Like a longer entry is more likely to have only one subject

[pameladean]

It's bitter cold. I am so fed up with cooking that I'm taking a six-week vacation from it starting after my birthday. It's not that I won't cook at all, it's that my cooking will no longer be the default. I'm hoping I'll be able to get something else done, including finding new recipes to add to the repetoire so I don't get so bored.

I'm still reading STEALING THE ELF-KING'S ROSES.

And still watching Season Six of "Buffy" with varying degrees of hope and infuriation.

Lydy has put some angelfish and some cory-catfish in the tank in the dining room. A recent dinner conversation in their presence was interrupted in layers; first David remarked on how oddly the angelfish moved and speculated on what the evolutionary aspects of that movement were, and then I interrupted him because Benson, the black one, kept coming across the same bit of dead vegetation, slurping it up, and spitting it out when he realized it was not food. At least my housemates and guests don't do that.

That dinner was okay. Dal, brown rice, curried eggplant, aloo gobi. We had to scrape a bit at the bottoms of several old jars of chutney. I must make more tomato chutney soon. Everybody likes it except David; it's too much like ketchup for his tastes. Early in my relationship with Eric, I told Raphael that Eric liked my cooking and liked the chutney, and Raphael told me solemnly, "Look, I'm fine with your having sex with him, but we really can't have anybody else eating the tomato chutney." (Lydy got the recipe from Elise's friend Sam, some time ago now. The first time I made it Sam had to lend me a handful of fennel seeds. I'd never used them before.)

Eric's been asking a lot of provocative questions about my book, resulting in my making a lot of notes and lists. Writing had better happen soon, though. I'm momentarily stymied by the unsystematic nature of Liavekan naming conventions, and also by the necessity of deciding whether I am actually going to add two more viewpoint characters.

I so don't like this time of year. The days are getting longer, I will say that. My cyclamen is resurrecting itself again and beginning to bloom.

Pamela

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Beth's Farm Kitchen sells the best tomato chutney I've ever had. It's the Blazing Tomato Chutney in the middle of the page.

If you order some, let me know because I want some too.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

... finding new recipes to add to the repetoire so I don't get so bored

I'm doing this, too. Last month we went to a wonderful restaurant in Bath and we bought the cookbook. It's vegetarian, but that doesn't interest me as much as the new flavors and techniques I hope to pick up. I made an Iranian stuffed eggplant dish with coconut milk curry that was quite good, and unlike anything I usually do. Unfortunately, this dish also had a vast number of ingredients I don't keep on hand, and we went to three stores to find everything. And it was quite complicated to make. If all goes according to plan, my shopping habits will change to accommodate some new favorites, and I'll get faster at making things, too.

I hope to cook my way through this cookbook, because it seems so promising and expansive. When you get back the urge to make some food, you might want to look at the recipes on the Demuths Restaurant web site.

My cyclamen is resurrecting itself again and beginning to bloom.

How perfectly nice! I was just downstairs counting weeks on my fingers to see if my amaryllises have sat alone in the dark long enough yet. Next week, it'll be. I've never gotten a cyclamen to rebloom; maybe I should give it a try again.

K. [unsure what is wanted with cyclamen]

[pameladean]

B. also mentioned the wonderful eggplant dish. I have bookmarked the site; thank you.

As for the cyclamen, I have no idea. It's in a north-facing window but also gets indirect light from a westward-facing one that usually has the blind pulled; the pot is set in a saucer on a tray of gravel, and when I water it I water the gravel too. This is the only one I have ever got to rebloom.

Pamela

This time of year

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I don't like it, either. The cold seems to sink into the bones.

Why do I live in Minnesota? And yet I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else . . . at least until I'm old and gray and creaky and in danger of shattering a brittle hip if I slip on the ice.

This year I'll actually be visiting the St. Paul Winter carnival for the first time (book research, ya know). Maybe that will give me a different perspective on winter.

Peg

Re: This time of year

[pameladean]

I used to love winter. Part of the problem is that this isn't proper winter. It's cold and dark, but there aren't heaps of snow. (I know, I know, that has its own problems.) And fall was weird with October being so cold and glum. Not a proper preparation.

Pamela

[serendipoz.livejournal.com]

Would you be interested in borrowing some cookbooks to look for more recipies? I've got Indian, Mexican, White Trash, Jewish, Fondue, etc. I'm progressing into reading M.F.K.Fisher so food is on my mind, ....

*sigh*

The *cold* bothers me, but I do appreciate the days growing longer as well. You, though are out in the cold more often than I.

[pameladean]

Thanks, but I have more cookbooks than I have ever read. I need to mine them for vegan or vegan-adaptable recipes, and to actually read through the vegetarian ones I haven't done that with yet.

Pamela

[diony.livejournal.com]

For new recipes you might enjoy Soupsong (http://www.soupsong.com), which is an extensive website about soup. I have had very good luck with the handful of recipes I've tried off of there, and they have many very strange things which I find inspiring. I'm not certain how easy it would be to make the recipes vegan, though.