Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Good things



So, I'm kind of into food blogs. I like eating good food, I like making good food, and I like reading about people making and eating good food. There are two problems with this.

The first is that I have to be careful about when I read them. There's nothing like reading about someone's wonderful spanish chorizo stew at eleven in the morning - just when you're starting to think about what you want to have for lunch, but a bit to early to actually have a break.

The second is that right now, I barely have enough cash for the cheap Tesco own-brand things at the moment, much less expensive high-quality ingredients.

I'd always wondered just how much of a difference good-quality ingredients made when cooking. After all, growing up in a society where you're trained to think that the cheaper something is, the better value it is means that you're generally on the look-out for a bargain. But listening to all these food bloggers rave on about their favourite olive oil finally got the better of me. So, about a month and a half ago I took myself off to Whiteleys, near my office, and selected a £12.50 bottle of olive oil. After all, it was (supposedly) summer, and there was quite a bit of salad knocking around my fridge.


I got home, did the salad dance of washing and ripping up leaves, chopping veggies, and putting everything in a bit bowl. Then I poured this on top, along with some balsamic syrup I'd gotten on a trip to Borough Market, and took a bite.

I now understand why people buy good olive oil.

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Monday, September 08, 2008

Burning embers


There's been some knitting going on over here. Quite a bit, actually. I seem to have gotten into a knitting zone, where I'm burning through projects that I've been working on for ages. These are a pair of socks, my own pattern, that were made as a birthday gift for someone... who will be getting them over six months late, when I'm back in the States for Christmas.

The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug in the Sahara colourway, and I loved knitting with it. I'm definitely going to get more when I have the chance, and would highly recommend it.


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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Becoming my mother

Saturday was the first nice day we've had in... well, the month of August, really. I'm getting ready to go out, and getting together all the bits I usually take with me - wallet, book, iPod, keys, water bottle, extra book, jumper, umbrella - and trying to find my sunglasses. Something I haven't tried to do in quite some time. I'm moving bits of paper around my room, looking in drawers, and throwing things onto my bed.

Giving up, I shove some of the bits on my bed to the side and sit down.

Crack.

Standing up, I reach under the shirt I'd sat on and see my sunglasses. By sitting on them, I'd broken one of the arms of the glasses off. Holding the glasses in one hand, and the arm in the other, I look back and forth between them. I've finally become my mother.

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