Missing the good things

It is now Day 188,

Aarod, my 15 year old is very over it, my husband Michael is travelling a lot, and I am struggling to stay on board the 100 mile diet ship as it sails mostly solo the rough seas of the coldest wettest winter I can remember!

Life Without Tea, Coffee, & Chocolate
I am challenged daily as I yearn for hot chocolate on these icy winter nights, crave a hot cuppa tea on these chilly frosty mornings. As for coffee, well it hardly seems worth going to a cafe' these days. Michael and I stayed overnight in the city the other night when Aarod had a sleepover. We went out for dinner at the Kings hotel and had a lovely meal, but something is definitely missing when you are sitting in a cosy pub, in front of a flickering open fire, and you don't have a hot drink in your hand! We finished off the meal with a local port, but wouldn't it be great if pubs served hot mead?

The following morning we ventured out in the cold for a hot breakfast, which we found at a little cafe' on Goodwood road. Somehow a hot breakfast is just not right without a hot cup of tea. Why is there no-one growing tea locally? It has to be the one thing I miss the most, even more than chocolate - and anchovies as it turns out! A good friend of mine takes pity on me every now and then and comes over with her own tea bags, so that we can share a cuppa together - she even went as far as bringing me a whole box of leaf tea, which I must admit, I have been slow to give back to her as she left it here. Partly I feel very guilty drinking it, I compromise the integrity of the diet, and I get all determined to get used to life without tea, and embrace lemon verbena and peppermint tea from my garden.

Then at other times, I give in to the luxury, telling myself that tea has been imported from India for so long that it should be allowed, along with sugar, and spices.
I found a 250g bag of organic fair trade decaf coffee beans in Michael's office the other day. I was told that it was a gift. I am not sure if there was a staff solidarity cover up going on, or if it really was a gift, either way, I thought it best to confiscate it and have been quaffing it at home. When I am deprived of something, I just want to devour it at once, the wise thing to do would be to savour it, treasure it, make it last. Not me, I think I has about 3 cups of coffee that first day. Tonight I am planning a liquer coffee as a night cap. I am wondering how long it will take to break my addiction, that is, after another 6 months, will I be able to live happily without tea & coffee?

Omlette for breakfast, with home dried tomatoes, local fetta and spring onions, garden rocket. We ran out of bread, and we haven't had cereal or oats for months. Breakfast mainly consists of eggs these days.

We eat a lot of pumpkins, so I have started to save the seeds to try eating them too. Apparently in the USA they roast them as is, and eat, so I am up for trying that, I am relieved that I don't have to shell them all.

Pepper corns from our village tree - I was about to put them in the grinder as we are nearly out of pepper, but after many weeks the pink shell is still slightly wet and sticky. I have now put them in the direct sun to see if this helps them to dry. Otherwise I will need to resort to the dehydrator. Our house is often strewn with food of various sorts, undergoing a variety of processing proceedures.

One morning I resorted to trying rolled barley as a substitute for rolled oats. I cooked them in the same manner as porridge, adding some milk and almonds, and honey. It took much longer to cook, and in the end was still pretty chewy, but very good. It would be better to soak the rolled barley overnight first.

Michael has taken a fancy to the local scallops at the Willunga farmer's market.  Delicious cooked with lemon juice, garlic, pepper and salt.