Alrighty, here we go with the weekly ramble, and this week, it’s a real mixed bag.
Adventure Spaniel
First up, the good news is that Kali spent a night in the hospital but has come home much better. After blood tests and ultrasounds, the vets could not tell me much other than that her blood tests and ultrasounds were unremarkable, which is remarkable for an almost 16-year-old dog. They suspect she’s eaten something which her almost 16-year-old tummy found difficult.
She has her appetite back and is doing zoomies (or the cocker spaniel equivalent of a double somersault with triple half-pike) pre-dinner, and we’re very grateful for it.
Writing
I’m back on track this week and fumbling through the soggy middle of Philly Barker’s latest adventure.
You know those dreams where you’re swimming but getting nowhere, but you know you have to keep swimming (or is that just me?)? Well, that’s what writing the middle of a book is like. Every word, every scene is inching towards when it all begins to come together, but while you’re in it, it’s a plod.
I’m still not sure whodunnit (although I know the why) so that keeps things interesting.
The thing is, there’s no right or wrong way to do this writing thing except to, well, write.
This quote by American author Ursula K. Le Guin describes it perfectly:
Put it this way: if you feel you need rules and want rules, and you find a rule that appeals to you, or that works for you, then follow it. Use it. But if it doesn’t appeal to you or doesn’t work for you, then ignore it; in fact, if you want to and are able to, kick it in the teeth, break it, fold staple mutilate and destroy it.
See, the thing is, as a writer you are free. You are about the freest person that ever was. Your freedom is what you have bought with your solitude, your loneliness. You are in the country where you make up the rules, the laws. You are both dictator and obedient populace. It is a country nobody has ever explored before. It is up to you to make the maps, to build the cities. Nobody else in the world can do it, or ever could do it, or ever will be able to do it again.
What I’ve been reading this week
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This week I’ve been immersing myself in the world of Maisie Dobbs as the first two books finally came free in the library simultaneously.
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear is a cosy crime series set in post-WWI London. I devoured the first book and am now reading the second instalment, Birds of a Feather.
I received an advance review copy (via NetGalley) of Tom Parker-Bowles’ Cooking and the Crown. Aside from the recipes (a few of which I’ve marked to cook), I’m enjoying the social history. As the queen's son, Parker-Bowles, a fabulous food writer, is the perfect person to write this.
I’ll put a review up closer to the publication date.
I’ve been listening to Kate Humble’s Where The Hearth Is—Stories of Home on Audible. It is a fascinating series of stories about what home means to different people, cultures, and wildlife and Kate - a British broadcaster - brings it alive.
I’ve learnt how male swallows fledged in a particular barn will return to that same barn year after year – despite their lengthy migration to South Africa. I’ve learnt how Romany traditionally believed the soul of the previous owner of goods remains in those items after their death. It’s why clothes will be burnt, plates broken, and other items given to people from different family groups and taken a long way away. I’ve even learnt how the sociable weaver bird builds community nests where multiple family groups live together in a sort of bird equivalent to a multiple occupancy. (As an aside, I’ve also learnt about some modern forms of multiple occupancy or community living.)
In The Kitchen
Largely (I think) due to last week’s emotionalism and lack of sleep, I have a terrible head cold. As head colds do with me (I’ve had asthma since I was a child), it’s gone straight to my chest, so I’m struggling with the whole breathing and walking at the same time thing.
I firmly believe that whisky fixes colds (and, in fact) most of life’s maladies), but I’m trying not to drink midweek (although that went out the window last week with the Kali dramas), so I’m relying on soups.
On Monday, I made chicken stock with heaps of leeks, carrots, parsley stalks, celery, and a whole head of garlic.
To a litre of the stock, I added more leeks, carrots, some barley and most of the shredded chicken to make lunch soups for the freezer. (The rest of the shredded chicken is in the freezer.)
To another 500ml of stock, I added star anise, gochujang, soy sauce, ginger and miso to oomph the base. Then I strained it and chucked in some grated zucchini and beaten eggs to make a spicy Asian-style egg drop soup. A similar recipe is here.
The final 500ml of stock was turned into James Martin’s Chorizo and White Bean Soup, which we had for dinner last night. Comfort food and cold-buster in a bowl.
This brings me to this week’s recipe …
James Martin’s Chorizo and White Bean Soup
This soup comes from James Martin’s Spanish Adventure and is precisely the right spice for the back of my throat. James (and by now, we should be on first-name terms) uses dried white beans that he’s soaked overnight, but my snotty brain isn’t up to that level of pre-planning, so I chucked in a couple of tins instead (beans in tins, not the tins, of course).
The slices of Iberico ham on top were also a faff too far for me so we skipped this, but don’t skip the picada paste – it really adds an extra layer to this soup … a little like a pistou does for a Provencal-style vegetable soup. If you don’t want the palaver of the mortar and pestle, though, feel free to whiz it in a mini-processor.
The picture below is out of the book and is much better than the one I took.
Ingredients
2 x 400g tins cannellini beans, drained
100ml olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 tsp smoked paprika
100g chorizo picante, diced
400ml chicken stock
1 tsp sea salt
8 slices of Iberico ham, to serve (optional)
For the picada paste
2 slices of baguette, cubed
25ml olive oil
1 garlic clove
Pinch of salt
50g almonds, toasted
Few leaves of flat-leaf parsley
Method
For the picada, fry the bread in the oil until crisp. Pound the garlic and salt with a pestle and mortar, then add the almonds and pound together. Add the bread and parsley and pound to a thick paste. Set aside.
Add 50ml oil to a deep pan and gently fry the garlic, onion, paprika, and chorizo for 3-4 min until softened and the paprika from the chorizo flavours the onions and the kitchen. Add the remaining oil, the beans and the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and gently simmer for 10 min. Season with the salt and gently mix in the picada.
To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and top with slices of Iberico ham, with the rest of the baguette on the side for dunking.
Hope you soon feel better. It’s amazing how stress can really bash our immune system. So glad your Kali is getting back to normal
I too am glad Kali is home and doing well…and like “all parents” we fall into a heap afterwards right? So sorry you are unwell but you have cooked up some goodness there! I’m listening to a most fascinating author - Clover Stroud - narrate her latest which is about “home” and I relate to so much! Denyse x