Saturday 25 November - What time is it?

Breakfast on the plane consisted of a fruit cup and Nutrilicous "organic" cinnamon doughnut. And then because the place was so empty, they also gave me a non-vegetarian breakfast which was a croissant and a Land o'Lakes strawberry & banana yoghurt.

Don't see what makes that unsuitable for ovo-lacto veggies, which is what I requested. Basically, United just assume that all vegetarians are vegan.

Anyway, finally got into Heathrow, collected massively overweight suitcase and struggled home with it. Gratified to find that, even in London, when people see a middle aged woman with a cane struggling up steps with a heavy suitcase, they will offer to help. The young guy who offered his help at the last set of stairs coming out of King's Cross station looked decidedly surprised when he lifted my suitcase - it was very heavy - packed full of food, of course! More on that later...

Collapsed in a heap on the sofa and dozed most of the afternoon, awaking only to eat some sesame oat bran sticks.

I love sesame sticks and you just don't seem to be able to get the in London. I have bought things called sesame sticks here, but they tend to be more like the gram flour sticks you get in Bombay Mix (or should that be Mumbai Mix now?)

I bought some from Redmoor here in the UK a while back and this is what you get:

When you buy them in the US, they look like this:

They also taste completely different. I bought a big sack from the bulk health foods section in the big Hy-Vee, but I must try to devise a recipe!

This is no criticism of Redmoor - they are great for bulk spices, grains etc and I recommend them. They are one of the few places I have been able to find chervil any more. You also get free shipping on orders over £30.00

Redmoor Herbs and Spices

Woke up in the early evening feeling very rough, but hungry. Not a lot in at the moment in terms of fresh stuff, so I made

Pappardelle with Leeks, Broad Beans and Stilton
90g tinned broad beans
1 leek, trimmed and sliced
90g (dry weight) papardelle pasta
75g Stilton cheese
1/2 pint vegetable stock

Simmer the sliced leeks in vegetable stock and reduce until there are only a few tablespoons of concentrated stock left.

Meanwhile, cook the pappardelle according to package instructions.

Add the broad beans to the leeks and warm through. Toss with the pasta and Stilton until the Stilton is beginning to melt into the sauce. Season well with pepper ans salt to taste.

Nutrition Summary
Calories (kcal) 720.4
Protein (g) 34.9
Carbohydrate (g) 82.6
Fat (g) 27.9
Fibre (g) 10.9

This is a much bigger portion of pasta or cheese than I would normally eat, but I felt pretty hungry and it was the last of both ingredients, so I finished them off.

I am reminded of an old Bill Cosby sketch (back when he did stand up comedy) about his grandmother who continually asked "what time is is, baby?" It was something like "What time is it, baby? I'm cold and I don't know what time is it?" over and over again...

That is sort of what I feel like today.