Sunday, January 17, 2016

Pumpkins etc.

Until this week, I hadn't been ill for over a year, which I put down to the wonders of propolis and being tanked up with vitamin D. This year's batch of rhinoviruses are a tough bunch, it seems, and got through the armour plating of my defences. I've been off work, but it could have been worse - I could have gone temporarily deaf in one ear, like my DB.

By far the most comforting nourishment while feeling awful is soup. For Christmas, I was given a 10kg pumpkin, a massive thing. It sat on the floor in the hall until I realised a couple of weeks ago that it was starting to go off, whereupon I had to do something with it immediately, or consign it to the compost bin.

My 10kg pumpkin looked like this
(from here)
This happened on a Sunday afternoon, the rest of which was thus spent peeling, de-seeding and cutting up. I put two oven-tray fulls of pumpkin chunks in the oven to roast and freeze, put another bag-full in the fridge, and made pumpkin soup out of the rest. I'm a big fan of potimarron soup, and butternut squash soup, but I find pumpkin soup a bit bland. My first attempt just had pumpkin, onion and potato and chicken stock. That's my classic recipe for potimarron and butternut, or a mixture of both. It's not enough for pumpkin unless you have a super rich stock, which I didn't. The resulting soup was disappointing to say the least.

For my second try, I took the bag of chunks out of the fridge this week (just before they went off), and added carrot, turnip and a parsnip to the pot. They made all the difference, and I ended up with a super-tasty, hearty soup which has kept me going at lunch times this week.

I still have two bags of frozen roasted pumpkin in the freezer, pumpkin that is responsible for the demise of my oven. At least, while cooking it, and indeed, once the pumpkin was cooked, my oven started making odd noises and at some point gave up the ghost. It was thirteen years old and much used so I can't complain. It didn't die during cooking Christmas lunch, or an important dinner party (not that I have any of those), or even half-way through a roast chicken. No, it was faithful to the last, and waited until the pumpkin was nicely roasted before expiring. Thank you dear oven.

I am replacing it with a French oven, a Sauter (let's jump!) which is the equivalent of my Sholtès and the winner of a Que Choisir ('Which') comparison of ovens. I could have replaced it with another Sholtès, but I read a review from someone who had done just that, and while they were happy with it, they remarked that the components have been made with shoddier quality materials than the old one. A sign of the times, obviously, so I decided to support French manufacturing and save 150Eur or so.

What else? Well, I've been making good use of Hotspot Shield by watching BBC iPlayer - 'War and Peace', 'Dickensian', 'Death in Paradise', 'Silent Witness', and also 'Endeavour' on ITV player. Sitting at the dining table (which is not used for dining) in my cosy dressing gown, in front of the computer with the earphones on, a cup of tea and a slice of Christmas cake to hand, and watching tele is a great way to be ill.

I've also completed the second course of Python and signed up for the third which is starting this week. As I fear I might not be up to the task of all this learning, I am doing, alongside, the CodeAcademy course on Python to give me another point of view, and more exercises. I have to keep at it as there's nothing easier to forget. As with all languages, the most difficult part is thinking in the right way. I can understand what's going on when I see it, but actually writing it down from scratch is much trickier. Exactly like people who say they can understand but not speak a language.

I will get there in the end. I will.

10 comments:

  1. Sorry you've been ill Sarah. Sounds like you're handling it marvellously with Christmas cake in hand. I hope it stops you succumbing to daytime tele. We'll know you're seriously ill then. Will be interested to see what you do with the rest of that pumpkin. Have never really taken to it but you seem to do great things with food and I have no doubt you'll get there re the Python course. Wish you better xx

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    1. Daytime tele for me is iPlayer. :) I've never watched the rubbish that is scheduled daytime tele. Lobotomise me first!

      Pumpkin soup is definitely the way to go with a pumpkin. I don't like pie and all the rest is more effort than it's worth. I did cut some chunks up into a stirfry with other veg that covered the taste just to use some up. There was sooo much of it! :)

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  2. Hope you will be better very soon, Sarah.

    Congratulations on finding a way to make pumpkin tasty, that is no mean feat in my experience.

    So much good TV at the moment. Have you watched 'Spin' "Les hommes de l'hombre"? Excellent French political thriller on Fridays on Channel 4, with the gorgeous Gregory Fitoussi. Here's a link: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/spin

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    1. Hi Susie, no I haven't heard of Spin. Must look it up - thanks for the heads up. :)

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  3. I used to make pumpkin soup with stock made from prawn heads and shells and shove a few prawns and a bit of chopped chervil in at the end.

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    1. Fishy pumpkin soup? I would never have thought of trying that. I suppose it must be good as you used to make it. Interesting. :)

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  4. I do hope you're starting to feel better. DH has had a head cold which has gone on for weeks. :(
    I love soup of all descriptions and there's nothing nicer for a winter lunch (we had parsnip and apple today) Your pumpkin plus root vegetables sounds delicious.

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    1. Thanks! I'm well enough to be back at work. I hope your DH gets over his head cold soon too.
      I think my favourite soup is leek and potato (with bacon)... oh and mushroom... oh and tomato... oh and courgette... :)

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  5. What a considerate oven you have - though it would have been more polite for it not to have broken down at all. How's your new one?
    I love Death in Paradise - a crime thriller that is easy to watch. I don't have to pause and ask questions as they helpfully write up all the clues on a flip board. Hell of a lot of murders on one Caribbean island though.

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    1. For the moment, I have just made my youngest's breakfast apple/oatbran muffins and they have come out perfectly on the cake setting. Tonight, I'm testing the pizza setting. :)

      Sainte Marie is like Midsomer - places of concentrated killings. :)

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