Aga in action

Following our relocation over the summer, my kitchen on a daily basis now resembles a Merry Berry style hammer-house-of-horrors. The reason is a 40 year old white double fronted battle-axe of an AGA. She is the new centre of our lives, the constant, the ‘Nanny McFee’ of cookers. 

Once again, like previous moves I am job-less, but as the money dries up I cook like a mad-women. Charred onion bhaji’s that went forgotten lie in state along side boiling carcusses whilst I experiment with timings and shelves on Victoria sponge-cakes; my once signature (Vicarage) cake now defying me silently in the ‘baking oven’. 

Oddly, there is no frustration with this new learning curve because having moved from the pressure and non-stop environment of London I have been given back the gift of time. This will surely change to some degree once I get a job again but in the mean time, I’m channelling all my inner Kirstie/Mary/Nigella to try and make sense of it all. The children enjoy the ‘experiments’ and we are all learning to laugh at the ones that don’t quite turn out as I had hoped. 

Mercifully for the new neighbours, their Christmas present is home made Chutney - a proven family ‘no-cook’ recipe!