Ham in Hampshire

There’s something about a toasty. I think we may have become slightly obsessed with a ham and cheese toasty. We don’t eat loads of meat now, something we started about a year ago with a ‘let’s try to have two veggie days a week’ that rapidly progressed to meat maybe once a week. Lockdown (the early days of not leaving the house for a month) did impact that as we couldn’t get fresh veg, but in the main we have stuck to it and become more adventurous, cooking from scratch most of the time. 

One of the positive things that came out of stopping work and lockdown was time to rediscover my love of cooking, baking and bread making. I used to cook and bake a lot, my gift when going to friends for dinner used to be cake, not wine – not sure if that was appreciated, but it was made with love so I am sure it was. But life got in the way, so I stopped baking unless I needed to do something for a specific occasion - usually a fundraiser at work. Lordy, there were some decorating disasters, but they tasted good! 

My love of cooking, and particularly baking came from mum, she was a brilliant baker, there were always scones in the freezer and cake in a tin, particularly once she retired, but I have so many happy memories of mum and I making 6 dozen mince pies, or Christmas cake that would feed 50. One dish that was very special and holds so many memories is Snowball, well, that’s what we called it. It only ever appeared once a year on Christmas day and mum and I made it together, in fact it didn’t need baking; the tradition passed on when I stared to make it each year with my niece. Now she makes it (or possibly my sister does) for family Christmas gatherings. I don’t, as it is full of nuts and Ian and nuts do not get along, but baking, along with mum’s Kenwood Chief that I inherited, became part of lockdown life. 

Ian used to do most of the cooking as I often wasn’t home until 7 or 8pm. He’s very good and we had fab meals, but when we were both working it was often quick pasta or sausages and we did love a bacon sarnie while watching the Formula 1 (what am I saying, we still do!). However our new life has renewed our love of a toasty. One of our best buys for Agy is a RidgeMonkey, it’s promoted as a toasty maker originally for anglers I think, and it does that brilliantly, but it is so much more than that! It’s a non stick, double sided pan, that goes on our gas hob, or is it a mini oven, or a frying pan?  It’s all of those things and fabulous. A toasty in the RidgeMonkey is delicious, quick, easy and oh so scrumptious and it’s become our go to lunch. I know, we could have a veggie one, but the ham is so yummy in it.

We have to go out, as we need a new step (if you haven’t read why, then head to Stranded in Stonehenge). Warminister is our town of choice and serves us well, a new step and more muffins to feed our addiction!

By now, the loo issue is looming again too, it has to be done, so we head off with every intention of returning to our spot at Stonehenge, but by the time we’ve done the deed – who am I kidding, I have done the deed, we are a fair way towards our eventual destination in two days time, so we decided to keep going. Heading to Hampshire with a fridge stocked with ham.