New Style Cook Book

Hi there all my faithful Hub friends, I am now going to bend your eyes for a few minutes. I am busy with several cook books at the same time and doing a we bit of juggling and changing my mind.

The reason for changing my mind is that I have recently been diagnosed with adult epilepsy and am on medication, which amongst other things makes me calm down, as my problem is that it mainly stress related.

My mind is jumping around at twice the speed that it normally did, so I end up doing short spells of things, like about 45 minutes doing the daily chores, then 45 reading a book, take the parrots out for 45 minutes, i now have three and they take up a bit of supervision. Then i relax for a space of time then start writing.

Here comes the rub I am busy thinking cutting and pasting and then think I should try something else out..

As I review my more successful hubs, not for money earners but for amount of feedback, I made a major discovery while having my 45 minutes scanning my hubs and viewing my favourite hubbers, to whom I must apologize for not commenting on their works, as my thoughts are not really connected  and may not come out the way the should..

Rodney - About the Author

I am not a Springbok, nor am I celebrity or married to one, not a DJ! Not even any where near being on the 'A List'.

I know what you’re thinking…here’s yet another unknown author/cook trying to push one more cookbook onto the already overcrowded and overloaded rack of cookery books! I don’t blame you, but do take a bit of time to rad at least a chapter or two anyway.

I am not a chef. I am just simply, a plain ordinary cook. My love of food and cooking began when I was about 5 years old, as a wolf cub in 1^st St. Mary’s, in the mid 1950s in Johannesburg, South Africa.

I started cooking on open wood and coal fires as a cub then later on as a scout in camp kitchens. Due to an early accident with open flames, not in the kitchen I might add. So my participation in the many of the more boisterous camp activities, namely most of those which I had no inclination in competing in, rock climbing making rafts an getting a dam in them, no ways.

So I then started to spend more time amongst the pots and pans instead, I rather enjoyed the “slaving over the hot fires”, preparing the breakfast, lunch and supper. The sneaky part was then after meals dishing out the various dirty pots and pans to the sixes or patrol which were on KP duty it for the day, an opportunity to give any one who gave me a hard time, or criticized the cooking, the dirtiest and hardest pot to clean.

The types of meals that we would typically prepare would mainly be those traditional types of meals that could be made in large 'dixie' pots for those of you that are fairly mature, you may remember them,those large 3 gallon oval, black enamel pots, that lived on the coal stoves with that never ending soup.

In those far off days this was a typical days menu:-

Breakfast.

Porridge – one the following t

This love of food both the eating and cooking continued throughout my youth. As I spent many an hour during the good old Rand Easter Show days (which was Johannesburg's premier Agricultural Show) in the front of the Nestlé’s and other food manufacturers, then there was also the many kitchen appliance and equipment. It was amazing how much information tips and free samples one could gain from these stalls who had demonstrations every hour, it was fun too.

Many of those methods and tips have still stuck and I use very often although it was some fifty odd years ago. There where many of those that I listened too and have used ever since.

Cheese Sauce

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of butter

3 tablespoons of cake flour

2 cups of fresh milk

1 pinch of salt

½ teaspoon strong mustard powder

1 cup of grated mature cheddar cheese

Method

1. Place a deepish saucepan on the stove plate.

2. Add the butter.

3. Put the stove on to medium, as you want the butter to melt slowly and not spatter or burn.

4. Remove the saucepan from the hot plate of the stove,

5. Once the butter has melted slowly add the flour and combine it with the melted butter until it forms a sticky ball.

6. Return the saucepan to the stove.

7. Add a ¼ cup of milk to the mixture and stirring clockwise mix to a thick paste.

8. Add the mustard and salt.

9. Set the stove to medium to high.

10. Slowly add some more milk, stirring constantly to stop it forming lumps.

11. Once the white sauce has reached the desired thickness.

12. Take a large pinch of the grated cheese and stir it into the sauce, this will help it stop forming clots of cheese in the sauce.

13. Reduce the stove medium.

14. Continue to add the cheese, until it reaches the desired thickness as well as the cheesiness.

Notes

Stirring :- always stir it at the same pace and in the same direction, most people do it clockwise, I do it anti clockwise.

Adjustments :-

To thick – slowly add and stir till correct. To thin – mix a teaspoon of flour with a tablespoon of milk mix into a smooth paste and add half a spoon of the mixture and stir that in. repeat if needed. To much cheese – add more milk and then thicken it. Not enough cheese – add mo grated cheese. Add salt and mustard for more tang, por a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Uses :-

This was in the home main light industries hall.

There where still others stalls to visit in the International halls,

My mother would often let me cook supper, homework completed of course. I also received a lot of encouragement and cooking practice from many of my father and both sets of grandmothers.

Many years later, married and spending more time in the kitchen preparing a fair percentage of the daily meals with the intended leftovers which became our lunch for work the following day, I would often be asked for the recipe, even now, for this dish and how do you prepare that.

In 2004. I completed my first self published book which was sold at Gauteng Institute by Dr Andre Kefedekis covering the basic principle of Naturopathic eating and cooking. This book was an A4 book which contained the principles as well as photos and recipes. I am updating this book and will be releasing it shortly as it is at my publishers.

A earlier book was nearly completed in 1997, but with compliments of Affirmative shopping, my backups software which was all together alongside my PC, disappeared over our back wall and into the open veld, to who knows where.

This book was how to stretch a budget and produce healthy and tasty meals. You all most probably know that need to stretch a pack size of meat for two amongst several more. This was practical cookbook which was written over nearly nine months of practical experience when we had an extended family of eight, and in the last few months one of them chose to go vegetarian.

So my book will contain the experiences which I have gained over the past 40years or so.

There are two very distinct attitudes and philosophies surrounding food.

1. Those that eat to live!

2. Those that live to eat!

3. Those that need to eat on a tight budget!

This has always been a problem for the greater percentage of the population, no matter where you are!

Towards A Healthy Life Style

To begin the begin, one of the biggest factors that has been a problem with me ever since my I can remember has been my weight.

One of the major contributing factors in following any weight loss or life style type of programs is that you are faced with firstly the limited quantities of food, and secondly the other restrictions that are involved in any or many of the programs.

When I started on this lifestyle program, a few weeks after my second hernia operation, this time to fix a previous hernia that popped when I had to push start our car out of the drive. It became necessary to make some changes, very drastic changes to say the least. to both my eating or should I say “liming my food intake” and the manner which I actually cook the food. My general way of expressing myself is through the kitchen, in otherwords cooking with a capital “c”.

So it was of to the kitchen, armed with the general outline of the diet sheet

A certain amount of planning and in some cases pre-cooking is essential to ensure that one remain on a steady course, and as our ‘need to cheat’ is removed, we are able to stay fairly firmly on target.

Menu Planning

One of the first stages in preparing to start of with this diet was to take into consideration our lifestyle and build our menu around it, so that little or no friction would interfere with it, as this will create stress, which we don’t need.

Hey if you are like me if you stress you want to eat, and there is nothing nicer than a grilled pork chop down on the braai and some “slap chips” or some boerie and lekker sous from the skottel. For those of you that do not know what I have just said let me explain, better still go back to the section on outdoor cooking.

You need to look at your own life style and the other domestic factors that you personally have, which will dictate what and how you are going to set up your meals.

The Daily Meals

For a start your food intake may very well vary from the rest of your family as far as the weekly meals go.

The recipes will contine to be inteposed in the narratives a table of contents right up in front, Then where you saw the camp breakfast I would have the recipes , proceedto lunch and suppers. I will make the camp a three or 4 day. then move to the next part of my cooking life,

Shoot me down in flame or praise me, my ego can stand it, I promise.