other things done recently

[baratron]

After writing this long list of things I'd done, I spent the rest of the evening making black beans that tasted good, adapted from Kake's black bean soup recipe. (Same basic deal without the evil cilantro or onion, extra garlic to replace the onion, and made with less water.) Unfortunately, I'd forgotten how long dried beans take to cook, and I didn't want anyone eating them until they were quite thoroughly done. All red and black beans are poisonous until they've been cooked properly, but that should be dealt with by 10 minutes of rapid boiling. The problem was more that any undercooked pulse can give a person horrible belly ache, and I've had this too often (from other people's cooking - school lentil roasts argh argh) to ever want to experience it again. Meanwhile, there was a hungry and grumpy wuzzie pacing up and down moaning about how hungry he was. Stress!

Note to self: Seriously do soak beans overnight before cooking them! Or boil them rapidly for the whole 40 minutes, rather than just for 10 minutes followed by 30 minutes simmering. But also remember that while it's a hassle, it's thoroughly worth cooking a big pot of beans, because then that's two or three dinners sorted out.

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Richard & I both got eaten alive by mosquitos on Friday night. I woke up with three massive bites on my elbow, two on my right hip, one on my left thigh and one on my left foot. All of them are huge, red, and SUPER-ITCHY! Far bigger and itchier than any other insect bites I've had this year. The elbow bites merged into a giant super-bite which made my elbow visibly swollen for a while. We have no idea how this happened, as we were both under duvets and I was in my pyjamas as well. How much blood can one mosquito take from a person, anyway? Was it an entire mosquito family?

I have also been trying to get my sleep schedule back to something resembling functionality, but mostly without success. Also, I am a moron because last night I was super-sleepy at 2.45 am and could have fallen asleep then, but had just got to one of the Uncharted Islands in Dragon Quest Monsters, which is a random thing. DQM is the sort of game where you can only save at a physical savepoint location, which don't exist on some islands, and I didn't want to leave in case I never found it again. So I ended up being awake until gone 5 am and thus couldn't get up today. How stupid am I?

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Yesterday I felt like going out for a really long cycle ride, so we did. I was slightly alarmed by Richard packing a banana, some crisps and a smoothie when I'd only been thinking of cycling until my bad hip started hurting, but in the end we were out for 2 hours and did around 9 miles.

We went into Richmond Park like we often do, but followed some paths we haven't taken before. Near Petersham Gate, we saw three trees that had blown over and been uprooted in a big storm some time ago, yet are still alive and growing... differently. They must have only had small surface roots ripped out, while longer roots remained underground. Because these trees are now growing horizontally, resembling rather odd bushes. The trunk of the tree lies along the ground while branches sprout upwards in the normal manner. The side of the trunk lying adjacent to the ground has only short remains of previously-existing branches, but the ones coming out of the upper side are full-sized and healthy. I didn't know it was possible for trees to actually survive like that. We need to go back and take some photos.

We also saw bunnies. Lots of them. Hundreds. Mostly living in burrows around the uprooted trees. Quite tame, for wild animals - they didn't mind people or cycles too much but would run away from dogs.

Also my hip only started hurting once I'd got home, and then not too much. Took some paracetamol and heated up the black beans.

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

> do soak beans overnight

All dry beans? Or just chilli beans?

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

All dry beans. They don't need anywhere near as much cooking when properly soaked beforehand.

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

And don't cook the beans in the soak water. It helps cut the gas if you rinse and use fresh water after soaking.

[nitoda]

.

[judiff]

BUNNYS!!!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

If you bring your bike over sometime, wuzzie can mend it and then we can go to Richmond Park to see the bunnies. But it's too far to walk. Another option would be the 371 bus but that's a really long route, plus it keeps being diverted because of sewer works.