Having a Go

There's so much I want to have a go at and ultimately fit into my routine on a regular basis  - I want to get to grips with bread and pastry and get back to making my own instead of purchasing bread from the store and which on my part at least I find it severely wanting.  My pastry is very short and tends to fall to pieces as soon as I make it and I need to find a way of dealing with this and have a seriously good play at putting this right.

I am considering doing a mass weigh up of ingredients on bits and bobs I make on a regular basis, like a pastry mix or bread mix or scone mix etc. etc.  and create my own mixes and just grab them off the shelf marked up with a sticky label as to what I have to add instead of scrabbling around for my old faithful cookery book during the week when time is at a premium so that I can get things done quickly whilst using the cooker for tea and not wasting any heat.

So far this year I have been playing with new things like the Gravadlaxs at Christmas which is inspiring me to have a go at streaky bacon at the end of the month.  OH likes streaky bacon and I do not mind it.  I am also keen to have a go at making pastrami (one of my favourite meats and some salami and sausages.  I think I am in experimental mode this year.

The only way we learn about things is by trying them.  Sometimes we make a right mess but we should not let that deter us as by making mistakes we learn more about how we should do things and learn from our mistakes in the process.  It is not necessarily natural to be able to do things straight off as the phrase goes practice makes perfect. It should be  gradual process that evolves naturally.  

These are skills that we all had at one time and my family in particular were keen exponents of this way of living my grandparents in particular. They were the ones who had the knowledge that I am now curious to learn about. (I always was a late developer)  I suppose its how the cookie crumbles!  

They have been passed a little while now and my uncle and his second wife have also gone.   my mum is now the oldest member of our small family and after her it is my cousin John who is about 62.

My uncle and his wife made the most wonderful cream I have ever had.  Uncle used to be  dairy farmer in his youth but had to give it up because of Angina (he was a one man band with about 50 cows to milk the old fashioned way).  He then moved to a smallholding and kept a dairy cow and was for many years an animal feed salesman with his main area being Yorkshire.

So we should all have a go - sometimes it will take us several attempts to get something right and it is a real lightbulb moment when everything comes to fruition, However we should not let ourselves be deterred as there is no such word as can't we all have different learning methods with different things and we all learn differently - we just have to be cussed and keep at it - after all if we really want to do something then we will focus and do it - its just sometimes we have to wake up our own self-motivation in the process.

But its having a go and taking part that makes all the difference because we learn more on the practical side by doing just that.

Catch you soon

Pattypan

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