Four years ago

Posted on January 17, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Bacon, brown sauce, Cheese, delicious, Food, Memories, Oatcake, Ode to the Oatcake, TastyLeave a comment

According to Facebook memories four years ago I was feeling rough so my dear hubby went out and got me a cheese and bacon oatcake. It doest look appetising but with cooked bacon and mature cheddar with a hint of brown sauce, the Oatcake was folded in half, hot and tasty.

We used to have the occasional oatcake over the months, it’s a local delicacy. As the artist, author and poet Arthur Berry wrote :

Ode to the Oatcake: 1980

Let us pay homage to the Oatcake.
Or Otcake or woodcake as the old men called them.
The Oatcake is not a cake at all really.
Not like the fairy cake or the Eccles cake.
Not a cake in that way.
More of a Potteries Popadum [sic]
A sort of Tunstall Tortilla.
A Clay Suzzette.

Did you know?

Posted on August 8, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Bacon, brown sauce, Cheese, fillings, Food, Jam, Life, oat flour, Oatcake, Oats, sausage, Tomatoes, Water, YeastLeave a comment

Credit Moorlands eater photo of a Staffordshire Oatcake.

Today is Staffordshire Oatcake day. According to Google:

“Oatcake Day is celebrated annually on August 8th to honor Staffordshire and its famous oatcake. The day began in 2010. Some people celebrate by visiting Staffordshire Oatcakes in Hanley to learn how the Potteries staple is made. Others share their oatcake creations on social media using the hashtag #StaffordshireDay.”

Basically the Staffordshire Oatcake is a thin pancake style flat tasty disk made of oatmeal flour, yeast, water and possibly other ingredients. It is cooked on a hot griddle in a thin layer so it ends up looking a bit like a lace doily but with fewer holes. You can buy a dozen or half a dozen to take home, or if you get them from an oatcake shop you can have them with various toppings. Mostly cheese and bacon, or bacon and mushroom. My favourite is sausage, cheese and tinned tomatoes. Sometimes with a bit of brown sauce. You can also eat them hot with butter and jam, but that’s probably not acceptable behaviour! And rolled or folded? That’s your choice!

Definitely a Staffordshire specialty. Not to be confused with Scottish oatcakes which are smaller and thicker.

Local artist, poet and author, Arthur Berry wrote “Ode to the Oatcake”…

Lobster thermidore

Posted on June 26, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Cheese, Cookery, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1981, Food, Lobster, lobster thermidore, Memory, WineLeave a comment

What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?

I once went for a meal and decided to try Lobster thermidore. It was cooked with a mild cheese and wine sauce.

I don’t know how it was cooked, it was a special treat, but I’m glad I tried it.

I think its 15 to 20 years since I tried it but I still remember it. It was tasty and rich. But I wouldn’t be able to afford it now.

I guess, anything could be delicious if you have not had it before. If you don’t have money or resources you may never get to eat anything than the basic food, that you eat everyday if you are lucky. I’m not sure if I would eat it again now I think about their situation.

Pizza with leftovers

Posted on September 2, 2023September 2, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cheese, Cooking, Food, Fridge, gas mark, Leftovers, margherita pizza, Meal, Pizza, Quick meal, Recipe4 Comments

A Marghereta pizza for tea was a bit boring, so I got some leftovers out of the fridge…

1 large sliced mushroom

1/8 of a large onion

A couple of pieces of garlic sausage

2 slices of ham

A 1/4 of a red chilli (deseeded)

A few green olives sliced up

Some leftover hard cheese

Chop it up, add it to the top.

Cook on gas mark 7 for 15 minutes instead of 11 which was the time for the normal pizza so that everything was piping hot.

Added gherkins which were left in a jar to add a bit of sour taste (umami?) to the meal.

Hubbys idea of tea.

Posted on August 6, 2023August 6, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged a meal, an idea of food, Banana, Butter, Cheese, crackers, Food, Hubby, Poem, Poetry, Salad, salt, Tea, Vegetables, Yellow4 Comments

Crackers, cheese, butter, banana.

No vegetables, no other colours

No salad, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce?

Not tempting, maybe tasty?

Cheese is salty, crackers are salty.

Not sure if I should eat the banana

Butter is salted.

I’m thirsty!

Give me time

I’ll try and teach him

Meanwhile? Yum?

Cheese oatcakes

Posted on July 29, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Breakfast, Cheese, Food, Life, Lunch, Meal, Oatcakes, Oats, Poem, Poetry, Tasty, Tea2 Comments

Lunch today

Cheese on oatcakes

Yummy tubes

Of oaty goodness.

Made of batter

Made with oats

On a griddle

Served sizzling hot

Melted cheese

And hp sauce

Make a snack

Or a meal.

Delicious with jam too

Staffordshire oatcakes

For me or you!

Mad night snack

Posted on March 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beetroot, Cheese, Food, invention, Midnight, midnight snack, Odd, pringle, sliced, SnackLeave a comment

You know when you wake up in the middle of the night, feeling hungry for a light snack and you don’t have much in?

I had some ready salted pringle (saddle shaped crispy things) an old bit of cheese and a few baby beetroots left in a jar. So I sliced a few bits of cheese, then one of the baby beers into bits and stuck them on the pringle. Voilà baby beetroot and cheese on horseback!

I realised though that the beetroot stained my fingers red so switched them so the cheese was on top. Strange but tasty…

Crumpets

Posted on August 5, 2022August 5, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Afternoon, Butter, Cheese, crumpet, Food, Honey, margarine, Tasty, Tea, Toast, toastedLeave a comment

‘and shall we have crumpets for tea ?’

I don’t remember where that quote comes from. But that’s what we had for our meal this afternoon. Toasted to a slightly brown colour and hot so that the crumpet is cooked through. I usually have butter or margarine on it but today I had butter and then as a treat a small amount of Greek honey.

The porous, sponge like consistency of the crumpet makes it good for absorbing melted butter. The top of a crumpet is full of a lattice of holes, whereas the base is solid, so these lacunae stay filled and only leak slightly. Yummy! I’ve also toasted crumpets, then grated cheese on them and then I gently microwave them for a savoury snack.

This bought back a memory of using a fork pierced through a crumpet and pushed onto the front bars of a gas fire. A tricky thing to do as the fire might burn your fingers as well as the crumpet! Cook the back first then the front, then take it off the fire and butter and eat. (Childhood memories of when life was more basic).

Tortilla pockets with quorn mince.

Posted on September 9, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged asparagus, baby corn, Cheese, Cooking, fajhita spices, Food, harissa sauce, Onion, Tasty, tortilla pocketsLeave a comment

Serves two.

Ingredients

Fajhita seasoning, four tortilla pouches, small packet of quorn mince, a small onion, a few spears of asparagus, a few baby corn, half a jar of harissa paste, a small amount of cheese (you could use a vegan substitute) olive oil. Salsa sauce.

Method, break up the frozen quorn mince and fry in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil, slice the baby corn into small rounds, keep the heat low, add the fajhita spice and continue to cook. Slice up the onion and add to the mix, then chop up the asparagus and add it to the mix. Add some water to the pan to stop the mixture drying out. Add the harissa paste and stir well. Let the mixture simmer for ten minutes. Add the salsa sauce (or if you want to add at the end). Microwave a couple of tortilla pockets then spoon the mix into them. Top with grated cheese. Any left over mixture can be served with the pockets on the plates.

Serve as a tasty meal for two…

Mothership pie

Posted on August 22, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cheese, chives, Food, gravy, Meat, onions, Pie, pieminister, Trentham GardensLeave a comment

We went out to Trentham Gardens for a pie and a walk.. Yes there is a pie under there. Beneath the chives and grated cheese. On a bed of mashed potatoes with onion gravy. It was delicious. A Pie Minister Moo pie. (warning, contains meat).

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Cheese