Planet Veggie

Last night I decided to make some mince pies and to make them with my new shortcrust pastry mix that I bought, instead of the ready rolled stuff.  (The Meat Eater said “you still have to roll it though, don’t you?  “No”, said I.  “There’s a clue in the name – ready rolled”.  Sigh.)

So off I dutifully trotted to the kitchen to weigh out the pastry mix, as I’m told that flour and bread and general bakery stuff like cakes (mmm, cakes) have to be measured precisely and so I turned on my scales, but they didn’t respond. “Come on stupid scales, Eastenders is on soon and I haven’t got time for this”.  But the scales were not to be coaxed into action.  Waa.  So I threw caution to the wind (i.e. I’d had a bottle of wine and couldn’t really be arsed about measuring precisely) and got out the measuring jug and sort of guessed how many grams (I think it was grams, the jug is presently in the dishwasher being pounded by jets of scalding hot water and bits of dishwasher tablet, so I can’t check) and added some water (three tablespoons to be precise, and I can be precise about that bit, three tablespoons is easy) and made my pastry which came out perfectly and made my mince pies (why I’m making mince pies is the subject of a future blog post) and thought “hurrah, I get to go shopping for kitchen gadgets tomorrow” and so I went to work and at lunchtime, braved the rain and the wind and the cold and the sleet and the snow and the hailstones and the tornadoes and the building site workers and went to that little bit of heaven called Robert Dyas (ok, it’s not very posh but I don’t work on Oxford Street any more.  Damn, just as I was getting on first name terms with the staff in Selfridges too) and bought myself a shiny new electronic silver set of scales for the bargain price of £9.99 which is a lot better than the fifty English pounds my broken ones cost me.  Maybe there’s something in this High Street shopping after all.  Looky, new scales.

And while I’m in Robert Dyas, I’m very good and only buy a Trust Mini USB2 Hub and not the electric cheese grater or the bobble remover that I really really need too and I get home and make myself some veggie spaghetti bolognaise and I put the spaghetti in the pan and I think I won’t weigh it as, if it’s under 100g, I’ll only put some more in and I’m trying not to be such a glutton but then I think oooh, but I REALLY need to try out my new scales and so I weigh the spaghetti and it’s only 69g and I think aah, that’s not even an amount for a starter but I have an iron will and put the spaghetti back in the pan without getting more out of the packet.  Hardcore.