Numbers. Again.

[desperance]

Okay, look. I hate to brag, it's dangerous; but here are the final numbers for this month.

Pages: 187
Words: (approx) 60,000

Sheesh. For most people, that's half a novel. For me, it's a good third of a novel. Why can't I do that every month? [Lies back and thinks of three books a year. And time off.]

I am, I confess, tired now. And of course I can't stop yet, because the book's not over; and then as soon as it's finished it'll need redrafting in a hurry, and then as soon as it's off there's a play to write and another book and a new proposal and...

But tonight I feel accomplished.

I cooked dinner. This is nice. Soak pinto or rosecoco (or flageolet) beans overnight, and simmer till tender. Finely slice onion, carrot, celery, and fry them in olive oil; add diced pancetta, and fry a few minutes; add the beans and a little stock or water, and simmer until the carrot is tender. Stir in handfuls of parsley and season. Meanwhile, dip fillets of sea bass in seasoned flour, and fry two minutes on the skin side in hot olive oil; turn over for thirty seconds, and serve on top of the beany goodness.

Comments

[hamadryad11.livejournal.com]

You should feel accomplished. And free to brag a little. That's impressive.

And you cook too! That's totally awesome!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I do cook, I've always cooked; but it's one of my blind spots, I truly don't understand why other people don't. It isn't hard (well, all right: some fancy cooking demands skills that come with experience that is not to be found outside professional kitchens, but that's okay, nobody has to do that stuff), and it is fun, and if you like to eat why wouldn't you cook?

But I'm used to this; there are other aspects to the human psyche where I have equal blind spots, where I fail to understand why everyone is Not Like Me. When I'm so obviously Right. It might have been a problem writing others' points of view in fiction, but nah, I just make 'em up, these curious people with habits that differ from mine.

Tho' it is becoming apparent that almost all my protagonists can cook...

[hamadryad11.livejournal.com]

Hee! I've noticed that most of my characters (at least the ones I like) can cook. Especially the men.

I don't understand why people don't cook either. Or claim they can't cook. I used to think I couldn't cook, and then one day, I actually started reading the recipe. What a difference that made! Once I got good at that, I started experimenting and I found out that it's not all that hard to make something that tastes pretty good, even if you are improvising as you go along.

I have less success with baking though. That might be because haven't done enough of it.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I have less success with baking though. That might be because haven't done enough of it

Yup, exactly that. I wasn't any great shakes as a baker, until last year. Which I declared the Year of Baking, and made many a cake and much pastry. I'm still no great pastry-chef, but I can do it now without embarrassment; my pork pies are good already, and will be legendary (I like pork pies); my cakes are (sometimes) to die for. I still bake from recipes, and sometimes the cakes rise lovely, and sometimes they don't. Or they rise and then collapse again. I still find this odd, how the same ingredients worked in almost the same way will do something utterly different, or behave differently for me than they do for other people. What's that about? (I do dislike recipes generally, when I follow the instructions carefully and don't get the result; I think it means that they weren't tested properly in regular domestic kitchens, which is an offence in my book.) But I have cake recipes I can rely on now, and am beginning to shuffle & experiment with those.

Anyway, that's the gist: practice, throw the bad stuff away and try again. Make your friends happy, invite them round for tea & cakes; then you have to bake cakes, and if one don't work another will. All my parties are tea-parties now. (This has the added advantage that the guests tend to go away comparatively early, and you're not stuck there at 3am thinking "Go home! I love you, but just bloody go home...!")

[hamadryad11.livejournal.com]

I should really learn how to make pastries. I love meat pies, but it's hard to find really good ones. They just seem so intimidating to me.

That sounds funny doesn't it? Can you picture me cowering away from a particularly aggressive meat pie?

If I really think about it, I suppose not even my mum (who's a very good baker) does it perfectly every time. All right. I'll give it a go.

As for the variable results... From what my mum has said, there are some recipes that are more sensitive to even slight variations than others. Environmental conditions (such as excess humidity) can apparently make a difference as well. Or! Something I just thought about... if you open the oven door at the wrong time during baking it can cause the cake to collapse. So can excessive vibration, or so I've been told. Personally, I can't think of any cake good enough to go through that kind of aggro, not knowing if it'll turn out or not.

There's something I've come across in my bread books (I don't bake much bread, I just have a number of bread books). One of my books has two separate lists of ingredients: one for Canadians and one for Americans, because our flour is different enough that the quantities will vary depending on which flour you're using. So, if you're using any international recipes, that could conceivably be throwing off your results!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's absolutely right - one of the things I learned during the great Year of Baking was how much flours vary. Not only from country to country: we have cheap flours, expensive flours, organic flours, stone-ground flours, all kind of flours of our own. And they all behave differently, damn their curious powdery natures...

See, the only way to be a fabulous baker is to do it all day and every day, be a pro. There's that much variety, you'll never learn it all else. And that's not fair, because I can't do that. I'm good at everything else I do in the kitchen, pretty much, because it comes down to a few basic skills that I have mastered. Baking is a whole different level of expertise, which I lack the time and opportunity to acquire. I have learned to muddle through, but that's the most I'll ever manage.

(Addendum: if being a pro is best, I guess being a mother is second-best - or perhaps being a mother of my own mum's generation, when you did still bake your own cakes, because shop-bought was a humiliation. She got to practise on an almost daily basis, feeding a family of six. Me, on a daily basis, I have no one to cook for but myself. And the cat, of course, but he doesn't like cakes.)

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

Essentially, Chaz, I'm just a living blind spot to you, aren't I? I hate cooking (it is one of the few things that can really get me totally stressed out). I mean, I can do it - I can follow a recipe and I have a few dishes that I can cook really well - I just really don't enjoy doing it. Fortunately, I am married to a wonderful woman who, amongst other things, is a marvellous cook. (But this, of course, you know). And I have you to feed me occasionally. I miss those days of working five minutes away from you...

And, of course, I don't drink alcohol and hate coffee. Basically, if I wasn't able to sell your books for you, you just wouldn't want to know me, would you?

And, oh yes, amazed and rather awed congratulations at the word countage. You are truly an inspiration. (It was your book launch and the Summer Phantoms that made me get back of my arse and start writing again.)

I'd love to be able to do 1000 words a day as well. Oh well, I'll be happy with the five hundred or so I seem to be averaging at the moment. On the days when everything else doesn't get in the way.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

You can't do it every month and write three books a year because your head would explode and your hands fall off.

But a really good June! Well done.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You're right, of course, I know this; but it's one of those total blinkers that descend: when I'm working as hard as this, I can't understand why I don't do this always, I can't figure out what it is that stops me.

And then when I'm not working, I can't imagine ever writing a word again, ever.

A happy medium would be fine: y'know, a steady thousand words a day, say, every day, that would suit me nicely. But I never can, and never could. Sprints and staggers is my nature, and right now I'm sprinting. Stand by to pick up the pieces, all...

(PS - people keep telling me good things about 'Tooth and Claw'. Will check it out, soonest...)

[devonellington.livejournal.com]

You SHOULD feel accomplished. That's wonderful! And an inspiration. I'm going to my desk right now to see how many pages I can get done before I have to leave for my 14-hour Saturday working in the theatre . . .