Nearly cooking

Well. It turns out that herniating a disc, not something that I've ever seen well reviewed on Tripadvisor, is possibly less fun in reality. I've had a very boring few days since moving a mattress downstairs on Thursday (quite carefully, and with a plan! Don't move mattresses, people). I'm on Big Pills for pain, and am more or less supposed to be off booze (boo); next week's not-quite-staycation (central London hotel, exhibitions and theatre) is looking very dodgy. For once, thank goodness for the pandemic: I can cancell with no penalties before this weekend.

AND, on top of all that predictable ungood, it turns out that what I really struggle to do at the moment is sit. And without sitting comfortably, eating is not much fun. On Thursday night, having managed to make dinner before being felled, I had to eat a baked breadcrumbed chicken fillet with watermelon salad while basically horizontal on the floor. It took a lot of the joy out of catering. Nice recipe, mind. From Crave, my latest cookbook purchase. Just not ideal finger food.

But given that life is rather dull at the moment, and I'm not actually incapable of standing (in fact, I'm supposed to keep moving around), meals are still an opportunity to have something vaguely cheering. 

So long as it's on toast, that is. Speedy consumption preferred. Something and toast is *definitely* the watchword for a few days. These are dishes I gladly schedule anyway, so I share them with you.

Garlicky butter tomatoes

Take chunky tomatoes (these are on the small side; go big if you can). Slice them thickly - a cm or so at least if you can, but don't just halve tomatoes, you want some skinless surface area. Fry for a minute or so on one side. Turn.

 

And now, do good things. Salt your tomatoes lavishly, if you like. Scatter on plenty of crushed or chopped garlic. Also, chopped parsley. Add a knob of butter. A minute on this side too, then onto your toast.

Yessss. It's quite cheering, and good for a quick meal. 

Spicy scrambled eggs

You don't need a scrambled eggs recipe, but this is one anyway. From Diana Henry filtered through my memory and fridge contents. 

Start with some onion or spring onion, quickly fried, plus some sliced garlic. Add chopped tomatoes (sorry, repetitive), coriander and stir quickly. 

Then add in eggs, mixed. Possibly with leftover yoghurt or cream or similar. Gently cooked, you know the drill.

Then on toast - and scatter with garam masala (or just cumin, but I like garam). 

Later this week: peas on toast, avo toast, and possibly chorizo on toast but more likely as pasta sauce tbh. I will report. 

Meanwhile... Confined Cocktails. It looks like we've only two more to go, before becoming Unconfined. We'll see. But it looks like I'll be home for Saturday nights for a fair few weeks more, what with My Back. So I'll probably keep on saying hello.