For those of you who have just returned from some far away orb, you may or may not have heard that husband and I are planning to jettison off across the Atlantic next year to make hay in the twin cities of Minneapolis & St Paul in Minnesota, USA. A new job, a new life, a new front door and a new pair of snow shoes.
But right now it feels like we're quite a long way away from even leaving London – although the proverbial ball is actually in serious motion. However painfully slow it seems to be rolling, the dogged determination is there and I think if I was going to stand in its way I would most definitely be resembling a sorry smear of overstretched pastry.
And to be honest I really do prefer puff.
So, here we are: mentioned job's been offered to husband and signed into, our flat has a buyer and is in the middle of the process of that very long process it takes to sell a property, we're practising the theory that 'patience is a virtue' with increasing impatience as we wait for the visas to materialise and I'm on 'Day One' of my voluntary redundancy where I'm trying to find some kind of nine-to-five rhythm at home which doesn't begin with rolling out of bed at 11am and end by me running around madly at 5.30pm wondering what the hell I've been doing all day and why I'm still in my dressing gown.
Still, I think I should be easing into this slowly, since the last time I had a break like this I was galavanting around Asia aged 27 with a backpack strapped to my torso not sure if I was going to get to where I was going on the back of a ute/bus/boat/plane in Cambodia/Vietnam/China/Nepal. To really get into the spirit of things, I'm feeling an innate need to inject my own tiny sense of adventure into this otherwise very organised departure.
Which is why today marks the beginning of a very special kitchen odyssey, which kills two birds with one spatula:
1) what to have for lunch everyday, and But right now it feels like we're quite a long way away from even leaving London – although the proverbial ball is actually in serious motion. However painfully slow it seems to be rolling, the dogged determination is there and I think if I was going to stand in its way I would most definitely be resembling a sorry smear of overstretched pastry.
And to be honest I really do prefer puff.
So, here we are: mentioned job's been offered to husband and signed into, our flat has a buyer and is in the middle of the process of that very long process it takes to sell a property, we're practising the theory that 'patience is a virtue' with increasing impatience as we wait for the visas to materialise and I'm on 'Day One' of my voluntary redundancy where I'm trying to find some kind of nine-to-five rhythm at home which doesn't begin with rolling out of bed at 11am and end by me running around madly at 5.30pm wondering what the hell I've been doing all day and why I'm still in my dressing gown.
Still, I think I should be easing into this slowly, since the last time I had a break like this I was galavanting around Asia aged 27 with a backpack strapped to my torso not sure if I was going to get to where I was going on the back of a ute/bus/boat/plane in Cambodia/Vietnam/China/Nepal. To really get into the spirit of things, I'm feeling an innate need to inject my own tiny sense of adventure into this otherwise very organised departure.
Which is why today marks the beginning of a very special kitchen odyssey, which kills two birds with one spatula:
2) how to empty the store cupboard between now and christmas.
Contents of the cupboard (in no particular order) include: pink peppercorns, green peppercorns, pickled lemons, preseved lemons, chickpeas, lentils, sundried tomatoes, tahini, yellow bean sauce, ackee, split peas, pomegranate molasses, shrimp paste, anchovies, fish stock, olives, porcini mushrooms, dried chinese mushrooms, baking supplies, dried fruits and nuts, pastas, gram flour, chocolate spread, honey, vegemite, rices and grains, lots of tea, spices from everywhere around the globe, verjuice, vinegars and nam pla... and the list goes on and on. Now do you see the challenge?
So, it was a pretty tentative start: yesterday's white kingsmill bread, toasted, with half a tomato that was lurking around since last monday (!!), halloumi – which has been hibernating in the cheese box for half the year (unopened, if you were wondering... it's amazing how long that rubbery dairy keeps for!) – grilled and then sandwiched around some fresh parsley, rocket and olive oil.
No, it's not crying-out-bonkers but it does the tick the right boxes in that I haven't bought anything new to concoct it and I am making things that have been morphing in the darkness of the pantry for whoever knows how long, into an edible lunch of sorts.
Feel free to stay tuned as this moves from the weird to the surreal and onto the downright disgusting. But please remember this is designed to keep me amused rather than you salivating at the mouth.
(Small disclaimer: You do not necessarily want to try this at home, infact I strongly advise against it.)
Posts
