I have asked the Question so now here is my answer

If I gave you some potatoes, onion, cheese, eggs milk and some herbs.  What would you make with it and why?

Baked potatoes with cheese and onion filling;

Herb omelette

Fried eggs

Mashed potatoes

Scrambled eggs

Pancakes

Cheese, potato, fried onion and herb Frittata

Potato Quiche

Rosti/Latkes

Fat chips and cheese and onion dipping sauce

All these can feed the belly and feed the soul very cheaply.

This all started off at the veg shop yesterday I was enquiring how business was.  They said things had been very quiet and it would appear that people are going to the supermarkets even though a lot of the time (not always) you get more for your money at the veg shop than you would in the supermarket.  I tend to agree.  I am lucky that I have them on the doorstep and that I am able to do the amount of preserving I have because of their reasonable prices.  I not only preserve but I do a lot of cooking during the week as well.  Sometimes it is simple things for tea another night a full dinner with all the vegs.  We eat well often simply but it is always tasty.

I know one or two of you have a warehouse or similar where you are able to go to.   A lot of you grow your own which I aspire to.  One day.

I turned round and said well people are not concentrating on the basics, like potatoes, eggs, vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots, onions, celery.  From which you can have veggies with every meal, you can from any leftovers of veggies and mashed potato make bubble n squeak, soups.  And  fruits like apples, plums etc.  If they did they could live quite cheaply and also have tasty food to boot.  Straightaway from the apples you can  have apple sauce from them, stewed apple and ice cream for pudding, apple pie,  Tarte Tatin, Apple charlotte,apple sponge, plums you can do similar.  And a pudding is a cheap way of filling the tummy when there is not much money around for meat. 

The same as a bowl of soup.  Can be made cheaply out of a chicken carcass out of which bird you have probably had a good couple of meals, made stock that will go into countless meals,  the soup and the scraps can be used in sandwiches, turned into Coronation chicken or given to the cats as a treat.  Equally the vegetable peelings, and toppings can be used to make a vegetable stock as long as everything was scrubbed before hand.

The veg shop owners are struggling  - I know there are people who are not using them relying on the supermarkets instead who haven't got much income in, have a couple of kids. have horrendous bills to pay and are juggling and struggling.  I have been there and with prices going up chances are more of us are going to struggle.  The best thing about this veg shop is that they use the little local farmstead producer as well as the big auctions.  Cabbages and cauliflowers, carrots and the majority of the potatoes in big large sacks are grown in good deep dark peat fen soil.  One of the best growing mediums in the country.  What could be better for you than crops grown in these conditions.  That's the other Reason I use them apart from being a lot cheaper the food is also fresh and tasty and I know where its come from.

I think part of the problem is that a lot (not all) of younger people do not appear to know what to do with basic foodstuffs and keeping the bellies filled.  People with low incomes should be using shops like this because they offer so much more for your money which when you have a family is all the more important because you have to keep them fed.  You ladies have all passed the test and everyone came up with something different, not that I ever doubted you wouldn't.

Thank you for feeding back and do you have any ideas on how to get cooking back to the younger generation they seem to class it as too much like hard work instead of an adventure and a journey.

Catch you soon and thanks for responding.

Kind regards.

Pattypan

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