A place to bitch about your body

I actually made this as a protein to go with Meera Sodha's winter pilau, after An End Of Breakfast Dal went really well and for the purposes of using up the chaat masala I made for The Ongoing Cook All The Book Project, freely adapted from a number of recipes (which were The First Few Search Results when I prodded the internet). A is sufficiently convinced that I provide notes herewith in service of being able to repeat it in future.

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Reading. I have FINISHED Index, A History of the (Dennis Duncan), including both indexes, including The Games Therein, and had a Great time.

Started (just now) The Rose Field, volume three of The Book of Dust (Philip Pullman). ( Grousing; vague spoilers for vol 2 )

Writing. Did you know that getting knowledge out of your own head and into other people's is a specific set of skills that has very little to do with how well you know the things you're trying to communicate? TRY TO LOOK SHOCKED, PLEASE. (6.3k words, and am absolutely in an Iterative Cycle of trying to make the introduction more-or-less work. It is progressing, just... very slowly.)

Listening. I realised that Hidden Almanac was possibly in fact exactly a useful sort of thing to listen to while Wrangling Laundry, and have therefore started again from the beginning, at least in part as an attempt to actually listen to some of the episodes I dozed through while they were playing in the car...

Playing. Incomplete White Puzzle progresses. (Today I have added I think three pieces to the contiguous section, two of which I had already joined to each other as a free-foating lump, and made another couple of free-floating lump connections.)

I think we also did a bit more Inkulinati before I got horrendously distracted by Puzzle. And the sudoku fixation continues, though it is at least ramping down a little.

Cooking. I have been having A Rough Week brain-wise, but I have today managed to make some bread, and I did earlier in the week gently fry up some celery and garlic to add to the mashed potato & parsnip that we were having with Vegetables and Veg Sossij. I think that is about the extent of it.

Eating. VEGETABLES, including a couple of peppers from an overwintered plant. (Restricted diet for a week up until the Tuesday just gone, so the return of Fibre was Extremely Welcome.) Favourite chocolate stars with raspberries. Fruit With Skin On. Lebkuchen. Stollen. Seeds and nuts.

Growing. I think the nematodes (applied as a split dose a few days apart) have dealt? at least temporarily? with the sodding Sciarid Flies? for now?

Lemongrass needs pricking out. Physalis are showing zero indication that they have any intention of germinating, which is mildly annoying. There are still three not-dead Lithops seedlings, though I doubt they're the same three as last week. Orchids getting increasingly enthusiastic about their plans to flower.

Have not managed to get anything else sown, yet.

Observing. Lots of bulbs: daffodils and crocuses various and snowdrops are Definitely Underway, at this point. We are fairly convinced that the Yelling from the garden around dusk is Amorous Foxes, though we have not (yet?) bestirred ourselves to ask the internet if what we think we're hearing is in fact what we're hearing...

1. some washi tape I wanted has restocked at a UK retailer! Possibly a second one also! So as and when the website works out what's going on with Desired Tape #2, it is time to place a stationery order for meeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2. Progress With Preposterous Puzzle! I now have all the edge assembled (I think I wound up with only one piece having been Actually Wrong) and even I have managed to start filling in very slowly (I am up to... about 5 pieces placed so far? which is a further 1% down!)
3. I got a hug from the Child while saying goodbye this evening!
4. I have worked out an acceptable Wagamama order from the current menu and am feeling pretty good about my dinner.
5. Bread for tomorrow (anise, fig, hazelnut, copied from the local fancy bakery) is looking Extremely Promising.

Reading. Successfully completed the rereads of The Human Division and The End of All Things, and moved on to The Shattering Peace, John Scalzi. ( Read more... )

And some unpublished poetry I'm not able to share but really want to, because it's very good.

Writing. The put-some-words-in take-some-words-out dance continues.

Watching. Bits of Iron Man and His Awesome Friends, and also Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, because the Child is having a special interests and his special interests include Howard Stark playing dad rock and also not being a terrible father.

Playing. We finished ridiculous puzzle #1! We spent a bunch of the afternoon working out how all the disparate rooms we'd managed to build fit together. It was bullshit, and extremely satisfying.

The Inkulinati run with the Exploders set-up continues astonishingly easy except, weirdly, against Hildegard.

Cooking. Extremely pleased with the results of the experiment of boiling swede + parsnip + carrot up with a tea strainer containing rosemary, slightly crushed black pepper, and a crushed clove of garlic (and indeed cooking it all the way to Basically All The Liquid's Gone in order to keep the flavours in). Will attempt to remember the fundamental principle of bouquet garni for next time I need to do this, if there is a next time.

Exploring. A bit of time in the City of London, during which I discovered that at least some of the lions on the Bank of England are sticking their tongues out.

Observing. Great tits at my mother's! Roe deer (I think) and a hare at The New Site. A Very Dramatic Moon.

Growing. Sciarid nematodes arrived and applied. Both orchids Definitely Thinking About Flowering. Jalapeño plants both conclusively dead but jalapeños themselves all harvested (whether I get around to smoking them is a different question).