Early summer

Ants in the kitchen, strawberries in at the farm.

A Month in the Country, J.L.Carr

I just found this, and wondered what took me so long.

Short, a novel that reads like poetry, a wonderful piece of writing. 

A survivor of WWI  trench warfare, after the war, still in recovery, gets a project to uncover a medieval fresco in a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It's a Summer's work.  And it's so much more.

It's about trauma, about being in the presence of great art, about history and transience. And it's funny, on top of everything else.

Just read it.

Irises, heirloom and reblooming

The purple and white are from the farm of a friend's grandmother, who inherited them from her mom.

The white and the blue are reblooming, and are only just finding their feet after two years. With luck, they'll bloom again in the fall.

Taken five minutes ago.

And is there honey still for tea?

Quotation, beloved nostalgic poem about England, from the trenches. Followed by the Peter Sellars' skit: 'oney's orf,dear!

All flashing through my ragbag of a mind as I put out afternoon tea, English breakfast, strong, scones hot from the oven, walnut and choc bit, homemade raspberry jam.

Midst shot and shell and political attacks on my sisters, afternoon tea still helps.

Cookerama

So it was windy and rainstormy and I had to go out anyway. So when I got back all wet and tired,  I was a little peckish.

And thought, it's cold enough for soup even if it is mid May. So I started a pot, tomatoes, garlic, scallions, bits of stuff from the freezer marked soup makings, chickpeas.

And since I had finished up all the bread, I thought maybe I should make those Jack Monroe crumpets, now that the special rings have arrived.

And after I'd mixed up the batter and put it to rise, I thought, as I put the flour back in the freezer, why not use the rest of the frozen raspberries I just put the flour next to, to make jam for the crumpets..

See how the crumpet rings work, like egg poaching rings.

Which is how it came to pass that I ended up timing soup, spooning in crumpets, 12 minutes per batch, sterilizing lid and jar, while stirring jam so it didn't burn. All at once.

I did stop for a bowl of soup to keep up my strength.

And now I have a large quantity of excellent soup, a pot of jam, and enough crumpets for several breakfasts and teatimes. The kitchen is clean. I am lying down writing this.

Marcella Hazan's all purpose Swiss army knife sauce

Just finished that recipe and it turns out to be the Swiss army knife of sauces.

Had it at first as prescribed, over pasta. Then realized that the tomato chunks I'd left in made it great for bruschetti. Pieces of whole grain bread, toasted, chunks spread on, excellent snack. Then over cheese and onion (the onion that had been cooked in it, saved) and ham, toasted, lunch.

Then today the rest of it, chicken thighs and chicken garlic sausage, baked for 45 minutes at 400f, then the sauce added, back to oven for ten minutes, very good (two) meals.

I'd say this was worth doing.