The Farmer & His Wife

Anne and John find a simple meal proving tricky!

NEXT time you go shopping, buy some baked beans and a big piece of cheese. .

“What’s he blethering about?” I can hear you asking . . .

Alice, who was at school with Anne, married an Angus farmer called John and moved away.

Anne rang her a few weeks before Easter last year, inviting them to come on Good Friday for an evening meal.

“We’d love to, but don’t go to any trouble.”

“It’ll just be something simple,” Anne promised.

When we have guests, we like to have everything washed up, put away and the kitchen left spick and span before we go to bed. Now we’re older, we can’t stay up late on the Saturday night (or early on Sunday morning!) and still get up and go to church. So we entertain on Fridays instead.

On Wednesday, Anne started worrying.

“What shall I give them?” “You said it would be simple. Why not baked beans on toast, with a poached egg on top?”

You’d think I’d suggested poisoning them!

Anne bought two pounds of shoulder steak and some kidney. Then she got onions and carrots, cut in small pieces, and half a pound of mushrooms. It was all topped off with a crust.

For vegetables, she had small, new potatoes and calabrese with a white sauce.

Our guests arrived on time and we sat chatting.

“Would you like a sherry?” Anne asked.

Alice and John both accepted. I went to the cupboard. There was no sherry bottle there.

“Sorry, folks, I can’t find the sherry. Would you like white wine instead?”

Thank goodness, everyone agreed.

Anne told me later that one of her ladies’ circle had dropped in. They’d had a glass of sherry each, which emptied the bottle. She’d forgotten to get another one.

Poor Anne. I felt sorry for her that evening. We were at the table when she brought in the steak and kidney pie.

“Oh, Anne,” Alice apologised. “I never eat meat now.” Anne thought quickly. “Can you eat baked beans?” Alice said she enjoyed her baked beans, new potatoes and calabrese in a white sauce. The rest of us certainly enjoyed that steak and kidney pie!

We found out afterwards that cheese would also have been acceptable, but neither of us thought of it.

The next time we went to St Andrews Anne made a shopping list.

Sherry. White wine. Baked beans. Cheese.

Anne’s determined always to be prepared!