Cooking, mostly.
The ice cream for the big Easter dinner at Pat and Mary’s is all done. Now on to the main courses and side dishes…
7 AM or thereabouts: Wake up to the sound of Farah Mendelson (of the UK’s Science Fiction Foundation) gently trouncing the host of the BBC’s weekly obituary show, Brief Lives, on the subject of Andre Norton (Goddess rest her):
Dotun Adebayo: Was [her] science fiction for kids, or if you like, young adults? Who were her readers, boys or girls?
Farah: Well, her readers were young, but it’s quite obvious that adults were reading it too. In science fiction and fantasy, there’s very little divide between the adult and the children’s books.
Dotun: Well, nowadays, because of Harry Potter and so on —
Farah (firm and ever so slightly fierce): There never has been. Let’s not go to Harry Potter. (Laughter, a little uneasy on poor Dotun’s part…)
(chuckle) …So satisfying. I’ve been thinking so much about Andre for the past few days: there are few writers who have mattered more to me. Since I first started reading SF at age eight, or maybe before, she was there: she was always there. It’s hard now to believe that she’s gone…and I look forward, in a couple of days, to having time to sit down and reread Year of the Unicorn, probably my favorite.
(sigh) But I have to cook first.
8 AM: The usual. Feed cats, shower, tea. Assemble recipes. Look them over.
9 AM: The pork has to be prepped first. This one is going to be slowly braised in milk. It’s always in danger of being a little too bland. So from the freezer I get out some speck (the heavily smoked, airdried bacon of Germany and Switzerland) and start it thawing. Then make a marinade for the pork loin: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a little rose wine, some juniper berries. Halve the loin (otherwise it won’t go into the pot), turn it in the marinade and get on with other things.
