Cut here

I bought a packet of little gem lettuce today, (and a packet of rice cakes).
Both of them contain a dotted line and a picture of a pair of scissors, indicating how and where to open the packets.
I would have thought that anyone that needs instructions about where and how to open a packet of lettuce, probably shouldn't be using scissors unsupervised.

The Ides of March

From wikipedia:

In the Roman calendar, the Ides of March fell on the 15th day of the Roman month of Martius. The date is famous because Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BC. Because of Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar and its line "Beware the Ides of March", the term possesses a foreboding of doom.

Have a wonderful day.

Unwashed salad leaves

I was rummaging around in a friend's fridge today (we e-mentalists are a curious bunch) and I spotted the packet of Organic Herb salad leaves from Tesco, which proudly proclaims that they are "Unwashed" and advises "Wash before use".

This is a complete turnaround from those salad bags that are "washed and ready to eat".

We've come full circle; what was previously seen as a selling point ("washed and ready to eat") is no longer regarded as such. In fact, the complete opposite is the key selling point of the message ("unwashed").

More interesting is what we're doing eating salad leaves on the 8th March.

Pancakes for lunch

Having been planning to do so for days, I finally made pancakes for lunch.

This is the recipe I used:

• 110g flour
• Pinch salt
• 1 medium egg plus 1 yolk
• 225/275ml milk
• 2 tbsps melted butter (probably about 1.5 in the end).

It made six pancakes. The first was so large it was a joke. The last was only half a pancake. I would have thought that I could have got eight out of that recipe.

Still, they were tasty enough, but I'm not sure they needed the melted butter. Firstly, it's a bit of a faff to make, complicating the recipe more than I can really be bothered with. And secondly, it makes the pancakes pretty rich, which is not ideal if you plan to cram as many into you as I did.

We had them with asparagus (from a tin, rather than from overseas) and cream cheese.

Today, I starting writing a novel

Yup, I really did.

It's a fantasy-adventure sort of thing (seeing as you asked) and I'm aiming to write for half an hour every weekday morning. I'll even get up a little bit earlier in order to make time to do it.

I'm hoping I can manage about a thousand words a day, but I won't force it, and I'm not going to kick myself if I don't. I'll be celebrating if I do more than that.

The rest of it, I'll figure out as I go.

Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday

Or, in our house, the day when we ask why we don't have pancakes very often (once a year, if that). And where the recipe is.

And then we remember what a pain in the ass they are to cook for a family of four.

Even though we're not a family of four, we didn't have pancakes.

Still a strong smell of Reblochon in the house this morning.

Tartiflette

Tartiflette for dinner to night, made with potatoes from M. Trotin's garden, and a very well-travelled Reblochon cheese.

Onions, sauteed in olive oil, with chunked potatoes and lardons of gammon, were combined with white wine, creme fraiche and no thyme (instead mixed herbs) before being placed in an oven dish.

The travel-weary Reblochon cheese was then halved laterally and placed on top of the mix, and left in a 190 degree oven for around an hour.

The smell of the cheese pervaded the house, as we peeked inside every so often. Not acrid, but unusual. Not unpleasant, but strong. The finished dish was delicious, and three people (3docs) made a very sizeable dent in an enormous serving.

Accompanied by a green salad made with mache and chicory (from Mdm. Trotin's garden), a very satisfying meal.

"Produced from the day's second milking, this cheese measures 14cm across and 3–4cm thick, has a soft centre with a washed rind and weighs an average of 450g. As proof of its being well-aged in an airy cellar, the rind of this cheese is covered with a fine white mould. The optimal period to savour this cheese is between May and September after it has been aged six to eight weeks. It is also excellent from March to December."

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reblochon