Castelvetrano olives

No ordinary olive

Found these in La Cucina yesterday. Nope, I haven't adulterated my photos. They really are THAT green! Deep and lurid. Think candied angelica, Midori melon liqueur, bright green boiled sweets (the ones with the yellow interior, can't remember their name...). Or rich emerald velvet, as in the gloriously ludicrous doublet and puffy-panted affair worn with such pride by King Henry VIII in that classic portrait. Ok, will stop there, you've got the picture by now. (The workings of the brain never cease to amaze me... from olives to 16th century pearl and ruby-encrusted royal cod pieces... incredible!) 

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Chilli miso soup

A bowlful of clarity when the world feels as clear as mud

 Soothing

Healing

Alive

This is what I turn to when either my mind or tummy feels overloaded and overwhelmed. In my teens and twenties, these mental and physical states often went hand in hand. When life’s little commotions were more than I could handle, I would have a biscuit or two dozen to calm my nerves. In the midst of too much, my instinct, correctly, was to slow things down. But unaware that it was stuff ‘out there,’ or at least my perception of it, that needed steadied, perhaps altered, I immobilised myself. Literally weighting myself down with an overload of sugary, fatty, un-homemade foods normally designated ‘off limits’.

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