In order to avoid shopping, I found a DIY job to keep me from spending money while my wife went to visit our friend, Mrs Wilson who is a keen gardener. Knowing that I am very fond of chutney she arrived home with a large bag of green tomatoes.
Unfortunately, we could not remember the other ingredients, or the quantities required to make the perfect chutney. After searching through several cookery books without success, we eventually came across a slim volume of Delia Smith's recipes, written in 1976 to accompany her second televised cookery series on BBC Look East.
We followed the recipe and put aside ten jars of the stuff, which, according to Delia, will be at their best in three months time. This is where football comes back into the story, because I could not help drawing a comparison between Delia, the chef, saving the day with her chutney recipe; and her actions a few days earlier, as a major shareholder in Norwich City FC.
No sooner had Glenn Roeder finally found his missing ingredient, in the form of Antoine Sibierski - surely a name more suited to a chef than a striker - when a deficit appeared in the club's budget. Not for the first time, majority shareholders Delia Smith and her husband, Michael Wynn Jones, made up the shortfall out of their personal finances.
This may not be an investment on the scale provided to Manchester City by Abu Dhabi United Businesses, but, until someone comes along with equally serious dosh, we should all be grateful for the contribution from two home-grown directors, both of whom clearly share the aspirations of Canary fans in wanting to see their team join in the race for promotion.
By the time I unscrew the lid on our first jar of chutney in three months time, we will know if Glenn has put together the right ingredients for a successful recipe. Perhaps Antoine will have knocked in a chef's hatful of goals and the Canaries will be flying high in the Championship table? Whether or not that is taking me, rather like Corporal Jones, into the realms of fantasy, may be assessed on Saturday after the long pilgrimage to Home Park, where both sides will be looking for their first win of the season, but more on that story later...