There was a kind of cheese pie that we had. It was like a flan type thing although not a flan. I’ve searched for it on the net as wanted to make it but cannot work out what it might be. It was more like a cottage cheese type flavour and maybe it had potatoes inside. I used to love it.
The worst thing they used to give us was lumpy mashed potatoes that were in an ice cream type scoop portion. Only they didn’t taste anything like the potatoes we had with a meal at home. They didn’t taste of anything at all.
I love making pies also. Nice simple pastry. Nothing fancy. I make them in some iron ramakins I have. 8 cm deep and 10 cm in diameter. Everything except chicken. Nice fresh beef, pork, lamb or seafood. I make the pastry and freeze it so I always have plenty to use. When you do this it’s easy and quick to just roll some out and make the pie. If I’m on a roll I’ll make up to 10 or fifteen pies and freeze them for later. My favourite dessert usually consist of ice cream with fresh (not canned) tropical fruits or sticky date pudding.
I remember an elderly lady said, when she gave her cat the leftover meat from her ‘meals on wheels’ minced beef pie. The cat flatly refused to eat it!
A bit suspicious, don’t you think?
Annie, If it’s what l am thinking, l used to love those and used to make them when l lived at home with my mother and brother and sisters.
I thought it was just mashed potatoes with cheese and grated onion mixed in with it, in a shortcrust pastry base with melted cheese on the top?
I remember the ice cream scoops of potatoes.
Do you remember, l think it was slices of cold gammon with scoops of mashed potato, parsley sauce and small cubes of unusual tasting beetroot?
I do remember the beetroot cubes! The ham was quite nice. But our potatoes were always lumpy. Apple crumble was another favourite pudding. Sometimes they would make that coconut cake with a cherry on top. It was probably quite nutritious food and a lot of variety but we were always complaining except when they served a roast or chips!
They let us take packed lunches to secondary school which was a relief. We (the four friends) would sit on a bench in the playground having lunch. So much more civilised than queuing up in the noisy canteen. The area around the kitchen always smelled of boiled cabbage and gravy.
In later years they turned the canteen into a buffet and started serving salad and chips with yoghurt and giving us “choice”. That was after the time when jane fonda started feeling the burn and the F plan diet came out.
A few years ago I had a visit from someone I had known from childhood both our parents had been teachers.
Anyway we made Gypsy Tart after searching for the recipe on the Internet. It was amazingly like the sweet, sticky dessert we used to get at school dinners.
School dinners in my opinion were uniformly awful, from the day I started Primary to the day I left the Grammar, gristle, powered potatoes, rubber eggs, processed peas, overcooked veggies etc. The only bright spot was the desserts and they set me off on my life long liking for milk puddings. Tapioca, sago, rice… you name it I like it.
Art I must have been one of the lucky ones. The primary school I attended had lovely school dinners cooked on the premises . One of the cooks was my Aunt and when serving me she would wink and give me extra custard.
Left over puddings like steamed sponge were cut into squares and distributed to the children in the classroom during the afternoon.
At secondary school I went home for lunch running the almost a mile each way. I don’t know what the food was like at that school.
I must have been one of the lucky ones. The primary school I attended had lovely school dinners cooked on the premises . One of the cooks was my Aunt and when serving me she would wink and give me extra custard.