Dog days of winter

Is there such a thing?

Winter's nearly done. 

Warmer days are coming. The mercury will climb, I'm told, from 15 degrees to a positively balmy 18, or, even, maybe, 19 by week's end. Ever hopeful. The light has changed. My mood has changed. The garden, neglected as it poured - oh, the rain! - throughout a cool July and colder August, has changed. Overrun with rampant greenery, it needs a dose of attentive, extended weeding. The kind that gets knees and fingernails (and everything else you subsequently touch) filthy.

 

A generous palmful of preserved lemon - fresh, sharp, sunny - scattered over a dish of lentils last night, woke the slumbering tastebuds in this house. So, post dinner, I soaked a cup of almonds and half that of pepitas in water, drained them over the sink this morning and made Ricki's Raw Almond-Veggie Pate.

Marvellous.

With a capital 'M'.

Comments

[Johanna]

That pate looks an excellent way to introduce a little spring lightness into the diet - it is quite a shock to the system isn't it but I can see the days of hearty winter meals are numbered - the sun was even out at lunchtime today!

[Ricki]

I'm so glad you enjoyed the pate, Lucy! And your version is infinitely more photogenic than mine. . .I love that shot of the plump almonds and pumpkin seeds (or pepitas, as you wish!). :)

PS Oh, and our entire summer hovered around 17-19 degrees. . . yes, we were cheated this year!!

[suse]

Ooh, your back yard looks like one we looked at (to buy) a few years ago in Yarraville?!

I wonder ...