Thursday 14 January 2010

Why not try... a sandwich?

Tonight's dinner is a second go at last night's tomato soup. It was very tasty and very filling, especially with bread; a second helping is worth having. Meanwhile CJBS has been sent off to work with more of the parsnip soup and a round of spam sandwiches.

Tomorrow I'm making my monthly trip to the office in Yorkshire. This presents a couple of problems, the biggest of which is that my (non-leather, I'm that much of a vegetarian) shoes life-expired two weeks ago. I've defaulted to my previous pair, which are scuffed but serviceable, however, they have suffered from 18 months of not being used and are like clogs. So my poor feet are in a ruinous state and I'll be using a mixture of insoles and Compeed plasters to stop the delicate mincing steps I take in them. I'll order new ones after pay day!

But that's not important right now. The biggest issues are that I get my 6am train via the Café Nerd coffee stand at Lime Street. A big latte and a sandwich or panini to "put me on" as they say in Liverpool, then sleep until Leeds. On arrival at work, we have our group meeting and discussion, then Helen and Sue lay on a slap-up spread for everyone, including one egg-intolerant vegetarian (me), one pescetarian and one coeliac. It's always lovely, but I'll make them miserable if I try to tell them what points I've got, how many I'm willing to spend and what values they need to put on them.

Since I haven't cheated on points or coupons once in 13 days, I'm not going to mark the fortnight anniversary by having cheese and crisps and chocolate and other such treats tomorrow. So I've just carefully made a small number of sandwiches to take with me. I had drawn on, but not used, my (not) bacon ration a week ago; with tomatoes in the shops and, miraculously, British lettuce suddenly appearing on sale again, the sandwiches could only be BLT (with a bit of cress for interest sake). I fried off 2oz of bacon without using any fat, then mixed together one part butter to two parts margarine to make the spread - I'm fearsomely attached to my butter ration, whilst the margarine ration is just as tight but inedible as spread. Split between four sandwiches, the result was a nice pack up to take with me... with one of the sandwiches now to go with my soup.

4 comments:

angygraham said...

Is that spam real spam.Did they have it then and are you chopping it up and using it with rice and other stuff. It is very versatile and I think that they used to have recipes for it.

Jamie said...

It's real spam, which they did have then, and unrationed but expensive (things have not changed). So far, I've only used it in sandwiches for him, although I have used corned beef mixed into mashed potato for him (a school favourite, appallingly).

Scott Willison said...

I have to say I admire your self-control in resisting the latte and panini! You're a stronger man than I!

Jamie said...

It took real willpower. I had to walk past the stand on my way to platform 9 (and for that matter past the relocated pasty hut) and see the queue of people with their lattes and bagels and various toasties. Pain, pure pain...