Minor policy statement, plus miscellaneous update

[pameladean]

I'm really bad at replying consistently to comments, but I always love it when people tell me what's blooming in their gardens or what birds or animals they've seen; I truly always appreciate it, however lax I am in expression.

I've been lax in expression when reading other people's stuff, too, and have not expressed sympathy or congratulations where I ordinarily would. I've got a lot going on in my head that I can't talk about, which is only a partial excuse.

In more exterior news, I wrote 500 words on Chapter 5 yesterday, which makes me smug.

Last Saturday I hosted tea for the Romance Exchange. This is always a big deal -- there are six of us, and we have tea roughly every other month, so any given member only hosts once a year. This was the menu:

Do-it-yourself sandwiches:

Tahini-vegetable-herb spread
Salmon (all right, canned) with fresh dill, green onions, and balsamic vinegar
Cucumber, sweet red pepper, greens, watercress, green onions (I forgot to put out the avocado)
Oatmeal bread
Whole-wheat bread
Rice crackers with seaweed and sesame
Two kinds of Scandinavian flatbread

Do-it-yourself sandwiches were introduced by a lovely woman who was one of us for a couple of years and dropped out because her schedule was too hectic. They are a tremendous lifesaver if you are short of time; they prevent sandwiches' getting soggy; and they remove the necessity of worrying about various people's dietary peculiarities, so long as there is a good spread of ingredients.

They are not very elegant, however.

To continue:

Samosa pie
Vegan asparagus quiche

Sweet whole-wheat scones
Butter or margarine
Blackcurrant jam

Chocolate pie in a ginger shortbread crust (the latter made from a failed batch of vegan shortbread)

Fresh strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, with cream

Peet's Special Darjeeling
Thomas's Breakfast Blend

I used to do a lot more, little stuffed buns, homemade bread; and I would, a few years ago, made two of every pie, just in case of, well, I don't know exactly.

There were enough leftovers to feed David, Lydy, Raphael, Eric and me dinner, and to provide me and, I surmise by the disappearance of a large amount of tahini spread, several other people, lunch for the next few days also. I also put aside a piece of samosa pie for Christopher, and I hope he got some of the spread. He was absent at a friend's house when we devoured most of the leftovers.

The housecleaning was marked by Christopher's heroically removing the disgusting filthy pink carpet from the downstairs bathroom, scraping and deodorizing the floor, and laying new vinyl tiles. The change is amazing. I cannot imagine why anybody ever puts carpet in a bathroom. Profoundly stupid and insanitary.

I did more ordinary dusting and sweeping. I had planned to damp-mop the floors as well, but when, at three a.m. on Saturday morning, I found myself lying on my back on the living-room floor, obsessively vacuuming dust bunnies off the lamp cord that the vacuum had removed from the wall, I decided to quit now.

I didn't get the napkins washed and had to provide paper towels instead, which is also not elegant, but sometimes life is just like that.

Pamela

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Come visit our (well, Karen's) garden sometime.

B

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

Hey. . . you comment when you can, and when you feel like it. I like the glimpses that I get into your worlds, but don't always comment to you, either.

[jeliza]

It sounds just lovely -- and the do-it-yourself sandwiches are an idea that may move ahead the date of my next tea party, since it sounds like a significant work reduction. Thanks for sharing.

[kyrielle]

I don't comment all that often either, but I enjoy. Sometimes just the awareness that folks are reading is enough.

And your description of vacuuming the cord had me giggling.

[numbat.livejournal.com]

I always love it when people tell me what's blooming in their gardens or what birds or animals they've seen

Does this include other countries where the birds and animals are unfamiliar to you? I mean I culd mention that a couple of months ago while cycling in to work one afternoon I met an echidna ambling across the bike path. It appeared to be heading towards the lake edge which is no more than a metre of the path at that point. Do echidnas drink from pools I wonder? If not it seems a strange place for it to visit.

[pameladean]

Certainly. Fauna is fauna. So to speak.

Pamela

[carbonel]

I was there, and it was all wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the samosa pie. I'm always dubious about starch-in-starch sorts of things (like knishes and samosas and chip butties), but this had a wonderful spice mixture and interesting texture. The fresh fruit was enhanced by the heavy cream (no additives) provided by Lydy and poured from a glass bottle.

I have mixed feelings about the do-it-yourself sandwiches; they make things much simpler, and actually provide more variety, but (as you say) are considerably less elegant. The big upside is that the sandwiches are much likelier not to be soggy, which is an ongoing problem, especially if you want to have stuff done the night before.

My big decision is always whether to make things that I've made before (and I know work) or try something new and therefore more fraught. I've been doing this for (ye gods!) over 15 years now, so I have a nice accumulation of recipes. But I'm always on the lookout for new ones.

[pameladean]

I was more or less forced into new recipes when I changed my diet, and don't feel I have a very large repetoire yet.

I am astonished at what I used to do. Six kinds of made-ahead sandwiches. Four sweets. I don't know if it's the bad kitchen or something else, but I just can't do that these days.

Pamela