Warm boot recommendations please

[Mrs Webmuppet]

I have to say this programme has made me determined that Little Miss Webmuppet will learn to cook.

 

I had to teach myself to cook (my Mum should be shot for crimes against food and can only make a ham sarni safely ). After tea this evening, while I was chilling in the bath, Little Miss Webmuppet whipped up a batch of raspberry jam buns ( her Dad did the oven bit). She has even been known to cook tea ( with a little help). There's no excuse for not being able to cook, there's plenty of cook books out there. Little Miss Webmuppet has several books aimed at kids ( and one Sam Stern teenagers one 'cause she wanted some easy 'proper food' recipes).

[missuscluck]

I though the programme was good but thought Jamie was funny swearing to 'fit in' with his new recruits. Stop it Jamie!!

I too was very saddened but not surprised. I too dont get the mentality of spending money on a takeaway when you have no money.

We both work very hard and a takeaway is a treat in our house. There is no way we could live off them. We just couldnt afford it. And dont start me on the fags and the million cans out side the back door of one of the houses when he went in through the back into the kitchen. I try to understand but I dont get it. Sorry.

 

I hope teaching kids in schools how to cook works out and has some really good thought put into exactly what they are being taught so it is useful for them in later life. I cook with mine a lot as we are obsessed with food in the cluck house !!

[Karen & co.]

(my Mum should be shot for crimes against food and can only make a ham sarni safely ). .

 

My mum wasn't allowed in the kitchen when my gran was cooking, and the first time she made a roast for my dad after they got married she had to slice the gravy

 

She made sure my sisters and I could cook from an early age even scrubbing new potatos can be done by a 3 year old, and my children can and enjoy cooking

 

Karen x

[BeckyBoo]

I wish there had been cameras in my kitchen eariler, there was me multi-tasking making Boston Baked Beans and Falafel (strange combo I know ) for me and OH, doing sausages and mash for smallies, knocking back a loaf of bread when ED comes in and says "Mum can I help you with some cooking," followed shortly by, "what else can we cook?" Took me straight back to last nights programme, right up until OH came in, took one look at the beans and said, "they smell REALLY nice. But do you know what I fancy for tea? A curry!" So it's take-away in our house tonight!

 

Mrs B

[BarbaraJ]

I'm yet to watch it but me and my 21yr old dd sit and shout at the telly. She doesn't cook much but knows whats good food!! her long time boyfriend fsays i'll enjoy christmas as long as i get your mums xmas dinner lol. Daughter refuses point blank to go there for dinner as she says his mum can't cook. I bet his mum hates me lol

i'm a childminder and many times when i have shoved a stew in or made spag bol from scratch or veg soup they say ' oh that smells great what you cooking?' i do wonder what people live on. I try hard here to feed my lot good food, its difficult the age they are, 21,19 and 17 as they all work odd hours, Uni /college and buy junk at times but i believe when they get their own homes they will cook well.

School food tech was rubbish at i will admit to not getting them in the kitchin helping when younger though we ate well as kitchin is tiny and i like to get on BUT a few years ago i started laminating my own recipe cards and all 3 can cook from scratch at least spag bol and chilli lol

[Milly]

I hope people (even a few!) learn to cook as a result of the programme. I get a lot of pleasure out of being able to cook and the participants seemed to as well, once they actually had a go.

 

It's a bit like being able to read and write - it is such a part of everyday life it's hard to imagine what it's like being unable to do it.

 

I would like to say cooking should be taught in schools - but I don't remember learning anything useful in domestic science in the 70s. Apart from being taught to water down jam to make it go further (not that I have ever needed to). Janty's after school class sounds a bit more promising!

 

Milly

[Janty]

My year 7s (11 & 12 year olds) made their adapted sponge cakes today in school.

 

Last week they each made a Victoria sponge sandwich cake. We then looked at the basic recipe and how the recipe could be changed / adapted to suit different tastes. We explored different options, had a tasting session and looked at different sugars, etc. that could be used. They then made a plan for their adapted sponge and I checked it over. As a result, this week we had four lemon drizzle cakes, an orange drizzle cake, a coffee cake, a lemon sponge, five chocolate cakes, a chocolate chip loaf and two upside down cakes.

 

Next week we are demonstrating sponge puddings and tasting home made versus shop bought, pricing them up and looking at the ingredients. We are going to make five puddings for them to taste....jam sponge, syrup sponge, treacle sponge, toffee apple sponge and lemon curd sponge. The children will make their own sponge puddings the following week choosing either jam, treacle or syrup for the base. Then the next week they will make adapted puddings.

 

We are essentially reinforcing the recipe by using it twice for demonstrations and four times for them to cook with.

 

They made really good cakes and I was proud of them today as they created the recipes themselves. We also have food evaluation sheets which they take away and complete with their parents.

[missuscluck]

Our classes were called 'home economics' not cookery, so we did a wide variety of useful things including how to iron you husband shirt

 

Janty thats good what they are being taught. My sons cookery at high school year 8 is too easy. They havent attempted anything even near a cake yet. I hope it improves.

Edited October 1, 2008 by Guest

[Milly]

Janty, that sounds a lot more inspiring than our classes ever were! We did make a pizza with a sort of scone dough which I made several times afterwards (but might not now that I have eaten proper pizzas!).

 

Milly

[Janty]

Our year 5s look at healthy packed lunch boxes. They look at the different food groups and cook breads, home made burgers, fruit salads, etc.

 

Our year 6s look at where our food comes from and farming in Britain (mainly East Anglia). They look at wheat and the foods that are made from wheat. So far they have made basic biscuits and adapted biscuits. They will go on to make crumbles, flapjacks, etc. We look at different methods of cooking...melted, all-in-one, rubbed in and creamed.

 

Year 7s spend half a term making sponge cakes and sponge puddings. We re-visit the various methods of making cakes, etc. Then in the second half of the term we make pastry and pies.

 

In year 8 we look at food from around the world. They taste various foods and then they make pasta, simple tomato and basil sauce, bolognaise sauce, lasagne, onion bhajis, aloo gobi, chicken curry, etc.

 

The recipes that the children use throughout their cookery lessons are stored in their own personal recipe file with their evaluations and adaptations for them to take away when they leave.

 

Once a term my Key Stage three cookery club make a roast dinner from scratch. I supply three or four free range organic chickens and Blythburgh free range pork sausages and bacon. The children bring in vegetables and we spend lunch time preparing the food, the chicken cooks throughout the afternoon driving the whole school mad and they complete the meal after school. Then we all sit down and eat together around the table.

 

One Mum was a bit put out last year. She thought that she was going to get a full roast dinner sent home to feed her family of five. I wouldn't mind but she only sent in three potatoes.

 

[chickenanne]

Our first home economics class at school was... wiat for it... how to make a cup of instant coffee... we were about 12 then, too! it didn't get much better, the most advanced was cheese on toast.

But anyone can learn to cook: my Dad never ever did anything in the kitchen (I can't even remember him making a cp of tea, but am sure he must've done) when my Mum died about 5 years ago he had to learn. Didn't take him long to get to grips with his favourites - e.g. roast beef, stew, soups, etc etc, and he was in his fifties. Althought the first thing he made me was roast pork with lavendar - he got confused with roast lamb and rosemary. Tasted just like old lady. He eats ultra-homemade food, nothing from a packet at all, even for lunch, becuase that's what he likes to eat. So he had to learn how to do it.

 

Everyone (except my dad!) has ready meals occasionally, and takeaways, but not to give there three year olds regularly, surely!

[Mel (& Paul)]

Janty does your class need some official tasters.

You know, just to make sure that the food is up to standard

It would be a sacrifice on my part, but I would be willing to eat four lemon drizzle cakes, an orange drizzle cake, a coffee cake, a lemon sponge, five chocolate cakes, a chocolate chip loaf and two upside down cakes for the sake of the childred

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aga n Chickens]

What a wonderful post Janty, that's made my day.

 

It's great to know that some schools are structuring their cookery lessons to enable the students to use their imagination and follow the rules of classic recipes.

 

When I was at school I was taught the principals of half fat to flour for pastry, and weigh your eggs and add equal weights of butter, flour and sugar for sponge puddings and cakes.

 

One item on my wedding list was a set of Libra scales and with the above equations I've never needed to buy another set........until I bought a set of digital scales this year to weigh the eggs from our chickens for the egg log

 

Keep up the good work,

 

Christine

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Janty I think your classes sound fab. I have to say that the food tech team at our school follow a similar programme, thinking not only about what to cook but how it can be varied and changed to suit tastes and diets etc. I ran a cookery club for the first few years I was there and it was so popular I had a waiting list and had to allow each group to attend for half a term only. YS is doing cookery in Golden Time at school this term and so far has brought home nothing I would call 'cooking', but I live in hope - he makes really good crumble and shortbread - anything that requires rubbing fat into flour. His pastry is a bit grey , but perfectly edible!

 

My friend's daughter who has breakfast with us twice a week has become an expert pancake maker and taught her granny to make them recently (or rather taught her granny to suck eggs... I think granny allowed herself to be taught as she was so tickled at the expert 6-year-old!).

 

Takeaways are a rare treat in this house and eating out even more so, but good home cooked food is on the menu every day. Daddy is a good cook too and my lads are quite used to being asked to fetch and weigh ingredients, peel carrots or spuds or go out and pick herbs from the garden. They also set and clear the table at mealtimes. Sadly I wasn't shocked at the families on the programme, and I am a bit cynical at their motives for being on the show but if those parents at least learn that they can buy food and cook it then that has to be a step in the right direction - away from malnutrition for their kids.

[Mrs Frugal]

Ditto re the takeaways here. They are treats and happen rarely, especially as neither of our boys actually like them! When we first got married, I couldn't cook as cookery lessons at school were an embarrassment to say the least as my efforts were usually held up as an example of how NOT to do it so I didn't have much confidence at all. We had frozen beef burgers etc but I used to try to cook other things and the more I tried, the more confident I got, the less processed food we bought. We don't buy any processed food at all anymore. We also sit down for meals at the table which the boys set before we eat.

 

Both boys know the rudiments of cookery and can make pastry, cakes and even know how to knead bread and I hope that when they leave home, they will continue to cook and not rely on ready made meals.

[Tessa the Duchess]

Janty your cooking classes sound wonderful, so well thought out, I bet no child leaves your school without being able to cook. We had 'cooking' when I was at Grammar school. It was very old fashioned cookery, we were taught how to make cakes, pastry, and meals which were nutritional and economical. We had to take them home that evening for our parents to taste, as I took mine home in my bicycle saddle bag they were a bit worse for wear by the time I had cycled home We spent one Christmas term making from scratch a Christmas cake marzipan, royal icing and everything again mine was a bit battered by the time I got it home

 

I did watch the repeat of the Jamie programme. I thought his choice of fresh salmon as one of his recipes was a big mistake, salmon is hardly the cheapest food item to buy, I think he should stick to recipes using cheap cuts of meat and fish, then people might be a bit more encouraged. Personally I don't think his experiment will work, much as I would like it too.

 

Tessa

[Steph101]

I won't be watching this pile of rubbish again next week. Jamie O was totally feeble, letting them walk all over him. He mumbled "yeah, I'm living in a bubble, it's alright for me, I've got money, I don't know what it's like in the real world." He let them run rings round him.

Yet the young girl on benefits stood there lighting up a cigarette, with her eight burner cooker, and a plasma TV on the wall!

This was no more than another idea for a programme for Jamie Oliver. I actually like the guy, I've got a few of his books, loved his last 'Jamie at Home' series about seasonal cooking.... but on his way to meet these people back in Rotheram, you saw him drive past a Lidl store... why couldn't he take them there to show them how to cut costs and make cheap and tasty nutritious meals? Probably because Sainsburys wouldn't be too chuffed, I imagine!

[Janty]

Thanks gang for all the lovely comments. We have just had the dreaded phone call from Ofsted. They are coming in next Tuesday and Wednesday. I hope that they are as complimentary. They will be visiting my first cooking together session of the term when I get to meet the new parents...AhHHHhhhhhh!

 

Wish me luck,

 

Jan

[Milly]

Good luck - I hope Ofsted is as impressed as we are!

 

Milly

[Mel (& Paul)]

Print out all our comments and stick them up on the walls

[Mrs Frugal]

Good luck - although I don't think you'll need it! You'll knock their socks off .

[redhotchick]

I swear I was cooking roast dinners for a family of 9 when I was 8 years old!

Ok I can't remember exactly how old I was, but it was young. Mum would put the meat in the oven and I would peel the potatoes, and prepare whatever veg we were having. I'd boil the potatoes and put them in the oven to roast. I don't remember cooking the vegetables. I think mum did that. I would use a paring knife and a pressure cooker.

I also remember making lemon meringue pie and cheesecake (both from a packet), and trifle.

I learnt to cook from my mum and from school. (I had the odd run in with the teacher as mum would give me slightly different ingredients so that I could make things the way we were used to at home!) I have been fortunate to travel to some exotic places. I love to recreate the dishes I have eaten overseas.

I can't comprehend how anyone can have got to adulthood without having a home cooked meal or learning to cook for themselves, and paying for takeaways but saying that you can't afford bus fare to get to the shops!?

Someone said earlier that they thought using salmon was a mistake. I thought the same thing when I saw that. Something tasty with frozen coley fillets would have been more of a challenge, or sardines, or mackerel. I think they are all cheaper.

Janty your classes sound great. Really practical. Good luck with the Ofsted visit.

[chickencam]

It really annoys me to see people who claim to be poor with posh TV's expensive cookers and smoking cigarettes that's why she is in debt not to mention all the money she spends on takeaways. We only eat about one takeaway a month because we can't afford it.

 

I think that there are access problems for some people on big housing estates for getting to supermarkets etc but is they used their money wisely there must be bus services etc.

 

I grew up in a very poor family in a tied cottage in the middle of nowhere but we always had fresh food on the table. I can remember my Mum struggling home up a steep hill for a mile from the nearest bus stop each week with her pull along trolley and 2p left in her purse. She taught me how to budget and live within my means.

 

People don't go without anything these day which is why they are depressed because nothing is a treat anymore, and they have no energy because they don't fuel their bodies properly.

 

End of rant

[redhotchick]

I think that there are access problems for some people on big housing estates for getting to supermarkets etc but if they used their money wisely there must be bus services etc.

I agree with this. Supermarkets are geared to car owners, but there are ways, buses, budgetting, menu planning, prioritising. I wonder if they have computers at home, or a library close by, and could therefore shop online?

[Guest]

The big Tesco near me is 'out of town' but runs a free bus service from the surrounding areas for all shoppers. I assume this is the same all over the country. We're not in a particularly needy area.