A real ramble...

There were some lovely comments on my last post. My first task today is to write another posting but my mind is blank. I think have spent too much time back in 1874 working on my novel. Nearly all my reading had also been from that era - the likes of Mrs Gaskell, George Eliot, Dickens, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and lots of diaries from mid- to late Victorian times. One advantage of so doing is that I have built up quite store of words for my word blog.

She-who-loves-tea is working all the hours that she can (as always) but at least she managed to do her work at home over the weekend which was pleasant for me, having her company, taking time off for the occasional cup of tea and crossword.

Both of us can work with the television on in the background so we had a few cookery programmes on and the occasional football match. I love cookery programmes. Quite often a recipe that one would never dream of trying throws up a tip or piece of information that helps one’s technique for other recipes.

I have often wondered which steak to buy and at last learned a bit about it. It seems that fillet steak is the more tender but rump has the greater flavour. The best therefore is a piece of the best quality rump steak, cooked medium rare. (Make sure you oil the meat not the pan). That way you get the flavour and a relatively tender piece of meat.

If cooking with sea-bass you should ask the fishmonger for line-caught sea bass. Supermarket sea bass is farmed and is much smaller.

Bourbon vanilla pods are the best.

One of the best potatoes for baked potatoes is Red Desirée.

And finally, when cooking meats like bacon leave the fat on and remove it after the meat has been cooked. There is a lot of flavour in the fat and by leaving it on until the meat is cooked the flavour is transferred to the lean part of the meat.

(Apologies to Daughter-who-takes-photos and Friend-who loves-otters. Being vegetarians the meat tips are a waste of time for them!)

To change the subject completely, some of the British football clubs have gone back to wearing striped socks which were originally popular about a hundred years ago. I wonder why that is? And did you know that the reason rugby shirts had horizontal stripes was so as to make the men seem bigger and heavier while soccer shirts had vertical stripes to make the players look lean and swift. Just one of the many useless facts I’ve picked up over the last few days.

That’s about all for now – hope you have a good day,