Iona’s cherished recipe stars in our charity cookbook
One of our Invergordon care home residents is beaming with pride after one of her mother’s cherished recipes was featured in our national charity cookbook.
Iona Paterson, who lives at Kintyre House Care Home, is overjoyed that her beloved mother Peggy’s Clootie Dumplings recipe has pride of place in A Lifetime of Flavours: Celebrating Food, Family and the Lives Behind Beloved Recipes.
Curated by Sanctuary Care, the cookbook features 42 treasured recipes from residents aged 70 to 105 and celebrates the joy of cooking, memory, and continuity in later life. The money raised by the book supports Mental Health UK.
Iona, who is 91, but admits she feels many, many years younger, fondly recalls the joy she got when her mother cooked her famous fruit pudding recipe for special occasions, like the birthdays of Iona and her five siblings.
“It was a part of my childhood – it smelt lovely and spicy when it was cooking and it tasted heavenly! I remember her saying it was very important for the cloth it cooks in to have a lot of flour on it to hold the dumpling together.”
The traditional Scottish dessert was the centrepiece of family celebrations – and often had a silver penny hidden inside for good luck. Mixing dried fruits, spices and suet into a rich, comforting dough, it would be wrapped tightly in a floured cloth (the cloot), which would simmer for hours in a pot of boiling water.
For Iona, the book is a wonderful reminder of a very happy childhood.
“I am very proud of my mother and to see her recipe in the book – she would have been so pleased. She was a very good mother and we had a very happy home life, so to have the book here makes me very proud.”
After moving to Kintyre House in the village of Saltburn, in July 2023 following a fall at home, Iona, who is a retired district nurse, says she is still enjoying delicious home cooking.
“One of our chefs here makes very nice scones – I say they are nearly as good as my mother’s and that is a very big compliment indeed! We have roast dinners, mince and tatties, home-made soups – I enjoy all their recipes.”
At the heart of A Lifetime of Flavours is Sanctuary Care’s Enriching Lives Framework – an evidence-based approach to care that focuses on maintaining identity, purpose, and joy in later life. The cookbook specifically celebrates ‘continuity’, one of the six senses within the framework, by showing how residents can carry on lifelong passions and traditions, such as cooking, even after moving into a care home. Mealtimes are a vital part of that continuity, offering structure, sensory stimulation, creativity, independence and connection. Good nutrition plays a key role too, helping residents stay active, alert and well-nourished.
The cookbook is free to download or can be ordered in limited print for a donation, with all proceeds going to Mental Health UK. It also includes a foreword from 2023 Great British Bake Off winner Matty Edgell, who shares how food shaped his own family mem
