On "stuff" and kitchens

Today, while she was in town and I was trying to decide what to bake, I got a message from my housemate. "I didn't think our house was girly enough," it read, "so I got us a teapot shaped like a cupcake." Fair enough.

It got me thinking about my kitchen. This kitchen is very small. Like, extremely. We play jenga with the many mugs we own, and woe betide the person who tries to get the other colander out from that cupboard lest it cause the saucepan lid avalanche. But I love it, because it's full of stuff that's tied into memories of the past 22 - almost 23 - years of my life. The cupboards are full of things that I love.

Things that are brand new (like our cupcake teapot) and very old (like my great-granny's tablecloth, which is currently on our dining table). Things that were given to me by family when I first moved in to the house, and things that were given to me by friends as they were leaving the country. Things that my previous housemates left behind as they moved on to the next stage, and things that my current housemate brought when she moved in a year and a half ago. Things that were bought when I was doing my first shop for going to uni, and things that were bought spur of the moment or because they seemed like a good deal. Things that I used when I was still living at home, and things that I've bought for myself since leaving home. Gifts, leftovers, hand-me-downs. All in my kitchen, being used every day.

When I was a child, and to be honest even now, I coveted the big earthenware mixing bowl my mum had. Making cake always feels so much more satisfying when it's being mixed in that bowl rather than the plastic nesting bowls. So my godmother, under the advice of my mother, bought me the most gorgeous Mason Cash mixing bowl, with a fox pattern around the outside - a perfect mix of the retro and the modern. It was put to good first use today, making the most gorgeous lemon and thyme loaf - which is itself a gift of a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery "Cake Days" book.

What's the story of your favourite item in your kitchen?

A rather sheepish return

It has been an embarrassingly long time since I last posted. Over a year ago, in fact, and I am feeling awfully guilty about my terrible lack of focus. I rather feel like I'm shuffling in to a teacher's office, trying to explain why I haven't done my homework. A lot has changed in the 12 months and 18 days.

In the past year, I have:

• Written somewhere in the region of 22,000 words for assessed essays alone (including my dissertation)
• Applied for 15 jobs and got one (yay!)
• Bought and drank far too much wine
• Made four lemon and thyme loaf cakes
• Shepherded 50 Erasmus students around Edinburgh
• Tried haggis for the first time
• Got over my fear of butternut squash innards
• Watched 2 series of Great British Bake Off
• Lost my student credentials in a blaze of glory and cap-throwing.

Yes, I graduated this summer. And it was wonderful, if a bit surreal, to have a day to say goodbye to four really excellent years. Particularly as I'm still living in Reading, in the same house, with the same lovely housemate as last year.

This does mean that I am no longer a student foodie - I'm a recently-graduated-still-not-sure-what-I'm-doing-with-my-life foodie. But you know, there's not a massive difference between the two, not really. I'm cooking the same things, I'm still trying to save money where possible, and I still believe what I did over two years ago - that food doesn't have to cost the earth to be delicious. And sometimes, it's okay to treat yourself to dinner out.

So I'm going to keep going with this blog, despite not being a student, in the hope that it might reach someone who is recently starting university, and is feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I can't give advice on how to cope with a course, or the workload associated with it (mostly because I'd be a pretty poor example and it'd be rather hypocritical to tell people not to procrastinate) - but I can help with the cooking side. And that's enough for me.

International Food Evening #1

For those of you who read this blog (thank you, by the way!) but aren't friends or family, a little introduction to provide some context to this post.

I'm currently the President of the Erasmus Society at my university. That means that if I ever decide to go into teaching, I'll have had a years' experience of trying to herd Europeans into various clubs, coaches, castle and college tours - and lived to tell the tale.

Last night, we held an International Food Evening. It was, to toot my own horn, a total success (beep beep). I'd booked one of the larger rooms to hold the event, and when I got there at 7 and remembered just how big it is, I definitely had an "oh crap" moment. I had images of 40 people standing in the middle of this room that has a seating capacity of about 80, none of whom had brought food, trying to make my Victoria Sandwich and my VP's banoffee pie stretch to feed all of us.

Turns out I needn't have worried. By 7.05 there was a queue outside of people - most of whom had brought food - and by 7.40, pretty much all of the food had gone. I don't think any of us on the committee got even a look in, which was a shame because it all looked gorgeous.

This just taps into my long-held belief that food is something that really unites people. Whether it's offering to make a cake for a fundraising event or sharing food from your country with people who might not otherwise have a chance to try it - food brings people together.

So that's why, despite losing my voice and not getting a bite to eat last night, when I looked down from atop the chair I was standing on to speak to the society and saw everyone's plates full and all of the food on the side gone, I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment.

Ultimately, while I think that for these students, getting the opportunity to explore the UK and get a sense of what it's like to be a student in the UK for a year is incredibly important, food evenings like last night's give people a sense of pride - that was my dish I heard someone enthusing about! or noticing that all of the dish they'd made has been eaten - and it gets people mixing and talking to new people and trying new things.

It also gets you a cheap meal. What could be better?

Just a quick reminder as well - I have a twitter now, it's here, it'd be great if you could pop by and follow me there if you're a twitter-er (twit?)

Rachel Khoo tweeted me!

This lady became my food hero after I watched her programme and saw the kind of amazing meals she could turn out of a kitchen that was honestly no more than a camping gas stove and an oven about the size of a microwave. My dream of moving to Paris after graduation suddenly seemed that little bit more possible.

If she can make meals that make the French sit up and take notice from possibly the world's smallest kitchen, then I can do it in my full-sized (if somewhat cramped) kitchen in my student house.

As you can imagine, my housemate has begrudgingly agreed to be my guinea pig for when I do make something from her book. What a trooper.

Avoiding "Fresher's Panic" Part 2: Shopping solo

I’ve been back in my house for a week now, and the food I’ve eaten since then has been delightfully and almost disconcertingly healthy. I’m very lucky in that my new housemate doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, and she prioritises vegetables over meat. It’s remarkably easy to copy the eating habits of someone like that when you don’t want to be the only one leaving the house to do an “emergency chocolate run” or eating meat every single day.

It won’t stop me from baking, so don’t worry too much about me!

Since I moved in and waved goodbye to my parents, I’ve cooked Jamie Oliver’s amazing stew (recipe can be found here) for when my friend came over to keep me company and a return to an old favourite, ratatouille; and Cat has made an amazing bacon, leek and sweetcorn chowder as well as leek and potato soup that we had with Marmite and cheese on toast (the Marmite was purely because the cheese from the corner shop was offensively tasteless).

Today I decided that I really needed to do a food shop – I couldn’t keep on just expecting Cat to cook for me, it was probably my turn again! So two of my friends and I piled into my car and off we went to Asda to do the dreaded food shop.

I don’t know what impression people have of students (no, don’t answer that!) but when I went up to the till and started chatting with the lady about how busy it was, she rolled her eyes and laughed. “Oh, it’s all the students coming back and getting their parents to get the first shop in!” I smiled, amused, and said that I was coming back for my last year. She paused in scanning the smoked mackerel fillets (they’re going towards a firm favourite later this week, mackerel risotto) and looked at the pile of vegetables and distinct lack of ready meals – or, indeed, booze; and smiled.

Fresher’s Week starts up next week for us, so I’ve really been out of the student bubble for quite some time, but the one thing I never really forgot was the horror of finding how much food costs. I am aware that I am in the very lucky position of being able to choose to buy more expensive food rather than always having to settle for the cheapest possible version of things, but there are some things that I think can do a lot to ease the panic of doing that first solo food shop when you come to university.

Back all those many years ago when I was about to start university, my parents suggested I do something very sensible – it’s helped me work out budgets ever since. We sat down and drew up a hypothetical shopping list, including the kinds of things you’re unlikely to need to be buying every week or month, like coffee and pasta. By the end of it, I had a rough idea of how much money I’d be spending on an average month’s food; and now that I’m in my fourth and final year of university, there are some things about doing the Great Food Shop that have become clear to me. And, being the kind soul I am (stop laughing), I’m going to let you in on some of the things that kept me sane when I was doing these food shops.

Learn to prioritise what you save on and what you splurge on.

You probably don’t want to take the risk on value chicken fillets, and unless you know you’re going to wrap them up and freeze them immediately, I wouldn’t advise getting them when they’re yellow-stickered. Rice, on the other hand, is rice. Unless you want your grains of rice to be hand-picked and individually inspected, I can’t see any particular benefit to spending more on it.

The better quality it is, the less you’ll need

I’m thinking of cheese in particular here. You’ll need twice as much if you’ve bought it and it gave you change from a pound, so you’ll have to buy twice as much to get the same flavour as you’d get from something more expensive – where’s the real saving in that?

Look for deals…

Especially on things that tend to be very expensive or are particularly high-quality. Today in Asda, they were selling the Debbie & Andrew 97% pork sausages for £2. I bought three packs, wrapped them up in twos and put them into the freezer.  They’ll keep, and now I know that for quite some time I’ll have some there in case I suddenly have a yen for sausage and mash.

… but be sensible

If you’re being a bit brave and are trying something you’ve not had before, don’t buy six of them because they’re on offer. If you don’t like it, you’ll probably leave it languishing at the back of your fridge until it can walk out itself and throw itself into the bin.

Work out a menu for the week

It’s sounds incredibly OCD, and to a degree I suppose it is – but having a menu means that when you come to doing a shop, you have a basic idea of what you need to buy. Even if it’s a very general menu and you don’t stick to it entirely, it means that you will have things to make some form of a dinner. I sit down and make a menu on a weekly basis; and sometimes I don’t make what I’d had written down, but if I’ve bought, say, pasta sauce, lasagne sheets, mince and white sauce, even if I don’t want to make lasagne I could still make spaghetti Bolognese.

Always have these things in your cupboards

They are invaluable.

• Rice
• Pasta
• Couscous
• Dried herbs
• Stock cubes
• Chopped tomatoes

Other things might be on some people’s lists (baked beans for instance), but if you’ve got nothing but these things in your cupboard, you’d still be able to make pasta or rice with tomato sauce. Not particularly interesting, but it’s better than not eating anything.

Next up is how to make sharing a kitchen bearable – I’ll give you a hint, it’s all to do with a song by Aretha Franklin…

Avoiding "Fresher's Panic" Part 1: What you actually need in your kitchen

If the middle of August is the time for the “back to school” rush, then the middle of September is what I like to call “Fresher’s Panic”. With that in mind, the next few posts are dedicated to easing this potential panic.

The new wave of university students have got their results, they know which university they’re off to and what sort of accommodation they’re going into, and there’s a blissful fortnight where you look around and think, “the rest of my life is about to start.”

August has disappeared and is replaced by September. While everyone else has gone back to school you sit there, smugly awaiting the beginning of term. Town is yours again – you can go in the middle of the day, safe in the knowledge that the only people sitting in the park are going to be pensioners and other smug university students.

But then suddenly you’re into the second week of September. You haven’t even started sorting through the stuff you want to take to university – and then one day your mother comes into your room and announces that it’s Time To Make A List.

Consider this my lesson to you, future freshers: the list of things your mum thinks you’re likely to need at university bears little resemblance to what you are actually going to need at university. Especially in your kitchen.

Firstly, a disclaimer: if you’re going into catered halls and you’re pretty certain that on the days you’re not given food you’re just going to be having a microwave meal or you’ve already planned on making friends with someone in a self-catered hall who can provide you with food, you really won’t need any of the things I’m about to list. The kitchen you’ll have will be pretty Spartan. As long as you have a mug, a cup, a bowl, a plate, one knife, one fork and one spoon, you should be okay to sort yourself out if you’re not getting a meal provided.

But for those of you going into self-catered halls (or indeed a house share), you’ll need the following for your kitchen:

•  Plates: make sure you’ve got plenty so that if you haven’t done your washing up, you can still   eat off a plate rather than straight from the saucepan. 
• Bowls: Same again 
• Cutlery: Same again, particularly for teaspoons. Buy fifteen, twenty – hell, go all out and buy forty. I can almost guarantee that you’ll not come home at the end of the year with all of them.
• Mugs, glasses: As many as you think you can be bothered to wash up regularly. Pint glasses from pubs tended to appear as if by magic in my kitchen in first year – I’m not advocating this at all, but if one should make its way into your kitchen… Just think about how much money you’ll have spent in the pub by the end of the year. That’s all I’m saying.
• Saucepans and lids: You want a small saucepan for heating up things like baked beans; a medium one for making pasta; and maybe a larger one if you’re likely to make pasta for more than just you. 
• Frying pan: Get one with decent non-stick and you’ll be laughing. There are so many meals that you can make just by using your frying pan – invest in one where the non-stick doesn’t come off the first time you wash it. 
• Wooden spoons, fish slices: if you’ve got these you’re sorted.
• A baking tray: I wouldn’t have touched the one that lurked at the bottom of my oven in halls with a bargepole, let alone cook my dinner on it.
• A slow cooker: Honestly, you really should have one of these. You can get them quite reasonably. Mine cost a tenner, my friend got one for fifteen and Lakeland is currently offering a small one for about £20. They’re so, so worth it.
• Bottle opener and/or corkscrew: Obviously.
• If you’re that kind of person, storage containers. I used them for pasta, rice, coffee – but that’s just who I am. I hated having hundreds of packs of pasta cluttering up my (small) cupboard. At least this way, you can see exactly how much you’ve got left so you don’t end up leaving with half a kilo of assorted pasta shapes.
• Washing up sponge and liquid - and a scourer for when you decide to make pasta when drunk, forget about it and burn it. (Actually if this happens, just throw the pan out. You’ll never get cremated pasta off the bottom of a saucepan – believe me, I’ve tried.)

There are all sorts of other things that you’ll need for uni (bedding, for one), but as far as I’m concerned, these are the main things you’d want for in your kitchen if you’re in self-catered halls. Different people have different priorities – for instance, I had a steamer because my logic was if I could cook vegetables at the same time and in the same pan as my potatoes I’d be more likely to eat them because it didn’t take up much space; whereas one of my floormates seemed to rely on the tomato sauce in his spaghetti hoops for his five-a-day. I came away with a box absolutely laden with stuff for my kitchen that barely saw the light of day once I started uni – bag clips to keep things like bread fresh, an infuser for if I didn’t want to make tea straight in my mug, some fancy contraption to cut cling film. All that happened was that they lurked in that box for the entire year, gathering dust, because I was far too busy having fun and doing first year university student things to worry about using a cling film container with a concealed sharp edge to cut it neatly. And you will be, too.

I'm off to Snowdonia tomorrow morning and will be entirely without internet for a week, but on my return expect a post about the lovely bake-y, cake-y things I made for the holiday and the continuation of my anti-panic guide to moving to uni - starting with the first food shop.

Making the best of a bad bake

These were supposed to be lavender macaroons with a lemon buttercream filling. As you can probably tell - they aren't.

That's the thing about baking, it can be an awful lot like life sometimes. You can follow the instructions to the letter, do everything in the right order, keep a watchful eye on things; and yet sometimes, just sometimes, it all goes wrong. A new recipe can go just as wrong as one you've made hundreds of times before; and no matter how often or not you've attempted this creation, the sense of disappointment when the cake hasn't risen or the flavours just taste off is always the same.

And here lies your choice. You can choose to throw it in the bin and vow to never try making this thing again - or you can say to yourself, "oh well, I'll try doing it a slightly different way next time" and make the best of a bad bake.

They weren't lavender macaroons - but they were quite suitable as Eton Mess - particularly with homegrown blackberries and a drizzle of crème de mûre.