Wednesday 9 May 2012

A Nice Little Lunch

As mentioned in my previous post, I have quite a back log of things I want to write about and pictures I want to show you from the week before last, and tonight I am going to start with another food post - there have not been many of that sort recently, have there?

Last year, I already wrote about how much I like to cultivate the art of making do (alright, I am exaggerating here, it is not really an art, just something I do almost on a daily base), and the week before my sister and I left for our Yorkshire holiday*, I made sure to use up all the fresh food in my fridge so as not having to chuck it all out upon my return.

From the weekend before, I had some leftover spuds and an avocado, and they wanted eating before they'd start to grow a pretty greenish fur.

These were new spuds, the kind that can easily and most tastily be eaten without peeling them before. I had boiled them for our Sunday dinner, so all it took for them now was to chop them in halves and quarts, heat some oil in a pan, add a bit of salt, pepper and (dried) herbs, and fry them for a little while.

While the frying was going on, making my kitchen smell very appetizing, I cut the avocado in two, took the big heavy round smooth stone out (don't you just love that stone? Every time I open an avocado, I want to DO something with that stone, but I know planting it makes no sense, because it won't grow here) and lifted the lovely light green flesh (I've looked it up, it is OK to say flesh in this context) out and into a small bowl, where I mashed it up with a fork, adding (again) some salt and pepper.


The result was a combination of rather different textures and tastes, but they went together very well, and made for a really filling plateful of lunch. Plus I had reached my goal - that of using up some food, of making do in order not having to either buy something new or throw out something old.

*If you want to have a look at the pictures I took during that week before I start showing some of them here on my blog (which is going to happen over the next few weeks, I promise!), you can do that in my Photobucket album
As far as I know, you should be able to leave comments with each picture without necessarily having to have an account there, so in case you want to ask or remark anything, please feel free to do so. Not all of these are going to make it to the blog; therefore, to get the complete picture, I recommend to look at the first 10 pages of that album (everything after that is from previous holidays spent in England).

20 comments:

  1. Dear Meike,
    Okay, I just looked at your photos! Wow! Thanks for sharing all of them. I love the photos of your mother-in-law's house and gardens! Very lovely, indeed.
    I don't know if you know this, but I truly love the books by James Herriot and feel like I know those places in Yorkshire because of his books! Your photos of the Fountains Abbbey (I think that is what they were called) are so lovely.
    And the photo of the lamb, close-up, I find very endearing. (And I love the one of you IN the fireplace too!) Look forward to seeing some of these on your blog!
    Love,
    Kay P.S. Wish you could mail me some of those fried spuds.

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    1. Wow, you really went through a lot of pictures there, Kay, to have come across the one with me IN the fireplace - that was from 2010!
      The James Herriot museum is so well done. The house is the original house where the family of Alf Wight (that was James Herriot's real name) used to live and where he had his surgery. The rooms look as if the family had just left the room for a minute. We saw Alf Wight's son in the museum shop, signing the biography he has written about his dad.

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    2. Yes, I did but you know I have this English heart...
      I know his real name, James Alf Wight, since I wrote a note to James Herriot's widow after he died, and I don't usually do things like that unless I really, really like the author.
      Did you buy the biography signed by his son? (Who is himself a doctor, I think, if I remember correctly, his daughter became a vet.)
      Are you not a fan of his books?

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    3. Ha, Ha on me, I got it wrong way around. I just looked it up, his SON became the vet and his daughter became the doctor!

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    4. We did not buy anything there, Kay, except for our tickets to the house. And I must admit I only ever watched the TV series (we did that with the whole family) when it aired here in the early 1980s, I've never read any of his books (at least not yet!).

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  2. Your emptying your fridge brings back a sad memory. Newly- married, and off on holiday with husband and baby son, I thought what a good idea it would be to save electricity by turning it off. And I failed to empty the fridge. I shall never forget the sight and smell of its grisly contents on our return....

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    1. Gods! Good job I have just eaten :-D
      My husband once forgot something in the microwave before we went away for a week...

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    2. Ah, but there is worse. Once we went away for two weeks, and there was a two week electricity cut. When we opened the freezer door, our neighbours could smell it! But at least that wasn't our fault...

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    3. Uuuugh!!! When we were kids, once my sister went to get something from the freezer for my mum and didn't shut the door properly. Next time my mum went downstairs, she found blood running from the freezer towards her... Thankfully, it wasn't long enough for the meat etc. getting ruined, but it needed using up, and since it was way too much for the four of us to eat it all, she distributed meat all over the neighbourhood (I believe she was quite popular that day).

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  3. Mmmm. You always make me hungry.

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    1. This really was nice, Mark, and I was a bit disappointed to find there were no new spuds on offer when I did my first groceries shopping after coming back.

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  4. Yum, this looks really delicious! Nicely done using what you had on hand! I always find that so difficult!

    Hope you are well,
    e

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    1. I find this easier than deciding on what to cook when I have all the choice!

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  5. Delicious and so healthy! Love fried spuds.

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    1. It certainly was delicious - not so sure about the healthy bit, since it was rather fattening :-)

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  6. Fabulous! Now tonight for dinner while the Mr. has meat, I am having a baked yam and a salad, and an artichoke. Heaven!
    xx
    julie

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    1. That sounds fabulous, too, Julie! I do eat meat, but I don't really feel the need for it, so I'd join you with the the baked yam, salad and artichoke any time, and leave the meat to the Mr. as well!

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  7. I've caught up so far. The pics took me back a few years. It's been a good journey. Thanks.

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    1. You are welcome! And I assume you don't mean the pics in this post, but the ones in my photobucket album :-)

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    2. Yes. The Photobucket ones. I've left some comments.

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