First steps in the kitchen

We have arrived.  We have an electric stove with which we are not very familiar.  We have a neighborhood Waitrose with ample fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats (including the highly exclusive organic Duchy Originals, the Prince of Wales's own endangered brand, bailed out of near-bankruptcy by the deal with Waitrose), as well as aisles and aisles of prepared and frozen food.  For our first meal in Hampstead eight years ago, we chose bangers and mashed potatoes, and for tradition's sake, for our first London meal of 2011, we select carrots, mashed potatoes, smothered onions, and fresh pork and sage sausage from the meat counter.  Keith Richards has recently explained his epiphany about the proper way to cook bangers, but sorry, Keith, we did not start with a cold pan.

Here is our first stove-top full.  January 3, 2011.

We forgot to buy mustard!!  So we went to the even closer (and even more dominated by frozen and prepared food) Sainsbury's.  The meal is complete.   I'm not sure we repeated the menu eight years ago, but the variety of sausages from the Ginger Pig and elsewhere will be very tempting. Not to mention the ability to use that mouli mill to make the mash.