Chocco Bloggo!

By my dad…..

Perhaps I should add a little footnote to Sarah’s latest kitchen related thoughts. “Too many cooks spoil….” you know the rest.

Archie was very good following me around the Co-op collecting various ingredients, including what seemed like a dozen different types of chocolate! All three were present on chairs in the kitchen weighing out, mixing and generally helping in their own sweet way. I might add – if we are talking about genes – that I think the dominant ones have certainly been passed on through the Turner line, as when they left the kitchen after most had been done the surfaces, floor and their fingers were covered in various chocolate, butter, flour and sugar goo!

Of course I had to clear up with Sarah’s help. Oven was timed, icing made ready and eventually the end product although looking a little thin appeared decidedly lovely especially with the sprinkled white, milk and dark chocolate on top. All three little hungry tigers will deny the crunch of toast and marmalade tomorrow morning but go for “Papa’s chocolate delight” instead I’m sure !

Jane is being looked after by Sheila, John and the dogs and apparently has been very settled in my absence.  She is (maybe now was) a great master in the cooking department and her cakes, buns and sweets both hot and cold were wonderful. Her Christmas pies had secret ingredients including cheese and orange as far as I remember. It’s up to me now to try to conjure up “my delights” to tantalise her taste buds. I bought a slow cooker and two recipe books so I will try to cobble ingredients together in the morning and try out the resultant perfection at night.

Jane always used to say “clean up as you go along” and it makes it a lot easier at the finish of cooking. Perhaps Sarah is right – I don’t seem to have had that drummed into me and have let the side down. I bought her a little Bosch mixer a few years ago and we tried to use it today but it took a while to clean the dust of it as it had lain in the back of the cupboard fast asleep for such a long time. “It’s useless” she tells me. Perhaps a Kenwood next time? Or maybe not.

Back home tomorrow. I’ve really enjoyed the wee break but as Sarah has said it is not the same without my love here to keep me right and hold my hand through these difficult decisions in the culinary world.

Keep smiling little ones, work hard at school and play and don’t eat too much chocolate cake !