One of our friends has invented this glorious desert full of Cointreau and well chocolate – want to know more? You’ll have to watch this weeks GMTV’s Chiefs at Sea competition. I think her’s is appearing on Wednesday morning and you can vote on which dish you like best!
The only trouble with this desert is my little girl is dying to eat one! (Or ten if she got the chance!)
IN THOSE NUMEROUS HOUSEHOLDS where a cook and housemaid are only kept, the general custom is, that the cook should have the charge of the dining-room. The hall, the lamps and the doorstep are also committed to her care, and any other work there may be on the outside of the house. In establishments of this kind, the cook will, after having lighted her kitchen fire, carefully brushed the range, and cleaned the hearth, proceed to prepare for breakfast. She will thoroughly rinse the kettle, and, filling it with fresh water, will put it on the fire to boil. She will then go to the breakfast-room, or parlour, and there make all things ready for the breakfast of the family. Her attention will next be directed to the hall, which she will sweep and wipe; the kitchen stairs, if there be any, will now be swept; and the hall mats, which have been removed and shaken, will be again put in their places.
The cleaning of the kitchen, pantry, passages, and kitchen
stairs must always be over before breakfast, so that it may not
interfere with the other business of the day. Everything should
be ready, and the whole house should wear a comfortable aspect
when the heads of the house and members of the family make their
appearance. Nothing, it may be depended on, will so please the
mistress of an establishment, as to notice that, although she
has not been present to see that the work was done, attention to
smaller matters has been carefully paid, with a view to giving
her satisfaction and increasing her comfort.
BY THE TIME THAT THE COOK has performed the duties mentioned above, and well swept, brushed, and dusted her kitchen, the breakfast-bell will most likely summon her to the parlour, to “bring in” the breakfast. It is the cook’s department, generally, in the smaller establishments, to wait at breakfast, as the housemaid, by this time, has gone up-stairs into the bedrooms, and has there applied herself to her various duties. The cook usually answers the bells and single knocks at the door in the early part of the morning, as the tradesmen, with whom it is her more special business to speak, call at these hours.
