Done

Well all the cooking is done, we arrived on Friday afternoon, didn't need to make anything til Saturday morning, so we made some cake to test out the oven. Just as well we did coz the oven we used was a bit dodgy. In ten minutes the top was completely black and the rest was still cake mix. It had to be thrown out. We then had a bit of a panic that we were a pudding down, but worked out that we had enough ingredients to make a back up plan. After that we used the other oven that was not dodgy a fair bit, and used the not so good one on gas mark one for things like slow cooked roast pork. I have to say that before the weekend I thought there was no way we could actually cook for fifty people for three days. The husband would assure me that we could do it, that we had planned well enough and it was possible. I wasn't sure if my health would hold out well enough, but it did, just. We had planned rests in, and had a lovely lady called Sophie who helped us out. She was invaluable. We had planned all the food prep stuff, but had forgotten about things like washing up and laying tables. Without Sophie we wouldn't have managed it all. We got back Monday. Tuesday I collapsed a bit, kept falling asleep, didn't really manage to much at all. Today hasn't been too bad, so I'm hoping that by the weekend I am back to my norm ready for the next big adventure that starts on Monday. But more of that later.

experimental

Today I am doing some experimental cooking ready to feed some friends tomorrow. I do not normally experiment with food for friends, however these friends have volunteered to be my guinea pigs. Next weekend we are cooking for our church's youth weekend. If you are a praying type please pray for this, it will be a real test of my health. The weekend is the reason for the experimental cooking. We will be making some things that we have not made before. One of these is chocolate crunch, which I remember from school dinners but the husband has no recollection of so I don't know if it's just a Suffolk schools things. One of the other things is sponge cake. Now I have made sponge cake many many times before. This time, however, is different. This time we are making it with a packet mix. It is a catering packet mix to which you just add water and whisk. Making the experiment one made me feel a bit dirty. I have never made any kind of cake from a packet before. I was taught as a child how to make cakes from real ingredients, and that is the only way I have ever done it. I am used to taking time to make things, to craft them, to work on them, to put something of myself in them. It's what we used to call when I was younger 'made with love'. So to open a packet, add water and mix just felt wrong. It felt like a quick fix for something that should be created with care, that should have time spent on it. I'm the same with craft things, I like to create a card from scratch, not use card kits that are a bit like the card making version of painting by numbers. And it has led me to wonder, why when I like to spend time on things, making them the best I possibly can, do I look for quick fixes for the CFS. Why do I not accept that that is something that I need to spend time on, crafting a well doofas. I want the just add water and mix fix. The just add water and mix makes an ok cake, but it's nothing in comparison to the cake that has been crafted, had time spent it, the one that's made with love. Maybe I need to start making more of my health with love.