During the two years that the young girl worked for the dairy farmer’s mother, she learned how to cook, and salmon mornay was a favourite dish. Melting the butter, whisking in the flour with a fork, adding the milk, getting the bones out of the tinned salmon … it was all rather magical for the young girl.
Eventually, she became quite adventurous in the kitchen and one afternoon, while the dairy farmer’s mother was having her afternoon nap, she cooked fish cakes for their dinner. It was the first time she had cooked anything without the dairy farmer’s mother’s supervision and she was very excited as she followed the instructions of a recipe book found in a secret drawer in the kitchen table.
It was a disaster! The fish cakes were thin and charcoaly instead of being plump and crispy. The dairy farmer didn’t say anything as his mother rose from her chair and declared that the meal was “DIABOLICAL!”
The young girl fled to the back veranda bathroom to cry out her humiliation, the dairy farmer put his mother to bed, and that was that … until the young girl accidentally allowed the simmering grapefruit marmalade to boil over the pot and into the precious Aga. But that’s another story.
Note: Not everything is funny in retrospect, but a lot is! I haven’t lit the Aga for the four years since Ants has been in the nursing home, but it is, nevertheless, a constant reminder of the various mishappinesses of the beginning of our relationship. I reminded Ants today and he gave me his slow half-smile: gold!
jmgoyder 