After work today I didn’t really
feel like going for a swim. But Matt, my husband, said “let’s go now” and since
he was showing unusual enthusiasm I thought I’d better not make any excuses.
My previous swim had been on
Monday and had been cut short by a small boy vomiting in the pool. So today I
was of the opinion that if I was going to make the effort to get into the pool
I should make up for that short swim with a long one. Matt was not of the same
opinion and I noticed at about 80 lengths that he had got out. I am a very
antisocial swimmer and swim with an MP3 player so am basically oblivious to
what is going on around me. This proved to be hazardous on Monday when I failed
to notice that the lifeguards had cleared the pool following the vomiting
incident until one of them tapped me on the head. Fortunately Matt was still in
the changing room after I had made my 100 length target so I was not forced
into even more physical exertion with a walk home.
It was quite late by the time we
got in, but after all that exercise I felt pretty hungry. Something quick and
filling was called for: jacket potatoes or pasta. (We have a microwave with a
jacket potato function which kind of half-microwaves-half-bakes the potatoes so
that they are done really nicely in about a quarter of an hour.) Since we had
no jacketing potatoes pasta it would be.
I made a quick kind of bolognese
sauce. In a household that doesn’t eat meat it will only ever be a kind of
bolognese sauce. Today’s variant was:
- A
large onion, 2 sticks of celery, 3 carrots - all chopped up and fried until
soft. Sometimes I also add mushrooms and / or peppers here but we had none. I
would also usually put in garlic, but we only had smoked garlic. When I went to
get some for chopping it was quite evident that it was past its best. Which is
unsurprising, I suppose, given that I’d imported it from the Isle of Wight last
August.
- Vegetarian
mince, added until browned a bit. We had half a bag in the freezer which was
ideal.
- A
tin of plum tomatoes. It wasn’t until after I’d added them that I realised that
they weren’t chopped. Usually I use scissors in the tin to chop non-chopped
tinned tomatoes but today I had to undertake the slightly trickier task of
chopping in the pan. The tricky bit is avoiding the non-stick surface of the
pan.
- Some
(probably about 100ml) red wine (which I rinsed the tomato tin out with). A
spoonful of vegetable stock powder. A spoonful of yeast extract. Some
Worcestershire sauce could have replaced either one of those. I have found that
using all three on one occasion is excessive.
You can simmer away for quite a
long time if you like, but hunger dictated that it would be a less mature kind
of bolognese this evening. Matt kept an eye on it and got the pasta ready
(fusilli today) while I made some cookies.
These were very simple: butter,
sugar, flour, egg, vanilla and chocolate. The recipe said that I should mix it
with a wooden spoon but I figured I would use the electric whisk. I have been
having some problems with my elbow (if it’s possible to get tennis elbow from
swimming I think that might be it) so wanted to avoid manual labour if
possible. The electric whisk was fine.
The main hazard I found in the
preparation of the cookies was the presence of a small dog. We are taking care
of my mother-in-law’s Yorkshire terrier, Fred, for a week. I have been led to
understand that dogs should not eat chocolate - apparently it can kill them.
The chocolate for the cookies had to be “roughly chopped”. Fred is always
around your feet when there’s anything to do with food going on and the process
of chocolate chopping inevitably results in some chocolate dust finding its way
to the floor. Matt said not to worry too much and pointed out the time,
Christmas 2011 I think, when he managed to get his way into and lick away a not
insignificant quantity of premium dark chocolate. He was fine then and 2 hours
after today’s chocolate consumption seems to be none the worse for it.
The cookies baked while
we ate dinner. I wanted to put some cheese on it but the small amount of (open)
remaining cheddar had grown a fur coat so I thought better of it. There will be
some lucky birds getting that cheese tomorrow. Rather than opening a new cheese
Matt challenged me to eat dinner cheeseless. And do you know? I don’t think it
was any the worse for the absence of dairy. I was somewhat shocked when I
returned from the kitchen having removed the cookies from the oven to find Matt
feeding Fred veggie bolognese from a fork.
Since the cookies
would have to cool before we could go to be and it would be nice to digest the
pasta bit before bed I decided to have a bit of pudding – very rare for a week
night. I’d bought some strawberries a few days ago (out of season I know but
they smelt lovely) and it was about time that they were eaten up. I’m going
away for the weekend and it would be unlikely that Matt would choose them
himself. My first thought had been to serve them with some spray cream but as I
was rinsing them I had the idea of making strawberry sundaes: the above with
the addition of some vanilla ice-cream and sprinkles. I would have added some
fruity sauce too if we had some. Our ice-cream thursdaes were devoured. 
The cookies did the usual thing
of spreading out whilst baking and joining up to each other. I refuse to use
more baking trays to prevent this so my cookies are likely to always be
slightly non-round. Most of the cookies are for sharing with my friends this
weekend but one of them broke in the process of removal from the baking tray so
it seemed only prudent to test it. Matt approved, but he generally does of
sweet things.
They’ve packed up
nicely into a two tier sandwich box (I partially chose cookies for ease of
transportation); and now I just await the verdict of a broader jury.
