The Cottage Smallholder

As promised, a piccie of today's brunch.

Triple tragedy struck, sadly:

1. I forgot to buy mushrooms
2. It was only when I went to put on the brown toast that I realised it had gone mouldy
3. I started to read the sports pages too soon, which meant that the bacon and sausages cooked for too long

I must do better tomorrow

I must do better tomorrow

I must do better tomorrow

I must do better tomorrow . . .

Had to do some shopping just now in Tesco and Waitrose. Tesco bakery bread is much nicer than our Waitrose version but the booze is far cheaper in Waitrose. My eye fell upon cut price red labels in W for a pack of bacon at 1.19 and right beside it a hefty pound or so of Ian Rankin pork sausages reduced to 0.95. Into the freezer for next weekend. Happy days

Also got some flat mushrooms for Sunday brunch. No mistakes this time!

Kate - we do share at least one thing in common. I saw from your "food I dislike" comment that desiccated coconut is top of your list. Same here. I am physically unable to swallow it. It's all probably in the mind but I too cannot eat Bounty bars and such coconut infested thrash. Neither do I like the goat but I can take it at a push.

Toffeeapple, I think one ought to indulge in a good old-fashioned fry-up at least once a week. Sausages are a recent addition to our brunches, so you could happily omit them and still enjoy the same level of satisfaction.

Strange to think it normal nowadays but I grew up on pan fried sausages and homemade brown bread for supper almost every day. My mum was a great cook and baked the best brown soda bread I have ever tasted anywhere. I can never replicate her quality product. Our main meal was at 3:30 when we got home from school (my dad was a primary school teacher) and supper was at 7.

Sausages and brown soda bread is an incredibly good combination. Just thinking about it gives me the incentive to try to bake some for next weekend’s brunches.

I think plain flour and oatmeal (porridge) were the main constituents, along with a little bran, plus homemade sour milk from our milking cow and the usual bread-soda and salt.

I haven't made it for many years and I have forgotten the basic recipe. I will start with something from the Internet to get the proportions right and modify it. Looking back, it was not that the flour was different but the milk was. Unpasteurised. My dad used to keep one milking cow and a steer or two for added income on his five acres. Should have been a farmer. That’s where his heart lay. He used to milk the cow every morning and evening and return with a frothing enamel bucket of warm milk that was strained through muslin and stored in the fridge.

Yes, the milk is the single ingredient that I cannot replicate in 2009.