They said it really loud, they said it on the air

We were on the radio today.

If you have the urge to listen to me blabber about good scoffs, it is here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d777 available for this week.

Luckily, I'd forgotten about it until I woke up this morning or I would have been worrying about it all weekend.

Breakfast

Welsh Rarebit, Spaghetti on Toast

From the Teas list

I'd never really considered that my Grandparents were chowing down on tinned spaghetti when they were younger than I am but there you go.  I'd also never made Welsh Rarebit before so that's another dish to add to my repertoire.

Here we have used an age old technique known as "mushing it all up and spreading it on toast."

Then we realised that there was an opportunity here that we didn't want to miss, so we set up the microscope and filmed a nice timelapse of all the cheese melting.

 

Now what would be nice here would be if I had the video from it, but that's Jez's department and I've no idea what happened to it, sorry! Rest assured it was extremely interesting.

 

Done! This tasted damned fine and was really easy and quick.

Alice x

 

What it's all about

It's all about my Grandad, Daniel Ernest Baker. 25th December 1917 - 21st December 2010

Also known as Bib, Danny, Dad, or Grandad, he passed away a few days before his 93rd birthday which would have been on Christmas Day, 2010.

(Grandad on the left)

He took part in the Invasion of Sicily and he was also part of the airborne landing at the battle of Arnhem in Holland, during which he was wounded by shrapnel and taken prisoner. He spent seven months in captivity in German Prisoner of War camps. He endured a 400-mile march as a prisoner, from Poland and through Germany,  before being finally liberated by the Americans in Frankfurt in 1945.

(Grandad on the left)

While on the march, he had a notebook with him where he kept a number of lists. The lists documented the places they slept, how far they'd walked and the provisions they'd been given. Most of the lists, though, are of food he would have liked to have been eating. Or, "Good scoffs which I intend to appreciate in the near future." Knowing how hungry they must have been while he wrote these lists gives a poignance to cooking them. Especially so as they aren't all the sorts of things people these days would fantasise about. (Although I can't say I'm against eating lots of fried food, all for a good cause, of course).

While sorting through his bits and pieces, my Aunt, Jill, discovered the notebook and showed it to me. I showed it to Jez and we decided we would try cooking some of the things on the list as a kind of tribute to my Grandad. Originally intended as a project for 2011, we've decided to keep going as we are enjoying it so much.

 (on holiday in Blackpool with my Nana, Helena, and their three daughters Janet, Carol and Jill)

Alice x

The first pudding we made from my Grandad's list

This one was from the list of 'Tit-Bit Recipes'

 

Messy messy

Choppy choppy (other blackcurrant squashes are available)

Melty melty

ready to bake

 

 Unfortunately we appear to have forgotten to take a photo of the final product, we may have just smooshed our faces into it and gobbled it up.

 

 Yum. Or as Grandad would have it "mix with chocolate solution instead of milk"