Universities, and cooking.

The deed is done, the decision made, the choices electronically entered on the UCAS website. Daughter-dear has finally decided which university place to accept, and which to keep as insurance. She is very likely to go to York but, should things go a bit pear-shaped in her A2 exams, she has a place at Sheffield held as an 'insurance'. There is a special message for gillo here - (1) She says thanks for the advice, and (2) the Sheffield offer was better than she had thought - when she checked it properly it is '2 As and a B, including history' - not '2As one of which must be history, and a B' - so much easier to achieve if anything went wrong.

So over the next three years I will get to know York well, or possibly Sheffield.

As part of her preparations for leaving home D-d is making sure that she can feed herself - so this week she has worked out her own menu, done her own shopping, and is doing her own cooking. petzipellipingo has been mentioning 'core recipes' on her journal recently, and I have been thinking about the same things - in very simple terms. D-d often helps in the kitchen, is often there when I'm cooking, but doesn't always watch exactly what I am doing, so we are writing her own 'cookery book' - with such things as how, exactly, to bake potatoes, or make the 'Chicken and sweet-potato thing' which I have made for years. We are noting how much pasta one person eats, or how to make the right amount of easy cheese sauce to make macaroni cheese for one and so on. It makes me think hard about things that are automatic - a good exercise.

I've also bought her 'How to boil an Egg' by Jan Arkless, 'Quick and easy cooking for one' by Molly Perham, and of course Delia Smith's 'One is Fun!'. The first one in particular looks just right - it includes how much chicken you buy for one, cooking vegetables, and a lot of things to do with cheese and/or eggs. If anyone else wants to give a basic book to someone about to have to fend for themselves, I think this might be a very good buy.`