Our darling Ronnie, who has been with The Fellowship for years now, observed to me yesterday (In the comments lounge where all the best conversations of my day happen except the ones with Sheila of course) that my blog had changed over the course of time. I used to do more food. I had not realised it but I suppose there are less recipes. In fact lately there have been none at all. How did that happen? This change. What an excellent observation. My original premise was to grow food and then cook with it. Showing how easy it is to feed oneself.
Interestingly the personalities of the animals, who are players in this gathering of food, have begun to speak louder in the pages.
I thought about this yesterday as I struggled through yet ANOTHER attempt at making Custard Squares (slight failure but getting closer) and by the time I got to making the meringues with the left over egg whites, I had worked out why.
I make the SAME stuff over and over again. My day by day meals are really pretty repetitive. And I have already documented all those recipes. When I get busy I fall back on tried and true foods. Like lasagne, or steak and onion pie, or roast chickens, roast pork. I roast a lot. Meatloaf or spaghetti. With piles and piles of whatever vegetables I am picking (either from the garden or the freezer or the shelf). Or I just make stuff up as I go along and sometimes it is edible. (I went through a stage of burning and over cooking food but I recovered). Sometimes I don’t bake anything for weeks (frankly these are good weeks for my health) other times the house is cold (like yesterday) and I cook for an excuse to turn the oven on to warm up the kitchen.
I am an exceedingly deliciously dull repetitive cook. And like many cooks who create food from whatever is to hand I love my own food. And like many cooks who grow the food they eat we eat the same food over and over again. Over the blogging years I have also consumed recipes from other cooks of good food. Making them a part of my weekly repertoire. For example I could cook Misky’s roast potatoes every day. Or Chicago John’s pasta. All summer we had panfried kale with butter and pumpkin seeds and garlic. Almost every day actually.
Now isn’t that interesting. thekitchensgarden has evolved, and you with it. However it is sometimes a good idea to look back and make sure we are still on the right track. I hope this winter I will challenge myself a little more. And try some of your favourite recipes.
It is the day for giving thanks. I am thankful that I can cook and that I can fail. And that I can learn. And that we are all open to the change that is essential to life. And I am thankful for blog friends like Ronnie who can sit down with the blog and her cup of tea and say “Look at that. You have changed. Hmm. I like it. ”
For the custard squares I made a regular egg yolk custard fortified with 1/4 cup of cornflour (cornstarch), sandwiched between two cooked pastry sheets. Then into the fridge to set. Next time I will make twice as much custard and half as much pastry, work out the thin icing that you dribble on the top and I will not step away from stirring the hot custard to take a photo of a cat.
And when I get it right I will write the recipe for you. I am trying the cake again today, the moist one. As a contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner. So I am hoping to share that recipe with you tomorrow.
I love the Comments Lounge.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Your friend on the farm,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
65 responses to “Custard Squares – Thank-Fully”
I am drooling over those custard squares! They look sooo good, I may have to try to make some.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving C!
Have a beautiful and happy day.
🙂 Mandy xo
If I could still eat pastry, I too would be drooling… I love my own cooking as well. I ‘cook the fridge’, making meals from whatever’s in there, growing in the garden, etc. I’m extremely fortunate that the Husband likes this way of eating too. One of my jobs is to supply gluten free baked goods to a local takeaway shop and a local coffee shop, so I’m ‘forced’ to bake, and experiment to develop new recipes. Good job I adore cake, eh? I agree, more recipes please, Miss C.
Most adorable little creamsicle kittens! Custard would be a great name for one! The custard squares are going on my must try list. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Happy Thanksging to you, the fellowship and the family of animals. I love that we have this day to say thank you!
Happy Thanksgiving! It is s very interesting thing to ponder, the way we slowly take new directions and sometimes fail to notice. Nice to see some kitchen action again – I hadn’t realised I was missing it until I read this post!
I think blogging is about evolution anyway. By being present in these spaces we are opening ourselves and others to our world and our worlds all change…every day. You are correct, the animals on the farmy have taken on a massive presence in this world of thekitchensgarden, but without them and their contributions we may not have come to this point either…t-shirts, calendars, life/death, emotion, books and fellowship. No matter what I find at this site when I open my computer each morning I am grateful simply that this blog is present 🙂
Have a wonderful day
The world is flooded with recipes and chefs. Like you, I’m happy to use favourite dishes using favourite (home grown hopefully) ingredients. Occasionally I fancy something new and the internet is a great place to find it but generally, I find the whole thing overwhelming. Sorry, the soap box is out now, but I particularly HATE how chefs these days handle cooked food to make it look pretty on the plate. Disgusting. And slate ‘plates’. We’re not in the stone age. All finished now!
Christine
Custard Square and Meringue. Perfect names for those cinnamon-colored kittens.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and all on the Farmy! I love the way we’ve all changed and I think most of us mostly cook tried and tested and favourite recipes. I know I now put less recipes on my blog than before. Please don’t stop pausing to take photos of cats 😉
Happy Thanksgiving to all. Laura
Happy Thanksgiving to you Celi, to the whole family and all our farmy fellowship who are celebrating it today. Hope you have a wonderful day with loads of good food and yummy leftovers for days after so you don’t have to cook. Hope you next cake turns out deliciously perfect Celi, even if you take photos of the cat…which is totally necessary…and later, in the evening, when you’ve eaten so much that everyone has to unbutton the top button on their slacks and roll off the table onto the sofa, I hope you have peace and sleep well. Big hugs. xx
I love your recipes and have incorporated a lot of them into my repertoire! I especially love your Custard and Apple tarts, one I make as soon as the apples are ready in the local orchard. I love ‘simple’ these days, as I used to cook a lot of complicated stuff when I was married. Tried to cook recipes from all over the world, but now use only ingredients that are local, and being in the ‘south’ not a lot of exotic stuff around LOL.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with the friends and family and I hope you get a chance to put those feet up with a nice glass of something!
When I was a young child we had manchester tart for pudding at primary school and you mentioning custard tart reminded me how much I liked this pudding. I have searched fora recipe and found this in case you wanted to tr it one day, I am in England so the quantities are from the UK, hope one dy you findtime to try it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/manchestertart_91315
Lorraine
Excellent cats, happy Thanksgiving and absolutely delicious looking custard squares!