Spring Vegetable and Ham Chowder

So when I've actually cooked something, I'm going to use a proper title, not a mysterious quote by Michael Kunze! Incidentally, I do think Kunze is one of the best lyricists on Earth - he has a very, very clever way with words though obviously working in the German language, a lot of what he writes simply cannot be translated into English without losing meaning and significance, hence, I always quote him in German. Thus far, all of the blog post titles have been from his work "Rebecca", which, like "Elisabeth" before it, is a masterpiece of modern theatre. The English production on Broadway has had a number of setbacks and, after Kunze's previous work "Tanz der Vampire" was brutalised, mutilated and ripped to shreds and then glued back together into something vaguely the same shape called "Dance of the Vampires" for Broadway over 10 years ago, I feel for Kunze - his work is superb and deserves better. End of story.

The Haus Am Meer is just wonderful - I feel much happier and more relaxed here already - more so than I ever was at Grey Gardens, in hindsight - more so than I think I've been since about 2005 and I don't really know why but hey ho. I read a naff quote somewhere today but I think it rang true:

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about Learning to Dance in the Rain

It's certainly how I'm trying to see things and another New Home Resolution is to let things wash over me more - like they used to - hopefully I'll get there soon. The move itself went ok - I hate removal men as a rule as they often seem to act like they're doing you a favour when you've paid £500 for the privilege and never seem to want to listen to you. I got a bit of that this time but I won't name and shame the company until I've sent in my formal complaint about use of homophobic and sexist language constantly - I'm thick skinned but to be honest I don't want to hear someone being described as "bent as a nine bob note" because they struggled to lift something or to hear people talking about women as though they only exist to suck their netherportions every Friday night. Not only did I have to put up with that in my own home, they're outside my home and other people can hear what they're saying and of course see where they're delivering and it makes me look bad, I guess. I'm not happy about it (nor am I happy about "keep top" boxes ending up at the bottom of the far end of a room) and I've decided to send their Director a letter. Watch this space.

I treated myself today to some new bedding! Debenhams did have a sale on, after all. I'm not too pleased with myself for buying it to be honest - not because of the price but because I'm not comfortable with Debenhams in general. About 18 months ago, I noticed they stocked a lot of "his & hers" items in their homeware department - towels, decorative items and so on - but I could not see any "hers & hers" or "his & his" and so I then checked on their website - nothing. I tweeted them and they said they would ask why it was and would get back to me. No reply. No reply again and again and I've tweeted them about it today and still no reply. I feel like I'm not a priority to them - they don't feel the need to stock items for non-male-female couples and that frankly disgusts me, not to mention leaving me feeling other-ised. To me, it feels like Debenhams is institutionally homophobic and don't recognise non-male-female couples in their stock range. Their social media team no longer seem to respond to me about it, which is pretty awful to be honest.

I'm about 75% sorted out at the moment - a few boxes in the lounge and bedroom and a lot in the spare bedroom but most of it is stuff I don't need day-to-day. Sofa delivered tomorrow or Friday and internet and TV installation is next week - I'm using BT Wifi from a local hub at the moment and Freeview - I miss HD a lot!

So, I've cooked. First time in a very long time. What's changed? New surroundings. Nicer kitchen. New home resolution to cook and blog it and to eat better. Feeling more relaxed. Not being at work so having more energy - one of the cruelties of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is you can feel just fine today, make the most of it and then pay by being in crippling (literally) pain the next day. I had that happen yesterday after overdoing it moving house on Monday. A lot of oxycodone and methocarbamol later and I'm feeling ok for now.

I adapted this recipe from one of Waitrose's recipes and made a few minor changes. Firstly I omitted celery as I'm of the opinion that the semen of the Anti-Christ probably tastes nicer than celery does; secondly I swapped the floppy sliced ham for cooked, shredded ham hock and finally, I swapped the cheap new potatoes for Roseval potatoes as I like their flavour and colour. They are a waxy potato with a warm yellow flesh and a lovely warm red skin and they taste nice too. I don't know what pigment makes their skin red but I'm assuming it's something like an anthocyanin but I'm not sure - anyone care to enlighten me?

Waitrose recommended Kallo Very Low Salt Vegetable Stock Cubes for this recipe and I've not tried them before so decided to give them a go. I was pleasantly surprised to find they weren't blocks of unintelligible brown powder but were instead squishy blocks of something gooey that seemed to contain actual vegetables, even if they did smell exactly like the seasoning sachets from Super Noodles! They have a great flavour and I'll be using them again but they were a nightmare to dissolve in boiling water, even though I followed the instructions on the packet. I've just read the ingredients and realised they contain palm oil which isn't the best thing in the world - I totally disapprove of the stuff as even if it's "organic", it's ruining whole ecosystems. Nasty business.

I've just demolished a portion of it with Marks & Spencer's muesli pave which contains some manner of fruit but I can't remember what it was. Nice bread - I like bread "with bits in" - particularly fond of the cranberry and orange ones from Sainsbury's and this one is a close second - bit steep at £2.70 a throw but bugger it - you only live once!

The original recipe called for a 25g pack of flat-leaf parsley but I have live plants of all of my herbs and my balance doesn't work too well below 20g so I had to guess at it - going by the flavour, a rough handful works and I've included photos of how much I used. I find chopping anything really hard work as my fingers and wrists can subluxate and dislocate so easily. A while back, I reviewed an item for Amazon Vine that I didn't really see the point of at the time - I gave it one star out of five - but it's grown on me as I've found it has enabled me to chop herbs really easily. It is the fast cut herb tool by Zyliss. It is really easy to hold and doesn't bugger up my joints and it's basically just an array of five razor-sharp pizza-cutters attached to a knuckle-duster - you just roll back and forth over the herbs for literally 4-5 times and that's it - chopped parsley, in this case! The same company seems to stock a lot of different 'ergonomic' tools which are probably disability-friendly, particularly for those of us with Ehlers-Danlos or joint issues in the hands and wrists.

Spring Vegetable & Ham Chowder
(Serves 4, allegedly. I got 2 main-meal sized portions out of it)
(Total cost: £4.79 @ £2.40 per person as a main meal or @ £1.20 per person as a starter)
2 vegetable stock cubes (I used Kallo)
300g roseval potatoes (sliced)
195g can sweetcorn (drained)
400g can butter beans (drained)
1 bunch spring onions (cut into 1 inch pieces)
A handful of flat-leaf parsley (chopped finely)
90g pack of pulled ham hock

Boil 1,000mL water in a large lidded pan (I added a small pinch of sea salt) and then dissolve the stock cubes, bringing back to the boil. Add the potatoes and cook with the lid on for 8 minutes. Add the corn and beans and continue cooking for a further 5 minutes. Add the onions and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Stir in the ham hock and the parsley, stir thoroughly and season to taste (I added a few coarse grinds of Bristol blend pepper).