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NaJoPoMo 2011 - 13th (Agapanthus stews)

It's my turn to cook tonight.

Given that all the fridge had in it was an onion, we're having Stewed Thing. This is quite unlike the Baked Thing I made here: F132391?thread=8283932 . You need cream for baking Things. Stewed Thing involves wine and whatever protein you can find in the freezer with the possible exception of frozen egg-whites. Today, we're featuring diced stewing beef which has been lurking in there for month), onions, garlic, a tin of kidney beans (or whatever beans you like, really. Or chickpeas), tomato puree), red wine (red or white, either will do. I promise white wine with beef stew does actually work) and A Combination Of Spices and Flavourings. I'm going for vaguely North African spices (bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, chilli, cumin, coriander, rose petals) and honey.

You need a casserole dish that can go on the stove or in the stove (we were give a Le Creuset one as a wedding present. It's a smiley - bleep to clean, but I love it). In it, I fried the sliced onions and roughly chopped garlic until golden, and chucked in a few cloves. Added the beef (I couldn't be bothered to defrost it, so it got added as a solid chunk. This is not necessarily ideal) and browned it on as many sides as possible. Or, rather, I broke the frozen chunks apart and accidentally flicked onions over the stove. When it was brownish on the outside(s) but raw in the middle, added the tomatopuree and some hot water, the cinnamon stick and the bay leaves, and the thoroughly rinsed beans. I stirred it all thoroughly and turned it to a simmer. Then I added the rest of the spices (I used Ras el Hanout, a rather good pre-mixed blend. I went a tad overboard and OH MY THE CHILLI) and couple of tablespoons of honey. I put it in the oven with a lid on, and wandered off for an hour or two.

I started it off in a hottish oven, and when I went back to check on it, a lot of water had evaporated and it was a tad... jam-like in texture. Ooops. I added a large glass of red wine and a tad more water and put it back in the now somewhat less fierce oven.

I will now go and cook brown rice and some green beans (again, I found them in the freezer. This meal is somewhat unhinged by poor shopping timing). And then we will eat while shouting 'It's Lalique, you fool! Oh, wait, no it isn't. Oops' at Antiques Roadshow.

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Latest reply: Nov 13, 2011

NaJoPoMo 2011 - 13th (Agapanthus stews)

It's my turn to cook tonight.

Given that all the fridge had in it was an onion, we're having Stewed Thing. This is quite unlike the Baked Thing I made here: F132391?thread=8283932 . You need cream for baking Things. Stewed Thing involves whatever protein you can find in the freezer with the possible exception of frozen egg-whites (today, we're featuring diced stewing beef which has been lurking in there for months), onions, garlic, a tin of kidney beans (or whatever beans you like, really. Or chickpeas), a tin of tomatoes (or tomato puree), wine (red or white, either will do. I promise white wine with beef stew does actually work) and A Combination Of Spices. Today, we're going for vaguely North African spices (cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, chilli, cumin, coriander, rose petals) and honey.

Find a casserole dish that can go on the stove or in the stove (we were give a Le Creuset one as a wedding present. It's a smiley - bleep to clean, but I love it). Fry the sliced onions and roughly chopped garlic until

Discuss this Journal entry [5]

Latest reply: Nov 13, 2011

NaJoPoMo 2011 - 12th (Agapanthus on vulgarity)

OK, so I given I wear a poppy for the second week in November and observe the two-minute-silence on Armistice Day, why am I now going to complain about it all?

Because I am a contrarian.

Anyway, it's not the poppies-and-wreaths-and-songs-and-sorrow that bother me, and what bothers me is not limited to Armistice poppies.

No, I am really hacked off over the ostentation of it all.

Things that are vulgar:

1 - BBC policy notwithstanding (and yes, apparently from mid-October onwards, they FORCIBLY pin a poppy on you before letting Paxman shreddle you live onscreen), it is, yes, very vulgar to wear a poppy for weeks. One week is respectful and well-bred. Two weeks is, well, a bit serious. Three weeks is silly. Four weeks is showing off. Five is exhibitionism. Holier-than-thou, smug, exhibitionism. It gives the British Legion not one jot or tittle of extra cash, and it gives the rest of us compassion-fatigue.

2 - Those huge, fancy, elaborate poppy corsages. They are vulgar. The paper flowers are the thing. The tiny neat metal pins are nice, too, and you're less likely to stab yourself under the nail while fiddling with your lapel. A silk poppy the size of a saucer is in questionable taste - it's a sign of remembrance, not an adornment or accessory to your outfit. Why do you need it to be large and ornamental? What are you saying, that support for wounded soldiers is all very well, but not nearly as important to you as looking feminine and charming? And a bunch of large shiny poppies complete with sequins? You have got to be kidding me. Please be kidding me.

3 - Oh, and big plastic poppy 'noses' on the car's front grill. Yes. Well. Comic Relief silly noses are amusing, because it's Comic Relief and their merchandise is going all-out to BE amusing. I don't think anyone except Blackadder ever got away with being daft about a World War, and their version involved wit, fierce intelligence, and a strong salt dose of satire, historical knowledge and political intent. A poppy 'nose' on a car means the owner has not thought this through.

It's a bit like Christmas, isn't it? If it all goes on too long and is too silly and too much in the hands of people whose commitment, ethics and motivation one has dark suspicions of, by the time the Actual Day Dawns, the rest of us are sick to the back teeth of it all. Which might explain why, this year, apparently more poppies than ever were sold, and yet I saw fewer than ever being worn.

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Latest reply: Nov 12, 2011

NaJoPoMo 2011 - 11th (Agapanthus remembers)

I spent the two-minute silence (it is Armistice Day here in Blighty) lurking in the stacks, out of sight, so I could stand and bow my head in peace.

One year I made the huge mistake of stopping what I was doing and attempting the two-minute silence in the middle of the main floor of the Library of Glum, and two people came up to ask me if I could just help them find this book... I pointed at the poppy pinned to my shirt each time, and one scuttled off sheepishly, blushing, and the other just asked again, louder. So I gave her a LÒÓK.

It's a tad ridiculous that I should have to HIDE to perform a public act of remembrance, nu?

As I was commuting, I noticed that I, and all the other poppy-wearers, were very much in the minority. So I counted. We poppy-wearers were standing at about 1 in 10 in the small slice of central Nodnol I trotted through this morning and evening.

Is this a Britain-wide thing? Or just a Busy Nodnol thing? Because it distresses me. I am not your 'typical' poppy-wearer (if there is such a thing as a typical poppy-wearer, WHICH I SERIOUSLY DOUBT). I am a socialist. I am an ardent pacifist. I think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were entered into for opportunistic, cynical, and greedy reasons, and whatever good we might be doing out there is massively outweighed by the damage.

But, the soldiers? I unequivocally support them. They and their families are making sacrifices the like of which I wouldn't DREAM of making. They are risking death, mutilation, bereavement, psychological damage, every day. Our government, I feel, is betraying them by making them go fight in unworthy, ugly wars. They deserve better. They deserve my respect, yes, even the respect of a socialist bleeding-heart pacifist like me, and they totally have it. Because the poppy is not a glorification of war, it is not a celebration of thanatos, or machismo, or colonialism, or war-mongering or anything else I heartily disapprove of. No, it's a gesture of memory, of respect, of sorrow, of compassion, of thanks. It's important not to forget that people, real people, get killed in wars. It's when we forget this that that governments start glorifying the slaughter and going in gung-ho guns blazing, banging their chests and lying to the rest of us about the real reasons they're there in the first place. If we've forgotten that real people get killed, why should we care if politicians are bending the truth into fascinating balloon-animals to get us out there, spending taxes on the damn' war in the first place?

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Latest reply: Nov 11, 2011

NaJoPoMo 2011 - 10th (Agapanthus is tired and emotional)

Sorry, Gentle Readers. I've had a very hard, bad ugly, no good day. I have had a cry, and a bath, and a glass of wine, and now I am going to bed.

Discuss this Journal entry [10]

Latest reply: Nov 10, 2011


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