Hello retro food lovers and welcome to October 2003 where today I am using Delicious magazine to create a white menu. White food has the double reputation of being 1) boring and 2) overly processed so my aim with this menu was to try to combat both of those. But first, let’s take a look at what was happening in pop-culture in October 2003.
School of Rock was #1 at the box office and The Five People You Meet In Heaven was the best-selling book. Number 1 on the pop charts was Where Is The Love by The Black Eyed Peas. Two weeks earlier it was White Flag by Dido which would have fit in perfectly with this menu! Let’s hope I won’t have to wave a white flag with my menu!
Now I also realise that this view of my cheesecake is not white, however it just looked so good, I couldn’t resist sharing it!
The Menu – October 2003
I found this menu template on Etsy. Isn’t it gorgeous? We’ll be seeing it a lot more from now on!
Mozzarella and Grilled Chilli Salad
This was AMAZING! So tasty and the perfect way to kick off a meal! I loved the simplicity/minimalism of this Jamie Oliver recipe. It also not only looked beautiful on the plate but tasted divine! Another recipe from this same article, a squid and cannellini bean salad nearly made the cut for the main dish in the menu and is something I am still very keen to try!
Mozzarella and Grilled Chilli Salad Recipe
Fish Stew With Lemongrass and Lime
This is an Ainsley Harriott recipe and was also divine! It was light and refreshing and, as he says in his intro, very different from the usual tomato-based fish stews. Like the mozzarella starter, this would be a perfect summer meal.
Lemongrass and Lime Fish Stew Recipe
Low Fat Cheesecake
I felt bad that I could not deliver a cheesecake for the Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jelly Bean, Boom! menu. Because I LOVE cheesecake! So I was delighted to find one in this issue of Delicious. And this was a beauty too. It’s a pretty classic baked cheesecake. Even though it is low fat, it feels rich, The rest of this menu is light though so this seemingly decadent dessert won’t weigh you down too much!
Low Fat Cheesecake Recipe
My Nigella Moment – Beef with Lavender Mustard
For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!
OMG, this beef just melted in my mouth! And if you’re thinking you don’t have any Lavender Mustard, come back next week. I’ll have a little treat for you. I added a spoonful of honey to my Lavender Mustard to give the required sweetness to this. Also, I misread the ingredients and I bought a rump roast and not rump steak for my version. I seared the meat as per the recipe and then roasted it until it reached 72C / 165F on my meat thermometer.
Well, Delicious Magazine from October 2003 really came through with a delicious white-themed menu for me! Certainly no Didoesque white flag moments for me!
Hello retro food lovers! Today we are taking a step back into one of my favourite vintage cookbooks, Salads for All Seasons by Rosemary Mayne Wilson. I last cooked from this book way back in 2014. I chose a Sunday Night Ham Slaw Supper as I will be posting this on a Sunday. Also, because I love the word supper. It seems much cozier than the word dinner.
The Sunday night ham slaw is such a good idea! You know that feeling after a big Sunday roast when you feel you might never need to eat again? Except a good few hours later you start to think that maybe a little something-something might be nice? Well this is that something. A little salad, some cold meat, a bread roll and butter. Enough to stave off the pangs, not enough to fill you up too much.
I used ham as my meat of choice but this would be equally nice with leftover roast chicken or beef. It would also be perfect with leftover grilled salmon, or for the vegetarians amongst us, some slices of avocado or as a filling for a baked potato. I also did not mix my ham into the slaw as per the recipe but had it on the side. I thought the ham mixed in with the slaw might not look great. It tasted great though and, with the bread on the plate was just crying out to be made into a sandwich!
Sunday Night Ham Slaw Supper – The Recipe
This is a quick, easy and very tasty meal and a nice way to round off the weekend!
Hello crime readers and food lovers. In what is starting to become a bit of a trend, today’s post is dedicated to one of the main characters in Five Little Pigs, Caroline Crale. To many fans, Five Little Pigs is the nec plus ultra of the Christie novels. And it is an absolute cracker! We never actually meet Caroline as she is sixteen years dead when the story begins. But…what a character. I absolutely loved her. Her dignity, grace, loyalty, and fiery temperament made her a wonderful compelling and intriguing character.
I also feel that all egg recipes are a little wink to Poirot and his egg-shaped head!
I found the recipe for Oeufs Caroline in the French children’s cookbook called La Cuisine Est Un Jeu D’Enfants by Michel Oliver (1963). It is a very cute book and I will definitely cook more from it but the timing on this recipe was completely wrong. You have no idea how many times I ate Oeufs Caroline for lunch this week trying to get it right!
Five Little Pigs – The Plot
The accepted version of certain facts is not necessarily the true one.”
Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs
A young woman called Carla Lemarchant approaches Hercule Poirot with a very unusual case. Sixteen years ago, her mother, Caroline Crale was found guilty of poisoning her father Amyas Crale. However, before she died in prison, Caroline sent a letter to her daughter professing her innocence. Carla wants Poirot to find out the truth. Did her mother kill her father? Poirot focuses his investigation on the five people, apart from Carla and Caroline who were present on the day Amyas died. For if Caroline is not guilty, then one of them is…
We have:
Philip Blake
A stockbroker (went to market, geddit?) was one of Amyas’ closest friends. On the day of Amyas’ death, he overhears an argument between Caroline and Amyas where Caroline threatens to kill him. Philip is apparently no fan of Caroline and puts the murder down to “crude female jealousy. However, does he have a secret desire to see Amyas dead?
Meredith Blake
Philip’s brother. Unlike his brother who is a successful broker, Meredith stayed home and dabbled in herbalism and other country pursuits. It is some coniine from his laboratory that killed Amyas. Unlike his brother, Meredith admits a fondness for and a loyalty to Caroline. He argues with Amyas saying that the situation with Elsa was an “”unendurable insult” and not fair to either woman. Might seeing the woman he cares for being mistreated have given him a motive for murder?
Elsa Greer (now Lady Dittisham)
The little piggy who had roast beef. She was a rich, spoiled beautiful, young woman in love with Amyas. It is her deliberate provocation of Caroline on the day of the murder that many people see as being the catalyst for later, lethal events. Poirot…”saw her beautiful and rich, seductive to men, seeking with greedy predatory hands to fill up a life that was empty”. She is still vitriolic about Caroline and says she would have preferred to see her hanged.
Cecilia Williams
Angela Warren’s former governess. She is a shrewd, fiercely loyal woman, living “close to the bone”. She epitomises the one who has none. She believes that Amyas got what was coming to him, her sympathies are entirely with Caroline. But she also has proof, never previously disclosed that Caroline murdered Amyas
Angela Warren
Caroline’s half-sister. Caroline is overly protective of Angela after disfiguring her face in a fit of pique as a much younger woman. Angela is spoiled and enjoys playing tricks on Amyas. He wants to send her away to school. She doesn’t want to go and this is causing some additional friction between Amyas and Caroline (as if there wasn’t enough already -the two are already, to quote Bonnie Tyler, “Living in a powderkeg and giving off sparks!).
Amyas Crale
And finally, let’s talk about Amyas. In my first few drafts of this, I didn’t include a description of him because I felt we all know this character. That is not to say that he is badly drawn but because many of us have met this person in real life. He is an Artist and everything and everyone around him comes second to his art…back in my uni days, I would have found him irresistible. Now, the sheer arrogance and gall of this man would make me want to stab him in the neck.
Amyas was…a ruthless egoist. He loved Caroline but he never once considered her in any way. He did as he pleased…he was as fond of her as he could be of anybody – but she came a long way behind his art
Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs
🤮
Well, just like Shaggy, it wasn’t me but it was someone. And it will take all of Poirot’s little grey cells to figure this one out!
Five Little Pigs – The Covers
There’s nothing too crazy in the covers, lots of references to Amyas being an artist, and a few to the poisoned beer. My favourites are the second row, second left for its pulp fiction feel and amazing font. And I also really like third row first on the left with the artist and his brushes.
The Recipe – Ouefs Caroline
I have included here both the OG recipe from Cuisine Est Un Jeu D’Enfants and my updated version.
1 slice of bread (I used a potato and rosemary bread)
1 tbsp Creme Fraiche
Chives or other herbs to garnish
Butter, Salt Pepper
Instructions
Cut the top off the tomato and scoop out the insides with a spoon.
Sprinkle the inside of the tomato with salt and turn upside down. This will help to drain a lot of the tomato juice. Otherwise, your eggs will be very watery. Leave for 1/2 -1 hour.
Heat your oven to 180C.
Crack the egg and separate. I found it easier to put the yolk into the tomato first and then top up with the white. Don’t overfill. You need some room to add the creme fraiche.
Butter your bread and place the tomato on top of it.
Place your egg-filled tomato and bread into the oven and cook for approximately 15 minutes for a soft egg and 25 minutes for a harder egg. Check this as cooking time will depend on the size of your tomato.
After 15-25 minutes add the creme fraiche to the egg, turn off the oven and turn on the grill. Grill for an additional 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and garnish with herbs, salt and pepper.
Notes
I wanted to keep mine vegetarian but you could add a rasher or two of bacon when you place the tomatoes under the grill.
And Caroline Crale? Each person had seen her differently. Montague Depleach had despised her as a defeatist-a quitter. To young Fogg she had represented Romance. Edmunds saw her simply as a ‘lady’. Mr Jonathan had called her a stormy, turbulent creature. How would he, Hercule Poirot, have seen her? On the answer to that question depended, he felt, the success of his quest. So far, not one of the people he had seen had doubted that whatever else she was, Caroline Crale was also a murderess.”
Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs
Links To The Christieverse
Poirot brings a letter of introduction from Lady Mary Lytton-Gore with him when he meets Meredith Blake.
Greetings Friends and welcome to October. I am celebrating the start of the spookiest month of the year with some Spaghetti Diable. The recipe for our Devil’s Spaghetti comes from The Australian Hostess Cookbook. This book, which is fast becoming one of my favourites, also gave us the Ginger Tingle a while back.
The Life of The Grazier’s Wife
Both of these come from the menu of the same Australian Hostess in a chapter called A Grazier’s Wife Entertains. For those not familiar with the term grazier it refers to a person who has farms sheep or cattle. But maybe I’ll let the grazier’s wife tell us a little bit more about her life.
When planning my menu I consider the conditions out here is in the Austalian Bush. Our nearest town is 56 miles away and the mail lorry, with my ingredients aboard, has to spend a whole night on the dusty dirt road before it finally arrives at our door early the next morning. Fruit and vegetables travel 300 miles in a goods train before they reach the mail lorry
It astounds me how anyone survived under those conditions let alone was able to be sufficiently organised to throw dinner parties! And not just any dinner parties either. Here is the grazier’s wife describing the ambiance of her dinner party.
When dinner is ready I light the candles and limit the lights in the dining room to a corner lamp. The stereo set continues playing soft mood music all evening. My large dining table will be set with a plain lilac linen tablecloth and moss green linen table napkins. The main decoration will be a small bowl of lilac sweet peas with deeper mauve candles inserted into the centre of the float bowl. On each woman’s napkin there will be a freshly picked pink rosebud tied with a narrow lilac velvet bow”
How delightful does all of that sound!!!! Who doesn’t now want to get an invitation to dinner at the grazier’s wife’s house?
My own table settings for the Spaghetti Diable were not nearly so fancy.
Spaghetti and Chicken?
As I was making the Spaghetti Diable I realised that I had never eaten chicken and spaghetti together before. Growing up, we had Spaghetti Bolognese and Lasagne (both Beef), Carbonara (Bacon), Marinara (Various Seafood), and Canneloni which was spinach and ricotta. There was some sort of Tuna Pasta Casserole which is best not spoken about but we NEVER had chicken with pasta. And even as an adult, they are two things I would not even think of combining. It even felt weird to be making it. I realise this says more about me than about the combination of chicken and spaghetti which I’m sure is very normal.
Is The Devil In The Details? Spaghetti Diable – The Recipe
Is hard to see why this is called Spaghetti Diable. Diable or Devil in a dish usually indicates the presence of chilli. And quite a lot of it. Even allowing for the delicate palates of countrified Australians in 1969, a mere dash of cayenne powder seems a little tame!
Also, I used fresh mushrooms which I sliced and sauteed with the onion and garlic. I however have the luxury of being able to pop into the local green grocer or supermarket for fresh mushrooms whenever I please without having to wait for them to come over 300 miles on a goods train and then overnight on a mail lorry!
I also added some parsley as a garnish.
Tell me, are there food combinations that you think are strange but other people think are normal? Or combos that you think are normal but other people find weird?
“That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane”…so begins the fabulous REM song, “It’s The End of The World As We Know It”. And for me, this year actually began with a 7.6 magnitude earthquake when we were holidaying in Darwin. Last month we celebrated my birthday in absolute chaos (more on that later) whilst on holiday in Port Douglas. And when I say chaos, I mean a total f*cking nightmare. So when the random number generator chose “Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jelly Bean, Boom! I thought it might be a good chance to reset and have a little party to make up for the day that was ruined! The vehicle of choice for this month is Super Food Ideas, from September 2003 and I went in search of party food.
But first, let’s take a little wander down the memory lane to the heady days of September 2003. R Kelly’s Ignition (Remix) was #1. Less said about that the better I think. Finding Nemo was top of the box office and The Da Vinci Code was still the most popular book!
The Menu – September 2003
Margarita
Now, I can’t think of a much better way to kick of any birthday celebration than with a classic Margarita! And this one was perfection!!!!! I
The cocktail napkin you see in the above photo was one of a set of napkins I bought in Port Douglas. They are all super cute and also an inspiration to make the rest of the cocktails featured on them!
And as with the margarita, the first four days of our holiday were wonderful. Port Douglas is such an amazing place. Rainforest, reef and beach – great restaurants, perfect weather….the only downside is the crocodiles…and the murder birds!
Margarita Recipe
Seafood Pizza
As you may have noticed, I love my seafood! This nicely leads me to where our holiday turned paradise into a nightmare. Day 5 of our holiday, which was my actual birthday we had planned to move from our PD central apartment to a house around 10km out of Port Douglas. It was also the night of The Matildas v England final of the Women’s World Cup. We had been out for a lovely dinner the night before so the plan for my birthday was to grab a seafood platter from Port Douglas when we left and then enjoy the evening in our house. Dip in our private pool, , bit of football on the telly, champagne on ice, and our gourmet seafood platter…could life get any better?
Better? No. What we hadn’t figured was that it was about to get a whole lot worse!
We turned up at the house, for which we had a confirmed booking from one of the largest, if not the largest booking agencies in the world. The Fussiest Eater sends a text to the owner asking for the keypad number as the gate is locked. We are there for about 5 minutes when a woman comes out of the house. “Can I help you?” she asks. “Oh, yes, you probably just got our text. We’re here for our holiday”
Apparently we weren’t.
In the time that we had made our booking and our actual holiday, the house had been sold. It was no longer holiday accommodation.
It was now 3:00pm on a Saturday, we had no place to stay for the next four nights and we had a rapidly warming seafood platter on the back seat of the hire car.
Seafood Pizza Recipe
Party Pies
You know this is an Aussie Meat Pie because the secret ingredient is a spoonful of Vegemite! I made mini versions of this pie – in Australian we call these Party Pies so they were perfect for my Birthday Party Menu!
Now back to Port Douglas. The Fussiest Eater began calling the owner of the house. He confirmed that he had sold the house and had told the booking agency to cancel all future bookings. I started trying to find us accommodation. The first place I found wanted $15,000 for the four nights. The second $6000. Finally, we were able to find a studio room back in Port Douglas for the four nights for a price that we could actually afford. And that had a fridge in which we could put the seafood platter! From there we called the booking agency who offered to not only refund the cost of the house but also to pay for the emergency accommodation.
The following day we were also able to move into a one-bedroom apartment in the same complex which was a lot better than the studio but still how we had wanted to spend the last few days of our holiday.
As of today though, the booking company have yet to refund us the money for the second Port Douglas Apartment. We are idiots who did not get their OG offer in writing and they are now saying that as the second apartment was cheaper than the housetechnically we are not out of pocket.
Technically they ruined my birthday and did not deliver on the holiday we paid for and expected.
TechnicallyI could have chosen the house that cost $15000 instead of that studio apartment as our alternative accommodation and technically they would have had to refund us the difference.
I didn’t want to be an arsehole.
I’ll leave that up to them.
Meat Pie Recipe
Chewy Almond Crescents
We now turn to the sweet part of our birthday party menu. These were great! Really tasty and not overly sweet. You couldn’t really taste the apricot jam which was a shame. When I make these again, I will maybe add some chopped-up dried apricots into the mix. Or maybe add a glaze with the jam. They were delicious regardless. These would be great with a cup of tea or coffee or equally with a little glass of Baileys! This was probably my favourite thing on the menu. I also loved the butterfly cakes but they were similar to cakes I had made before. These were all new and I was so happy to discover them!
Accomodation saga continued….As of today though, the booking company have yet to refund us the money for the second Port Douglas Apartment. We are idiots who did not get their OG offer in writing and they are now saying that as the second apartment was cheaper than the housetechnically we are not out of pocket.
Technically they ruined my birthday and did not deliver on the holiday we paid for and expected.
TechnicallyI could have chosen the house that cost $15000 instead of that studio apartment as our alternative accommodation and technically they would have had to refund us the difference.
I didn’t want to be an arsehole.
I’ll leave that up to them.
Chewy Almond Crescents Recipe
Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes
These were so pretty and also delish. I loved the tanginess of the lemon curd with the sweetness of the cupcake!
The one-bedroom apartment was great. However, on the first night, I was woken at around 2 a.m. by the sound of what sounded like a woman screaming. Channelling my inner Nancy Drew, I got out of bed and looked out the window but the side street the room looked out on was deserted. I was just getting back into bed when I heard it again. This time I went to the main room to look out of the front windows but the main street which we overlooked was also quiet. I went back to bed. I heard the same noise once again at around 5 a.m. This time I wondered if maybe someone in the neighbouring rooms was having an argument as again there was no movement on either street.
There was no mention of any attack on the news the following day so I went about my business. As we were walking back to the apartment from dinner I heard the same noise. This time though I was able to see that it was coming from a bird that we had just walked past. A quick Google Search identified these murder birds as Bush Stone Curlews. Thankfully no Nancy Drewing needed for me on the second night. Or thereafter.
Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes Recipe
My Nigella Moment – Passionfruit Glazed Shortbread
For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!
I love shortbread and passionfruit so these were high on my list of things to make. They would have also fit in nicely with my birthday party theme but I ran out of time and had to choose between the Almond Crescents and these. In the end, I have eaten Passionfruit Shortbreads before whilst the Almond Crescents were something new to me so I chose them. These though? High on my list of things to make! And believe me, when I do…I will definitely be popping back to the biscuit tin, Nigella Style, for just one more!
Super Food Ideas really came through for my birthday-themed menu! As did Port Douglas for my birthday holiday. Despite the…ahem…hiccup with the accomodation, PD remains one of my favourite holiday destinations!!!!
