Delia Smith

The watercolour sketch above is of the Ponte Sorb o Tego. This is the scene you see when entering Lisbon by ship. When I drew this it was sunrise and about 6am.

Yesterday I mentioned my fondness for egg custard. Well if I haven't related it before you may be interested in my relationship with Delia Smith.
As you are aware Alex and I have been married for getting on 37yrs plus. During that time we have shared domestic jobs and rarely had a cross word. Now I have always been of the opinion that if you have an electrician in the family it is best to let them do the wiring, likewise if you have a fantastic cook let them do the cooking. I can feel the daggers being drawn as I speak, as you may have an idea where this is going. Now Alex is very talented and can decorate, service an engine and is an outstanding cook. Why then would I need to cook? I am happy to wash up, hoover watch the television..but leave the cooking to her.
Anyway this came to a bit of a head years ago when the children were still living with us. I eventually, reluctantly agreed to do the cooking.

Now if I take on a new skill I like to do it methodically. Learn the basics and go on from there. If you want to paint you must know the basic technical qualities of the paints and mediums you use (ok. I accept there  are many artist that don't, but don't push me on that subject). So going back to learning how to cook I got hold of Delia Smiths excellent Learn How to Cook book one.
Now to quote Delia, "If you want to learn how to cook there is no better place to start than with eggs."
My plan was to go through the book perfecting my skills before moving on to the next challenge.
Naturally then I started at the beginning of the book which deals with eggs.

Menu for Day 1 evening meal scrambled eggs. Feedback ~ "Not bad."
Menu for Day 2  evening meal poached eggs.   Feedback ~ "Good."
Menu for day 3  evening meal omelette .           Feedback ~ "Nice omelette but can we have a change."
Menu for Day 4 evening meal omelette  followed by egg custard. ~ "Dad can we have something else."

By the end of the week I still hadn't perfected eggs and the household was in a state of revolt for several reasons.
To the applause of the children Alex returned to the kitchen and I was banished.
Yes Delia is definitely one of my favourite cooks.