The best risotto you've ever eaten

For anyone who tried  "Chicken soup for the sensitive soul" or is planning it, here is the advanced version:

The best risotto you've ever eaten

Instead of turning the stock left over from cooking the chicken (see chicken soup for the sensitive soul) , we're going to turn it into an orgasmic risotto.

You need to heat up the stock (I'm assuming that after you cooked the chicken, you froze the stock & ate the chicken. If you tore some meat off the chook & put that & maybe even some bones in you have an amazing stock ready to use). So get about 4 cups of it in a pot & heat it up.

At the same time you're heating the stock put a cup of arborio rice in a decent sized pot with a bit of oil & cook it for a couple of minutes.
If you're a 'normal' by all means fry off some diced onion before you start on the other ingredients. I don't because of the whole sulfur thing. If you can tolerate sulfur you're probably going to be able to make this even more awesome by adding a small amount of white wine (1/8-1/4 cup).
Dice some pumpkin into 1cm pieces, and chop some spinach.
Chuck the pumpkin & 1 cup of the warm stock in with the rice.
Wait until the rice has absorbed most of the stock and then add the second cup.
Do the same again with cups 3 & 4 of the stock, waiting between each for the stock to be absorbed before adding the next lot.
After you've added the fourth cup of stock put in the spinach. You don't want that to turn into over cooked mush, it's nicer this way.
While the risotto is still wet, but everything is cooked (rice should be al dente), take it off & it's ready to go. And it is divine. So prepare yourself.

I really think this recipe is going to work well with really decent tasting mushroom in it, but I have tested myself on mushrooms yet so I haven't tried, but you will know what I mean & if you are a mushroom person by all means go for it. In fact you could even switch the pumpkin for mushrooms. It would be oh so tasty. Especially with some truffle, but I'm guessing most of us don't keep that in our kitchen. I wish.

You can top it with parmesan if you can tolerate dairy. I like to toast some pine nuts just briefly & chuck those on. But honestly this stuff is so good it doesn't need any mucking about with. I'd just bung it in a bowl & eat it.

Don't think you can get away with using a carton of chicken stock. It will not be orgasmic risotto. It will be very average risotto. I will be able to tell.

One you've tried this one, let me know how blimmin' awesome you thought it was. I know loads of people are making the soup, but this is a whole new level for your tastebuds. Yum.

Les oiseaux & le pain

This morning the birds at our house are enjoying what I would like to think of as a "French" breakfast, in spite of its lack of coffee or chocolate. I remember fondly when fruit & bread would have seemed a perfectly civilised lunch at our house. That was before gluten intolerance. Still though, I am enjoying thinking that our birds are treated to the highest class of food in the neighbourhood.

They seem to think so at any rate. Brownie (the name we've given our frequent blackbird visitor) was there even before I had finished cutting up the pear cores. If I don't cut it, Brownie will steal the entire core, leaving nothing for Chunky (Chaffinch) nor any of the assorted (and unnamed) wax eyes.

I am beginning to think the physiotherapist I went to see the other week does not know as much about hypermobile joint syndrome as I would like to think she does. "Push up off the floor, breathe out & let your back slump toward the floor...". My vertebrae promptly slid into unaccommodating positions. I would be tempted to tell her "you broke it, you bought it", but the ramifications are too serious.

If there could possibly be a good side to a soft tissue lumbar injury then it is that I finally broke down & confessed first to my husband & then my GP how severe my pain actually is. The poker face usually maintained by my GP slipped briefly into amusement when I described my reaction to the tricyclics that had been proffered to reduce my pain. "I have never been so depressed in all my life", I wailed, as she smiled on.

It was all seriousness after that, but the letter from the latest specialist must have been "special" indeed as the GP decided to break out the "good" drugs.

As we left the clinic we passed Dr Arse, smiling kindly at us. A broken woman, I returned the smile. It turns out he is the registrar my husband saw & thought was really good. Since it was "random act of kindness day" I decided to forgive him. Perhaps "Arse" was a little harsh. Besides, it isn't like there aren't other health professionals for me to actively detest.