fish pie supreme, The Lacuna & strep throat

Edmonds. Sure to Rise. My Mum gave me two copies and I suspect she has some more stashed in her cupboard. When they brought out that glossy hardback version of the Edmonds Cookbook, she was concerned that the original would go out of print so she stocked up. Peter, if you haven't got one, then I'll send you my second copy. Not sure if Mum expects you to need it, being a boy and all. Missjoestar, did you biff yours for non-vegan sensibilities or keep it? Surely you've kept yours...

Tonight was Fish Pie Supreme. Seriously, that's what it is called. Tinned fish, boiled eggs, mashed spud, some parsley and white sauce. Tasted great. I was thinking about how deeply unfashionable this has been in an era where we were supposed to ditch spuds for some pasta with the fish, doused in less and less oil as the anti-fat cries increased. But now I'm much keener on spuds and they are much cheaper and butter is best round here. Good for all those fat soluble minerals and vitamins. Fish Pie Supreme might not work for hard core Weston A Price devotees (goodness knows how many hours you should sprout and soak and hand grind the flour before you turned the entire one tablespoonful into sauce) but as far as cheap and high protein goes, it wins high marks from me. If you want the recipe and are unfortunate enough not to own an Edmonds cookbook, leave a message in the comments. I'll be so excited that someone is reading the entire blog post rather than falling here by default from google and hastily leaving, that I will happily oblige.

I will remember The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver for a long time I think. It is set in Mexico and the US across the period 1929-1955. The Mexico sections mostly involve the protaganist's time in the household of socialist artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and much of the US section is set in the post war communist witch hunt era. Kingsolver provides in this book that wonderful feeling of being immersed in a world not your own which I so loved about childhood reading and which I don't experience as much as I would like now. As a child of the 1970s, when the reds under the beds era was but a brief mention in the history books, I realised reading The Lacuna how much I had conveniently failed to take seriously just how powerful, nasty and oppressive the Macarthy regime was. Kingsolver layers her themes richly throughout the text and I don't think there is anything which sits on its own as a meaningless detail - quite an achievement in 500 pages. I remember studying Arthur Miller's The Crucible at school and even then still assuming it wasn't really remotely that bad. Why? Because I think I've imbibed from somewhere somehow that the US is the land of the free and nothing that totally bad could happen within the lifetime of my parents. Ridiculous when I think of Guantanamo Bay but it was reading Lacuna which opened my eyes, precisely because I didn't have my non-fiction skim reading eyes on but was engrossed in the story and had my emotional receptors turned up.

I also want to know more about Frida Kahlo and just reading about her had me deciding to rip our gloomy green wallpaper down and put something strong and jewel-bold and intense on the bedroom walls.

Strep throat. My turn. At least I wasn't sick while the kids had it, though the amount of lost sleep while they did made my vulerability rather inevitable. But I have pushed through without more time off work by going to bed very very early a few nights and resting up in the afternoons. Oh and slugging vitamins (especially C) and my winter flu remedy (apple cider vinegar, honey, cayenne pepper, garlic) and spraying colloidal silver down my throat and on the bulging glands on my neck. I did the very hot bit and then the next night the very cold bit and now I am still swollen and not hugely energetic but am clearly improved enough to be up and writing at 9pm. When I was feverish, the only thing to hand which looked like it would fit the bill was anti-flamme, which is arnica, hypericum and peppermint and which I usually pull out for rheumatic symptoms. The peppermint was just the thing for the cooling of temperature generally and temples, forehead, neck, wrists and finger joints specifically.

Of course the other giant benefit was the brand new juicer! Fresh apple, carrot and ginger juice is fantastic stuff. Today I am craving hot drinks as my throat pain sharpens and the immuno boost tea by Artemis has been meeting that need well. It has linden blossom, aniseed, plantain, elderflower blossom, sage and thyme in it. Artemis teas are expensive but seem pretty high quality when I've tried them. I would ultimately like to make my own and I do at least have sage and thyme in the garden.

Comments

Sharonnz said…
Hmmm...fish pie...a favourite for me. We've found a local guy who catches and smokes his own fish and sells it at our weeny farmer's market. Looking forward to finding Lacuna at our library - Barbara is a fav of mine.
missjoestar said…
Yes I have the cookbook. Also I went to see Laughton King.. Not my favourite. I am fascinated by the cold cures - you must be blooming! x
Christy said…
I always read down to the bottom :) Must reserve Lacuna at the library. And I also would like to grow all those herbs and make stuff from them. Medicinal herns are going to be my next garden project I think.

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