The Generosity of Friends Mark II

Of course, the post that I lost was much wittier and erudite (and longer!) than this repeat can ever hope to be, as I'm feeling pissed off with myself for hitting the wrong series of keys that meant I lost the just-finished-and-doing-the-last-bit-of-primping post.

(And if you're here for the Less Is More challenge, you need to pop over to the View from the Teapot)

Anyway, back to friends, first of all:

During last week, I popped across the road to see Monique and Michel (and more importantly!) their new kitten, who is called Kitten (French, with the emphasis on the "ten") - he is gorgeous, and sweet and kittenish, attacking eveything with the kind of fearless abandon that comes with innocence.

They gave me a colander full of mirabelles, and three heads of salad. I froze most of the fruit, but made some little tartlets with some Brick pastry that I had in the fridge. A spoonful of plum jam andone of apple purée at the bottom, and then topped with a generous layer of halved mirabelles. Baked for about 20 minutes they were delicious! I also baked a vanilla sponge with mirabelles within for M&M to say "Thank You".

On Friday Mr FD did some work on a friend's computer, and Yves gave him a bottle of home fermented eau de vie aux cerises (Cherry eau de vie). This is a really strong drink, but it smells delightfully of Christmas, so I think I wil be using it to "feed" this year's Christmas cake ! Although computer repairs/web site design is Mr FD's job, and he likes to get paid for it, with friends there is often a less formal bartering method of payment.

Then yesterday, he received a text from Yves saying there was a bag of veggies for us in the Cycle Club House - another token of gratitude. A bag of vegetables? More like the contents of a greengrocer's shop!! Two huge cabbages, a cauliflower, a bag of potatoes,some onions, and three courgette/marrows. We'll be eating this stuff for weeks!

 I'm very tempted to use the cauliflower to try the cauliflower pizza crust over at  Lavender & Lovage It sounds interesting (although Mr FD - who loves his pizza - remains unconvinced!) and a novel use for cauliflower. Mind you, I was less than convinced by cauliflower "rice", so this might be the same!

We did however enjoy our steamed buttered cabbage with our yummy dinner last night. I made a recipe from this book, which I picked up half price in the UK:

It has given me some great recipes for our fasting days, which have been so good, I'm now using it for our non-fasting days!! Yesterday I made Turkey Ragout, which was really tasty:

Serves 4: 190 calories a serving.

• 1 turkey drumstick (about 625 g)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 15 baby onions/shallots
• 3 carrots, sliced diagonally
• 300 ml red wine
• thyme sprigs & 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tsp port wine jelly (I used redcurrant jelly)
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard

1. Remove the skin from the drumstick & make a few cuts in the flesh. Cut 1 clove of garlic into slivers and push into the cuts. Crush the other clove.
2. Put the drumstick into a flame proof casserole dish, with the other clove of garlic, the carrots, onions, red wine and herbs. Season well, and cover. Cook in a preheated oven (180°C/350°F/GM4) for about 1 3/4 hours until the turkey is cooked.
3. Remove the turkey & veg from the sauce & keep warm. Bring the sauce to the boil, add the remaining ingredients and boil for about 5 minutes until the sauce is thickened. Carve the turkey and serve with the veg and the sauce.

Because we weren't fasting, we had it with lots of creamy mashed potatoes and steamed, buttered cabbage. If you were fasting this plus a small portion of starch and loads of veg would be an amazingly satisfying meal.

This isn't a photo of the dish - but it looks just as delicious!

There is enough of the meat left for me to use, together with some of Yve's vegetables, in a stirfry tonight. I'll cook some rice and open a Blue Dragon sauce sachet to make a quick and easy dinner

Now on the Lost Post I told you about our meals for next week. But I'm still fed up with myself, so I'll stop now and save that for tomorrow. I'll post our menus then. Now I really, really REALLY should make some kind of effort to tidy my study. It looks terrible! There are boxes, bags, boxes of jamjars, homeless teddies and Stuff all over the floor, plus two boxes of paper and card that require carrying to the recycling bins (although the paper recycling box is a favourite hide out for Bib when Millie is chasing her, wherein she then curls up and goes to sleep. It mightn't be so attractive if I throw away the paper!)