Cooking and writing. :-)

Song of the day: “Relight my fire” by Take That feat. Lulu. Oldie, I know, but it’s there, it’s easy and not all that bad. Hah.

It is a rather miserable rainy day at the moment. We’ve had cloudy, misty, thunder and rain in all shapes and form, so suffice it to say that everything is either damp or soaked right through. Grrr.

But let’s start with yesterday, ‘cause compared to today, it was absolutely divine. No wind, no clouds; perfect. We did of course make the best possible use for it and went down into the yard to plough the “field” hah. Nothing like working up a sweat in the winter sun and ending up with a nice even terrace where we can put seedlings in at any time now.

While I was blissfully digging in the dirt, big brother and grandpa were working on fixing the fence in the south corner of the property. Due to our recent tree trimming down there, we discovered that the struggling tree had been leaning heavily on the poles, so some repairs were in order. They finished the task today, so it should be fine from now on.

Considering I’ve been having a hankering for a rich veggie, oven dish for more than a week now, I figured I might as well give into temptation and do some cooking as well. Eight veggies with and egg, milk and cheese base was a unanimous success, I’ll have you know. It came out perfectly and with today’s lunch combined, I’ve had three portions, hah.

Let’s do a recipe, shall we. It’s easy enough to make and the veggies can be substituted to personal taste. Here goes:

Potatoes. 8-12 chopped in cubes.
Carrots. 4-6 chopped in cubes.

Potatoes and carrots boiled together in water with a spoonful of sugar, salt and some mixed pepper grinds until they’re done: Stick a fork in a piece and if it slides off, you can drain the water and let it cool for a bit.

Cauliflower. Half a mid-size one. Sliced thin.
Bell peppers. 1 green, 1 red. Chopped in small cubes.
Sweet corn. 1 teacup.
Sweet peas. 1 teacup.
Onion. 1-2 chopped small.
Leek. 1 diced.
Green beans. ½-1 teacups.
Zucchini. ½-1 sliced thin.

Just mix it up raw with a bit of sugar, salt and pepper, and set it aside for a bit.

Herbs/spices:
Paprika. 1 teaspoon.
Pepper. 1-2 pinch.
Salt. 1-to taste.
Parsley. 2-4 table spoons.
Basil. 1 tablespoon.
Oregano. ½ teaspoon.
Thyme. 1 pinch.
Garlic. 1-4 smashed and then diced.
You can add a pizza herbal mix too, along with a provincial herbal mix…much easier that way.

Throw it all in half a teacup of olive oil, or sunflower seeds oil and let it stand for about half an hour.

Base:
Nutmeg. 1-3 pinches.
Salt. 1 pinch.
Pepper. 1 pinch.
Milk. 3-5 coffee cups.
Egg. 3-4
Cheese. (Gouda or Edam) 1-2 pounds grated.

Mix milk and eggs until it’s a light cream color. Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg and the grated cheese and put it aside.

Parmesan. 1-2 teacup grated.
Cottage cheese. 1-2 teacups.

Take an oven dish, or two, spread out the boiled potatoes and carrots. Add the raw veggies, mix them up and spread out the Parmesan with cottage cheese, through, or on top of it.

Now evenly disperse the base over the mix, put it in a preheated oven (approx. 260 degrees (c)) for about an hour…just keep track of it, once the cheese starts to form a nice golden crust, you’re set to go.

Just writing about it now makes me salivate all over again. Gotta have another lunch. Hah.

But enough of that. The remainder of yesterday was spent with small tasks throughout the house. While big brother and grandpa went out to get replacement gaskets, little sister and I did some cleaning in the kitchen and then hung a new lamp in the patio. The old one had lost its cover last year, so it was definitely time. The new one looks absolutely adorable.

Next little brother and I hung a shelf in his room, right beside his new closet, and it worked out without any trouble, so, yay!
There was loads of laundry again, of course. I still cannot say if we have more of that in the winter or summer, but it is a lot, always. Hah.

And the evening was spent doing some more writing. Yeah! It’s is going rather splendidly at the moment: I’m putting out an average of six pages a day now and it feels downright awesome…just as soon as I count them and realize that I’ve written more than my mind categorized. It still remains to be seen if the pages (added 20 pages in the past four days, hah) are any good, but that will come once the read/edit starts. It’s too raw to ponder such things at this point; for now I’m just focusing on the creative process, seeing as I need a completely different part of the brain for it. I’ve found that writing and editing absolutely do NOT go together. It’s like a complete gear shift that I seriously do not want to make while the story is still liquid inside my head. Once the time comes for editing, it’ll all come together and become solid, so to speak.

Which brings us back to today: The night wasn’t as cold as the ones of the past week, but still I was a tad chilled when I woke around sunrise and found myself balancing precariously on the edge of the mattress…Knight II had stretched out completely and was pushing us off, aaargh…feeling particularly sore for some “unfathomable” reason. Hah. I so did not want to get up to this miserable weather, but the new day had arrived and it was time to face it.

The morning was mostly used for minor chores inside the house (such as laundry, grrr) fixing up an old closet that we put in the pantry for storage, and then starting on the courtyard storage room, which is an absolute mess. It really needs a proper cleaning, and seeing as I should get to it, I better wrap this up and call it a day for blogging.