Baslow luncheon club had a rare treat on February 2nd when a team from Bakewell u3a's Cooking by Men group provided a slap-up lunch of Lancashire Hot Pot, followed by frangipane tart.
The event was organised by Bu3a chairman Peter Holt who based his main course on a traditional family recipe used by his mother in a rural Lancashire pub. Peter has long been a member of Bakewell u3a's popular Cooking by Men group, which meets every month at Lady Manners to cook, and then eat, a two-course supper. On this occasion he was assisted in the kitchen by Alan Webb and Alan Goodall, and Nigel Bartlett and Ainslie Kelly were responsible for the frangipane tart dessert. Ingredients were generously donated by Bakewell Co-operative.
The luncheon club provides a monthly social meeting - coffee, lunch, and some entertainment - for elderly Baslow residents, often housebound and socially isolated, and is organised by Dr Julian Newton. The Club has been in existence for 36 years, but this was the first time the cooking had been entrusted to the Cooking By Men group. However, the experiment went down so well it could easily become an annual event - one verdict on the Hot Pot, “as good as mother made!”
Cooking by Men is one of a range of activities - practical, cerebral, sometimes energetic - provided by Bakewell u3a for its members, who are those approaching or in retirement but still eager to learn new tricks. One of its founding principles is to help one another, and at the same time to enjoy oneself - something that was amply demonstrated by the Baslow Hot Pot Lunch.