those were the days

Well, lit­tle did I know when John took this pho­to­graph on our post-flood foot­path by the Thames that it would make me wax all nos­tal­gic just a few days later.

Because I have sprained my ankle.  Walk­ing down a slip­pery, rainy set of steps out­side a Chil­dren’s Cen­tre with my Home-Start infant strapped to my chest, I tripped.  Luck­i­ly I was able to save the baby and not sim­ply pitch down­wards onto both our faces, but the save was at the expense of my foot, which twist­ed under me at a most unnat­ur­al angle.  It took me just a moment to swal­low my yelp of aston­ished pain and to remind myself that I was there to HELP, not hin­der.  So I per­se­vered.  We walked the babies to their house, I kissed them and said good­bye, limped to my bicy­cle in the pour­ing rain and got myself home to the sofa.

I have hard­ly budged from there for three days. Ouch!

The love­ly thing has been hav­ing John and Avery cod­dle me, car­ry­ing laun­dry, clean­ing lit­ter box­es, fetch­ing bags of frozen peas for my ankle and hot water bot­tles to thaw the rest of me.  And John has been cook­ing!  A deli­cious sup­per of grilled pork chops, sauteed spinach and every­one’s favorite com­fort dish.

Pota­toes Dauphinoise

(serves 4 generously)

6 medi­um potatoes

1 tbsp butter

sprin­kle onion, gar­lic powders

sea salt and fresh black pepper

2 small shal­lots or 1 banana shal­lot, minced

1 cup/236ml whole milk

1 cup/236ml sin­gle cream

2 tbsps butter

Peel the pota­toes and slice them thin­ly or run them through the slicer of a food processor.

But­ter an oven­proof dish about 9 inches/22cm square.  Lay­er half the pota­toes on the bot­tom, then sprin­kle over minced shal­lot, onion and gar­lic pow­ders.  Add anoth­er lay­er of pota­toes, then mix milk and cream and pour over the pota­toes.  Dot in four places with the but­ter.  Bake at 425F/220 for about an hour, check­ing to make sure the pota­toes are not brown­ing too much and turn­ing down heat slight­ly if they are.  Serve hot.

*******

My main accom­plish­ments since being felled have been read­ing all of “Loli­ta” at one sit­ting (a bit sick­en­ing, to be hon­est), and clean­ing up the entire recipe index on this love­ly blog!  No more dupli­ca­tions, no more find­ing chick­en meat­balls under “sal­ads,” no more unwant­ed recipes from many years ago, and lots of pho­tographs added.  Enjoy!

It’s the half-term “hol­i­day” which is a tiny bit of a joke because Avery has stacks of books, files and notes at which she is meant to stare for upwards of six hours a day.  The “mock” exams for these will occur right after the “hol­i­day,” so there’s no rest for the weary.  All she can do is sur­face now and then to take love­ly pho­tographs of the spring­like gar­den in our Feb­ru­ary win­ter.  We are very lucky to have been spared any flood­ing in this epic Eng­lish season.

The clock is tick­ing on my sprained ankle because this week is full of things to look for­ward to: cof­fee with friends, a mati­nee of “Les Mis” with Avery, lunch with a chum com­ing in from Oxford and din­ner with a long-await­ed vis­it­ing Chica­go friend!  So I shall sit here, patient­ly on my sofa, while life occurs all round me and I heal.  Wish me luck.