Monday, September 17, 2012
Halcyon days
After the car booter, a taste the difference but cut price duck for lunch. May be 6 person-meals for £7 for what was not a bad duck at all.
Thus fortified, to Claremont Landscape Gardens, a sort of miniature Penshurst Place (see September 2nd). Lots of handsome trees and lots of young families. We also saw a kingfisher over the lake, the third time that I have seen such a bird in my life. A kingfisher which appeared to hover over the water before darting off.
Took tea and cake, in my case a coffee and walnut cake. A large piece of rather stale cake with the staleness somewhat disguised by rather a lot of sweet brown goo by way of icing; but I suppose one should not complain too much towards the end of a Sunday afternoon.
Back home to a supper of macaroni light. That is to say boil up macaroni with chopped onion and dried basil, allowing 4 ounces of macaroni, one large onion and a teaspoon of basil per person. Drain and top with grated parmesan to taste. Without our more usual celery instead of the onion a little bland, but entirely eatable and moderately healthy, quite low on fat anyway. I note in passing that consumption of macaroni - in various forms but not as macaroni cheese which I now find rather heavy, even when the sauce is cut with onion - is now running at maybe a third of a pound per person per week, from a start point near zero. Consumption of red lentils maybe another a third of a pound per person per week, consumption having recovered from an earlier stoma nurse ban. On the other hand, consumption of red meat is much reduced, only having bought one cow chop this year.
We have also noticed how dear red meat is. So the other day I did steak and kidney, which did 5 person-meals for a bit less than £10 - rather more than duck and a lot more than chicken. But good once in a while, just the same. I also learned that some saucy ladies buy their stewing steak from Sainsbury's then go to the Manor Green Road butcher to buy a little bit of kidney, not sold at the other place. Seems a terrible cheek, but maybe the butcher was pulling my leg. In any case, his kidney supplies are a bit erratic: no handy white plastic bucket of the stuff like the man at Cheam and one usually has to settle for frozen.
PS: back home from Claremont, we investigated kingfishers to find that their Latin name derives from the Greek halcyon, amongst other things a bird which used to nest out on the sea around the time of the winter solstice and so charmed the gods of wind and water that there was calm for the time it took to raise the brood. Hence the current meaning of the phrase halcyon days. This from the OED rather than Mr. Google who knew about lots of halcyons but not, seemingly, this one.
Thus fortified, to Claremont Landscape Gardens, a sort of miniature Penshurst Place (see September 2nd). Lots of handsome trees and lots of young families. We also saw a kingfisher over the lake, the third time that I have seen such a bird in my life. A kingfisher which appeared to hover over the water before darting off.
Took tea and cake, in my case a coffee and walnut cake. A large piece of rather stale cake with the staleness somewhat disguised by rather a lot of sweet brown goo by way of icing; but I suppose one should not complain too much towards the end of a Sunday afternoon.
Back home to a supper of macaroni light. That is to say boil up macaroni with chopped onion and dried basil, allowing 4 ounces of macaroni, one large onion and a teaspoon of basil per person. Drain and top with grated parmesan to taste. Without our more usual celery instead of the onion a little bland, but entirely eatable and moderately healthy, quite low on fat anyway. I note in passing that consumption of macaroni - in various forms but not as macaroni cheese which I now find rather heavy, even when the sauce is cut with onion - is now running at maybe a third of a pound per person per week, from a start point near zero. Consumption of red lentils maybe another a third of a pound per person per week, consumption having recovered from an earlier stoma nurse ban. On the other hand, consumption of red meat is much reduced, only having bought one cow chop this year.
We have also noticed how dear red meat is. So the other day I did steak and kidney, which did 5 person-meals for a bit less than £10 - rather more than duck and a lot more than chicken. But good once in a while, just the same. I also learned that some saucy ladies buy their stewing steak from Sainsbury's then go to the Manor Green Road butcher to buy a little bit of kidney, not sold at the other place. Seems a terrible cheek, but maybe the butcher was pulling my leg. In any case, his kidney supplies are a bit erratic: no handy white plastic bucket of the stuff like the man at Cheam and one usually has to settle for frozen.
PS: back home from Claremont, we investigated kingfishers to find that their Latin name derives from the Greek halcyon, amongst other things a bird which used to nest out on the sea around the time of the winter solstice and so charmed the gods of wind and water that there was calm for the time it took to raise the brood. Hence the current meaning of the phrase halcyon days. This from the OED rather than Mr. Google who knew about lots of halcyons but not, seemingly, this one.
# posted by Jim @ 3:30 AM 
