Bid Feasting Adieu

"When Christmas is ended, bid feasting adieu."

Happy New Year!

Health, Wealth and Happiness to one and all.

LINDA   I imagine this is how you used to present peacock to your grandchildren...?

Most of the Christmas clutter has been cleared away, some empty spaces filled with pots of hyacinths.     Owl Wood floor is covered with the spikes of snowdrops just waiting to emerge and yellow catkins dangle from the hazel trees.  The squirrels keep making forays into the garden, heading for the bird feeders.     They have been spotted by Sparky, but they are fully aware that she is trying to make herself invisible, as long as they don't forget, all will be well. 


By 8am this morning Toby and I were heading towards the watermill.     No matter what the season, it never disappoints. 

We took the same route as on my previous post, coming back through part of the slumbering village.

It wasn't slumbering last night, for by midnight there were whizz bangs and whooshes enough to rival those in London.      Twelve or thirteen years ago there were fireworks at the pub, but that was about it.    Over the years, it seems as though everyone has decided that they need to compete for the biggest bangs and the loudest whooshes...

I am still deeply immersed in the pile of books which I received for Christmas.   All bar one are second hand at the very least.    There are collected bundles of those old Victorian,  and first world war era, magazines which I enjoy so much, books about the effect the magazines had on the women who read them, another one about the lives of some of the women who wrote cook books, are you yawning already?    Explorations on a theme and a time which fascinates me.

For a bit of light relief, I have a brand new book, a gift from J and MingMing, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, by Fuchsia Dunlop.      A sweet-sour memoir of eating in China.   She made a vow  to eat everything she was offered, no matter how bizarre...   She is made of sterner stuff than me!

Talking of food, we are still using up the leftovers.   Homemade vegetable soup for tea -  thickened with a couple of blitzed, leftover jacket potatoes.   Crusty old bread diced up, sprinkled with olive oil and herbs, then turned in a pan until they become crisp and golden, a good handful of fresh parsley in the soup, a quick grate off a hard lump of cheese, and you have a meal fit for a king and so easy that even I can't go wrong.

Because of my passion for old cookery books, and books about the people who wrote them,  many people assume that I love cooking, they really couldn't be more wrong.    I do enjoy baking bread, but only when I am in the right mood.       Otherwise, I find that being expected to produce meal after meal after meal is tedious, to say the least. 

I am driven to produce good food to feed my family and friends, but that is not the same thing at all.  The years have seen me tied to producing far too many meals, for far too many people, it is no longer fun for me.

Adieu to the feasting!


How about you?     Do you enjoy cooking?   I would love to know.

I know several men who do enjoy cooking - Billy Blue Eyes for one, Cro is another, and of course there is my lovely neighbour and blogging friend, Dominic, another whiz in the kitchen.