Day 137: my new mate
Short one today. (As always on a Saturday morning). Shops to visit, surfaces to polish, floors to hoover, bathrooms to clean, cakes to bake; the first and latter being the only ones I’m actually looking forward to.
If it wasn’t for the realisation, again, that I’m falling so far behind on this cookalong (if I’m to hit halfway by October 1st 2021), I would have happily pottered about in the kitchen - allowing creativity and the scant remains in the bottom of the fridge drawers to forge my supper for one. And then pick back up with Nigella Summer-themed cookalong tomorrow or Monday. It’s not the cooking that takes the time, you understand, it’s the taking of the photos, choosing of the photos, write up of this entry and posting across social media. But, I enjoy it all. I just wish days were 34-hours-long, and not only 24. Perhaps, also, I’m just too hard on myself when it comes to cookalong admin. I strive for perfection and worry about judgement. The more energy we give these worries, though, the less likely we are to achieve said perfection. So much easier to preach than practice.
I had my heart and stomach set on spaghetti for dinner last night. A Tweet from Nigella the day before had sent me in the direction of Kitchen (to her Broad Bean and Ham Salad, to be precise). Upon opening the book, I stumbled across the Spaghetti with Marmite - instantly reminding me how much I wanted to try it. In fact, when it popped up as Nigella’s #RecipeOfTheDay a few weeks ago, I made sure to buy a jar. I love it on toast, with gluttonous amounts of butter.
Marmite's my mate. Spaghetti's my mate. Butter's my mate. I think it’s therefore safe to assume: Nigella’s Spaghetti with Marmite will soon be my mate too. Why I've not tried this sooner, I'll never know, but it finally happened last night and that’s what matters.
Nigella’s Marmite Spaghetti
Not much to really talk about in the cookalong section, is there? It takes as long as the pasta takes, and requires less effort than it does to make marmite on toast.
I like eating spaghetti on my own for three reasons: 1) I can cook and eat double, without judgement; 2) I can be as messy as I like, and eat it where I like; 3) I can cook it on the right side of al dente; hubby always says ‘one-minute more’, even if it’s already been cooking for two minutes longer than the packet says. I’m trying to cut down on carbs, starting by reducing the number of O-FSLs I bake weekly, so the double I cooked was in fact for hubby to try when he got home from work. He’ll have to try it another day.
Flavour musings
My new mate: Nigella’s Spaghetti with Marmite. It’s got that great big fuzzy umami hug about it. And it’s just how I like my butter, marmite and cheese on toast: in plenty.
