Replacing the much lamented 'On My Mind' profile option, this thread is for musings, jottings, whimsies, preoccupations and the rest of the thesaurus for anyone to jot down anything they please.
I can't remember what the maximum character count was before, can anyone else? But anyway it wasn't very many so let's keep to that.
It is strength under control.
The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.”
– Anne Frank
When I have to leave my cats alone for a couple of days, a good friend stops by once a day to feed them and change the water. When I lived in the "BIG CITY", I hired a professional & bonded Pet Sitter. A little expensive, but worth it as I could relax while on a long vacation.
James E. Faust
If cell phones could think, it would be saying:
"I hope she doesn't throw me out the window....I know she wants to."
And:
"You should hear what she says after hanging up" "I will get her back and not end the call so others can hear".
Not to anthropomorphize the little cell, maybe they really do think, talk, etc. CM?
Is the little thing coming by boat this time?
Congrats on your new I-phone. Did you and MsMadge shop together?
Somewhere far away on a shelf in a warehouse there is a line of iPhones waiting to be picked and packed, and one of them should be shaking in its little shoes because it is going to be mine come Saturday afternoon.
"I wonder if my owner will be kind to me?" it is thinking. Poor little devil.
3 fat potatoes (it doesn't say to peel them but I wouldn't dream of not peeling them!)
3 leeks (size not specified)
1 ½ litres = 2 ½ ish pints water, boiling
100g = 4 oz butter
salt
slices of toast
15 mins prep
1 hour to cook
Wash the vegetables. Chop the leeks, cut the potatoes into pieces. Melt (half?) the butter* in a big saucepan or flame-proof casserole, put the leeks in and fry them until they just turn colour and go "golden", stir in the boiling (or just boiled) water, throw in the potato pieces.
Add salt to taste. [Don't skimp, but don't forget you can always add more but you can't take it out]
Leave it to cook over gentle heat for an hour.
Put it through a vegetable mill if you have one. If not, any liquidiser or hand-held blender will do just as well.
It says to pour the soup onto your pieces of toast in a tureen, which is nice if you like it like that, then add the uncooked butter.
* I'd never noticed this before. I guess what they mean is... Do your original leek-cooking in one or two ounces of the butter, then stir the rest in at the end, or use it to butter your toast.
It's nice, anyway! - even though I've apparently been getting it slightly wrong for 35 years.
Maman* Blanc's vegetable and chervil soup
It is important to get the slices really thin so that the vegetables cook fast. The easiest way is using a Japanese mandolin, but if you have a food processor that should have a fine enough setting on it. Doing it by hand takes pretty good knife skills if you ask me!
20 minutes prep
10-12 minutes cooking
1 onion, cut into teeny weeny dice
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced ⅛" thick
3 celery stalks, sliced ¼" thick
2 leeks, with their two outer layers stripped off, cut into slices ½" thick
½ oz unsalted butter
1 large zucchini, halved lengthways and then cut into slices ¼" thick
2 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 ¾ pints boiling water
a large handful of fresh chervil, roughly chopped (flat leaf parsley is fine if you can't get chervil)
salt, freshly ground white pepper
to finish, optional - crème fraîche or more butter
1. Sweat the vegetables. Large saucepan, medium heat, melt the butter, put in the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and leeks, cover the pan, turn the heat down low, and leave them for five minutes. They should only soften, you don't want them to take on any colour.
He says: season with 8 pinches of sea salt and 2 pinches of white pepper. I love Raymond Blanc dearly, and I have never eaten anything at his restaurants that wasn't delicious, but to me this amount of salt is insane and I use half that amount at most. Add gradually and taste it, I should.
2. Cook the soup. Now add the courgette, tomatoes and boiling water (it must be boiling hot to reduce the cooking time and to help keep the colours bright). Boil fast for 5-7 minutes, until the vegetables are just tender. Stir in the chervil, or whatever herbs you like, at this point.
3. Whisk in the crème fraîche or butter (or both!). Taste and correct the seasoning. If you like your soup smooth you can blend it but it looks much prettier as it is.
*Raymond Blanc's Maman, that is.
French onion? Maman Blanc's vegetable? Tomato rice? Leek and potato? I can send you a recipe if anything there tickles your fancy.
the reward of seeing you smile. I love you, Mother.
My dH has to work.
Hubs made a great effort to put up the lights. Yay!
Sure that I will receive traveling mercies....
–Unknown
Welcome back, Lu. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have tv or internet. Probably finally read a book again, haha.
― Tia Walker