Jill's recipes
The illustration to the right is the effect upon guests that I ardently hope to achieve....
It's an illustration from my dog-eared copy of Desmond Briggs' invaluable 1968 book Entertaining Single-Handed, which I bought at a jumble-sale in the 1970s for 5p and which has been informing my cooking on and off ever since.
His most valuable message is to make recipes your own, adding and amending according to what you have in the kitchen, once you have confidence.
Having said which, I've never forgotten a contemporary article by an aspiring cook doing just that, forging ahead with creative substitutions and omissions ('Ham? - old packet in the freezer; juniper berries? - I pretended I hadn't heard') and ending up with a meal which even his best friends couldn't eat.
I have no final message to give! Please just cook and enjoy.
And a poem for you:
Happiness is a pile of dirty plates,
Smears on the tablecloth, crumbs on the floor;
And though another hour of toil awaits
The fool who welcomes this postprandial chore,
When I consider all those burdens shed —
The battered brain, the desperate decisions,
The lists re-listed, and the constant dread
Of final irretrievable omissions;
The hotplate's hang-ups and the oven's whims,
The summer pudding madly streaked with white,
The vegan visitor, the guest who slims
(All sober while the host's distinctly tight) —
'Goodnight!' 'A lovely evening!' Thanks!' 'God bless!'.
A pile of dirty plates is happiness.(Moyra Blyth, The Spectator 1994)
