Saturday, February 20, 2010

Peppercorns, stock and whaler's wife.

1. I always think 'lizard's eyes' when I cook with peppercorns.

2. I like to tip the spent stock bones into the compost bin.

3. I am reading the diary of a whaler's wife -- One Whaling Family. Eliza Williams set out from Nantucket in 1858 with her husband on a three-year whaling expedition. She was five months pregnant the day they launched, but the first you hear about it is when at the end of a paragraph about pigeons, she says "We have a fine healthy boy, born on the 12th, five days before we got into port."

Rising, skiing and winter TV.

1. Watching the thermometer lounging in the marmalade pan creep up to 104C. 2. Fine rain is blowing on a mean wind across the slope, but she...