Limited facility cooking

So I keep mentioning the fact that I only have limited facility cooking.  I thought I ought to share with you some things that I can do.  Mr John is a lover of dessert.  In fact, we often joke that the reason we are together is because on our first "official" date (which was my mate Ali's wedding) I couldn't finish my lovely dessert and gave half to Mr John.  He knew then I was the girl for him!!

I mentioned on Friday that we had had crepe cake.  If you're interested in making it, there's a fabulous recipe on Things for Boys.  It's a chocolate amaretto crepe cake and I'm going to try making it - probably for a special occasion, so I may not report back on this for a few months.  What appeals to me is that you don't have to make the whole thing all in one go.

Anyway, in the interests of keeping Mr John happy, I've taken to making jelly here.  I don't think I've ever made him jelly in the 10 years plus we've been together but I don't have an oven, dairy products are thin on the ground here and simple things like a decent mixing bowl, blender or hand whisk are sadly missing from my kitchen repertoire!

 One of the things you can't do over here is drink water from the tap.  It's pretty inexpensive to buy and it's easy to remember when it comes to drinking a glass or even making tea or coffee.  Harder, though not impossible, to remember is to use the bottles when you're cooking - and that includes boiling something like pasta!  So I've had to get a bit creative and as you can see, I've used our teapot as a mixing bowl. 


I should point out Mr John loves his tea and pretty much insisted on getting a teapot when we first arrived - for his loose leaves!!

We don't have any pretty serving dishes.  We have two proper glasses (for drinks) and a small selection of plastic plates and bowls (a couple of which have been given to us) so I bought disposable glasses to serve the jelly.  I must confess, that we haven't disposed of them.  They're quite firm and so I have been washing them out and re-using them!

I managed to find some "squirty" cream - you know, the sort that comes in a can - at Tesco Lotus.  I'm not normally in favour of this, but as I mentioned, dairy products are thin on the ground and a little expensive but I got a can as a treat for Mr John...marriage still solid!!