(no subject)
on the plus side of being at work on Easter Saturday, I get unlimited time to play online. This has involved looking up recipes for tonight's dinner, which started off as a small affair, but which appears to have escalated. Which is good, because if I stop to think about my personal/inner life at any point I start to sob noisily and get very depressed, so busy, busy it is.
All was going well until I found out that guest #2 is a vegetarian, which rather scuppered the chicken baked with olives, but means that something interesting with leeks and walnuts will be served instead (with strips of parma ham for the carnivores). And over the clamoring of voices raised in consternation 'but where is my invitation to this most glittering of events?' I can only say this; wait your turn! I used to cook for people all the time in York, with the most talented creator of fetishman providing wonderful roasts and banana-related entertainment, but I fell out of the habit. It's a little more difficult in London, as people live further out, social circles evolving as they do and and ultimately, forgetting one of life's principle pleasures, that of eating good food with good people. So, to try and turn this around, I'm intending on giving many more of these little dinners, and hopefully they shall be well received. Of course with new flat mates around, the place is still a little unpacked, but I'm starting with some old friends who I love very much, so I'm not expecting any particularly raised eyebrows. Of course, this all means new tableware, possibly in some kind of dramatic midnight blue or darkest red, with associated barware (I want a leather ice box! Where can I find a slightly padded, leather ice box?) and fine egyptian linen napkins. Or something like that. And cocktails. I shall be getting a lot of support from said new housemate, Boy A, who shares with me a taste for having beautiful things for everyday use. Not that we can afford them, of course, but the impulse is there!
A while ago I picked up the Decadent Cookbook, by Dorian whatshisface and some other chap, and am strongly attracted to this particular recipe for olives:
take an olive, stoned, and use it to stuff a plucked and boned wren. This bird is then used to stuff another, slightly less dimunitive, plucked and boned bird, possibly a quail. Scale up through about ten layers of increasingly large fowl, until you get to the turkey (ostrich?), where you can stop. The whole lot is then very slowly roasted, so that even the tiny little bird is carefully cooked through. This may take some time. When all is succulent, soft and tender, slice open and discard the meat, remove the olive, and eat the olive.
And now, I have a wine list to create, purchase, and sample, I'm thinking something fairly dry to counteract the milky sweetness of the sauce and quite citrusy to complement the courgettes. Hmmmm...
All was going well until I found out that guest #2 is a vegetarian, which rather scuppered the chicken baked with olives, but means that something interesting with leeks and walnuts will be served instead (with strips of parma ham for the carnivores). And over the clamoring of voices raised in consternation 'but where is my invitation to this most glittering of events?' I can only say this; wait your turn! I used to cook for people all the time in York, with the most talented creator of fetishman providing wonderful roasts and banana-related entertainment, but I fell out of the habit. It's a little more difficult in London, as people live further out, social circles evolving as they do and and ultimately, forgetting one of life's principle pleasures, that of eating good food with good people. So, to try and turn this around, I'm intending on giving many more of these little dinners, and hopefully they shall be well received. Of course with new flat mates around, the place is still a little unpacked, but I'm starting with some old friends who I love very much, so I'm not expecting any particularly raised eyebrows. Of course, this all means new tableware, possibly in some kind of dramatic midnight blue or darkest red, with associated barware (I want a leather ice box! Where can I find a slightly padded, leather ice box?) and fine egyptian linen napkins. Or something like that. And cocktails. I shall be getting a lot of support from said new housemate, Boy A, who shares with me a taste for having beautiful things for everyday use. Not that we can afford them, of course, but the impulse is there!
A while ago I picked up the Decadent Cookbook, by Dorian whatshisface and some other chap, and am strongly attracted to this particular recipe for olives:
take an olive, stoned, and use it to stuff a plucked and boned wren. This bird is then used to stuff another, slightly less dimunitive, plucked and boned bird, possibly a quail. Scale up through about ten layers of increasingly large fowl, until you get to the turkey (ostrich?), where you can stop. The whole lot is then very slowly roasted, so that even the tiny little bird is carefully cooked through. This may take some time. When all is succulent, soft and tender, slice open and discard the meat, remove the olive, and eat the olive.
And now, I have a wine list to create, purchase, and sample, I'm thinking something fairly dry to counteract the milky sweetness of the sauce and quite citrusy to complement the courgettes. Hmmmm...