Food and Things

Poor, neglected blog. What can I say? They've been working me like a dog at work. I work like crazy all day, then go home to soak in the bath and try and feel human again, then start the whole thing over again the next day.

Of course, I could have written over the Easter break, but I was too busy cooking. I don't cook anywhere near as much as I used to, so every now and then my need to make food builds up and I have to get it all out of my system. The Man will be innocently watching football while behind him in the kitchen area, massive amounts of food begin to gather, pizzas covering every work surface, cakes and pies teetering on ledges. Every time he turns around to describe the finer details of the latest pass or try, a new creation will have popped up. "Yes, dear!" I say, ignoring him happily and coaxing yeast along.

This Easter I made:

pizzas (sauce and dough from scratch) - and can I just ask, why is it so difficult to get hold of free range pork products? I won't buy pork if it's not free range, after seeing all those ads the animal rights people put on the buses and on TV. Yet it's so difficult to buy free range, even in David Jones. I ended up with some free range bacon, but no ham. Anyway, where was I...

pasta sauce
minced beef and vegetable stew
vegetable soup
chocolate mousse with ganache topping

And lots of it, too!

Days like those really are some of the happiest in my life. I think they're the cat's happiest days, too. She relaxes happily next to the Man on the sofa, content in the knowledge that both her people are close by and happily engaged in domestic pursuits.

Talking of the cat, I was awoken in the small hours last night by the sound of the cat leaping around the bedroom knocking stuff over. I stumbled out of bed to see what was going on. She was leaping about in the dark, being playful, or so I thought. I even crouched down to give her a rough petting, and made "grrr!!" noises. Remember, I was half asleep, so I must be pretty nice.

Then I thought I heard a tiny squeak. Alarm bells. I stared a bit more closely at where she was crouching, and as my eyes adjusted to the dark I became aware that there was definitely something next to her...something moving. Of course I screamed for the Man, and ran into another room.

The upshot was, it was a little mouse. The Man put it in a box for the night, then we went to release it this morning. When we opened the lid we found it still alive, but twitching in a most unhealthy way and unable to run. We left it in some undergrowth (well away from our catty area), knowing we should have just killed it to put it out of its misery, but unable to do so.

I've had a bit of sadness about the mouse hanging over me all day. It looked so sad and broken.