Tuesday, May 22, 2018


Preparations for Kirkmichael tomorrow – they were always somewhat stressful, even when I was much stronger – are assuming the dimensions of a Himalayan expedition. Helen has cleared the kitchen up there of many ancient bottles, we gather, so we are taking everything. Plus another box of everything for the cats. Plus the cats themselves. We really need a team of highly-trained Sherpas.

In the absence of advice from you, I went ahead and made some hot sauce. I used Jamie Oliver’s recipe – I can’t find it, written down; you’ll have to ask YouTube for it. I made the whole recipe without any hotness at all, and when it was finished and cool, I added the mushed up fermented chillies and garlic. The result is fairly successful, I think – rather sweet, as Jamie adds sugar, which I would leave out next time, and then both cider vinegar and apple juice. When you taste it, you start to think, this is boring. Then it kicks in. It will be interesting to see what Alexander thinks.

I opened the kimchi and pressed it further down. It tastes fine, but not punchy yet.

What with all this, I haven’t even started to watch Andrew and Andrea. The big interview is with the team behind Ravelry, a brilliant idea. I'll take it to bed with me soon, once the kitchen is in a suitable state for leaving.

Non-knit

I watched the first episode of the new BBC series about Jeremy Thorpe last night, a tour de force for Hugh Grant, if nothing else. I may or may not go on.

You may remember that Hugh Grant is practically a member of the family, on the strength of the fact that he and James lived on the same stair at New College one year, and James once loaned him a frying pan.

As it happens, the current issue of the Economist has a Special Report by James about the Chinese travelling abroad. Not without interest, and his name is attached, as happens with Special Reports although not otherwise in the Economist. I wonder if Hugh Grant will spot it and say to his friends, “James Miles and I used to live on the same stair. I borrowed a frying pan from him once.” 

Probably not.

4 comments:

  1. Did you see the news that Hugh Grant is to marry the mother of three of his children?
    Rather complicated domestic arrangements, I thought.

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    Replies
    1. I didn’t know that, Shandy. Thanks. So HG has caught up with James on the children front at one leap.

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  2. I hope the traveling goes smoothly and you enjoy your time. I have nothing to add on the subject of hot sauce. I recently made tamarind sauce from an Indian recipe on-line and it was unbearably sweet. I'll make a trip to the Indian grocery next time.

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  3. I'm sorry, I'm afraid my comment will start making this blog look like a gossip site, but after Shandy's comment, I googled HG and saw he seems to have 5 children: 3 with the fiancee and 2 with someone else.

    ReplyDelete