Thank you Harry. Yes, it is truly awful. She died rather suddenly two months before our ruby wedding. A silent, massive and inoperable uterine carcinoma. Five days from the first symptoms to her dying. I'm not over it yet, by a long way.
around in
The only stuff I swirl is milk when bringing it to the boil, not that it actually makes any difference to how much it burns. This is on a solid hot plate not induction hob though. Solid hotpates, in fact all electric hobs apart from induction, are bloody awful things to cook on.
Are there any ring markings on the hob surface? I've a lidaldi single induction hob that has a pattern of concentric dashed rings to mark the heating area. These are slightly raised and *very* hard wearing, the bottom of pans used on it are slowly becoming smoother and flatter...
So get some wooden spoons spatulas or what I like are wooden spoons with a diagonal cut across the end. You also have an induction hob, experiment with the settings, turned down to near the lowest setting you ought to be able to have a pan of gravy on and not have it burn/stick.
Sorry to hear that. Ask for guidance? If you know some one with an induction hob all the better. If that isn't to your likeing (sod the british, male, "stiff upper lip") basic cookery classes are an alternative or even both.
The Delia Smith book is pretty no-nonsense. I like it.
I suspect the first rule is to avoid cookbooks written by celebrity chefs (a contradiction in terms if ever I heard one).
Sounds like you had the wrong cookery books. I'd encourage you to look at recipes again now you are more skilled/confident. There are of course plenty online and you can always narrow your searches to British classics like "Cumberland Pie" and "Lancashire Hotpot :) You may not _need_ recipes now. But you may find they do at least give you ideas about ingredients. Trivial example: I met a fellow pensioner last month who'd never tried adding mustard or nutmeg to her cheese sauce.
It can be off-putting to use a recipe with several unfamiliar ingredients and/or techniques, but I have added a few, one at a time, and put adapted recipes on a website for my own perusal. This makes for more variety than the basic meat and two veg.
Included are stir frying for simple Chinese dishes and "integrated rice" dishes such as paella, risotto, pilaf and jambalaya.
Unfamiliar ingredients I've adopted include chillies, chorizo, pesto and harissa paste. I shall try a dish using fennel and capers shortly.
Shit, though to be honest I think the the sudden brickwall is better for the living than years of long slow decline.
A stroke got my Mother 18 years ago, it didn't take her straight away. Five days in hospital more or less paralised from the neck down. She died a couple of days before my son was born. Some what of a emotional roller coaster.
Mum had done all the domestic stuff, but Dad took the challange on and won until he became too frail. Old age eventually got him, at 94.
It hurts, it will always hurt. ( thinking of Mum). Rise to the challange as my Dad did. You have the support of the group, Dad was never on the internet.
Try 'Cooking for Geeks' by Jeff Potter (O'Reilly)
Ramsay's YT vids are pretty good - even cutting a pepper (to avoid the bitter pith) and chopping up onions. I learned some new things and I've been cooking actively since I was 11.
Cookery books are a bust IME for learning *technique*. They're great if you have some competence and need a new recipe.
I learn far more things that actually worked from YouTube - because you can see how things handle, how the cook - rather than a before and after picture, how hard/often the cook is stirring or turning things.
The book's been done:
Cooking for Blokes Duncan Anderson, Marian Walls
You might try
The Kitchen Assault Course for Men Who Can't Cook - Or Have Never Had To!. René La Sagne
Men's Cooking: A No-Nonsense Guide to Buying, Cooking and Eating Great Food (Haynes Manual) Chris Maillard
Owain
Of Maillard reaction fame? Even if not, it's an appropriate name for a cook-book author
My sense of taste/smell is rather poor (though good enough to enjoy my food) so I prefer to rely on the list of seasonings in a published recipe rather than decide what I need to use. A recipe may specify a number of spices and herbs, plus garlic, honey or sugar and mustard. I wouldn't know which ingredient was missing and which I had to add for the right taste.
Not cheap tho even in kindle version and not torrentable.
Her recipes are all but fool proof.
Delia Smith has whole shelf full of books covering preety much all cooking from the simple to nigh on impossible specialist stuff. "One is fun" is very much at the simple end of the scale, aimed at those living on their own and not wanting to spend half the evening cooking.
Good grief! It's not a cheese sauce without that!
"How to boil an egg" !!
£6 for a used copy on Amazon. What does "not torrentable" mean?
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