I Couldn’t Cook Either

"Just as I would never have learned to drive a car if I had to become a mechanic first, so I should never have started to cook at all had I relied on cookery books. " So writes Kenyon Goode, who ended up writing a cookery book, I Couldn’t Cook Either for the person who likes to put food on the table, but has no real idea how to do it.

I don't know much about Kenyon Goode with the exception of the info in this book. Here it is. In the thirties and forties, Goode watched his mother or her cook scurrying about the kitchen and behold – food appeared on the table. When he was married in the forties, he found his wife possessed those same womanly skills. Alas, he ended up getting a divorce in the 1950’s and found himself in a bachelor abode with an empty cupboard. He set out to share the basics with others who might find themselves in a similar predicament.

He cooks eggs, a few sauces some chicken and fish and finally, the end all English dessert.

Fool

Another dish that usually appeals to children and grown-ups alike, is a fool. Why this dish is so called, I've never been able to discover. Perhaps the suggestion is that, being so easy to make, any fool can do it. A fool is merely a combination of any puree of fruit and an equal quantity of stiffly whipped cream. Gooseberry Fool s perhaps the best known, but I usually make mine of frozen raspberries or blackberries, which I first sieve, and then sugar, before mixing in with the cream. Being very rich, it requires to be served ice-cold.

The actual origin of the English "fool" may have originated from the French " fouler" which means to "crush" or "mash." The OED scoffs at this notion (but they are English and loath to credit the French with anything.) So we will go with the "any FOOL can make it" explanation.

Regardless of what Kenyon Goode says, we here at Cookbook Of The Day, we love to rely on our cookery books.