German cuisine, literature and small dogs.

We wake to a sunny morning at seven, I let Dolly into the garden and make coffee and breakfast. Yesterday they had Connakyltie, Irish black pudding on special offer, so we are having slices of this with our full English today. The forecast is for a beautiful, sunny morning and then cloud and rain from lunchtime. After showering and dressing, I take the smoked gammon joint that had soaked overnight, in order to remove the excess salt, and coat it with garlic paste, fennel and paprika, before wrapping it in foil and putting it on a low heat to slow roast until lunchtime, while Dolly and I go for a walk. We have just got as far as the farm, when Pip phones me to say the electricity has cut out, Andrew has gone out for the day, and she doesn't know what to do. I tell her I will come straight away, and we turn round and make our way back to my bungalow, where I pick up my torch, before driving to Cherry. When we get there I leave Dolly in the car and soon resolve the problem, the main fuse switch had flicked off, and once reset everything was back in working order. Teddy is going crazy when he sees me, not having been off the lead for days, so I load him and Norman into the car with Dolly and drive to the Westwood. We arrive just after ten and already the clouds are rolling in from the southwest as we make our way through the woods. Dolly is past her season now and when we get onto the common, I swap her over with Teddy and let her off the lead. The walk proceeds without any problems and we arrive back in Cherry shortly after eleven. After some discussion, it is agreed that I shall leave Dolly and take Norman back home with me. En route we call at the Asda convenience store, where I buy milk and a carton of fresh cream. When we get home, the house is suffused by the smell of roast, smoked gammon. After opening the garden room door for Normy, I take the joint out of the oven, open the foil, and pour the juices into a Pyrex glass jug. Then set the oven to 220 degrees and put the joint back in to crisp the crackling. I add a little knorr pork stock and some maggi seasoning to the juices and then whisk in a couple of tablespoons of single cream. The resulting sauce is spectacularly good. While the joint is crisping, I peel three large potatoes and take some carrots and broad beans from the freezer and steam these in the microwave. When the meat is cooked to perfection, I take it out of the oven and set it to rest, while I chop up some fresh parsley and return the jug of sauce to the cooling oven to let it warm through. A little butter and parsley on the potatoes and cream sauce over the meat and vegetables and lunch is ready to eat. It is exceptionally tasty, the meat tender, smoky, sweet and not to salty, the sauce rich, creamy and full of the subtle flavours of the garlic and herbs. I have second helpings and a half bottle of crisp white Chardonnay helps it go down a treat. Norman has a generous helping of meat and crackling and then fully sated, we both crash out and listen to the rain, that is whipping against the windows. We get up at four, the rain has stopped and I make a pot of tea before rustling up a batch of oaties. Open a tin for Norman, and then walk him down to the bridge over the drain for his evening constitutional. Right on cuestyle rain comes down again, just as we get back to the bungalow, around half past six. I warm up the teapot with some fresh hot water and take tea and a few oaties into the garden room, before starting my new book. It is another historical fiction by a German author called Alissa Walser, entitled "Mesmerized", set in 18th century Vienna and based upon an episode of the life of Franz Mesmer. Arguably the founder of both hypnotism and Psycho analysis. In any event another really good book, translated from the German, where it won the Spycher Literature prize in 2010. I seem to be on a winning streak with European literature of late. To bed around eleven.