September 24, 2008

5:57 p.m.

More of Off

The afternoon turned even lovelier as I napped off the huge lunch we had. Does the question, "Full English?" mean anything to you? No, it's nothing to do with Personal Services. It's eggs, beans, sausages, bacon, toast, stewed tomato and sauteed mushrooms. Sometimes there's a slice of deep fried bread in there, too, unrelated to the toast. Chris had a hankering, so he hied him down to the butcher in Denby Dale and got the meat, then the other things from a local market. We already had eggs from some stand we passed the other day -- big eggs, as big as pippins. Our agent's husband Brian did the eggs. I got to see in just how frightening a way these folks cook their eggs in a Full English Breakfast. Lots of oil in the pan, though not enough to actually cover the egg once it's cracked in; but as the oil heats one spoons it over the egg, cooking it just enough so one doesn't have to turn it over. Gaaaaa. Then there's the sausage, the bacon (like Canadian bacon, not like our wimpy, fatty strips). Lots of fat and cholesterol here. AND. A simply horrible concoction, conceived by poor farmers who had to eat absolutely every part of the livestock that they could, to keep from wasting anything and starving in the process. Yes, I'm talking about Black Pudding.

Black. Pudding.

Blood and cereal in a sausage casement, a really fat one, sliced and fried or convection-ovened until... well, really black. And breadlike.

I can't really be too shocked because after all we have scrapple; we have spam. But I don't EAT those things. This is made of blood. And cereal, barley. That has soaked up all the, you know, blood. Gkkkkgk.

I tried it. It was a little weird, but strangely palatable in that we'll-eat-anything kind of way. And I could see how, if you were a poor farmer and stuff, you might like it.

We also learned that the toast and marmalade part is normally eaten after all the savory stuff, not with.

Which led us to a conversation about clotted Cream Teas and how we simply have to have one when we're in Devon.

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As for the lovely day, I had my nice walk this morning, through fields filled with sheep and cows and horsies and wild orange poppies and golden barley.

And since getting up from my long nap I've talked to Dar, websurfed for short haircuts, and done little else. It's magic hour now so I think I'd better go have a look outside.