Do us a fava

A couple of nights ago, Karen wanted chicken salad for supper; so I roasted a few legs, and there was chicken left over, plus a lot of bones and so forth.

So handily, yesterday, I was already making stock when she texted a request for soup. I kind of like taking requests, I find; it stretches me. And I was halfway there already.

So I went to the fridge, thinking "soup, okay; chicken and...?" - and found the pods of broad or fava beans that I'd brought home from the farmers' market on Saturday. Okay, cool. Chicken and broad bean soup; and if I podded and peeled the beans, we could have their vivid green kernels floating like nuggets of emerald among the shreds of chicken, om nom nom.

But I didn't want a broth, so how to thicken the soup? I was looking around, pondering carrots or lentils or potatoes or or or - and I thought oh, wait...

There I was, peeling away, accumulating a pile of broad-bean skins. Tossing the occasional one to Mac, but mostly meaning them for the compost. And yet, I'm English, we grew up eating the whole bean, grey and leathery tho' it might be; I knew there was no harm in these things and a degree of flavour, so...

So yeah. I fried off half an onion and a carrot and a celery stick, tossed those in the stock with the bean-skins and cooked it all down, then blitzed it to a smooth thick creamy soup. In went the chicken and the bean-kernels, and om nom nom indeed.

(And there's still some chicken left, so tonight I'm going to make some kind of open pie or tart or quiche, with a cheese crust and a filling of chicken and mushroom and broccolini and bacon in an egg/cream savoury custard. I'll let you know.)

In other news, I know I'm slow, but I only just noticed that the distinctive US Postal Service delivery-vans have the steering wheel on the wrong side, the right side, the right side, the UK side*. Presumably this is so they can cruise the kerbs and read the house numbers better, or something like that?

*Delete where applicable

BayCon schedule

In other newses, we will both be at BayCon, the last weekend of this month (I have no notion of actual dates; every time I ask, the answer is "Memorial Day weekend, always" - and then I ask in a more detailed manner, and "It's the last weekend in May, always." So there you go).

My schedule looks like this:

1. Location, Location, Location -- Setting your Story in a Science Fiction World on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM in Lafayette
(with Deborah J. Ross, Clare Bell, T.S. Luikart, Allison Lonsdale)

Your character has to live somewhere, and that somewhere needs to support the story. It's embarrassing to have a great scene all written involving bikini- or Speedo-dressed people, when they all live in the first permanent settlement on the Moon, and only landed yesterday....

2. Book View Cafe and ePublishing on Saturday from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM in Ballroom D
(with Irene Radford, Deborah J. Ross, Dave Trowbridge, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff)

Book View Cafe members discuss their experiences with this authors' co-op and ePublishing.

3. Travel is My Drug of Choice on Sunday from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM in Camino Real
(with Norm Sperling, James Stanley Daugherty, Deirdre Saoirse Moen)

Avid travelers travel for different reasons. Panelists discuss the motivations behind their enthusiasm.

4. Alternative Lifestyles and Sci-Fi/Fantasy on Sunday from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM in Lafayette
(with Kyle Aisteach, Lon Sarver, D.M. Atkins, Ian Grey, Jaym Gates, Andrew Clark, Brad Nelson)

From Heinlein's line marriage to Ethan of Athos, a discussion of alternative lifestyles, chosen or otherwise.