Welsh Cakes From The Train - What To Do and What Not To Do

Problem
Welsh cakes bought on the GWR train from Fishguard to London were delicious. At least one of them was. The one I ate on the train was awful. What was wrong?

Answer
What Not To Do
I ate it cold.

What To Do
Today I found the other one and ate it hot. Delicious. I added butter and jam, but you don't need to.

What Not To Do
I did, however, make the mistake of trying to cook it in the toaster. What happened. It disintegrated. I smelled burning. I rushed to the toaster. The Welsh cake was stuck. I could not get it out.

I thought: I could put a knife or fork into the toaster. That's dangerous.  I did it.

The little teacake broke up further. Oh, crumbs, I shall end up with crumbs.

I can't put my fingers inside. I risk burning my fingers. I have to tip it out. Where? Not onto a small plate or breakfast bowl. Bits will fall all over the work surface. I will either lose half the food, or eat unhygienic food, and the bits I miss will feed insects.

The sink is bigger. The lost crumbs will be easy to wash away. However, I'll lose most of the cake which will turn to goo in the wet sink and I shall worry that I've eaten something contaminated with washing up liquid.

What To Do
I looked down and saw my frying pan. Tip the toaster over the frying pan. First unplug the toaster .... Then tip out the Welsh cake.

That does it. Is it still hot? Barely. Not enough to melt butter. But no time to play more games, Just eat.

Oh - wow! You wouldn't think it was the same food I ate previously. Heating makes all the difference.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Tips For Keeping Your Second Home Spotless After It's Been Empty

Ants and Crumbs and Water
Ants. Yes, ants. Whether you are in sultry Singapore, hot all year, New York in summer, or somewhere cooler, clean up before you leave your home empty. A there week holiday, a holiday home empty, same thing applies.

Ants and insects are like humans, they like water and food. So the crumbs under or in your toaster and the water in your coffee machine are giant free food and drink events.

Ants
Get rid of them. Not use going into another room and ignoring them. I have had ants all over a computer which I used on a balcony in a hotel in Asia (I think it was Indonesia.) Eating not he balcony beside your laptop sounds amusing, until you find ants all over the table and your laptop. If you can smell the coffee, so can the insects.

Rice, Sugar, Coffee
You can find weevils and ants and insects in flour, sugar, rice, any packet. Give away opened packets to friends or neighbours. Put whole unopened packets in sealed containers - or the freezer.

Not everybody is so bothered. When I was first in Singapore, in the 1980s, I met Australian and American women at expat groups. I remember at one meeting a women told us she had bought flour from the local corner shop. When she opened it, she found it was full of insects. She took it back to the shop, expecting a refund and profuse, abject apology. But the elderly Chinese shop owner grudgingly refunded the money and said crossly, 'Why don't you just sieve them out like everybody else does?'

Termites and Freezers
The freezer is a place for killing termites in books / photo albums and dust mites in pillows.

Any problems? Pillows can turn rock hard and stick to the freezer trays. Pillows might come out wet and need drying off.

Books In Freezers
Books in the freezer inside plastic bags get water on the surface when they thaw out. I was worried that the pages would stick together. I had photo albums with plastic pages. I used kitchen paper between the books. Ideally spread them out. But the work surfaces were filled with crockery, I don't want cross-contamination, and the floor was dusty. You need to check regularly, daily, even hourly if you are a paranoid type, to see how everything is faring.

You can see why the top paid people employ full time maids and cleaners.

So, if you don't have full time cleaners, you have to clean yourself. You forget. Put it on your list. o f things to do on arrival. You'll need several hours of cleaning, but it can be squeezed in amongst shopping cooking, working or sightseeing.

Plants Needing Watering
Leave all the plants grouped in one place near a source of water, such as on the bathroom or kitchen windowsill. Then if you extend a holiday from one or two weeks to three or four you can remind the family at home to water the plants, or the house-sitter, whoever had the house keys.

Plants Which Grow Alone!
Plants can die in the dark - or grow. After my late father was in hospital for a month where he died, it must have been about eight weeks after he was last in the flat that we opened a top cupboard in the kitchen. It was full of plant life, a hidden jungle. Like Jack and the beanstalk. What had grown, not fed, not watered, hidden, in the dark, on its own?

We fought our way through it and detached it from the walls and ceiling and flour of the cupboard. Can you guess what it was? In a kitchen? The culprit was a couple of potatoes!

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher,