Miscellany

[pensnest]

I've been working on the chorus Yearbook - not far off completed, which is good as it has to be ready for the coach to Harrogate for Convention, which is less than two weeks from now - and haven't done anything particularly interesting of late. Nor have the cats, though there is a suspicious collection of feathers near the entrance to the Ancient Forest. She's not bringing them in, is all I can say (with relief).

So a bunch of miscellaneous and fairly random thoughts.

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Grandpa is helping us to Eat Local Stuff at the moment by presenting offerings of beans, courgettes and tomatoes at regular and frequent intervals. This is good. I am also trying to reform our eating habits, with British apples rather than Braeburns flown in from New Zealand (which is ridiculous) and so forth. It's annoying that our apple trees decided not to be prolific this year, as it was so nice to have an abundance of tasty and interesting apples in the back garden.

Not everything I buy to eat is local, but I am vowed to improve. Also, less meat—at the moment I am cutting down to three meat-based main meals per week, with two fish-based and the rest veggie. Not just healthier for us, but environmentally healthier too. Beast and I also decided we can live without beef. We are still pretty much committed to eating piggies, because they are delicious, but our local butcher only provides locally-reared things to eat, and I'm definitely interested in trying to buy meat products from them, because local, free range, delicious meat is the way to go.

What else could we reasonably be doing?

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On the subject of food: Pies of great beauty

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Read this: https://splinternews.com/a-true-story-about-my-trip-to-the-dentist-1829336586

And then read the comments here: https://www.metafilter.com/176970/the-faint-sound-of-a-grown-ass-man-SCREAMING-in-pain

I laughed and laughed.

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Sphen and Magic have an egg.

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Didn't laugh so much at this one, but it's… urgh. http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2018/10/10/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-final-weeks-of-brexit

I'll be at the People's Vote march next Saturday - anyone else going?

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Walk of Respect for organ donors and their families. This is surprisingly moving and strikes me as a very good idea.

Comments

[vae]

Can I put in a recommendation for quorn mince as a replacement for beef mince? You have to add a little more flavour to the sauces because you don't get the meat juices for flavour, but for texture it works really well for things like chilli and bolognese. (I'm less sold on it for lasagne.)

I'm off to London on Saturday but not for the march, sadly - we were booked for another reason before the march was organised.

Have you come across Arthur's Organics for local veg delivery?

[pensnest]

It occurred to me just last night that instead of switching to lamb mince I can go straight to Quorn (I think I even have some in the freezer). I rather approve of Quorn. Add a bit of Marmite, and it's all good. Thanks for the reminder!

I've been pondering the idea of veg delivery boxes, but while Grandpa is providing regular veg it would just mean extra waste. I'll re-think it while he is away over the winter.

[copracat]

OMG the pies.

[turps]

While it's not actually the case, it feels like 90% of my diet for the last few months has consisted of courgettes and tomatoes as we've had so many to eat.

I really like quorn products, too. In fact, tied to the above, I've eaten a lot of quorn meatballs in a tomato and courgette sauce, lately.

[frausorge]

Yay for local produce! Especially home-grown.

[turlough]

Home grown veggies are the best!