Disaster

So, the roast meal that I had planned went a bit awry, mainly due to lack of practice. I forgot that I used to parboil the ‘tatoes before putting them in the oven, so they ended up slightly undercooked and not particularly crispy. I also got distracted by the opportunity to buy tickets for one of the NFL games in London this Autumn. I don’t know if this is a phenomenon you’ve experienced yourself – but it’s really easy to get lost online and keep bouncing form one website to another without acknowledging the passing of time, and then you suddenly realise it’s an hour later than you thought, prompted (in my case) by the smell of burning brisket emanating from your cooker.

My old method was to pot-roast meat, starting at a very high temperature and then reducing the heat after 30 mins or so, and frequently basting it with stock. I remembered the first bit of that method but then my mind wandered…

So our roast lunch, which in my head involved a 1pm serving time, perfectly prepared food and a nice bottle of non-alcoholic elderflower presse, became a patched-up, botched-together 2pm plate full of something resembling Jackson Pollock’s worst attempts at sculpture. Philippa politely struggled through it and said ‘I just appreciate the effort’ but it was a long way away from what I’d hoped for. Look at a map of the London Underground. You see how far apart Oakwood and Acton Town are? That’s a good representation of how far apart my intentions and my results were.

Under those circumstances, I chose not to tell Philippa I’m thinking of quitting work.

RC 18-8-19