The autumn rains are here

Autumn sort of sauntered in during the last week of September; now we're in to October it's decided that, yes, it's really here to stay so it had better get on with knocking all the leaves of the trees, and raining to complement the chill air. Hats were worn for dog walking last night.

At the weekend we took the dogs out for a long walk and the beaters were abroad sending pheasants into the line of sight of men with guns. The collies weren't bothered by the gun fire, which was good, and Bear only barked when he heard the spaniels barking on the other side of the hedge so that was good. We did nearly get hit by low flying (fleeing) pheasant (or they could have been partridges - not sure about that) but they managed to clear our heads and make a break for the woods.

As it is autumn, and we had inspiration from the huntin' and shootin' set, we had pheasant for dinner last night and it was fantastic. Chum #1 made it. Saute leeks in a bit of butter and line an oven dish with them; rest your breast of pheasant on top; sprinkle on pine nuts (it's supposed to be chestnuts but we couldn't get any fresh and the tinned were £2 which was a bit much); add a knob of butter and wack it in the oven. For the gravy, you drain off the juices from the bird and add some chicken stock and port, thicken with cornflour and you have the most gorgeous tasting sauce ever. Of course, we'll need to test the recipe again--just to make sure it works a second time, you understand!

Autumn. The season of soups (roasted pumpkin & butternut squash), stews (cawl), and pies (beef and stilton crumble). Nom nom nom.Tonight we will be having the glory that is the baked potato, covered with some of the Italian bean stew we made in bulk the other week and froze. Tastiness will be mine!

In other news: I've figured out how Tilly makes a vampire's shielding spell permanent and have written the sequence out longhand so that will need to be added to the draft. That should be done today and then I can do the changeover of notes so that I carry the outline for Part 2 around with me. 52k and rising.

A (Belated) Merry Christmas...

Christmas Day went well - a nice family meal with m'mater, chum #1 and her parents and our friend from uni (many moons ago, seems like). I was quite busy the day before, roasting a ham with maple syrup, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. It was, I am assured, fantastic. The fact that I had to actively fight the collies off to eat my portions would support its excellence. I think I will do this every Christmas; it's cheaper to buy an uncooked / smoked ham and roast it yourself, and it invariably tastes better (even with the cremating oven from Hell).

Nut roast tonight with steamed veggies; pork roast tomorrow (we would have had the pork roast on Christmas Eve - traditional Danish fare - but I didn't check the cooking instructions until about 2 hours before we were going to eat, and it has to be fully defrosted before use. :( But, that means we get it tomorrow and I still have the red cabbage to do as well as the hasselback taters. 's good.)

I haven't done any more on the novel, although I've planned a short story (started out as a ghost story, but I don't think it is now). So I've got more writing to do, as well as a plan of things I want to do / complete in 2009. I'm working on the 30th of December (a librarian's work is never done) but then I'm off again 'til the 5th of January, so it's been a lengthy holiday, which is nice.

I have been blessed with Amazon vouchers for Crimble, so there will be a trawling through the book book - adding titles, deleting some I've decided not get etc. - and then there will be purchasing of books. Yay! Bibliomania will be appeased! And in between everything else I can watch Season 2 of Dr Who. ::blinks:: I need to check that all of the discs are working ::blinks:: Honest.

Anyway, Joy to All & Peas on Earth. Time to go and sort out dinner before the 39 Steps starts!

Adventures in cooking...

Having been given a bag of frozen prawns, squid, and mussels by m'mother a little while ago, I finally decided what to do with them last night. (We won't discuss how long they were in the freezer. It'll be fine.)
Chum #1 is currently suffering from the hanging mucosal lergy and felt in need of zinc (hence the prawns) and I thought lots of nice vitamins and minerals couldn't hurt.

So, sauted onion and garlic in olive oil; added two big handfuls of freshly chopped parsley, and two big pinches of Tuscan herbs (similar to Italian herbs except it also includes fennel seeds - yum).
I added the fish and then I cheated a bit, using one of the (Schwartz?) fish sauces in a bag (tomatoes, olives and rosemary) because I didn't have enough time to let a homemade sauce settle*

Added a small bottle of passata, 3/4 of a green pepper, 1/4 of a red one, a sprinkle of freshly pestled peppercorns, some chopped fennel bulb, and two flat mushrooms, also chopped.

Let it burble for about 30 minutes, added two handfuls of arborio (sp?) rice and let it burble for another 15 minutes.

Lovely. Nom nom nom.

*If you've got the time, and don't have a ready sauce then I would just substitute another jar of passata and add in fresh rosemary, some olives, some capers and whatever other herbs and veg you like and let it burble slowly for a few hours. You can always add the fish later** once the sauce has settled in.
**Otherwise there will be rubber shellfish to chew and your jaws will ache.


Mood: Hungry