Russian Roulette

When is too long after the best before date? I figured when formulating this, it would be on the conservative side, with a couple of days leeway to cater for absent minded people like me. However, due to some laziness and only consuming milk in the morning coffee, I figured I could take a calculated risk. It didn't help that a toast addiction prevented consumption of cereal, which would've made short work of remaining carton. 1-2 days after the recommended date I had no problem with, however I found beyond this, I was waiting for the "chunky bits" to begin their descent down the carton's spout. My brother mocked me in the early going, referencing a Seinfeld standup bit, drinking punch bowls of milk just to finish it off. He came back on D-day +6, but didn't take the risk, sighting his smell as not being reliable enough to avoid a trip to the latrine. I succumb on Friday night (05/10) a full week after the recommended date. Perhaps a switch to the long-life variety may be on the cards...

Acknowledgment of Effort

Let me just begin by saying that I have more chance in beating Tiger Woods at golf than I do in making a 5 star meal -I've picked up a club maybe 6 times. About a week ago I decided pumpkin was going to be used in some way, shape or form, thinking at the time it would go well with a leg of lamb. This post isn't an example of culinary excellence, but rather a strange chronicle of events that ended up with mashed pumpkin. The first time I ever attempted to make mashed potatoes -no this isn't a recent story!-, for some reason I decided peeling an entire spud and plonking it into boiling water was the most efficient way achieving the soft 'taters. I hear anyone reading this -yes I was a few stubbies short of a slab in those earlier years... That goes right along side accidentally adding water to custard powder instead of milk. (That was honestly a pause, laugh, did I actually do that? moment...)

Google'ing pumpkin recipes I looked for a mash recipe that wasn't: boil, mash, serve. Although the following isn't a great variant, it was quite satisfying especially with the onions.

Ok start with your humble pumpkin.

Sliced and diced the pumpkin and about the same amount of potatoes, boiling until both were soft.

In a separate pot, 2 small onions and some garlic was chopping finely (or until I couldn't bear the crying, I can't remember) and browned. The excess water was drained (probably should've kept the water for a soup base for later...) and then some milk, butter, salt and cheese was added. What resulted resembled something that I'd done on a sidewalk after a few too many beers.


My thoughts were that the pumpkin seemed to retain quite a bit too much water and, if I were a new born or 80 years old, it would have been an ideal meal. A short dash back to the pc to lookup "mashed potatoes too thin" I was looking for an answer that didn't involve boiling more vegies, but alas without potato flakes lying around (what exactly are they???), another spud had to hit the water.
Ok the end result is nothing fancy, anyone with half a brain would've been able to make it, however I'm giving myself an "acknowledgment of effort" ribbon (the same they give to all primary school kids even if they finish last). Surprisingly I did enjoy the taste of the two vegies mixed together and have to give thanks to the recipe (without the bacon).