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Graham Lee's avatar

Many of my recipes these days are in 'ones' plus guesswork. Like my ragu last night.

One pack of shin beef

One onion

One can of tomatoes

One stock cube

One frozen garlic cube

The only artistry comes with, some white wine [about a glass-ish], some herbs [about.. ermm… that much of each], some cooking time [4 hrs].

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Michael Marshall Smith's avatar

That's how I like to cook, too :-) I have a 1-2-3 leek and potato soup (one onion, two leeks, three potatoes) that's similar...

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Graham Lee's avatar

Oooh, I've not made a soup in a while - well, since winter. We got all yuppie & bought a soup maker; in the colder months it barely gets chance to cool. In summer, not so much.

What do you dress that up with? Just salt/pepper, or is it stock, cream, herbs?

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Littleappleseed's avatar

When you dream about running with boundless energy on a tropical beach in the sun and wake up in bed, in the UK, with Covid, 40 years older, and it’s Wednesday.

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Michael Marshall Smith's avatar

Oof.

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Andy Simcock's avatar

I second the position on weak tea.

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Richard Harvey's avatar

Love "building a house out of mist". It goes neatly into my mist file together with two fun facts:

1. In the 1960s Rolls Royce planned to bring out a RR Silver Mist until their German agents told them that "mist" is German for dung and Rolls Royce Silver Horseshit probably wouldn't sell too sell.

2. When mist becomes fog is apparently 1km away. So if you can see a kilometer ahead it's still mist.

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Allan Lear's avatar

I seem to remember a computer game called Myst fell afoul of your first point about twenty years ago

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Michael Marshall Smith's avatar

God, Myst... the hours I spent in there.

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Michael Marshall Smith's avatar

I love both of those facts :-)

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Tess Parker's avatar

One of my favourite James Lee Burke novels: In The Electric Mist With The Confederate Dead. What a title.

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Michael Marshall Smith's avatar

That's actually the one that introduced the Robicheaux books to me. How can you resist a title like that?

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Allan Lear's avatar

Squashes are impossible to peel. If what you have in your possession is an unpeeled squash, I strongly advise that you move house rather than deal with the bloody thing.

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Michael Marshall Smith's avatar

They are truly an arse, that way.

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Maria Alexander's avatar

"Weak tea is worse than no tea at all."

Can I tell you how it makes me crazy when my husband brews "tea" out of my used tea leafs? Those tea leafs are spent, exhausted, wrung out. That's not tea. It's watery nothing-something. He's a madman.

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Michael Marshall Smith's avatar

Yeah, that's not okay.

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