Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Bare it all Wednesday Featuring Marmalady!



Today Team EEAT would like to feature our member and friend, Marmalady. She is our "token" international member and is so wonderful! Visit Marmalady in her Etsy store!

Tell us about you:
In case you dont already know, I am from the UK -- the Peak District of Derbyshire which is about halfway up the country as you look at a map.I am 56, married for 31 years, with 2 grown-up children. Neither are married yet so no grandchildren on the horizon for quite a while!

How long have you been baking?
Baking / cooking. I have been cooking "forever". Growing up in a family of 4 kids, money was always short --so Mum always made all our own bread, cakes , jam etc -- and we were all expected to help -- the boys as well as the girls By the time i was 10 or 11 i could cook a sunday dinner for the family with very little help or supervision.Selling my baking came about when i was at home with a toddler & baby. A friend was involved with a co-operative market stall selling cakes and so i joined too. At first i only made small quantities but as the kids grew and i had more time, the amounts i was able to make for sale grew too. I continued selling through this market untill a couple of years ago when it folded and i branched out into having my own stall at various Farmers Markets -- i am out at a Market most weeks. For several years now I have also been supplying a local shop with cakes & marmalades every few weeks. So my Etsy shop is just a continuation of what i am doing most days anyway and it is easy to fit in baking my Etsy orders along with my market / shop baking.





What do you do in your spare time?
In my spare time -- what little there is - i enjoy various crafts -- and I originally joined Etsy to sell crafts ! As the baking took over my original shop and swamped the crafts i eventually opened a second shop ( http://www.marmaladytoo.etsy.com/ ). I particularly enjoy crochet tho i have never got on with knitting! and i also do some glass-painting and card-making.When I am not creating things for sale I enjoy taking part in general knowledge quizzes & chatting with friends on Paltalk.com (my nic there also is Marmlady) and alternate saturday nights will find my husband & i entering the quiz at our local pub. I also enjoy reading --particularly historical novels but i will read almost anything!


Tell us a little about food in your region
British food does tend to have a bad reputation when compared with our continental neighbours of france & italy but when made properly it can be every bit as delightfull! Apart from our traditional Sunday roast dinner, we specialise in good hearty casseroles & pies and puddings --lots of carbohydrates to fuel a working man! But as everywhere, people are eating more and more processed food & ready meals and so the art of cooking properly is fading. In these more health conscious times the old-fashioned cooked pudding served with custard is rarely found! (Let's shed a tear for the loss of that old favourite Spotted Dick!)I dont have a particular favourite meal to cook, but when we go out for a meal we alternate between our local Italian & Chinese Restaurants



1 comment:

Louise said...

Great to see another Brit here in the team, hello and welcome! I've not been home for about 13 years now and I miss all the favorite foods I used to eat, like pasties from Gregs and fish, chips and mushy peas, or cheese and onion pies!
We will be having our traditional roast dinner for Christmas as always, my NH born husband would be very upset if he didn't get his yorkshire puddings!