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Jackie's February Message continued . . . The stuffed brain syndrome is due to Harper Collins, who've decided that The Fascinating History of Your Lunch should come out this year not next year, and also it needs another five thousand words, which should have been a cinch except I decided to draw up a time line of where food started and where it traveled, and who it journeyed with and why...which is a lot to keep in your head at once. But once you understand the history of food you understand the history of the world, because after all securing food is one of the great motivators in human history, and even where human actions have been propelled by religion or love of gold or adventure, the food (and farming and cooking techniques) have usually travelled along too. Trace the journeys of food, and you trace out whole history... Anyway, at least I have finally taken a few hours off Aztec emperors guzzling hot chocolate and Maori warrior's mums growing sweet potatoes, and I am writing this. It's a good day for writing. This week has been both hot and humid, with sudden straight grey rain each afternoon, absurdly tropical, except it isn't absurd at all because in the last thirty years I have been watching the weather patterns changing, and the patterns of the trees and the ferns change too, and the creek shrink from a small river into an intermittent visitor, and the summers are just that small bit hotter and the winter's just that much colder, but it's the WAY the rain falls that has been so different. There's mould growing on the cupboard doors, just like it used to when I was a kid in Queensland- well, it's trying to grow, but I keep stubbornly cleaning it off again. Even when the fog crept in last week it was a hot fog, like breathing in thin soup. But at last the southerly has sneaked its way up the valley, and now it's sitting here, spreading cold damp air down the gullies. So it's a good time to write, without wilting at the computer and watch the bush outside wilt too. So what's happening this month? Earthly Delights is being released- a VERY tongue in cheek and funny look at aphrodisiacs for Valentine's Day. I'll be starting the sequel to In the Blood (Thriller/ sci fi/ vampire detective story/ romance and probably a few other genres mixed into it too) for adults and young adults coming out next month- I've been itching to get into the second book for months. And the broccoli and spniach and winter lettuce has to go in the veg garden, and a million (well, sort of) primulas so the place doesn't look too like Moon Base 1 this winter, and blackberry jelly to make in the next week or so (Bryan doesn't like the pips in jam) and the ginger lillies are just starting to flower, which is probably the most stunning of all flowerings each year. Also fruit fly to check for (see Best of... for more details) and weeds to speak sternly to (also see Best of) and the rain and the heat mean the swimming hole is still the most beautiful place in the world.
Anyway, these are the recipes I've been making in the past couple of weeks, to try and use up the monster zuchinnis that lurk under the leaves gathering their strength before they take over the world. I recommend the iceblocks- the recipe was about the first one I ever made up, when I was just a kid- eight or nine, I think, and had been stuffing strawberries and mulberries and bananas into the freezer for years to eat when I came home from school, and halved frozen oranges, which are delicous eaten with a teaspoon, like a very simple sorbet.
Lots of love, |