Slow times & Aga

Sunday, April 13, was a stay-at-home day to read and research future travel. It was raining intermittently, so we just took a short walk. Monday, we worked out at the gym in Henley, went shopping at Tesco, then came home to plan tomorrow's trip to Pangbourne and begin laying out our Irish holiday. We got in our short walk between rain showers, which were frequent, and even got some hail again! You've probably heard this one, but "if you don't like the weather in England, wait five minutes....."

AGA

The kitchen in our cottage is in the old (500 years) section. It has lovely modern conveniences (dishwasher, Aga cooker, various small appliances) but its charm is definitely due to the brick wall behind the cooker, the vintage wallpaper, the low, beamed ceiling, and the wonderful big pine cupboard that looks as though it might have been here since the days of Elizabeth I.

I approached the Aga with some trepidation, particularly after our neighbor told me that most people who have an Aga also have a "proper" cooker as back-up (we don't), and that "..if you get a marmalade going on the top and then try to put a joint in the oven, there's not enough heat to cook the joint." Well, I certainly won't try that!

But, according to "The Aga Book," this is the sort of cooker that has inspired an almost cult-like following of ecstatic owners who go into withdrawal when their Aga is turned off once a year for servicing. So, let's give it a go.

The Aga definitely has its charms. For one thing, it's always "on," so no annoying waiting for things to heat up, and it also functions as the water heater for the the whole cottage. We have the two-oven model, the two being a "roasting oven" and a "simmering oven". On top are two big heating elements with covers, the "boiling plate" and the "simmering plate." When you get down to it, cooking just becomes a matter of figuring out how best to juggle everything back and forth among those four choices until they're done. I will say that the most ambitious "from scratch" meal I've produced so far has been Bangers and Mash with Steamed Broccoli (not exactly a major culinary feat), but it's starting to grow on me and I may get progressively more ambitious. I keep remembering Mary telling me that she had done Christmas dinner for her family here, so I know (at least for Mary) that greater meals are possible!