It’s been a long time since we last spoke. I’m really sorry. I was very busy having a second baby. Roo is nearly seven months old and he’s already noshing away to his heart’s content.
And what else have I been up to these past seven months? I hear you say. Well, apart from popping out Roo in the living room of The Mother-in-Law’s house in a speedy two hours, I have actually been doing a great deal of cooking. I just haven’t managed to document much of it or shout about it from this here digital rooftop. (Could be something do to with the sleep. Or lack of.) But I missed this creative outlet, so I’m finding time whether I can find time or not.
Oh, and The Mother-in-Law returned. (Her month-long antipodean adventure and our month-long take-over of her home met their fate in a head-on collision of jet-lag and pregnancy hormones in the middle of the kitchen. I had, apparently, turned off the AGA in an attempt to turn it down. It was BURNING THE FOOD, for crying out loud!) She has gone away again, for a month of gayness in Paris.
On to the food…
Over the past half a year, I have created an excellent recipe for challah, which I invite you all to make, for you will be anticipating Shabbes every week just to get your hands into the dough and your lips around the sweetest, spongiest bread – whether you’re religious (or Jewish, for that matter) or not. There’s been Baba’s Ganoush – Baba is what Zippy calls The Mother-in-Law – a creamy, lemony aubergine dip that the AGA was built to make. I made a heavenly Syrian lamb stew with dried limes for Rosh Hashana, which elicited some rather amourous reactions from our dinner guests for it was, apparently, so divine.
We turned our green tomatoes into chutney, our cucumbers into pickles, and the grapes from the century-old vine in the conservatory into grape juice and grape jelly.
