When suddenly a phone goes off
Starts ringing
Rather low tones with a catchy tune
Slowly my eyes look round the room
Meeting one pair of eyes
After another
No one flinches
Looks like its them
And still the phone keeps ringing
I do a full round
A complete 360
And see no one reach hastily for a phone
Suddenly it stops
I look at me
And a distant memory is dredged up
One in which my phone has the same tune
The very same one
which rang a mere minute ago
Oh my word
It was me
And I thank God I’m black
For my cheeks were alight with ‘shock’
And a tad bit of shame
For it was my phone that rang
My phone that broke the silence in that room
That day
My phone that made me accuse all
But me
It was my phone
That rang
That day
My phone
My own
Mine
—–♥♥♥—–We’ve successfully made it through week 1 – though my husband says ‘Once we’re done with this first 2 weeks, I never want to eat Butternut squash again’. But he doesn’t really mean it, does he? What he explained later on was he doesn’t like it on its own – just cooked. He likes it in the gnocchi and the soup but a grilled wedge of roasted butternut squash, with all its stringy bits is not something he finds pleasant. The same reason he hates Mangoes.
Overall, its been a superb week.
Here’s the executive summary:
Food of the week: Butternut Squash, for sure. I won’t say more than I’ve said already :-).
Highlights: Sunday’s lunch of BNS gnocchi – pan-fried gnocchi made and held together with chestnut flour and almond meal. H-E-A-V-E-N-L-Y; Sunday’s dinner and Friday’s dinner were also superb.
Lowlights: Monday’s Dinner. My attempt to make pancakes from almonds yielded almond pancakes which were wrong, both in texture and taste
Learnings:
1) I hate parsley tea – the parsley tea I’d made that morning in the name of detox made me feel sick with its smell. After a cup or two, I gave up the foulness and drank water. 
Look, if anyone offers you fresh mint tea and parsley tea – go for the former will you. And I’m really enjoying the mint flourishing in my garden. Every other day, I pluck a handful and infuse in hot water, a touch of honey later, we’re in business.
That’s been a blessing this week, reminding me to ensure the simple pleasures of life! Though for a long time, I thought the green and yellow leaves were those of Lemon Melisse, till my friend who gave me the plant 2 years ago said it was mint, and brought me some more Melisse plants. You don’t recognizable it as mint straight away – it has a different flavour that is lighter and somewhat lemony but it has grown on me.
Isn’t it beautiful?
2) How strong is strong when food is involved – If you noticed Thursday’s breakfast and lunch *s and sesame seed bars, this is why. The Maker’s diet calls for a day of partial fast. Poof. In my case. So off I went to work on Thursday morning. One hour into my day, tummy rumbling and concentration never found, not to mention lost, I knew I couldn’t go on.Anyway, continuing my story – the tea was rubbish and after dumping it all out, I went to our office shop and purchased some sesame seed bars and then I rang my husband. We are after all in this together. I started with saying how woozy and faint I felt, a feeling he’d encountered on day 1 (much to my laughter and teasing!). Anyhow, I confessed that I had to eat something. That was the first of 3 packs that day. Eaten as slowly as I could. Hmmm. I learnt the lesson that strong as I am, I’m not at all able to fast and work. I’ve said that I’ll save my partial fasts for the weekends!
3) How much salt do you need in a fried egg? – Waiter, there’s too much salt in my frittata. And its all my fault. I don’t know why/how I get it wrong but sometimes my eggs just become too salty, all by themselves. When I put a pinch, just before I fry, it seems too small and not enough. Till it fries and then I’m kicking myself in the butt. I keep saying I’ll write down and experiment but I also keep forgetting. It might be easier if I just ask you…..or Google but I’ll ask you first – How much salt do you put in per egg?
And this is the detailed menu:
| Week 1 | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
| Sunday | Vegetable frittata, with courgettes, tomatoes, mozzarella | Butternut squash gnocchi with Baked Tilapia fillets and chili tomato sauce | Carrot & Feta salad Lamb chops & almond tapenade, adapted from smitten kitchen |
| Monday | Butternut squash + coconut milk soup | Green Salad | Almond pancakes, mixed berries and Chevré (soft goat’s cheese) |
| Tuesday | Butternut squash + coconut milk soup | Tomato salad | Baked paprika stuffed with lentil bolognaise and topped with feta and goat’s cheese |
| Wednesday | Gratin of berries with Honey Zabaglione and flaked almonds | Lentil and chicken salad | Roast chicken with roast parsnips, roast carrots and butternut squash puree |
| Thursday | Sesame seed bars* | Sesame seed bars* | Baked seabass with roasted aubergines, butternut squash puree and steamed green bean and carrots |
| Friday | Chilled Cherry soup | Green Salad | Fennel puree with baked seabass and tilapia fillets and steamed carrots |
| Saturday |
Full ‘Diet’ Breakfast (Not English): BN squash hash browns (thanks Chris of Mele Cotte), Turkey (breast) bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms |
Hot Harissa soup with oven-dried tomatoes |
BBQ Turkey chops with sage tapenade and Butternut wedges |
So far so good. Thank you for stopping by.
I promise that in the future, I will repeat some of the recipes, with full photo journeys to accompany. Hand on heart.
Enjoy the week….oh, did I mention the cake I made? From BNSquash? No I didn’t. Well, I managed to create something edible, using chestnut flour and almond meal to bind. It wasn’t bad considering it also had goat’s yogurt and I had to judge the batter by sight. A friend of mine had it and LOVED it – it was moist and dense compared to a regular cake but it was much lighter than I expected! I guess with a glass of iced coffee, it could have been better. Oh well, that’s coming soon…in food school! Stay tuned.
Still no camera. We will survive. These photos are from the archives, for once, my mad photo-taking has come to the rescue!
Next week’s focus: Fennel and Kumquats. Expect a recipe for making flavoured oils and I still need to share my best dining experience in Barbados. All that this week. Love!
[wpurp-searchable-recipe]Week 1: What we ate – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]
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