Z’s food obsession continues

The best time of the food year has started. The strawberries and asparagus are full-flavoured now, there are local new potatoes and Simon Greengrocer mentioned that there are some wonderful local Cos lettuce coming in now. We have some lettuce in the garden but I’m only taking off individual leaves for a modest salad and a proper Cos is a delicious lettuce.

I should reread Pliny’s letters. There’s one where he reproaches a young man for not turning up at his dinner party and he says what he missed. Dinner included a whole lettuce each! And the after-dinner entertainment was Pliny himself reading his own works. The young man preferred the excitement of fashionable food and dancing girls, which did him no good at all in the long run, said the great man.

Anyway, such was my excitement on picking up my veg order yesterday that I suggested a mostly vegetable weekend. Last night, we had the last couple of rashers of bacon with roasted carrots and sweet potato, new potatoes and asparagus. With a blob of butter, that was it. Tonight, there will be a salad Niçoise with more asparagus, potatoes, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, lettuce and tuna and tomorrow we’ll have asparagus risotto. Not sure of tomorrow’s lunch yet but it may well be cabbage soup or stuffed cabbage because – well, I think the reason is obvious. And I’m scoffing strawberries as I type.

Businesses are going to be struggling, obviously, for a long time and it’s sure that there will be a lot that will go under. Personal finance seems to be another matter. Although many people’s income is reduced, they are spending far less and, apparently, using the time to pay off credit card debt and overdrafts. And so much less electricity is being used that there has been an application made to turn off wind turbines feeding into the national supply next Bank Holiday Monday as they expect usage to be so low.

Tim and I each bought a copy of the final part of the Mantel trilogy on Thomas Cromwell. We’ve both been reading slowly, not wanting to get to the end in a hurry. However, I finally did finish last night and Tim decided to wait until today for the last fifty pages. Although reading slowly, which I don’t normally do, made it a heavier read, in that it was less easy to keep track of the characters – and it’s certainly a physically heavy book – we’ve enjoyed it immensely and I think I’m going to have to go back and read the entire trilogy again. I’ve got a few more books to catch up on first, though.

This is the ninth anniversary of our first ever Blog Party. That was quite a day. Many of you have come to most of them and a few stalwarts have made it to them all. Thank you for your friendship, everyone. I hope to meet more of you when times are better.

2 comments on “Z’s food obsession continues

  1. Sarah

    Ooh asparagus in a nicoise. I hadn’t thought of that. I bet it was delicious. We had an unplanned nicoise last week because the new potatoes in the shop looked so delicious I had to buy them

    Reply
    1. Z Post author

      Isn’t this time of year fabulous as the new season’s vegetables appear in the shop? Excitement every week.

      Reply

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