Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Returning to the land of culinary adventure



The rain keeps coming down. We’re certainly not having to do much to follow the instructions to make sure the new lawns are watered every day. It’s reassuring, though, to see for all the rain, no lakes have appeared in the garden. When the rain has come down heavily, not surprisingly the water has collected a bit on the paths & beds but it quickly disappears again. They’ve certainly made a great improvement to the drainage.

Meanwhile I’m getting back to more original cooking. During all this work, my concentration went to pot, with the result, whenever I cooked something original it went awry. So for the last week or so I’ve stuck to tried & tested recipes, using up food from the freezer. And we have eaten better for it.

Today is food shop day, so I will top up on the short-lived ingredients for the more experimental meals that have gone off (cream) or never been bought (fresh fish). Then I will return to more experimental cooking some of the time at least.

The Fox expressed his pleasure in having the old favourites & questioned why I keep trying new things. He thinks I try some bizarre combinations & suspects I do it just for the sake of novelty.

It isn’t that. I confess I have a hatred of routine – the result of a childhood when you knew which day of the week it was from the meal you had that day. But it’s also because I appreciate the challenge of doing something new. It keeps my interest in cooking, stops it becoming just another chore to be done. I like the adventure, the stimulation. I admit it sometimes means disasters, but it also can mean new wonders.

Still, today, the Fox is in charge of an old favourite, Spicy Prawns & Chorizo. It’s quick & easy to make, delicious to eat with some fresh crusty bread which we can buy while we’re doing the food shop. Mmmm Mmmmm.

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