Geronimo

When climbing a tree it is advisable not to commit all of your weight to one branch. Whilst trees, by their very nature are things that reach far above the ground it might be worth noting whilst falling from such a height that the chances of falling all the way to the ground are slight. Trees, you see, have branches sticking out from them at all angles and so if some one, through no fault of their own, were to fall from, say, about 15 foot up they would be almost guaranteed to find their fall halted by a handy branch. Or so you would think.

Cups of tea are nutritious, delicious and restorative and generally just about as good a thing as you can get. They are not, however, very soft. they are very wet and very hot. If your cup of tea is too hot to drink then you might kill some time whilst waiting for it to cool by climbing a handy tree to take a better look at the view. If this situation does arrive could I recommend placing the tea some distance from the tree to be climbed.

Today I rather fortunately don't have to work so I had quite a long lie in before getting up into a rather cold world. Breakfast consisted of crumbly bread with slices of butter wrapped around chunks of ham and mustard and held in place with icicle fingers. I'm now in Oxford for a trip to the dentist who it appears does not have a January sale. I am pleased to discover that the farmers market is on today so I should be able to stock up on plenty of seasonal food.

The inspiration for this eating only seasonal food business came from Nigel Slater who has just brought out recipe book charting everything he cooked over a year of eating seasonal food. One of the first recipes in the book is bacon and cabbage fried together in a pan. A couple of nights ago I thought I would make this so I went off and bought a Savoy Cabbage ( I already had a pork loin joint at home) and then realised that I didn't have the recipe so would have to wing it, I bought some Caraway seeds and then went home.

It went a little like this

Some gammon cut into strips
Some of the dark leaves from a savoy cabbage, shredded
Olive oil
Caraway seeds
Butter
Heat the oil and Caraway then add the gammon and cabbage, fry until good and cooked stir through butter to taste and serve.
Absolutely lovely

I then boiled the rest of the gammon and towards the end of the cooking time added some potatoes and some of the lighter leaves from the middle of the savoy. Once cooked I stored the water (good stock), vegetables and meat in the three Tupperware containers I bought myself for Christmas (woo hoo). The following morning I made bubble and squeak

Bubble and Squeak

Cooked Potato, cut up small (mashed potato is best)
Cooked Cabbage
Oil
Salt pepper and nutmeg to taste
Butter (optional)
Heat the oil, add the potato, cabbage, salt pepper and nutmeg (if grating nutmeg on knife be sure and grate your thumb this time and bleed everywhere) fry until good and brown. This is so much nicer if made with Savoy cabbage rather than white, especially if the cabbage gets nice and crispy. Stir in a little butter at the end and serve.
Some gammon cut into strips
Some of the dark leaves from a savoy cabbage, shredded
Olive oil
Caraway seeds
Butter

Heat the oil and Caraway then add the gammon and cabbage, fry until good and cooked stir through butter to taste and serve.
Absolutely lovely