Tuesday 8 January 2013

Beginning As I Hadn't Meant To Be Going On ...Wittering And Photo-less

Sonata:
I wish I could show you my wonderful vintage ad. of a ballerina twirling round her kitchen holding a saucepan on high , and say that I , too , was leaping round like a gazelle , thanks to a week of Pilates and a startling variety of vegetable dishes . But I can't . Blogger won't let me and besides , I'm really just feeling girlishly lightheaded and giggly because it's not raining at the moment and there seems a possibility that Winter will one day end . A feeling shared by two magpies who strutted about outside yesterday afternoon , thumbing their beaks at a rather dopey ginger tom who probably knew that he'd never be able to pounce on them but felt he had to try ...
As for the unusual vegetables ? Well , I'm doing my best .  Husband  decided that he really prefers his Brussel sprouts lightly boiled and tossed in butter and really didn't seem overwhelmed by the offer of the countess's  Brussel Sprouts Au Gratin or a Pain de Choux de Bruxelles ( a sort of savoury Bread Pudding containg a kilo of pureed sprouts , stale bread and eggs and baked in the oven for an hour before being served with a cream sauce ) . Still , true to the spirit of more adventurous eating , I did put a discreet amount of fresh ginger in the red lentil soup at lunchtime and it was declared the nicest for a long time . Stealth is apparently called for ....
I see other people are busy with their New Year resolutions , too . This morning a very little boy came whizzing round the corner on his tiny two-wheeler , followed a second or two late by a puffing father in a track suit , rather niftily combining babysitting with taking more exercise  , I thought .
Oh , and in case anyone's wondering if I've abandoned my knitting , not at all ! I had to stop for a couple of weeks , having suddenly received an order for a second doll's quilt to match the one just bought by someone decorating her new dolls' house . But it's been sent off now and I'm ready to start up again . A turquoise mohair cardi. is nearly mine .
Anyway , any lingering temptation to stay online ,  reading everyone's blogs , is quashed by the yowling of next door's cat , who's just the other side of the kitchen wall . A cat on heat makes a startling amount of noise ,  we're finding .
edited ( with a smirk .. and fingers crossed ) : I've just followed the instructions on a Google problem solver and hope that works . Let's see ....

13 comments:

English Rider said...

Fresh ginger is a great addition to sweet or savory dishes. If your soup were to become overly spiced with ginger, serve with a dab of yoghurt in the middle of each dish for balance.

Rattling On said...

I love sprouts. LOVE them. Haven't made any resolutions this year, but have some thoughts on getting out and moving more. Maybe I also need a small boy on a bike??

Liz Hinds said...

Winter will definitely end - although the rain may not according to Husband who is a gloomy weather forecaster predicting years ahead of rain and no sun. Anyway we had sun today so that's fine.

Can't say I blame your husband regarding the sprouts ...

shandy said...

We have found that chopped sprouts seem to melt away in vegetable soup. Our local Indian restaurant offers sprout bhajees as a Special.

Marcheline said...

I used to abhor, hate, loathe, avoid, evade, despise, and generally run away from brussels sprouts. Until I met my husband. When he makes them, they are delicious!

Oddly, it was the same with egg salad. I wouldn't even sit at the same lunch table in grade school with anyone who brought an egg salad sandwich for lunch. Hubby came along and *whammo* - delicious egg salad!

It must be love.

Carolina said...

We have a steam-oven and B. sprouts have never been tastier. Just steamed in the oven, nothing added. No salt, no butter, no nutmeg even. But... delicious!

Ginnie said...

Well done getting your picture up (to say nothing of your other accomplishments). I had never had brussel sprouts until I met my husband, a true Dutchman who loved vegetables well-cooked. In my estimation, overcooked. A few months ago two Brit friends of mine raved over how much they liked sprouts, so now I follow their advice and cook them lightly with some garlic and green onion. Really delicious.

Friko said...

If you carry on eating like this you’ll resemble a sprout - in shape - yourself, plumply rotund. All that butter and cream can’t be good for you.

Poor Tom/Tomasina, whatever did you do to him/her?

rachel said...

I SO wish that had been a photo of you.....

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Carolina , I've only seen them on Belgian cookery programmes . You've made them sound worth further investigation .
Friko , as long as I'm not sprout-colour !... Oh , and I consulted Google problem solver about uploading photos to Blogger , NOT what to do to silence cats on heat !!
Rachel , so do I ....

molly said...

My, but you look svelte and fetching, not to mention agile! That IS you, right? Thought so....I would not turn my nose up at that delicious sounding brussel sprout bread pudding. It's been at least a decade since I made or ate bread pudding of any kind. Cats have been caterwauling around here too---international cat mating season?

love those cupcakes said...

I'm looking at that picture and I'm thinking 'risk assessment'. I'm also thinking 'sprouts with ginger', something along these lines:

http://www.riverford.co.uk/feed/in:recipes/wok-fried-brussels-sprouts-with-ginger/

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

I am having a go at more adventurous eating too, or perhaps I should say cooking. We have fallen deeply into the rut of eating food that suits my 94 year old father in law and it is boring me rigid. Need some sneaky ways to produce things which are a bit out of the ordinary which look like meat and two veg!