Three mysteries

[shewhomust]

Technical, political, personal:

• Since the last major Microsoft update, the pretty picture displayed during start-up has been out of focus. This doesn't seem to be caused by the picture itself: I've been through several with the same effect. And it doesn't seem to be caused by the computer: as soon as start-up reaches the point where it displays my choice of picture, it's fine. For that matter, the 'me' icon overlaid on the photographic background is also fine. I've never understood why Microsoft felt the need to show me a random photo of its choosing at this point, and I'm not particularly upset that they now choose to show me a brightly coloured blur instead. Just, it's a mystery.



• When Mr Toad and his fellow conspirators obtained the Queen's consent to prorogue Parliament, it was reported that Privy Councillors fro, the Opposition (Jeremy Corbyn, and I think someone from the LibDems too) had asked to meet Her Majesty. Did she ever answer their request? I haven't seen any subsequent reports, but perhaps I have missed something?



• Making bread from a sourdough starter imposes a certain routine. I don't think of it as a chore, by any means, but once a week, give or take, I need to find a day in which I have time to attend to a loaf of bread (not constantly, but throughout the day). This is not a problem. But why is it so much easier once I know what kind of loaf it will be? Yesterday there was some cooked rice left over from dinner the previous night, and that's always a good addition to a plain loaf; but last week just deciding that I'd make an oatmeal and sultana loaf kick started me into - oh, just into getting on with doing it. The workings of my mind are still a mystery to me.

Comments

[lamentables]

That last one feels a bit like me and deciding what we’ll have for tea: starting with the decision makes the whole thing burdensome. Late last year I began drawing up weekly menus, partly because of the agony of ‘no, you decide’ and partly to avoid some veg box items getting forgotten and thus wasted. It has worked really well, even on the days where I go off piste and make something else entirely.

[anef]

Oh yes, I do weekly menus too. It means we have all the ingerdients for the week and fewer left-overs. I could not go on otherwise!

[lamentables]

We have an organic veg box delivered, so I start with the ingredients and then plan a menu around them. Leftovers are my favourite: they morph into new dishes and provide me with interesting lunches! (Also I am incapable of cooking just enough for one meal.)

[anef]

I think I have too rigid a mind-set for a veggie box, though that may change when I retire. It is hard enough when my husband phones from the supermarket and says "they don't have cauliflower". What do you mean, they don't have cauliflower? How can they not have cauliflower? My recipe depends on it! (I mean, usually broccoli will do but in this case it wouldn't.)

I completely agree about leftovers - they can provide very interesting meals, but I have a tendency to forget about them if they are not included in my weekly plan, and then they go off.

[lamentables]

That’s interesting, because I see the veg box as introducing a useful set of constraints, and working with constraints is when I’m most creative. If I started with the menu, I’d be paralysed by choice :)

[anef]

I generally start off with "What do I fancy eating this week?". It might be a recipe from a new cookery book, or from the Guardian food pages, or an old favourite. At the moment we're doing the new 5:2 diet, so I have borrowed a calorie counted recipe book from the library.

[shewhomust]

Mostly I decode what to cook after I've shopped: but sometimes I have everything except one key ingredient.

There was a cauiflower crisis this summer, apparently.

[shewhomust]

That's an interesting extension of the question! I try to do menus for the week - though I usually run out by halfway through. It depends on what I'm inspird to buy. The veg box is a clever way to sidestep that stage, but I couldn't abandon my greengrocer!

[lamentables]

There is no greengrocer in our local town, so I don’t have that problem. (Hasn’t been one in all the 23 years we’ve lived here. And, not that we eat meat, the butcher has now closed down. I find both these things tragic.)