ramtops

Sep. 3rd, 2010

As regular readers will know, it has been my wont through the summer to go out for an early morning bike ride. I went out yesterday for the first time since the previous Wednesday (25/8), and what a difference … Autumn has arrived while I wasn’t looking.

I took a thin cardi and never took it off, there was a heavy mist which didn’t burn off till about 7 a.m., and it won’t be long before I need lights at 6.30. There’s a real sharpness to the air now, and the days are becoming noticeably shorter.

Not that I mind – autumn is my favourite time of year, and if we’re lucky we get lovely sunny days and crisp nights. Must find time to go brambling on Sunday!

Mirrored from kestrel.org.

Apologies for the lack of posts – I do have stuff to write, but have lacked the time and energy to write it! But I will soon, promise.

This is a photograph of Mustrum who, like all the others, is enjoying this time of year when the sun falls into our bedroom (which is large, and has two tall windows facing south.). They move sleepily across the floor – the cats, not the windows! – following the sunshine, and Mussie is under the chair.

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We eat a lot of this sort of thing – cheap and tasty. This one started with a tub of lentils from the freezer – no point in cooking just one meals’ worth. I finely diced carrot, red pepper and onion, and some garlic, fried them off, then added some ras el hanouh, and cooked it all through for a couple more minutes.

Then about a mugful of red lentils, and probably three mugs of water (although start with two and check as it goes). Sometimes I put a splash of red wine in; it’s a remarkably versatile base recipe. Bring to a slow boil, and cook for about 40 minutes. That will do us at least four servings, and probably six, depending on how much veg went in it. So that was the lentils.

I sliced an aubergine, put it on a tray covered in tin foil (saves washing up), drizzled with olive oil, and bunged in a gas 8 oven for about half an hour. Made a white sauce (with wholemeal flour – always use that for pretty much everything) while that was going on.

Then into an ovenproof dish: half the lentils, half the aubergines, a layer of spinach, half the white sauce, then the rest of lentils, aubergines, white sauce, and topped with grated parmesan. At least it should have been topped, but I got a bit confused :) and put the parmesan on before the last bit of white sauce. No matter. Baked in a hot oven for about 25 minutes.

This was using up a wrinkly aubergine, some spinach that doesn’t look as though it’s going to last long, and some grated parmesan I bought for our camping trip – I’d normally put feta on top of this.