Sweet potato and red lentil croquettes, it was. All I can say is that if I’d bothered to read the recipe PROPERLY, I would have known to tackle the preparation of the croquettes in the morning, thus leaving the mixture to solidify accordingly, for shaping and cooking in the evening. Instead, I strode confidently to the kitchen at my usual evening meal cooking time, and realised that the mixture needed a period of time to go cold before the process could continue.
‘Oh, it’ll be okay,’ I said to myself, optimistic as ever in the face of potential culinary adversity. ‘Surely the mixture won’t be THAT difficult to handle.’ Anyway, I thought I’d better have a go at cooling the mix as far as I could so I stood out in a force ten gale with mixing bowl and spoon, stirring like a mad thing and looking like a crazy-haired loon. The mixture remained resolutely warm. I returned inside before pneumonia set in.
Well. Turns out that warm sweet potato and lentil croquette mixture, despite the addition of oats and a smidge of cheese, handles like raw egg trying to slime its way through a sieve. It was made worse by the final pre-cooking stage which involved dipping in flour, then raw egg, then breadcrumbs...
Ye gods! The mess! The MESS! I’m not, I have to admit, a fan of sticky mess. ‘Channel your inner child,’ I told myself. ‘Pretend this is FUN! Like making mud pies dipped in slime! Ahahahahahahaha!’
My inner child wasn’t convinced and wanted to run to the sink to wash her ikky gooey hands. But she battled on resolutely, reminding herself that if she could stand in front of a classroom of horrid teenage boys and make them understand Poetry From Other Cultures she could front up to a bowl of slosh and make it behave.
By the end of the Battle of Croquettes the shape of croquette had been substituted for the shape of loose blob. But they held that loose blob shape for the duration of cooking time and the Croquette Warrior washed her hands with relief. Whilst aesthetically challenging to look at, the blobs tasted fine - even better with a dash of chilli jam. Note to self - read recipe properly next time.
I would have taken a picture to show the mess I got into. But that would have been unfair on my iPad camera button. Besides, the photo of the recent sunset has calmed my frazzled nerves.
Aside from healthy whole food cooking experiments, I’ve managed to complete my counselling course this week! And I have passed! Certificate is on its way, which will be a useful addition to my Healer training folder. I am now signed up to do a First Aid course because my current First Aid certificate has recently expired and it’s always good to know which song is the current á la mode for performing CPR heart compressions to. My preferred song is ‘Nellie the Elephant.’ But I’m open to other suggestions.
The garden is livening up enormously - the forget-me-nots have burst into life and there are pockets of daffodils hither and thither. I picked some daffs and arranged them artistically in a glass milk bottle. Flora immediately tried to chew on one and vomited down the dining room table leg. She is doing okay at the moment - only one more dodgy collapsing episode of late and luckily I was at hand to help her. However, she is losing weight, so Andy the Vet is on the case vis á vis a new diet. Apparently there are diets for dogs with heart disease but not for cats. I call that discriminatory. But I shall continue to channel healing to Flora. She knows when I am practising Distant Healing and comes to sit at my feet for the duration. Animals are sensitive like that. I wish more humans were, too.
Tomorrow I am Zooming all day in another Part 2 Healer Training Day. It’s Easter next weekend and I’m looking forward to a) hot cross buns b) a Biblical epic film on the telly and c) making a lovely Easter Sunday dinner. I wish I was cooking a lovely Easter Sunday dinner for all my family and friends.
I miss them so much.
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KJ