Giles favorite foods when he was a kid?

[dragonyphoenix]

Hi,

I need more help for my story. So after Giles is brought back to life in his 12 year old body, he and Faith drop in on Giles' mother unannounced. I figure she'd probably want to make Giles' favorite meal but she's going to go with whatever she currently has in the house. Naturally she's not going to want to let him out of her sight. What could she serve?

Comments

[gillo]

Fish and chips, from the shop, was always my favourite. Cottage pie - minced (ground?) beef and vegetables in onion gravy, in a deep pie dish, covered in mashed potato then oven-baked till it has a crispy crust - was another favourite, but not something you can throw together quickly. Sausages ('bangers') and mash with onion gravy was another popular favourite.

Rice pudding, baked for a long time in the oven, with a thick skin on it, or apple charlotte and custard (that is, apple pie but with a crust of bread slices, buttered and sprinkled in sugar, cooked in the oven, served with Bird's Custard, a yellow custard sauce based on powdered eggs and cornflour, but pretty much the standard custard then and now.)

When Giles was young all meals came with potatoes - boiled, mashed, roast or fried (= chips). Nobody had pasta. If Giles's family was sufficiently upper-crust he might have had occasional curry with rice. (And, inexplicably, raisins and dried coconut on the side.) Otherwise, only ever potatoes as the carbohydrate pat of the meal.

The main meal of the day was always two-course, heavy on the carbs, with some sort of meat content. NO SPICES, or even garlic, though possibly a few herbs (we sound the 'h', BTW).

She might try to update that a little, buy my Mum still regards garlic as devil food, and won't use spices. She might get a cottage pie out of her freezer, one she had cooked a while ago and kept in case of family company. Or she might send out to the 'chippy' to buy fish and chips and focus on making him a pudding (by which term we mean any dessert, especially the hot, cooked type.)

Hope this helps!

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

No garlic! Come on, a Watcher family would have kept garlic around. ;-)

I can make the frozen cottage pie work. Thanks.

[gillo]

Garlic as a symbol, of course. But as an ingredient? Never.

Pre-1970 British food was bland.

Glad to be of service.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I don't believe the food was quite as bland here but I know when I've made chilli in the past that each of my parents complained it was too hot. I'm not sure why I like spicy when they don't.

[il_mio_capitano]

Can't really argue with gillo though I can lament that my mother wasn't nearly as good a cook and embraced convenience foods like a drowning man grabs a liferaft.

Consequently my childhood memories of favourite food revolve around fish fingers and mash, or beans or spaghetti hoops on toast. Oh and Angel Delight for dessert.

gillo's list is way better.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Spaghetti was a big one at my house. My parents divorced when I was young and Mom worked full-time so she cooked things that were easy to make until we were old enough to cook and then we cooked them.

Spaghetti on toast? I have problems eating what nowadays and my poor tummy is cringing at the thought.

Angel Delight? I've never heard of that one.

[gillo]

Canned speghetti hoops in tomato sauce on toast.

Angel delight is a sweetened, flavoured powder you add to milk and whisk till it's thick. Not heated, so not quite like your 'pudding', but the same family.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I had sort of guesstimated those spaghetti hoops were out of a can. We had something similar like that here. I've just never had them on toast.

Thanks for the help.

[gillo]

You're welcome. Tony Head is a couple of years older than me, so I have a reasonable idea about his, and Giles's childhood.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

And I very much appreciate you sharing that knowledge.

[gillo]

Where did you grow up? My Mum Gave Up work to be A Mother, so home cooking was a big deal for her. Bland, though.

I've friended you - hope you don't mind?

[il_mio_capitano]

East Yorkshire. My dad was away a lot so she was practically a single mother with four kids. I don't blame her choices.

Absolutely on the friending.

[gillo]

I have very close friends in Selby, so it's an area I know a bit. I lived in Grimsby for three grim years, too!

[devo79.livejournal.com]

What she has in the house would depend on how well she eats herself.

Many elderly people, who used to cook for others, end up not eating very well when they suddenly only have to cook for themselves.

So maybe it turns out she has almost nothing in her kitchen.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

That's a good point but I've already written she has a cottage pie in the freezer. I just finished a majorly revised draft and don't want to add another complication - Giles' Mum isn't taking care of herself - into the mix.

Although that would make an interesting story.