Friday 17 July 2020

One Week Eating Local(2) Part 3

My Mum was a Plain Cook. Meat and 2 veg was the norm but long before the age of the quiche she used to make a bacon and egg pie. I seem to remember the bacon was always a bit chewy - so she obviously didn't cook the bacon before making the pie and I'm sure there was never any onion in it.

I decided as a change from a quiche a bacon and egg pie was one thing I could make with the local produce - local flour from Essex, butter from a few miles down the road, bacon from about 10 miles away and eggs from 4 miles from home plus a tomato and onion from the garden. Loving the green beans.




One fruit growing here which I nearly forgot about were the Cherry-plums on a tree in the bottom corner boundary of the garden. These were all I could reach and the wasps had found a few but better than nothing.

Home made toast and local honey for breakfast and a BLT sandwich for lunch which I ate too quickly to take a photo - it's a rare treat.


Back Tomorrow
Sue



25 comments:

  1. My mum made bacon and egg pie too, as you described. A "proper" pie, plenty of pastry above and below! I think it was a wartime staple, to eke out a small amount of protein with belly-filling carbs. And as many people couldn't easily get onions, they weren't in the recipe. We'd have it hot with green veg one day, and cold the next. The "Courgette Family" round the corner have refilled their giveaway box. I'm debating making another cake...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember having it with baked beans.
      I wonder when quiches appeared in traditional British kitchens

      Delete
  2. I think we grew up in an era of meat, potatoes and two veg. I remember Mum buying her first pot of curry powder and a jar of mango chutney. We thought it was so foreign and exotic! I don't eat meat now, but your pie looks delicious.
    Hope you are over your upset tummy now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My Mum wouldn't try anything "foreign". Not even pasta. I can remember her being horrified that I'd used rice instead of potatoes

      Delete
  3. ooh yes, that's a good looking pie. I'd like a slice of that please! I'm assuming that's your own pastry there, would you share the recipe? I'm trying hard to improve my pastry making.

    Have a lovely weekend. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The children used to call it "cardboard pastry!" - but that was because I was usually doing 10 things at once and it was over cooked!
      It's just normal shortcrust half fat to flour + water

      Delete
  4. I still live with the meat and two veg, although it is usually one veg and potatoes, Pasta never, occasional rice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love pasta with a home made sauce - not out of a jar

      Delete
  5. There are some tiny plums which grow (wild?) on a few trees surround the car park at Hay-on-Wye castle. I pick them every year (but perhaps not this one . . .) and still have some at the bottom of the freezer for making Hay Plum Gin this year.

    Trying to remember if my mum made bacon and egg pie. Don't think so, but pretty sure her mum would have done - she was a very good cook but it skipped a generation in my mum!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've got loads of damsons that will be ready later. The wasps usually get them but I want to try damson jelly this year for the Christmas hampers.

      Delete
    2. I make damson gin when I can get the damsons. When I drain the gin from the damsons to bottle for hampers I make jam with them. It makes a lovely tasting jam that is very popular with my family and friends.

      Delete
  6. My Mum used to make bacon and egg pie too, very solid and satisfying, with a double crust as you describe. I found a similar recipe for it years later; think it might have been in Jane Grigson's English Food but I'm too tired to go downstairs and look.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't remember mum having a recipe book at all!

      Delete
  7. My Mum was famous for her bacon and egg pie - pasty bottom and lattice (or tomato slices) on top - she put green peas in hers. The family even mentioned those pies at her funeral!

    Isn't it interesting the diversity in our diets since our parents/grandparents' generations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A lattice top would certainly be less fattening.

      Delete
  8. You're doing very well with your challenge Sue. Like your Mum mine was a good, plain cook and quiche was not even heard of in her day - bacon and egg pie and it, like everything else she cooked, was good. But yes - meat, potatoes and two veg (dependant upon what was in the garden) was always the order of the day. And usually either bread or plum bread (currant bread) rising in the hearth in front of the fire oven.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mum's idea of fancy cooking was cutting some pastry leaves to put on an apple pie!

      Delete
  9. Well done on your challenge, it's so good when you can step into the garden and get fresh produce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Focusing on eating local is interesting to do

      Delete
  10. I'm still a big fan of 'meat and potatoes.' LOL

    I like my bacon extra crispy, so prefer it separately on the plate, not mixed in where it becomes less than crispy.

    ReplyDelete
  11. We had very plain food as you said, meat and two veg or corned beef and chips at end of the week. I remember making a quiche at school in 1962 but we didn't call it that. It was a bacon flan. It seemed very exotic. I hope your cherry plums were better than the ones I picked in my son's new garden. They looked fine but were very wormy so got thrown out for the birds.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good work. Cherry plums? That is something I have never heard of.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ooh, that pie looks good, I love things in pastry and a double crust is even better. My Mum's speciality was boiling vegetables to death and I don't remember many pies being produced unfortunately. Although she did make a lovely scrambled eggs and cheese on toast dish that I used to recreate when I ate eggs.

    ReplyDelete
  14. My mom was a plain cook too. And during the lock-down, I have gone back to simpler cooking as well. Just this week we finally enjoyed a home grown tomato instead of the grocery store kind - and it was just a simple spectacular joy. I'll be on the lookout for fresh greens now that you've mentioned them.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Am Laura Mildred by name, i was diagnosed with Herpes 4 years ago i lived in pain with the knowledge that i wasn't going to ever be well again i contacted so many herbal doctors on this issue and wasted a large sum of money but my condition never got better i was determined to get my life back so one day i saw Mr. Morrison Hansen post on how Dr. Emu saved him from Herpes with herbal medicine i contacted Dr. Emu on his Email: Emutemple@gmail.com we spoke on the issue i told him all that i went through and he told me not to worry that everything will be fine again so he prepared the medicine and send it to me and told me how to use it, after 14 days of usage I went to see the doctor for test,then the result was negative, am the happiest woman on earth now thanks to Dr. Emu God bless you. Email him at: Emutemple@gmail.com Whats-app or Call him: +2347012841542 

    ReplyDelete