It's the little things (..but #ElsewhereKitchen time)

I tweeted last night that the thing I am missing most is someone else to occasionally do the bastard washing up. Let's say I hit a chord (and then today made a lovely quick lunch that used a pan, a frying pan and a blender, yay me). Someone else mentioned the profusion of lockdown tupperware as the fridge gets ever fuller. We have spoken several times about the sheer hassle of thinking of lunches, and menu planning in general for so many goddamn meals. There have been wistful postings about possible takeaways. I think it's fair to say that *things* (gesturing broadly) are starting to *get to us*.

Fair enough. This whole marathon-not-a-sprint lark is really hitting home now. It's well over two months since I first got sent home, horrified by the first inklings this new life could last as long as three months. Well, past-self, I'm now thinking September, at earliest, for a bracing hint of normality. And if not then, January. It's quite hard to imagine at all - but then, it was hard to imagine lockdown, and here we still are, pretty much.

Anyway. I should have been at the Globe last Sunday for Read Not Dead, one of my fave theatre things. With lovely friends (I am Zooming them tomorrow. It is not the same at all). I was supposed to be at the theatre tomorrow too, with Liz. Godammit. I miss people and things and events and stuff.

But let's use that, and go Elsewhere. Tonight is a good night for Elsewhere Kitchen. My Elsewhere isn't anywhere specific, but it's a holiday let, likely in France, where I have a kitchen with just about enough knives and pans, and where I want just something simple for dinner, not too much fuss or washing up. Some bread, some cheese. Okay, some rillettes. Maybe some salad. A little bit of fruit. Ooo, lovely leeks at the supermarket, maybe vinaigrette? And some cider, with some blackcurrant...

This is how I shop in French supermarkets. Poddling along the shelves, distracted and pleased by delicious things, and (always) paralysed with indecision at the cheese aisle, though this time it was because I was in Waitrose and it was crowded and someone was behind me waiting at the polite health distance, so I wanted to be helpful; just bought Comte, which at least means I don't have some unsatisfactory washed-rind thing to endure for days. This is how from actual holidays I end up bringing home 80% full bottles of peach syrup (it's okay, I have cassis anyway), and in my more extreme moments near-full pots of mustard too (obviously I have mustard anyway too). I have at least started taking a few bits of spices with me so I don't also bring home some jars of salt and cumin to add to the mountains I already own. But it's still very, very nice. And the washing up is limited.

I full intend to catch the next NT Live at some point, but for now I might just catch an episode or two of last year's Meilleure Boulangerie de France, for the authentic self-catering vibe. Also, it's 27degrees in my flat, which feels very holiday.

Cannot over-recommend leeks vinaigrette as a thing - wildly old-fashioned but delicious and easy. Steam the leeks (not like this, this was my lunch boiling-veg saucepan being reused and it's clearly inefficient, though very representative of trying to steam anything in a holiday kitchen), mix a lemony, mustardy vinaigrette, and drown your warm leeks in it. Keeps well and marinades well, so plenty for tomorrow.

Also, I have a petit pot de chocolat for afters. After the washing up. Hooray/boo. Better get on with it.