New Year.

The clue is in the name NEW year, so as a celebration of all things new; the blog will be heading in a new direction. My daughter referred to it as “Food Porn”, and as a criticism I suppose its semi-justified, after all its full of pictures of food, and it may encourage appetites that could become uncontrollable, etc etc, blah blah. Also, as I’ve said before the blog is moving away from the original purpose, which was to practice creative writing, with a view to resuming the course I started a long time ago. Of course there will still be food mentioned, as it is one of my many passions, just that there may be more other things instead.

So to go out with a flourish, the first post of 2012 will contain uncensored pictures of food, some dressed some not so!

Firstly the Xmas food posts have been well received, naturally there was plenty left over for Boxing Day, good job as Naomi and Eamon came down for a short stay, I made shortbread and Mince Pies as well as the cold platter which was eaten with salad, pickles and home made cheese and onion Stromboli (Folded and filled flatbread).

Despite all that, we found room to visit the excellent Rockfish in Dartmouth for lunch on the 27^th and the equally excellent Studio Tea room in Ashburton (Hi Dave and Steve, and Bruno the Dog) on the 28^th.

New Years celebration was with Norma and Phillip, listening to the local bells with a glass of bubbles, and small food, such a reminder of the friends we have made in our short time in South Devon. (More than we made in 16 years at our old house in Kent)

On new years day, I had to travel to work, but went to see Naomi and Eamon on the way, as Amy and Harry were there recovering from the night before. We exchanged presents; I hadn’t seen them since the wedding so it was nice to catch up. They were both on good form.

Work on the 2^nd was very slow, and I was able to come home prompt on the 3^rd for an 11 day break, during which time I have made Seville Orange Marmalade (10lb) and resumed another hobby of mine after a long break.

The Moon Goddess picture has been on the go for nearly 2 years now, it’s the companion of the Sun God that I did ages ago, and there is a large blank space on the wall waiting for it, so no pressure to finish.

I used the excuse that I had run out of Metallic thread, but now I have obtained more so cannot say that. I do hate working with metallic threads as they kink so easily, mind you I hate outlining as well, and French knots and beads, you might wonder why I bother as I seem to hate it all, that’s a very good point, maybe I should say that I hate the IDEA of doing those things, once I get started I don’t mind.

I did find time to braise a lamb shank, in gravy left over from Xmas, with onions and carrots, eaten with new potatoes roasted in Olive Oil. Unfortunately my Slow Cooker is broken (It’s now a fast cooker) as is my food processor is on its last legs. (smells of burning insulation when on) But I did find a handraulic* dicer in a charity shop for £2, which seems to function.

* Handraulic is like Hydraulic but hand powered.

Ready to Cook

We went over to St Marychurch yesterday, as there is a shop which sells grated horseradish root but it was closed when we got there. Managed to get the Seville oranges for marmalade, and also for a drink called Vin D’Orange, the recipe of which I found in a magazine. Basically it’s a bottle of Rose wine, with Vodka and Brandy mixed, some sugar, cinnamon and Vanilla added and sliced oranges all mixed to soak and infuse for a month or so. Should be nice later in the year.

Meanwhile, Yvonne has not been quiet, being the creative type that she is; she has made a lot of cards ready for next Xmas, and as she never gets enough credit for what she does, I told her that I would put a picture up here. The quality of her work is excellent, as good as any you would pay for, and I think it needs a wider audience.

Onto the creative writing, the problem I have is not the lack of ideas, but the lack of the mental approach into developing them; I tend to get bogged down in the details, and in explaining everything so it makes sense, instead of letting the reader do some of the work. Also I seem to have a blockage with writing dialogue, I prefer to write descriptive prose, and I’m not sure how saleable that is in fiction instead of textbooks.

Anyway I’ve come up with the idea of writing a fiction textbook; that would remove the need for dialogue, anyone interested in a sample let me know. (And I'll have to start it!)