I yearn for good old fashioned recipes!

Used to hurry home from our weekly shop at Bejams to watch the Galloping Gourmet.

By eating the likes of Charlie Bighams' ready meals, you can cut down on the amount of meat whilst still eating it almost daily. Good compromise.

My MIL once gave me her pretty new copies of Nigel Slater's Real Food (unbeknownst to her, Nigel was already my god by then) on the basis "the recipes are too difficult".

DH swears my jaw hung open. I accepted the gift with effusive thanks since the pages of my much loved copy were somewhat stained by then. (Yes, I like the book in arm's reach when cooking a recipe; no, the poor books do not fare well on such treatment)

Real Food and Real Fast Food tend to use a pretty minimal ingredient list and all of it to be readily available. Real Fast Food in particular is brilliant for this.

Merlot I loved the Galloping Gourmet! Didn't bother with his cooking but it was a good show.

Half of it is such poor quality anyway, you could sole your shoes with some of it. Apart from a good fillet steak !

Deborah Ross in the Times today said that she was given three copies of Ottolenghi's Simple cook book. She said that it was supposed to use only ingredients already in the larder. She really wonders if everyone's basic larder contains black garlic and swears that the only recipe book she would write is the resentful cookbook. She is very funny and I know I haven't conveyed this( just come out of hospital yesterday) but I do so agree with her. I remember Jamie Oliver's cook book with a few ingredients many of the recipes I like but never have the ingredients in. I still use Indsey Barehams One Pot Cooking as it cuts down on the washing up her regular column she uses seasonal for what's for dinner tonight.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46865204

Anybody going to cut down on red meat?

DH and I are in our early 70’s but still mainly like to eat the food we had when we married in 1968. I wasn’t a great cook then (may be some would say that hasn’t changed!) but I used the recipes my mum gave me. DH has always only ever wanted quite plain food and I have always cooked from scratch although we didn’t call it that in the 60’s, I bake and make as much as I can that we like to eat. For lunch DH has just finished the last portion of home made Christmas cake and a batch of marmalade is simmering on the cooker to be finished later. Our menu for this week has been
Sunday Beef casserole, mash and vegetables.
Monday Cheese omlette, chips, peas and sweetcorn.
Tuesday Cod fish fingers, potato bake and vegetables.
Wednesday Lamb casserole, mash, carrots, peas and broccoli.
Tonight will be either salmon or bacon and cheese pasty etc.
Neither of us eat between meals or snack but usually have just a very few pieces of chocolate each evening. We rarely eat out, DH has a glass of home brewed beer most evenings but neither of us are at all overweight and still quite active so think may be the ‘old fashioned’ way of eating is ok.

I have just dug out an old Delia Smith book Frugal Food. Some of the recipes in there are very tasty. I especially love the potato, carrot and leek pie.

I guess the Galloping Gourmet didn't do it for you then, Gonegirl?

Me neither. I was more of a Keith Floyd kind of gal.

I've never varied my meals to anything other than old-fashioned, the way my mum cooked and as long as there's a good gravy that's all that matters. Recipe books are wasted on me and I've got rid of them over the years.

I eat what my body is used to and anything different would probably alter the balance.
I'm not faddy nor would I refuse to try anything but I feel much happier with my " stick-in-the-mud " food.

paddyann I have tried to replicate my mother’s cheese pudding, without success. I know there were eggs, cheese, milk, breadcrumbs, and mustard. Any suggestions? I’m wondering if it’s just that the cheese ain’t what it used to be.

I'm inclined to agree with the OP. It all went tits up back in the seventies. Probably when foreign holidays really caught on. Magazine recipes just aint what they used to be.

Cant cope with all this new stuff, although it does taste good when someone else cooks it for me. And that's why I go for ready meals.

We tend to have at least 1 or 2 "traditional" meals each week, cottage pie, chicken pie, a roast, Quiche, sausage & Mash and a firm favourite home cooked ham, egg and chips.

We also try to have 1 "new recipe" each week as we have accumulated so many cookery books over the years.

Spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, chilli con carne, curry and stir-frys have become family favourites also.

We are so fortunate in the UK to have such a varied amount of ingredients from all over the world available to us and so many different restaurants.

Grannyknot, I agree. My daughter and her husband have been vegetarian for a couple of years and are now becoming vegan. Nothing against vegetarians, but I’m now finding it almost impossible to cook something that my husband and I, daughter and son-in-law and grand-children will eat when they come for lunch or dinner. They often bring their own food across now, and it defeats the purpose of the joy of cooking for my family.

My favourite cookbook is The dairy book of home cookery, first published in 1968, my edition is from the early nineties. Falling to bits now, but I’d never throw it out. Great recipes with simple store cupboard ingredients

I agree about chillies. I absolutely hate the taste of chillies and so many recipes include them.

Surely we should know all these old fashioned hearty recipes off by heart by now?

DH would be happy never to see a meal containing any of the ingredients in the OP but life's tough....I'm the cook!

Quorn Shepherd's Pie tonight with celeriac mash.

annsixty I agree that chillies seem to be in almost everything when I go out to eat , whether in the local pub or in a restaurant everything is spiced up. I can't eat anything spicy for health reasons, and it's annoying that out of a whole menu in some places there might just be 2 dishes that have no spice in them, fish & chips or ham and chips, it's very frustrating !!

the secret with scones is to keep the dough soft and dont handle it too much.Just mix flatten to required height cut straight down with no twisting and bake at a high heat for a few minutes.
I love cooking its been my main hobby all my life ,I love to try new things but sometimes I go retro and give the family things like cheese pudding ,or steak diane .My GD and I made a lovel Black Forest Gateau on Sunday ,she likes to make things she hasn't seen before .

I expect Woolton Pie will be in here somewhere

OP if you google ‘simple recipe for meat pie’ or whatever it is you fancy, I’m sure plenty of things will come up.

Personally I’m glad we have so many dietary choices today. I can remember the boring old days of the 50’s only too well.

And far be it from me to utter the B-word on here

I also put yoghurt in scones but it doesn’t make them lighter and fluffier - I would like someone to tell me what I am doing wrong! There is a cafe on our local canal that does heavenly scones. They are worth the long walk up the towpath.
I am getting fed up of going out to eat and getting “fiddly” food that costs the earth. There is only one pub we go to now that hasn’t turned itself into a “gastro” pub. People come from miles to eat their steak pie, and other hearty goodies.
Oldgoat if you listen to the pundits, we might all be eating Woolton pie before long!

Teetime totally agree about the yogurt.

Yes, I hate chillies. I just leave them out of any recipe that includes them.

I find that chillies are in everything and they are the only thing I have an allergy to.
My lips swell to twice their size, no it is not an attractive look as some "celebs" seem to think.