He was all over my desk this morning, chewing cables when he thought I wasn’t looking, thwipping things under the keyboard, and generally being bad in a rather charming sort of way.
He’s very black, as you may notice. And exceeding charming :)
Ron just came hurtling into the study, tail like the proverbial bog brush. Henry followed close behind, but not looking quite as bushy or agitated.
Turned out they’d both been asleep on the bed, and the window cleaner had startled them.
Ron wears a permanently startled expression, but this was something to behold. His little heart was going pumpity pump!
Edit: this photograph was taken in the kitchen last night, not after The Incident.
using up: smoked trout, a bulb of fennel
We like risotto; sometimes I make it in the oven, and sometimes I stand over the pot, ladling in stock. Whatever, I know my 5oz of rice to 1 pint of liquid works.
Today, I thought I’d try the slow cooker. I did a bit of Googling, and came up with a couple of ideas.
So, chopped the fennel and a red onion, put it in the slow cooker on high with a little olive oil, left it for an hour and stirred, left it for another hour and stirred again. OK so far.
Added 5 oz of arborio, and 1 pint of veg stock (made with the ever wonderful Marigold bouillon). Bit of seasoning, knob of butter. Sorted. Turned down to low, left for an hour, stirred it, all was well.
Came down half an hour later, zapped a piece of hot smoked trout with some butter in the microwave for 90 seconds, flaked it, opened the slow cooker and … overcooked. Ho hum.
Still, not a disaster – added the fish, lobbed in some double cream before serving, and hey presto, fennel and smoked trout kedgeree :)
I don’t know whether I cooked it too long, or there was insufficient liquid, or whether I should have put the stock in cold (there was hot water in the kettle so I used it). But it was still very nice, and the cats enjoyed the fish skin!
Pete and I were reading in bed last night, and there was a sort of scrabbling from under the bed. Kittins do scrabble, of course, but there seemed somehow to be a more concentrated aspect to this than usual.
So Pete got out and had a look. And found a rat. Dead, thankfully, but not for long, as it hadn’t stiffened up. Also thankfully, it was intact, despite Ron and Henry’s best efforts to open it. Pete has disposed of it.
A rat in February seems quite odd, and they certainly didn’t catch it themselves. We can only surmise that Aunt Lilith brought it in for them, as she is the only cat we have now who rats (as far as we know, of course). Perhaps she has commenced some sort of training regime.
| Originally published at the Tribe. |
It was only to tell them that their next worming treatment was due, and I have the pills here to do it (I expect it will hurt – us, not them).
But I bet they wouldn’t have told us if I hadn’ t picked up the post …
| Originally published at the Tribe. |
Last weekend, Sainsburys were doing whole Gressingham ducks for 7 each – a bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree. I hate supermarkets, and only visit one every few weeks, so I felt this offer was most timely and bore a brace of ducks home in my fair trade bags.
One went in the freezer, and one in the fridge, and we decided to do a proper Roast Duck Dinner with it yesterday. I took it out of the fridge at lunchtime, and put it in the microwave to let it come up to room temperature (we use the microwave as a meat safe in such circumstances, as we live with five cats who love duck).
Imagine my horror when I opened the microwave later to start prepping dinner, and a vile smell emerged – the duck had gone off. It was, admittedly, two days past its sell-by date, but that’s never bothered a duck before in my experience; I suspect it was due to the fact that it was en-gibletted.
So there went plans for four or five meals – roast, stir-fried, risotto, stock for soup, etc. Not pleased, but my own fault, I guess.
The day continued on a food fail, when Pete went to get some apples from the big box of bramleys in the study cupboard, and we found that they’d all gone too withery to use.
Bah.
| Originally published at Reactive Cooking. |
We’re big fans of red cabbage – it goes so well with stews, and sausages, and cold meat, and roast goose, and and and.
I normally make it in a Le Creuset pot, and cook it in a very low oven, but I thought I’d give it a whirl in the slow cooker, and it was great! …
| Read more at Reactive Cooking. |
Mustrum used to have an unfortunate tendency to, er, press his affections on our late and much lamented Moo. Although she wasn’t keen, she never stopped him, and he has never really come to understand that he’s been neutered.
He appears to have transferred his affections to Henry now, who seems equally submissive, if a tad wild-eyed, as can bee seen in the photograph. It’s all very odd, really
| Originally published at the Tribe. |
We caught Ron this morning, spraying the door curtain. From the smell of it, it’s not the first time.
So the curtain is in the washing machine, and Ron and Henry are booked in for the snip on 3rd March.
| Originally published at the Tribe. |
About five carrots, two sticks of celery, and a leek, chopped up small. About a mugful of flageolet beans, soaked in boiling water and left for about six hours. The remains of last week’s soup – about half a pint of tomato and lentil.
All hurled in the slow cooker, topped up with cold water, seasoned, and switched on at about 11 p.m. We had lunch at about 1 p.m . the following day, and while the flavour was gorgeous, the vegatables weren’t by any means soft. But no problem – soup improves with age anyway :)
Last night we tried porridge – it was a disaster. We could have used the result to lay bricks!
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