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...

Taste of Sardinia

This will be of most interest to a friend living in or near Barton-on-Humber, but will make my other reader drool. Yesterday on our 'just like the camino' bike ride, we stopped off in Hessle, as I wanted to try out something from the 'Taste of Sardinia' place that I'd looked in before. This will become a regular! We bought a focaccia like no other we've ever had - a breaddy outer layer with oozy mozarella, tomato & ham interior, which we ate while straddling our bikes on a narrow footpath twixt a railway line and a ditch near Beverley when we'd gone off the proper bike route, and it was a taste sensation! Energy being low, it was hard not to wolf it down without savouring, but savour we did, and it will be one of those memories that never fades. See:

http://thetasteofsardinia.co.uk/beverleymarket.aspx

They have a small shop in the pedestrianised part of Hessle, which means that local schoolkids can get some of this on the way home. I can't recommend it highly enough. Anyone wanting to try something, let me know and I'll bike over to get it....

The uses of jam

I know, I know; there's not much visible jam here. I'm on a Quest, really a double quest. 1) How to use up jam (and here I made a kind of miniature Cornish pasty made of French scone dough, filled with plum jam) 2) How to make a fig roll (the things in the tin being experiment 2 in this regard). Thing is, how do you keep the stuff from oozing out and burning? I made a kind of long sausage of French scone dough and then cut it up while still warm. The other things are cheese straws, some made with a bit of homemade bacon included. (Is life too short to stuff a mushroom? Certainly not!) I'll just go and look on the net for a really HUGE preserving pan....

I know - what is French scone dough? See 'Talking About Cakes' by Margaret Bates, Penguin 1973:
10 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp sodium bicarb
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
3 oz butter
3 oz caster sugar
1 egg
2 floz milk
Sift flour, bicarb, cream of tartar, salt together. Rub in butter and add sugar. Bind together with egg & milk. Then do whatever you like with it.

I know - old fashioned ounces! I don't hold with metric for baking purposes. How the heck do you say 'once ounce per egg' or whatever? Metric measurements are just not intuitive are they? How do you divide or multiply a recipe into different quantities when you use metric? The numerical bases are just NOT RIGHT. Gimme 12s, 16s, 24s, that kind of thing. I know; I'm on my high horse.

The faster pasta pastor

The pasta pastor

...and on the plate

'The pasta pastor'.
Really, this bloke is a genius! We wandered round the garden ('the grounds') at about 5.15 this teatime. What shall we have for dinner? D decided to make some pasta so that we could use some of his home made bacon. 25 minutes later we had the meal on the plate (OK, OK we had some left over sauce from a previous meal). Awww, doesn't he look sweet with that pasta draped over his hand! Quick someone, cut his hair! (But he hasn't got time to sit down; he's gone off now on a funeral visit.)

Bringing home the bacon

The kitchen is being stretched somewhat, and no wonder it's hard to make it meet our requirements, though we are working on rearranging all the time. (How I'd love an old-fashioned vicarage, not for some grand living rooms; I crave sculleries, outhouses and pantries.) David has just bought a slicer, as he has started to cure his own bacon. The pig arrives next week. The slicer is his birthday present to himself, and is as above and to be found at:

http://www.andrewjamesworldwide.com/Product.asp?Product=sli11

The bacon is in progress and will be ready next Wednesday.  It is a bog-standard 'dry cure', and I'm sure in future there will be some weirder creations.