10 AM: the things that were supposed to happen now are rescheduled for a little later in the morning, Beemer brings in a very, very alive and affronted mouse and turns it loose in the kitchen. I spend about ten minutes getting it out of various hiding places — finally catch it in a glass and turn it loose outside. All the cats except Bubble (presently sleeping hard after a busy night out killing things) run out to either deal with the mouse or watch it being dealt with.
10:30ish: A brief sitdown to consider the finer points of what to do with the lamb, and have another cup of tea. Another point comes up for consideration. What if there’s not enough ice cream for eight people? Okay, but I still have some cocoa, and I have buttermilk: and I have this recipe.
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
Title: Chocolate Buttermilk Cake (Buttermilchkuchen)
Categories: German, Chocolate, Cakes, Baking
Yield: 4 Servings
3 c Sugar
3 Eggs
250 g Margarine
4 c Flour
2 c Buttermilk
2 ts Baking soda
50 g Cocoa
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the wet
ingredients, mix well, and bake for about 20 minutes at
400F/200C.
After turning out on a rack to cool, dust with
confectioners' sugar / icing sugar.
(Translated from a posting to de.rec.mampf by
Christine Rommeck )
MMMMM
That should make the ice cream go a little further. I’ll take care of that after the lamb is ready to go.
11 AM: Some rapid sautéeing of thinly sliced speck and some chopped onions is followed by the searing of the pork and the addition at the last moment (so it won’t scorch) of four chopped cloves of garlic. When the garlic’s just beginning to color, in go some torn-up sprigs of fresh oregano and a liter of hot milk. The milk immediately curdles, which is normal; this whole sauce will be going through the mill or blender at the end of this process anyway, so it won’t look so gross.
12 N: And now the lamb, or stage one of it, anyway. Sainsbury’s sells a very nice lemon-infused olive oil. The lamb gets rubbed with a mixture of this and some herbes de provence. The rosemary and garlic will come a little later on, before I have to peel the potatoes.
1 PM: Lunch. Some cottage cheese, a few savory crackers, and a glass of wine. Later I’ll think about an omelet.
(2 PM follows…)
