novel34

  Now and then in the wintertime when all is grey and filled with drizzle, in between storm and gale,  God sends a golden day, a day filled with skies of blue and warm sunlight, almost too lovely to be real.   You want to hang onto the sunshine in hope, but . . . before too long the rain and drizzle return . . . sigh . . . such is winter on these verdant green isles . . . There is nothing for it but to hunker down and keep warm by the fire.  Hearty casseroles, soups and stews are the order of the day.   Sustaining comfort foods . . . just like this sausage and mushroom casserole I am showing you today. It's a simple casserole, using simple things.  Most of my recipes are . . . I am a simple woman with simple tastes and I live with a man of the same ilk.  He would be happy with meat and potatoes every day of the week, every day of the year.   He is very easy to please . . . which is not an entirely bad thing I don't think. You want t...

  The Toddster grew up during the War years.  He was born just before the beginning of WW2, and was only 7 years old when it finished.  His mom was a very traditional cook, and of course there was rationing for all of his growing up years.  He has very fond memories however of the dishes his mother made.  He especially loved her meat puddings. When I talk about a meat pudding here I am not talking about a sweet pudding, but a very delicious steamed savoury pudding, stogged full of meat and gravy.  Some might think it a bit stodgy . . . but then again dishes which were popular during those years were designed to fill em up with less meat and more stodge. Todd was longing for a meat pudding and so I did a search online to see if I could find a good one.  I found a fabulous one on BBC GoodFood .  It was called Beef, Ale and Parsnip Pudding and it looked fabulous! Since it was my first time making a meat pudding, I followed the recipe exactly this fir...