treacle.:)
This monring I wallowed in a little baking nostalgia, and made drop scones, ginger shortbread and two Dundee cakes.

One of the very best books on Scottish cookery is "Recipes from Scotland" by F.Marian McNeill; mine is priced on the front cover as 8s 6d.













Every aspect of Scottish cookery is covered, including a good selection of regional dishes. Who coudl resist dishes with anmes such as Urney pudding,Gillie's venison, partan bree,sillocks, sowans,Hattit Kit, kail bros eand crappit heids?
I quote here from the Scottish Educational Journal:
"I cannot imagine that there can be a single Scottish bosom in which its recipes will not stir a nostalgic pang. "

Good Eating

I got this book yesterday from Amazon, a reprint of a wartime cookery book from The Daily Telegraph. It's got some really interesting and do-able recipes in ti I'm very keen to try, so shall give some of them a go and report back. Lovely little book.