You Always Stole All My Last Words

My new British passport came through in what may be a record 3 days. I feel this is an attempt (however feeble) at compensating for the appalling trauma of applying for the damn thing in the first place. There were various issues and incidents, but the one I am most aggrieved by is the picture. I had a nice picture ready to go, but if you squint at it you can see my teeth. No-one has explained the problem with this, so I can only assume that terrorists show their teeth in their passports, and therefore no-one showing their teeth in their passport picture is allowed to have a passport as they are clearly a terrorist. As a result I now own a ten-year zit. Oh usually they go away after a few days, but this one I get to cherish for the next decade. Thanks a bunch Passport Service.

Leaving such whinging behind, the delightful sokky graced me with her presence for a couple of days last week. We did the usual Bath-ly things of wandering about and admiring the Georgian architecture, and the Roman Baths and doing the Jane Austen thing and geeking out over Georgette Heyer. We had pie at the Raven (a must-do when in Bath) with smarla on Wednesday, and lunch at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. Deep-fried polenta "chips" with rosemary, you guys, OMG yum!

Sometime in between my dashing out the door at 5pm on Wednesday and the end of Thursday (I took Thursday and Friday off for Sok's visit) my workmates apparently decided to dress up for Halloween on Friday. I have been promised pictures, and cannot wait. It's not terribly significant, but it hits pretty damn high on the random scale!

Yesterday I attended a friend's wedding, but that one probably deserves a post of its own.

P.S. LJ's spell check junction does not recogise (amongst other things) "LJ" or "OMG", probably two of the most high usage abbreviations on LJ. LJ Spell Check: Fail.

Experiments in Cookery

I hardly ever get creative in the kitchen any more. Weekends I tend to be cooking just for me, and during the week I lack the energy for much more than, "Stirfry stuff, add sauce-from-a-jar, serve with rice/noodles/pasta (delete as appropriate)."

However while sokky was visiting, I was inspired by a tub of pomegranate in the ready-to-eat fruit section of the local supermarket. Shut up, I take inspiration where I can find it.

Anyway, it was pretty damn delicious, so I offer you the as yet unperfected recipe for Debitha's Pomegranate Pork in two sections - the recipe as I did it, followed by the recipe with commentary.

400g Pork fillet
150g Pomegranate insides
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Put pork fillet in a baking dish. Drizzle lightly with oil. Dump pomegranate on and around pork. Drizzle lightly with balsamic vinegar. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Cover dish with tin foil. Bake for 40 min at 180 degrees C. Slice up and serve with mashed potato. Eat.

That was pretty good, but not perfect - that 40mins is based on finding it wasn't done, putting it back in for a bit longer, finding it still wasn't done, etc, etc. Also as the fillet was long and thin the ends got dry in trying to get the middle cooked, so with post-experiment notes:

( DVD Extra - Director's Commentary )

This is really tasty, as long as you don't have issues with mixing sweet and savoury foods. (I love doing it, but many at work consider it to be another sign of my insanity.) It is also (once you work out the cooking times) great for dinner party type situations as you can prepare it ahead of time and then just chuck it in the oven.

I call this one a provisional success.