Christmas questions

Christmas brings out my questioning nature. (I hope the title didn't make you think you were in for some list of quiz questions, even if my other reader did win on 'The Weakest Link'). Such as how many calories are there in a mince pie, and how far do I have to cycle across the Humber bridge to combat the effects of eating one? It's complicated, as it depends on how much you weigh. For myself, it seems that one mince pie will fuel me to the other side of the bridge and back. The human being is a fiersomely efficient engine.

Another question arose when it was found that the ice cubes had been next to some kippers in the freezer. So is it more environmentally efficient to throw the ice cubes out of the door, or will opening the door let in more cold air than the ice cubes themselves represent in terms of air-cooling effect? I worked out that it was perhaps better to jump up and down on the ice cubes then flush them down the loo when one was going to go anyway.

Other questions arise, such as what can one do with a quantity of left-over sprouts? I wondered about putting some in an omlette, and so Googled and found this:

http://www.retrofoodrecipes.com/brussel_sprout_omelet.html

which shows that I was not the first to think of this idea. But why is it in 'retro' recipes? Was it the kind of thing that had to be made when times were harder? Perhaps now it is ideal recession-food; and now I really am dreaming of a sprout omlette, just like the.... And look, I'm getting sprout-happy now and have Googled and found a recipe for sprout soup!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/brusselssproutandcar_71906

There'll be no stopping me.

Like this:

http://vegetariansalmon.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/brussels-sprout-curry/

but be warned: the receipe says "This is a basic and easy recipe, but avoid overcooking the brussels sprouts. When the veggie is overcooked it emits sulphur-like fumes and mushiness". Mmm, that one's out then with the bowlful I've got here.

I'm going to go and get into the bath with my book on Margery Kempe, who I'm looking into for ideas. The book includes a kind of blog that she wrote, so it might help liven things up a bit. Also, I'm curious to know why the map in the front cover has just a few place-names marked, London, Winchester, but then an odd one: Barton-on-Humber! There's no index, so I'm going to have to read it from cover to cover to find out what Barton has to do with Margery. Had she been here? Did she call in on the way to Santiago de Compostela?

No pics as yet today here..... so I found this one of a piece of work-in-progress, something I did ages ago. It looks very calm, which is what's needed on boxing day, lots and lots of calm. Maybe even just re-heat the sprouts  in the microwave so as not to make them too exciting.

Oh look, I've got started now, and a bird has walked across the garden and is heading for one of the pear trees. But it's a pheasant, and anyway it is the second day of Christmas; oh well, these birds are so daft, they probably don't even know what they are called, nor which day it is or which of them is supposed to get into a tree. Full marks for effort though. And I've started to look at some of the ones from Christmas day, and so to end, here is a pic of the view out of the window looking west as we ate our Christmas din...