Above all, garnish and presentation!

So where do I start? It really all started a couple of years back when I was spending a selfish day roaming around the second hand bookshops of Stockbridge, Edinburgh. I could spend hours looking for old and interesting cookbooks, I love reading recipes from years gone by and wondering if I could recreate them today. But I didn't expect that day to find my personal holy grail, a complete set of lovingly bound Fanny and Johnnie Cradock Cookery Programme part-works, released weekly in 1970/1971 in 80 parts. There should have been 91 parts, but the remaining ones were never published. Someone had taken great care to bind these 80 glorious technicolour (at time garish) cookery magazines into 5 volumes of fun, knowledge, and for me, opportunity! I didn't think twice, and bought the set... I'd seen Fanny on TV, read books about her and had always hoped to have her recipes in my hand - now I did!

I spent the next few months pouring over each and every word and picture, reading my way through the entire set and absorbing the wonderful hints, tips and techniques... My partner didn't really know what to say when I headed off to bed for some 'Fanny Fun', well, its quite hard to explain I suppose! Of course I was amazed at the sight of green mashed potatoes and pigeon pies garnished with real pigeon wings, but I learnt so much and was inspired to cook differently, I just never cooked anything from the set, why not?

I've spent the past few years wondering what I can do with all this wonderfulness, and could Fanny really teach me all she ever knew in weekly instalments? Well, here goes, I'm going to give it a try! I am a vegetarian, and reluctantly Fanny did recognise that we exist, but of course many of the recipes are very meaty, so I'm not going to slavishly work through all of them, but I will write about them even if I don't make them... 

So, according to Fanny there are 7 things I am about the learn - what to buy, methods, timings, perfect implements, working with maximum economy and, above all, garnish and presentation. Don't expect to see those pigeon wings here any time soon, but who knows what will appear!