Sometimes, cooking just happens...

[desperance]

Here on my desk, I have a dish of garlic-fried croutons with pancetta, because I gave up smoking lo, these many moons ago (seven years, or thereabouts: so long, I no longer quite remember) but my oral fixation is still with me, and I must have something to nibble. Preferably, it is to crunch.

Down there, on or in the oven, I have a small saucepan and a large casserole dish both full of belly pork doing its confit thing, because I ate the last of what I had last night (after, lawks, these many moons of keeping - not sure how long, because I don't know how to search LJ for the entry where I mentioned it; but anyway, it's been several months sitting under an inch of fat in my larder, and was perfectly fine; which makes this my new favourite way of preserving food, for those of us who don't actually have a smoker); and I also have a tray of pork-rind heading to be scratchings; and I also have a large casserole of lamb shanks cooking down, on account of a shopping accident. And I also have a ham shank making stock for soup tomorrow, so I expect you can guess the nature of the accident. (Why yes, I am the kind of guy who will buy lamb shanks meekly, sooner than point out to his big & scary butcher that what he actually said was ham shanks. Assertiveness? What's that you say...?)(Besides, I like lamb shanks; and I have onion and carrot and celery, and thyme and rosemary and bay, and tomatoes and olive oil and lamb stock and balsamic vinegar...)

And meanwhile, because some things are endless, this is where the SF novella has now reached:

37,150 / 45,000 (82.6%)

- and today's news is that yes, the prospective total has grown again; but yes, the completed portion is still creeping closer day by day, so that every time I post this I am technically nearer to the end, even though it's a moveable feast; and today I have actually had sight of that end, because I worked out what it's all about. I know how it ends! And why! And now all I have to do is get there, and from here on in it should be much more like reeling it in, and much less like chasing after it...

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I saw the accouncement on the AST publishing house web page that they are planning to publish the second book of your Autremar chronicles this year. I hope that's true. If it's not, I will be seriosuly considering th idea of purchasing the copies in english.
I didn't do that yet, because I don't know how to access the paypal system, since we don't commonly use it in Russia.
But I'm sure i can solve the problem and find the way out.

I meant "it was an exellent reading". Partly, because it bore some resemblance with the stories about templar knights (and I'm very interested in this time period), but mostly, due to the great plot and characters.
Pardon my punto-switcher program, it translates the words from english into russian, when it thinks that I mistype something. ;-)

Thanks for your response and for the permission to stay among your readers.

[freaky-trixter.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry.
The comment above was mine, I just somehow logge out and didn't notice it.