Three courses on a Thursday

Most people would, no doubt, think that restless leg syndrome is the purview of the young. But no. This morning, a man of around my age, sitting with the usual group of old men in the ICA bistro, couldn’t stop jiggling both of his legs. I imagine he would get quite worn out. Almost like running a marathon without leaving his seat.

There was no marathon for me as I walked to the ICA this morning. The tree which had blocked my path on Tuesday, was gone by this morning. Another bit of splendid work by Trosa Kommun.

That was all first thing, of course. The rest of my day was almost exclusively devoted to cooking.

A little while ago I had planned to cook Nicoline a French meal which would include cake. It was to be a surprise birthday dinner. For various reasons, it never happened, but I decided to remedy that tonight. Without the surprise bit.

To be fair, it wasn’t just for Nicoline. I was also practicing ahead of my French cooking course next month. Given we, the participants, will be cooking our own meals, I need to up my game a bit. Particularly with presentation.

First up, almost as soon as I returned from the shop, I made a French apple cake which turned out brilliantly delicious. Mirinda took particular delight in licking the bowl. As the sun was out and the wind benign, she sat outside on the deck sofa, and licked the bowl very clean. She called it ‘cushions and cake mix’, which was almost going to be this posts title. Until Nicoline provided me with the one that I used.

Mind you, when it was finished, the cake looked a bit rustic. But the taste was divine. In fact, the three of us had two helpings each, leaving very little for me to finish tomorrow.

And so, as the day wore on and the amount of washing up increased, so my menu started to take shape. I made the same scallops I did for New Year’s Eve and, I think, they were better. At least the creamy, leek and mushroom sauce was better. That was a bowl that I licked.

The full menu, I thought, worked quite well. And, while I’ve made the pork mignon before, it included my very first Dauphinois which really needed more starchy potatoes. My report card would say ‘Gary could do better’.

Apologies for my appalling French. Not to mention the handwriting.