Strong Verbs Are Just Better

I am really pleased with what I'm putting up on speculumannorum these days. I had a bit of a hiatus after the breakup, but I've taken tons of great photos lately.

Examples:

( photos, yo )

English gent is on his way back to his stomping grounds (new job seems to suit him - as he said, 'finite tasks! They're lowly paid, but you know what you have to do and when it's done!'). We went on espotitions, saw many ducks, and failed to aquire a library book from the most annoying library.

Proper update owing. Pictures queued up to deliver 2 per day at speculumannorum/speculumannorum_feed.

Wow. Two months has been a LONG TIME, this time. As with previous such posts, social media means you've probably got the idea, but here, a summary, with pictures!

( Things I did and things I took pictures of, or, a post with ducks )

Holy Cross church, Sarratt, Hertfordshire (12c, with a 15c tower)

In link form, other things I have posted since setting up speculumannorum:

Interior features of Holy Cross, Sarratt

My first encounter with starlings

Holy Trinity, Bordesley, at sunset (including an exciting story about sacriligous legal use of communion wafers!)

Some socks which I knitted for leareth.

Some photos of Moseley, Birmingham, with which I am not entirely satisfied. It was oddly difficult to get photos of Moseley which weren't hideous.

The English coast from the air

A genevois intersection with distant mountain

6th century font from the mindblowing archaeological open-house under St Peter's Cathedral. Tons of stuff, from a pre-roman tomb right up to the 11c. crypt, all preserved for public viewing. I AM DED OF HISTORICAL OVERLOAD.

Ten or eleven days of posts queued up on Tumblr, featuring St Peters and the adjacent Chapel of the Maccabees, and some older photos of Brixworth, UK.

I may have been tired and cranky since I got back from the UK, but I've cooked some really tasty foods. Let me share recipes!

I had RPG gamers over last Sunday, and fed them gluten-free salads. First there was a version of this Salmon and Chickpea salad, using tinned tuna instead of tinned salmon (couldn't find the latter in my supermarket - Switzerland seems to default to smoked salmon). I also used a teaspoon of sembal oelek instead of chilli flakes*.

Also made was rice salad with apple and nuts, but I learned an important lesson: 4 cups cooked rice =/= 4 cups rice, cooked. So I had MOUNTAINS OF RICE SALAD with comparatively little apple. I still have leftovers of the bloody thing.

Later in the week I made Black-eyed bean and tomato curry, which turned out... hmm. Tasty, filling, but not quite *right*. It's missing something, and I'm yet to figure out what. Could be that I didn't have curry leaves or garam marsala, so that's I'll try again with those. Can I also note how much I'm loving that blog, 'Lisa's Kitchen', since going part-time vegetarian? OM NOM NOM. Today or tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at lentil borscht with her recipe...

Finally, I made ANZAC biscuits using the Women's Weekly recipe rather than the Taste.com.au one, and *with* baking soda this time. They turned out perfect and charmed my students - so much that students wanted the recipe! Accordingly, here I present the Women's Weekly ANZAC biscuit recipe modified for international measurements and with ingredients list glossed in French:

( NOMS FOREVER )

~

*Another thing I can't find in switzerland is minced chilli in a jar. Sembal Oelek seems to be, while not the same, a flavoursome substitute, especially if one doesn't usually add salt to recipes anyway.

They've got 75 minutes to avoid being turned into some kind of metaphor...

Goddamnit, I just want my books and my winter coat back!

So on friday I was going to make tomato, lentil and rosemary soup - except I didn't have rosemary and my carrots had gone manky. Nor did I have celery, the other customary ingredient.

Instead, the following:

1 x onion, fried with thyme and a generous pinch of sweet paprika
2 x cloves garlic, chopped and fried with above
A handful of baby potatoes, halved and fried for a few min with the onion
1 x cup of lentils, pre-soaked
1 x cup of borlotti beans, pre-soaked (and brought to the boil and RINSED at least once)
1 x can of tomatoes
Vegetable stock equal to the capacity of the aforementioned can (about 480ml?)
Bring to boil, then cover and simmer until potatoes are soft, then add
Pinch of cracked pepper
1 x medium capsicum (bell pepper), in chunks
Simmer until the capsicum starts to soften

Serve with DELICIOUS DELICIOUS PAIN RUSTIQUE or similar.

That kept me going for a few days. Then last night I made a stab at Eggplant and Lentil Stew, using a mix of honey and lemon instead of pomegranate mollasses. That was more like mushy PURPLE food, because of the eggplant. I added some green beans, and another capsicum, and served on cinnamon-and-lemon rice. It was pronounced good by housemate and leareth, with the caveat that leareth would have delighted in any food she didn't have to cook, since it was 9pm and she'd just got in from the airport.

Next weekend housemate is having a board games night, to which everone is bringing sweets and her boyfriend is providing norwegian hot dogs. I'm pretty sure I can stretch my budget to making fancy salad in large proportions, given how much I love feeding people.