DIARY OF COOKING IN THE DARK BY FIONA CUMMINGS

Good afternoon Bloggets. Well, Hub has given the Little Fella a day off work so he is at home with me. Oh my word? I can’t leave him, as he has this separation thing going on. I have to close doors after me. The porch door has to be closed because he eats the front door mat which is made from kind of what looks like coconut or straw. Smile. He can’t go into our conservatory as he eats the soil from the plants and today, he has discovered two things, my plant on the living room windowsill, which has been there all the time we have had the Little fella, so he enjoyed an earthy breakfast, but then just when I cleaned that mess up, he proudly came to me with a gift. Not the plectrum from Teens guitar that he brought us the other night, but a daffodil. Not from the garden, but a vase. It was in his mouth as if he were holding a rose to propose. Perfectly positioned and in tac. I removed it and popped it back in the vase.

 

So when ever LF is quiet, I run. He smiles I swear too as he is so full of pride of his achievements. So, I allow him to play with Waggatail, and seriously the noise? He has two bells on his collar, Waggs one. So it’s like a herd of Portuguese goats, what with our canary, Irish, and the jets flying over, as well as the traffic, how on earth do I hear my computer?

 

 Answer? I have it turned up so blooming loudly. It’s like a bingo hall in here with a man reading the numbers through the microphone.

 

Well, cooking in the dark. People ask me how do I cook if blind? Of course these are people mainly who can see, and sometimes I find myself thinking it’s a blooming good job I do cook, or if not we would starve? I know there will be people out there who are blind or even partially sighted who can’t cook, or they think they can’t or perhaps they don’t want to as they don’t feel confident? That’s absolutely fine, as I bet those people are the ones who are outside very independent? We are all different and all have our talent’s. Though cooking and talent in the same sentence? Not really for me. I cook to get by, or to feed my hungry family.

 

When I first went blind, it was so sudden. Overnight. I really didn’t know what I was going to do. I was grieving at the time but trying to be cheerful in front of my one year old. Couldn’t let him see Mummy cry. Though I just wanted to curl up in a cupboard and die. I was at total rock bottom. My insides were outside of my body. But I had my child and my ex Husband to cook for.

 

The local blind society came out and coldly gave me a cup attachment that beeped when the boiling water was reaching the top of the cup and a measuring jug with tactile measures on the inside.

 

So there I am with a glass jug and a beeping thing that lasted two weeks before it went in the bin. No one told me how to pour the boiling water from the kettle into my cup without scolding myself? I mean, kettle, cup, and now make the water come from the kettle and hit the cup? Smile, I did learn. I use my hearing a load more now than I did back then. I always face the spout to the left towards the wall, as if you put the kettle on, it’s obviously cold. You come back when it’s boiled. You go to reach for the handle and the steam burns you. So, if the spout is faceing away from you, then that won’t happen. Also you learn faster where the handle is, if you put it back in the same position each time.

 

Then I hold the cup in my left hand, well, the cup is on the work top, I hold the handle of the cup steady. I gently touch the cup with the spout of the kettle. Then kind of judge by experience where the edge of the cup is and I wrest the spout on the cup then, only then, pour. Listen for the liquid. It has a totally different sound as the cup fills.

 

Now frying an egg? That was a huge challenge. My ex loved once a week, good old chips, that is another story, with a fried egg. Gosh, the pan is big and the egg is tiny. Also you have to splash the egg? Where and how? When the egg is first in the pan, it’s almost un feelible. So how to go around the egg? I cracked the egg with my right hand holding it finger and thumb at each end of the egg, keeping the egg together as my left hand steadied the frying pan. Once cracked, I took both hands and parted the shell right in the centre of the pan. Then I splashed the oil around the outside of the pan, knowing it would hit the egg.

 

The chips? Now peeling them the potato that is, and any veg, you can feel where the peel is. It’s rougher than the bare potato. I used to use the dangerous old style of chip pan. With the hot bubbling oil and basket? Gosh I had a couple of small fires with that, so don’t go there, I have a air fryer now, it’s great. A tiny bit of oil in the pan and it’s so very safe.

 

Everything else, is using smell and poking with a sharp knife. Never let anything go dry so if boiling veg how do you know if they need more water? Take a spoon and gently place the spoon in the water to see if veg are covered.

 

Now, for those in the UK, Yorkshire puddings, it’s a batter mix you cook in the oven in proper tins. You have to have your fat very hot and get your mix as fast as possible whilst bubbling hot. How to get mix into the four or twelve indentations without feeling, as you can’t feel the trays as they are boiling after being in the hot oven to melt the fat. So, again, with an oven glove, feel for the edge and just try to pour in each centre, put a oven tray under the pudding tray, then if there is a spillage, it doesn’t go all over your cooker.

 

To manufactures’ out there, please think about us blind folk when you are designing your products? We can’t see a screen we need buttons. Flat isn’t good for us. And we need a toaster to cook toast, we don’t mind if it also can tell you what the weather is like outside or what the seagulls are doing at the coast, smile. Our kettles, we need to boil water, not have a gage to let us know how much water is in the kettle, just shake the dam thing listen and feel the weight of the kettle to learn. Also if you put on a virtually empty kettle, it boils loudly to early. Stop and fill.

 

I keep everything in the same place in my kitchen. So I’m not looking for things all the time. Same about kitchen cupboards, they have places for everything.

 

You can buy talking scales for baking. And you can get a talking microwave, but they cost ridiculous amounts of money, for a microwave, just your grocery shop and buy the least expensive as sadly they are the only ones now that are accessible. Some have a dial but they just keep turning we need one that does have a beginning and end. Again, I don’t like the touch screen ones.

 

I have pots with my tea bags, coffee and sugar in. I keep them right to left, only right to left because my kettle is on the right, so they are next to the kettle, and when I ask people do they want a drink, I always say, “Tea, coffee? And do you take sugar?” so it’s a way to remember but to be honest, you can tell by sound and smell what is in the pots.

 

Never leave a tea towel on your work top. Put it on a hook or on your oven our rail as if you leave it on your work top and it gets knocked whilst you have your hob top on, you could cause a fire.

 

I cooked as a partially sighted person for eleven years before I lost my sight, it was so easy in comparison to as a newly blind person, but now my Husband and I do cook and we make big meals for friends too. We can make a full Christmas dinner with about twelve things on our plate. All hot cooked perfectly in time and most of my blind friends, Trix, JB and Tracey can all cook. Bake too.

 

OK, all this talking of cooking is making me hungry. So, where’s me crisps? Smile. X