Last week I read an article about how we should reclaim the weekend as most of us spend our precious weekend time shopping, cleaning and generally skivvying. Certainly, I have spent today cleaning, lethargically shoving dirty laundry into the machine and finally ironing. I only didn’t go shopping because I have been lucky enough to have the past 12 days (ouch!) off work.
No more of this, I say. From now on, I am going to abandon the idea of doing chores at the weekend and devote myself to the things that make me happy – that’ll be cooking, eating and daydreaming then.
Had a bit of a disappointment this evening. Bought a lovely looking joint of pork from the supermarket on Friday. Normally, I buy all my meat at our lovely local, old-fashioned butchers (Normans, Princes Avenue, Hull, in case you are ever passing through and need an emergency lamb chop) but I was seduced by the low price and lack of fat.
Used a Nige Slater recipe – browned the meat before roasting with lemon chunks, potatoes and fennel seeds. Came singing out of the oven, and then Ade gave the bit of fat an extra 10 minutes at super hot heat for ultra crackly crackling. Accompanied this with something I adapted from a Slimming World booklet – stir-fried a leek, a finely sliced fennel bulb and some Savoy cabbage, mixed with 3 teaspoons of grainy mustard and a splash of water; piled into an ovenproof dish and baked till top has browned slightly.
I also set the table properly, as I am desperately trying to ease the transition from holiday time out to work routine, and thought we should round the festivities off with a fairly healthy but indulgent meal, eaten in a civilised manner rather than slumped on the sofa like “The Royle Family”.
Veggies were utterly, utterly delicious. I love Savoy cabbage anyway, and it is best friends with pork and fennel. Meat was …well a kind description would be bland. An honest description would be totally tasteless. Although Ade did say that the crackling was delicious. Personally, I haven’t tasted crackling since about 1993, so I was very, very envious.
And, to add insult to injury there was only one mince pie left and I graciously left it to Ade. That is better than last years “great mince pie mountain” incident – I finally threw the last of 2007s mince pies from the back of the freezer on 4th December 2008! So, feeling a bit low now. All I have to look forward to is a mountain of washing up. Reclaiming the weekend will have to begin next week…
