A Life of Food

It never ceases to amaze me how much time we seem to spend thinking about, shopping for, watching, talking about, cooking & eating food. Yesterday it took up a substantial part of the day.

We went along to the Pub yesterday - PD is finally well enough to want to go again. On the way we stopped at the butcher's for some chicken for Saturday.

We'd barely sat down in the Pub with our crossword, when Mr P, the music teacher, turned the corner. He duly joined us. 

We had the food clue "small pie" . Answer "turnover". We were all disgusted at that. A pie & a turnover are not the same thing, though what the difference is I'm not sure. After all both are encased in pastry.

Mr P went on to tell us of his culinary escapades over Christmas. He ended up doing a lot of cooking as various members of the family went down with illness, mainly colds & flu. He's also preparing for a wedding, & a dinner party as part of his home-catering business. He retires this year from teaching. He's still only in his 50s &  so is intent on making his living from what seems like a burgeoning catering business. He's already getting commissions &, so far, we've only heard about satisfied customers. Discussion also went to the TV programme "Michel Roux's Service" on BBC2. Mr P was also recruiting waiting staff from those who work at the Pub. He realises the need for good front of house.

So we came home, cooked & enjoyed our mackerel. It's a good meaty fish. Oily, too, so it's good for our aging tickers.

After getting changed I settled down to watch the second part of the Michel Roux programme. We gave up in despair & moved instead to a bottle of Loire chenin blanc & some CD's with food references eg Louis Arnstrong's "Blueberry Hill & "The Peanut Vendor" by way of contrast to Eileen Barton's "If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake", Hank William's "Jambalya (on the Bayou)" & Jo Stafford's "Shrimp Boats". After the wine, over some tea, I finished the evening, curled up in the Fox's arms, watching an episode of "Daily Cook's Challenge" recorded earlier on ITV3.

And so now, today, first thing I did after breakfast, is turn to food preparation. It's home-made turkey nuggets with a spicy tomato dip today. The dip will just need re-heated tonight, the nuggets frying up, the potatoes cut into chips & deep-fried & some sweetcorn warmed up. Quick & easy.

Food is never far from our minds. It's a good thing it's not only essential for life but it is something we can enjoy & take pleasure in in so many ways. We certainly seem pretty obsessed by it.