Inca in the snow

The walk to John’s shop – the post office and general store in our village – was quite arduous today. Usually it’s a five minute stroll. But the snow made it heavy going. Even in my trusty Bearpaw sheepskin boots.

Walking in snow that’s over 10 cm is quite tiring as you have to lift your feet as high as a badly operated puppet. At some points in the journey it was easier to walk in the road.

Just a handful of houses had cleared the pavement in front of their houses. The rest, like me, had left the snow.

In the old days everyone used to clear the pavement outside their houses but nowadays most people are frightened about being sued if someone slips. Some people think that this is an urban myth but in reality the Local Authority is liable for clearing the roads and the pavements in the UK.

Your responsibility lies in clearing a path from the pavement to your house. If you clear the path outside your house and someone slips there you can be sued.

It seems a shame to me that the fear of litigation stops UK residents from being neighbourly. What do you think?

Chicken, tomato and mushroom risotto - true comfort food

I’m not very keen on the combination of chicken and cooked tomatoes. Would never have chicken on a pizza. But I had half a tin of tomatoes left over from our favourite sausage and bean dish and thought that I’d bung them into a chicken risotto as an experiment. Risottos are so easy to make and are a great way of using up scraps that are knocking about in the fridge.

The result was really tasty and good. Danny was amazed – I hadn’t told him about the experiment just passed him his plate of food and slipped nervously into the kitchen as he took has first forkful.
“This is truly sublime! I would never have thought that tinned tomatoes would be good in risotto!”

Phew.

Chicken, mushroom and tomato risotto(for 4)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp of olive oil
275g of Arborio rice
a couple of handfuls of chopped cooked chicken pieces
1 medium red onion – chopped
1 chunky clove of garlic chopped fine (or a teaspoon of garlic granules)
380g of mushrooms (sliced)
1 x 440g tin of red tomatoes (including juice)
1 tsp of vegetable stock powder
half a tsp of dried savoury (herb)
500-750ml of vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of grated parmesan
To dress:
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp of grated parmesan
Method:
Heat the olive in a large heavy bottomed sauté pan.
Gently fry the chopped red onion until it becomes translucent.
Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat the rice with the oil.
Add the chopped garlic and stir.
Put the tinned tomatoes in a measuring jug and top up with boiling water to make 500-750 ml of liquid. Add 1 tsp of vegetable stock powder and stir well.
Add the mushrooms and savoury.
Add the hot tomatoey stock about 200ml at a time and stir until it is absorbed.
When the rice is soft but still has a bite stir remove from the heat and stir in the chopped chicken and a tablespoon of grated parmesan. Cover the pan for five minutes to allow the meat to heat through.
Add a good dash of freshly ground black pepper, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and serve on warm plates.

Baby turnip with frothy leaves

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. Lots of really useful information and food for thought. In fact I reckon that the comments are far more valuable than the post!

Danny informed me last night that he doesn’t want to grapple with a black shower bag and hand pumped sprayer. He’d rather stay dirty or boil a kettle and have a strip wash. Do you remember strip washes? We used to have these at boarding school in between bath nights.

So an efficient shower that heats only the water that’s needed is now on the top of his wish list. Heating an entire tank of water just for a shower is just crazy. It’s also good to know that immersion heaters are a no-no too. They are one of the things that I remember always caused agro when flat sharing. Someone always seemed to get in before me and use up all the water. Soaking in a bath so deep that it slopped onto the floor and eventually onto my desk below.

Thinking about those baths – I used to share them at university with my friend Jane. Desperate to hit the one night spot in Hull that we liked (Scamps? disco – early 1970’s) we wanted to bathe within an hour. We would lie back, legs placed to the side so that two people could relax and sip a glass of Hirondelle wine.

And mucking about in the bath back then, I discovered a trick that could be fun even in these more sophisticated days. We called it the Frothing Sea Monster. To do this trick you do need to be careful that you only use an ultra clean bath sponge (just out of the washing machine) and you probably need written permission from your parents or doctor. Never use a sponge that is small enough to become lodged in your throat.

A large bath sponge can be compressed into a very small object that can be hidden in your mouth. OK you can’t talk, so you need to time this trick well and distract other’s attention whilst you get the sponge in place. A baby sponge will do but one of those very holey bigger bathe sponges would be better as they can compress right down to virtually nothing.

When you open your mouth the sponge springs out of your lips in a wonderful rush. Causing alarm and eventually amusement. I’ve just tested out this trick on D and he loved it. Horror, surprise and then roars of laughter. Followed quickly by the hesitant remark,
“Is that the sponge from under the sink that we use for cleaning the bath?”
He clearly thinks that I’m happy to sacrifice anything in pursuit of a joke.

It was actually a new baby sponge from a multi pack. And no, back in those uni days I didn’t bother to launder the sponge!