| My mother! | by Maitland Kalton |
| Watch Out, There's a Thief About! | by Maitland Kalton |
My Mother! (by Maitland Kalton)
On Sunday night, my partner and I usually go to my mother's for dinner. On this particular Saturday, we were tired and hungry and my mother had prepared a delicious roast lamb dinner.
Since my mother lives on her own, she tends not to bother much about food unless we come around. On a Saturday she normally " pulls out all the stops" and we sat down to tuck into a large plate of food with plenty of rich gravy. I had a voracious hunger as usual.
I soon noticed that the food tasted strange. I questioned my mother about what she had put in the gravy (this appeared to be the source of the strange taste) and she explained that she had run out of lamb Oxo cubes. She said she had used one with Mexican flavouring.
Believing that this was the mystery solved, I laid into the meal with renewed vigour, devouring over half of the plateful in a short space of time. However, something was not right. I was beginning to feel sick! I decided I really could not finish the meal and asked my mother what else she had put in the gravy and how she had made it. She denied doing anything unusual and by this stage was getting somewhat upset at her ungrateful son (as usual!).
Suddenly it occurred to me what the problem was. When my mother serves out a meal, she puts the dishes in soak with hot water and washing up liquid. It became clear to us that she had done on a previous occasion and then failed to remove all the washing up liquid from the bottom-up of the roasting pan, so that when she made the gravy in it after roasting the lamb, we had been treated to an unexpected extra flavouring!
Feeling somewhat queasy, we retired to a local restaurant to finish off the evening but nothing quite tasted right after that!
Actually, this happened again a few months later (but not so badly this time) so we just washed off the gravy and finished off the meal! Two years later I am pleased to say that there have been no further incidents.
Watch Out, There's a Thief About! (by Maitland Kalton)
My sister, Clare, and I share a love of food, hence why we have started 4everymeal together. We share an office on the same floor as several other companies are including my legal practice and Clare often brings me a sample of her latest recipe and puts it in the fridge for me to take home when I leave.
On this particular occasion, when Clare told me she had tried one of Marlena Spieler's recipes destined for the 4everymeal site. It was a Mediterranean-styled sauce that Clare told me would be delicious with chicken, so I rang my partner to make sure we had everything to enable us to eat it at night.
I worked late, as usual, that night and had put a sticker on my briefcase to remind the to take food out of the fridge before I left. Unfortunately, I stood talking to the office cleaner on my way out and quickly forgot about the food in the fridge. I was running late and had some important reading to do. I thought I would do it on the bus and leapt on one at the traffic lights. I quickly paid my fair and was about to start reading when I remembered the food and, mindful that I had a half prepared meal at home, waiting for my sister's sauce, I got off at the next stop and ran back to the office, went to the fridge and saw the only liquid food container in the fridge with a home-made looking sauce in it. I hastily packed it in a plastic bag and caught the next bus home.
At home, everything was ready except for the sauce that was hastily heated up and served. I must admit that this also had more than Eastern influence than Mediterranean but it was tasty and we both enjoyed it. My partner washed up the container for me ready to take back the next day and we thought nothing more of it.
First thing the next morning, I handed Clare her container and thanked her for the delicious sauce. " This is not mine!" she exclaimed. I didn't need to ask. It suddenly became clear to me. I had, by mistake, taken someone else's food from the fridge! My face sank - it said it all. I began to panic, thinking of whose food it could have been in any one of the neighbouring businesses. Whilst Clare fell about in hysterical laughter, I ran into our main office, about to tell our trainee solicitor of my dreadful 'faux pas' when it occurred to me that it could have been his. Luckily for me it was - his partner had made him a delicious homemade soup and my sister's sauce was still in the fridge in a bag marked "Maitland".
Actually, we tried that sauce the next night and it was great! Try it yourself but don't leave it lying around in case it gets stolen! After all, as Antony Worrall Thompson says, Marlena's recipes are "good enough to steal". Click here for the recipe