[link]

I just wanted to ask what country are you based in Rosti - you seem to have all the advice completely correct and exactly what I are looking for. How do I contact you with a question if a need to? I always follow your advice and you also seem to be completely computer literate which I am not. e.g. how do you do 'link' in your replies. Are you a chef? or a foodie?

I'm in England Desi, never been anywhere else. Thank you for your kind comments. I'm sure I'm not always right, but maybe in tune with what you are asking.

I am fairly computer literate, but not completely, I am pretty good at searching the internet to find things people have asked for.

To do a link all you need to do is copy and paste the address of the page you want to be a link.
ie, right click on the address line (that starts http), click on copy from the drop down menu, then return to the place you want to show that address, left click where you want it to be, left click and click on paste from the dropdown.

This site then turns it into a link for you.

I am not and never have been a chef, I have catered for a couple of weddings for family for friends, but just a home cook really. I very rarely follow a recipe, I prefer to make it up as I go along with whatever I have to hand. Try this site [link] for other discussions you may enjoy.

Thank you again for your lovely comments and I am so pleased I have helped you in the past, and hope to again in the future.

mouldy

I hope your post was in meant in fun. If it wasn't, I wonder why you felt compelled to poke fun at a fellow poster - one who tries to embody the aspirations of this message board - to converse with and assist like-minded souls.

Or are you just a wum?

jan

Jannymac I take it you are one of the "helped" and a big fan

mouldy

No, not one of the 'helped' thanks, but am confident that if I had a query, then Rosti would be one of those who might try to provide some feedback. Is that not what community of interest boards like this are about? Or do you have a different perception?

jan

Have not checked the boards for over a week and 'mouldy old dough' your, now deleted, message was the first one I saw.

Jannymac is correct in her replies to you. Rosti epitomises what a contributor to an interest board should be, always one of the first to offer help and offer tips to anyone who asks. To do this it is Rosti's time and energy that is used, not yours, so I am not sure what the point was that you were trying to make.

At the same time Rosti's opinions are as valid as anyone elses. You might not agree with them but in the circumstances do you really think you should criticise another person's viewpoint, and way of dealing with things, just because these ways do not necessarily coincide with yours?

Thanks for your comments jannymac and Franci, I did actually see mouldy's first post on this thread, but was too upset to answer it. I have now had time to think, and decided I will.

mouldy, criticizing me for being opinionated I can accept, even agree with. I am opinionated. But I also hope I am big enough to admit when I am wrong and apologize for any upset I may cause.

Being criticized for trying to help people is something I cannot accept or understand why you have a problem with it.

I should get out more? I am out at work for 11 hours 5 days a week, but Mother Theresa I ain't.

However on the theme of Mother Theresa, I have to see the funny side. Reading this thread, I started off by finding a link in answer to a question that seems not to have been asked.

Unbelievable? Flaming miracle I say!

Usually, those who criticise others for helping are those who can't or won't help anyone - they're more of the "let em find out for themselves brigade".

Keep on helping - the UK TV Food would be an emptier place without you.

I agree with Mrs Woof Woof, Rosti

rosti, you say you never follow a recipe? I'm a total failure at cooking if I don't have that stupid grease speckled sheet in front of me. What do you credit your skill to, is it palate or just good memory?

Really, at times I have to go back and read the method two or three times just to make sure I get it right. The only dishes I can make without "assistance" are those that I've been making for decades and don't involve lots of ingredients, like roast lamb.

I envy you!

I didn't say I never follow a recipe, I said I rarely follow one.

I take ideas from recipes but then make them from whatever I have in the fridge/freezer or cupboard/veg rack at the time.

If a recipe says I need stuff I don't have, I look at what I do have and try that instead. I hate sticking by what someone says I have to do, or I what the original/traditional recipe is.

If I tried to follow strict recipes I would probably more often than not be disappointed with the result. Trying to get the exact result you see in a book or on the TV just isn't always realistic. You need to take into account the quality of the ingredients, the cooker, the kitchen, the weather.............. oh so much more.

I never try to emulate anyone, I look and read recipes, then I think ok, I can do this, I can use this, I can try this.

I will admit that some baking has to have a strict recipe, cakes and bread etc, which is probably why I don't do a lot of baking

oohhhh now you have got me going Dougy Boy, but no one is ever a failure at cooking. Please please, don't try to be perfect, try to cook what you want in the way you want it, and don't be ruled by someone saying you must do this or that. You might just suprise yourself.

i agree rosti, i have tons of recipe books, but i rarely follow a recipe from start to finish, even if i have all the ingredients that the recipe calls for, i cant help myself from adding something extra, like a chilli or a squeeze of lemon, or swapping the herb that it calls for.
i dont bake a lot either, and i find watching puddings being cooked on tv really unenjoyable

I love the modern cookery books , it's the wonderful coloured pictures of what the finished dish should resemble if all goes well .
I do tend to follow to a certain extent , but often have to improvise on some particular ingredient .
These days the books are almost like travelogues, I can spend hours pouring over them . Actually ,last week I decided to have a cull ,which was great , got rid of loads down the charity shop , but ended up spending £3.50 on yet another on french cooking !

i love modern cookery books for recipes and inspiration, but for reading i much prefer very old cookery books, its like reading a little slice of history, its interesting to see how much the way we cook and what ingredients we use has changed over the years

I never seem to find anything like that , whats the oldest one you have ?

i have some very old ones that were my great grandmothers, all of the old ones i have have been handed down the family, i agree its a shame that you cant ever seem to find the old one in book shops anymore, i guess people think they are too stained to donate them, i think its charming though, to be able to see whats been cooked the most.

Although my father started his working life as a baker's boy way back when , he ended as the catering manager for one of the largest steel works in the UK , he loved cooking but had little time and , mess....!!!! you would'nt believe !
Unfortunately , my mother loathed cooking , and bless her heart , what she did cook we were so grateful for that you did'nt dare criticise , she did'nt possess even one cookery book , just not at all interested . I always feel that it's such a shame that she did'nt live long enough to see the advent of the microwave and M&S ready meals . They were made for women like my mother , and she would have been thrilled .
Did your great grandmothers books have any illustrations ? What sort of quantities were quoted ? mostly today , our recepies are for four .Are they real family type recepies or a bit more "up market "?

they were definately mostly family type recipes, but there were a lot of ideas for up market things too, like canapes, things like pecan nut halves, sandwiched together with cream cheese.

one of the more memorable recipes was for cheesey eggy bread men with eyes and a smile made from chips of maraschino cherries, theres also some kind of sweet pudding type thing that was made with sultanas and other fruit, and chedder cheese! there are a lot of things like that, that would probably be considered quite twee nowadays, but probably seemed very adventurous at the time.

i still use the christmas pudding recipe, which is from one of the older books, i have to admit i add a lot more brandy than it calls for though!

i have to say, seeing as i dont actually cook from them much at all, i've never noticed the amounts that they call for, i think they probably differ quite a lot depending on the type of meal (canapes, roast, puddings etc)
i know the chistmas pud recipe makes 2 large puddings.

That to me is amazing , to find recepies using pecan nuts and cream cheese . The only nuts I used to see as a child was the bag of mixed that we would have at christmas, never saw a pecan . Mind you , I was in my 20's before I made the acquaintance of cauliflower ,leeks etc .Ours was a very plain household , carrots , sprouts ,swede ,nothing at all ,what my mother would have termed "exotic ". Like another world now.
My strangest cookery book is "Recipe Memories of Desert Storm - The Delight of Saudi Cooking ."

That sounds interesting (I think) Jack,

Ours was quite a plain household too when I was growing up, nothing fancy.
Roast on Sunday and cold meat on Monday.
Sausages, faggots, shepherds pie, cowboy stew, leftover meat curry, liver and bacon, fish fingers, beefburgers.

Maybe a steak and kidney pie or pudding now and again, or stew and dumplings.

My oldest cookery book is my Good Housekeeping one, my parents bought me for my birthday the year I got married. Not very exciting, but fairly good basics.

Mother still has a few older books, but I don't remember my grandmother ever using or having a cookery book. Maybe that is where I get my cooking instincts from.

It is quite a strange book Rosti , it was published to commemorate the end of the Gulf War ( first one ! ) I will write out what it says in the forward. Unfortunately subsequent events have over taken it.


" Liberation of Kuwait has been the most exciting event of my life , our great and glorious victory which has been attained by the grace of God Almighty , has been recorded in the history in glittering letters. This is a victory for all mankind , for the rule of Law and for what is right .

To all brave men and women of desert storm operation I present this cook book ."

I think you can tell the person who wrote that was not british !
The book itself is very interesting , the food photos are not very professional , but adequate, I've tried several of the recipies, when I was in the middle east , it was easier to get the ingrediants. Never tried the "Lambs Feet ", I did once , many years ago do pigs trotters and also chittlings , and swore blind ," never again ." I think lambs feet would be in that catergory.
There is a recipe for "Lady's Thighs ", I cannot imagine anybody in their right mind going into a saudi butchers shop and asking for "lady's thighs please ."
It would be a friday morning appointment ,after prayers , chop chop , and I don't mean lamb let alone pork !!
Please before anybody takes offence , I am joking , but the recipe is in the book , and the book was printed in Riyadh , I'm very suprised the title of that recipe was allowed , the daily papers were decimated by the time the censors had finished with it .
There is another recipe called "Fattat Makadem " which underneath is translated as "Feet with Toast Bread " nice in the morning with marmalade .
The lamb Machbous is made with a "special gulf stuffing "

I did cook with camel once , but I should have done it in the pressure cooker , it was quite tough , the veg dishes are good .

How amazing Rosti - my first cookery book was also Good Housekeeping - I still have it with step by step illustrations. Not very exciting but certainly informative. I learnt which end of the cow is which , how to boil an egg, make porridge, and other little gems. I was given this book in South Africa. By the way made Carrot cake with walnuts and icing yesterday - really yummy - if anyone wants the recipe I am happy to pass it on.

Well Rosti and Desi 1,

Here is the third owner of a Good Housekeeping Cook Book. It must really be as good as I thought it was if you two also value it so highly.

While living in Holland a friend who was leaving the country gave me her 1972 copy, as my very first cook book.

It was already a little elderly at the time, and had obviously been well loved and well used. In the intervening years it has been even more well used, especially when beginning to watch GFL suddenly inspired me to learn how to cook 'British' type meals.

For the basics it is unbeatable, and even the 1972 edition offers an incredible selection of recipes that are still topical and really worth trying.

Reading the Kitchen Planning section though is like opening a window into another world!

For me definitely irreplaceable!

What about the "Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook " , and the "Jimmy Young Cookbook "
The one I still use often , but not the other , it does have some good recipe's in it , but not a picture at all , so it's a bit boring .