Carers serve up a new recipe book
kgriffiths@obantimes.co.uk
Soups and starters, mains, sides and sauces, baking and sweet treats are all on the menu in the book that was the idea of Mairi Fleck who is the Learning and Development Coordinator at North Argyll Carers Centre in Oban’s Albany Street.
‘What do you do when you’re spending 24 hours a day in the confines of your own home, shielding from an invisible virus that’s spreading across the world? Eat good food, it would seem,’ said Mairi.
Among the recipes are Bea’s Bean Fritters, Bob’s Squeaky Cheese Curry, Lorraine’s Slimming Orange Chicken, Betty’s Gypsy Tart, Sheila’s Clootie Dumpling, Gran’s Tattie Scones, Tony’s Leftover Doner Kebabs, and Cathie’s Easy Ice-cream. As the team at the centre changed to working from home during lockdown, Mairi started up a weekly online Zoom coffee morning to keep in touch with carers and help each other get through the troubling times.
‘It quickly became apparent that cooking, and eating, were important to us all and a large part of each coffee morning consisted of us sharing recipes, suggesting recipe books to buy and lots of chat about how to avoid food waste and make things when vital ingredients were in short supply, or not available at all.
‘So much talk about cooking and baking that putting our own cookery book together seemed like the right idea,’ said Mairi.
Thanks to the power of social media, recipes for the book project started flowing in from carers and their families, members of staff, long lost relatives, complete strangers and virtual friends from the other side of the world.
‘I’ve received emails, letters, phone calls, and photographs of faded handwritten recipes from treasured family cookbooks,’ added Mairi.
A group of five volunteer artists and illustrators worked alongside Mairi to make the book look good and funding was received from Shared Care Scotland to make it happen.
‘We have recipes in it to make for every occasion. We hope people will enjoy their culinary creations and keep on caring and sharing,’ added Mairi.
The book costs £7.50 including postage and packing. To get a copy, send an email to info@northargyllcarers.org.uk, leaving your name and phone number. An assistant from the carers centre will call back to take a card payment.