Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Cheese scones
For the first time in what must be many months, made some cheese scones yesterday, using our little pink paperback cookbook from Whitworth's. In our possession for more than forty years. Recognising that we did not have two growing boys to feed, settled for two and one half times the amounts given in the recipe - this making 10 ounces of flour as the base - rather than the three times we would have used in years gone by. This resulted in 13 decent sized scones which we did between us in about 20 minutes. Not as nice when they had gone cold we told ourselves. Not really a way to slim but it did remind us, once again, of how many good things there are to eat which are easy at home but very hard to deliver on a large or commercial scale.
Then the following lunch time celery redeemed itself (see October 16), a modest amount doing very well as a padder in the luncheon steak and kidney. Steak and kidney followed up by some of those fair trade organic mars bars, actually fat and squishy dates, maybe half an ounce a pop. But which cannot contain much other than sugar with a splash of fibre. So lunch not very slimming either.
Moving onto literary matters, the other day went to get a book by one Marina Lewycka of Ukrainian tractor fame. First stop the library, where they could do a large print book or an audio book, which would not do at all. But they did have on their books a book called 'Caring for someone with a hearing loss' by someone of the same name. Plus a number of other books of the same ilk. So I reserve the hearing loss one and it turns up a couple of days later. In the meanwhile, off to Amazon to see what they can do. Where we find, that for books of this sort anyway, the second hand dealers with whom Amazon deal, price their books at 1p and make their money out of the £2.50 postage. Or at least I assume that is what they are up to. A wheeze to get their offering at the top of the page if you sort by price. So we now have the sequel to the Ukrainian tractor story, a book called 'Two Caravans'. Readable condition although the cover a bit tatty, a consequence of being a soft matt finish card rather than the shiny stuff that Penguin usually use. As a result of all of which, we learn that the two Marina's are one and the same, a lecturer, presumably in care work studies, social studies, social work studies or perhaps even sociology, at Sheffield Hallam university. Oddly, the two books maintain their distance. They are not mutually aware. Good for her. A 100% diet of caring might be a bit wearing.
PS: just checked with Sheffield Hallam and I am now a doubting Thomas. Maybe the name is not that rare in whatever part of Europe she comes from? She is listed as a member of the 'Humanities Research Centre' and one of her research outputs is listed as 'Two Caravans'. Perhaps the caring side of her personality will resurface after her research centre hits this morning's buffers.
# posted by Jim @ 6:27 AM 
