vital functions

[kaberett]

Reading. ... huh. Apparently this week the sum total of Things I Read is approximately "skimmed a tiny bit more of the end of Dead Country".

... WAIT. Which would ALSO be because I reread (or something like it) in its entirety [https://www.eatyourbooks.com/library/158875/leiths-how-to-cook-bread]Leiths How to cook bread](https://www.eatyourbooks.com/library/158875/leiths-how-to-cook-bread) for the purposes of indexing it for EYB! My indexing (i.e. "writing a list of all the recipe titles and then all of the ingredients for each recipe, plus categorising them") is currently in The Review Queue. Obviously I spotted two "obvious" things wrong with it after hitting the "submit" button, but I have cheerfully e-mailed in going "whoops sorry", because I wish to make A Good Impression for the purposes of Being Allowed To Keep Doing This. (There are three other books in that tiny series that are Next On My List should my indexing be deemed Not More Work Than Doing It Themselves, and I've then got another four more substantial books I'd like to index once I'm done with those. One is allowed to have one book in the process of being indexed at a time. I am Fidgety With Impatience.)

Watching. Farscape 01.17 Through the Looking Glass. This... continues A Show.

Playing. I Love Hue: The Dream/Sleepwalker/6 Currently In Progress. Still in the hexagons. (Pretty sure the point I stalled on previous phone was triangles, so theoretically nothing new yet but I have obviously forgotten everything and am continuing to enjoy myself.)

Cooking. More East: honey, soy and ginger braised tofu was a bit on the sweet side for us; the paneer, tomato and kale saag was an entirely acceptable way to eat kale (which A does not particularly enjoy, but I do); the mashed potato paratha recipe in the book is not the same as the one in the Graun, from which it was adapted (in that it is glorified potato cakes, rather than dough stuffed with potato), and I am thoroughly content to stick with my default aloo paratha recipe (though I might try her Graun version, and I at least liked the Quick Lemon Pickle). (A might also like the quick lemon pickle under less trying circumstances, but this week has been... trying.) And! Cardamom kheer: definitely not the same as my other rose-cardamom-pistachio rice pudding recipe, and a welcome addition to the rotation, I think.

Also Ottolenghi's caramelised onion orecchiette with hazelnuts and sage, courtesy of realising I'd cocked up meal planning and didn't actually have all the ingredients for the thing I'd been intending to do tonight. Happily having caramelised onions in the freezer makes this a less-than-half-an-hour food; it went extremely well with a tiny salad made of lambs' lettuce (from the plot!!!), diced red onion, and lemon juice. (Went slightly light on sage because the patio plant is sulking for winter, but also: used fresh sage from the patio!)

Eating. LAMBS' LETTUCE FROM THE PLOT.

... er. Probably some other things? Right now, a square of dark chocolate plus Warm Milk With Nutmeg as supper en route to bed.

Making & mending. GLUB. I have just a little earlier this evening cast off the thumb hat!!! ... which I'm going to frog back a little and redo, because I have now Realised both why I have over a metre of yarn left over and that I need to make my notes-to-self about what I did Somewhat Clearer. On the one hand this is mildly annoying; on the other hand we are here talking something like 10 rows of 8 stitches each, so it is Not Exactly A Big Deal! (... but I was so close to having actually finished one of the pair. ALAS.)

I am tentatively hopeful that the second will be slightly less Penelope's Gloves, on the grounds that (1) I have remembered how to knit and (2) I have already actually worked out all of the modifications so this one might involve less experimentation... and the yarn for A's pair has arrived so those are next in the queue thereafter.

(I am sufficiently happy with the various structural modifications I've made that I'm working out how to optimally write them up in my pattern notes on Ravelry, but also trying to work out if there is any ethical way to make the modified pattern available given that the original is no longer online.)

Growing. I have done so much pruning: the redcurrant now approximates An Open Goblet; I've managed to give away most of the josta prunings but am not attempting to do same with the Ribisel partly because it is So Much Work and partly because I have not had quite as many problems with those trying to sprout when put in the ground -- though in theory you can propagate them that way -- so I am contemplating pressing them into service as pea sticks...)

Also at the plot: I have lifted, divided, and reinserted into the ground some garlic I managed to miss during last year's harvest (so we might actually be approximately self-sufficient in garlic for at least six months from the middle of the year!); weeded a bunch; interred some shallot and onion sets left for me by one of the households that backs onto the allotment site (???); and made a desultory start on mulching the raspberries.

At home: the lemongrass is doing well! And I have sown so many seeds: some peas (where I am honestly checking for viability and not particularly hopeful); red onion, leek (some that definitely won't come up because it's nearly 15 years old but at least the packet is now empty without me being Wracked with Guilt, and some that is much younger and hopefully will), shallot, and garlic chive; and, in further viability tests about which I am not particularly holding my breath, some golden beetroot and pak choi. In the propagator I've got three kinds of tomato (and at least six more I really need to get to), five chillis (two heatless) and one sweet pepper, aubergine, and two kinds of physalis. On top of it I've got another tray containing French marigold, Nigella sativa, oregano, and lovage.

My list of things that need starting semi-urgently is Lengthy (I found a missing packet of seeds I am particularly excited about!!!), but I am currently feeling fairly enthusiastic about the whole undertaking, so fingers crossed I don't run out of tuits before I run out of seeds...

Observing. Allotment fox! Allotment parakeets! SO many crocuses and irises and daffodils and narcissi and snowdrops and and and. Everything else going enthusiastically into bud: the josta is turning green and even the gooseberry is thinking hard about emerging from dormancy.

Astonishing sliver of crescent moon last night. Extremely picturebook. Delightful.

Comments

[lunabee34]

Lemongrass smells so glorious.

[divulge]

<3

[vass]

<3