What it's all about

It's all about my Grandad, Daniel Ernest Baker. 25th December 1917 - 21st December 2010

Also known as Bib, Danny, Dad, or Grandad, he passed away a few days before his 93rd birthday which would have been on Christmas Day, 2010.

(Grandad on the left)

He took part in the Invasion of Sicily and he was also part of the airborne landing at the battle of Arnhem in Holland, during which he was wounded by shrapnel and taken prisoner. He spent seven months in captivity in German Prisoner of War camps. He endured a 400-mile march as a prisoner, from Poland and through Germany,  before being finally liberated by the Americans in Frankfurt in 1945.

(Grandad on the left)

While on the march, he had a notebook with him where he kept a number of lists. The lists documented the places they slept, how far they'd walked and the provisions they'd been given. Most of the lists, though, are of food he would have liked to have been eating. Or, "Good scoffs which I intend to appreciate in the near future." Knowing how hungry they must have been while he wrote these lists gives a poignance to cooking them. Especially so as they aren't all the sorts of things people these days would fantasise about. (Although I can't say I'm against eating lots of fried food, all for a good cause, of course).

While sorting through his bits and pieces, my Aunt, Jill, discovered the notebook and showed it to me. I showed it to Jez and we decided we would try cooking some of the things on the list as a kind of tribute to my Grandad. Originally intended as a project for 2011, we've decided to keep going as we are enjoying it so much.

 (on holiday in Blackpool with my Nana, Helena, and their three daughters Janet, Carol and Jill)

Alice x