Shirley Goode

I was saddened to learn of the death of Shirley Goode this month. The following was posted on her blog by a family member:

Sadly, after a long illness Shirley passed away peacefully on 6 November. The funeral will be next week.

The blog will remain open to comments until the end of the month after which it will be closed to new comments. It will remain online for the foreseeable future as a reference. The family wish to thank everyone who has posted their kind comments on her blog to date.

 

 

I first came across Shirley Goode back in the eighties.  She wrote articles in Family Circle magazine and was on Pebble Mill at One on BBC1.  I also saved up for weeks to have enough money to buy her first book "More for your Money" which she wrote with Erica Griffiths.  Shirley taught me a lot about stretching the budget and feeding my family well on very little money.  Apart from the "Pauper's Cookbook" by Jocasta Innes, there was not not much around to teach a novice like me. I was delighted when she wrote several other books on the same theme and then I found her blog a couple of years ago.

 

I owe a debt of gratitude to Shirley for all I learned from her and am sorry to hear of her passing.

 

ps I've just spotted that "More for your Money" is almost £45 on Amazon at the moment.  Should you happen to find a copy in a charity shop, you'll find it a good read.

Goodies

I've been given some goodies in the last week. Isn't it nice when people share their gluts of food : )

1. A marrow.  Actually just saying "a marrow" does not do this monster justice. It weighs in at nearly 35 lbs! A friend at the allotments won a prize at the local show with this one but it is so big that he didn't want it so he gave it to me for the hens.  It is in really good condition so I won't cut it yet but when I do then everybody I know will be getting a piece. And the hens will get a bit too.

2. A small green pumpkin.

3. A frilly edged green squash.  I've no idea what kind it is but it is really pretty looking.

4. A spaghetti marrow.  I'm not sure how to cook this one but I'll do my research - the wonders of google.

5. A Chinese marrow.  I've not come across these before so I don't (yet) know what is different about it.  It is a pretty speckled green so it wins on looks but it is the taste that counts.

6. Two overgrown courgettes that were still just small enough to be able to be cooked without removing the seeds. We've eaten these now.

7. Two small orange marrows.

8. A box with about 20 lbs of green tomatoes. I love fried green tomatoes. I gave almost half the box to my friend down the road because her homegrown tomatoes all went brown.  She was very pleased. My son and daughters have all called in and gone home with a little bag of tomatoes too.  They have a wonderful flavour - so much better than the ones from Lidl. I've been eating tomatoes with almost every meal since they turned red very quickly - and enjoying them .

I've also had a medium size pumpkin free courtesy of Topcashback. I think our winter menu is going to have a lot of pumpkin and marrow in it : )

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