How would you like your vegetables, Madam?

Al dente?
Tender?
Charred?

I had one of those senior moments yesterday ... one of Mrs C's
friends said they were called CRAFT moments (when you can't
remember a f.....g thing). I'd put some lightly oiled potatoes &
other veg (& whole garlic & fresh rosemary) in a hot oven to
roast for about an hour, for last night’s meal.

I was sitting nearby, trying unsuccessfully to upload a photo
onto this Blogger site, when I noticed a strong burning smell and
a slight cloud of smoke coming from the top of the oven. This was
about 20 minutes after I'd put the veg in.

It was then I realised that I had turned the grill on, instead of
the oven (same knob but different settings on it for the grill &
oven). So the veg had a good char-grilling. After I'd managed to
disperse the smoke and smell, I put the veg back in the oven again
to cook properly at a lower temperature.



As you see the results were very well cooked (reminiscent of one
of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares), and not visually appealing.
I was trimming off some of the burnt bits, when Mrs C arrived home.
"Ooo.. I like the burnt bits", she said much to my surprise ...
"Don't cut any more off, please!". Well, you'd think that after 30
plus years of marriage to Mrs C, I might have gleaned that bit of
information before.

Anyway, the food was delicious, (accompanied by mountains of green
veg and a mound of cottage cheese). I might be in line for a Michelin
star, methinks, if I carry on turning out food like this (and pigs
might fly too).

Same again tonight, without the charred effect, as we've got still
got loads of cottage cheese to eat up. Yum.

It's St. George's Day today ... you know George, patron saint of
Asda/Wallmart, as he's now best known for. This morning, I came
in at the tail end of a radio news item about Gordon Brown and
his colleagues thinking about instilling more patriotism into us
Britons and immigrants in particular, prompted by thoughts of
St George and his exploits. (Please correct me if I've got that
news story wrong, as I can't be arsed to check it out).

St George and the Dragon ... a medieval legend as you'll know.
Is this the George we're supposed to be celebrating? How come
today's not a public holiday, if it's so important in Britain's
image here and abroad? Having read a bit about St George's Day,
it was celebrated with great feasting in the Middle Ages, just
like the partying we all have at Christmas.

I reckon a better English figure to celebrate would be King Alfred.

From reading Wikipedia yet again, I see that he does have a
day in the calendar all to himself, a feast day on 26 October
(I didn't know that before). All I remembered was that he was
an Anglo-Saxon warrior king and a brilliant law maker.
I imagine he'd be "turning in his grave" if he knew about
present day imports of Danish bacon and Lurpak butter.

Oh yes, he's also well remembered for burning some cakes,
allegedly -- I gather he had greater things on his mind at
the time, and that later, he apologised to the woman who'd
put them on the fire to cook.

Perhaps burning food is a "man" thing?
(A ploy to get away with not cooking anything?)