Cooking and Cleaning

There are some of you out there who believe I can't clean a cup without threat of physical violence. That or a serious lack of tea.

Despite this there are others who believe that I'm a cleaning fanatic. Who have left me house sitting and come back to find the place vastly cleaner then when they left.

The truth is that I'm really like a pendulum. I'll let things slide until it might be a health risk - I do not enjoy food poisoning - and I'll blitz. So I've just spent an hour cleaning the kitchen - well, that bit I use - just so that I can start making it dirty again.

This is important - because of the way and what I'm cooking.

When the parents left I inherited a number of cold cuts - and today I'm eating the last. The problem is I don't know how old it is. Cooked chicken breast, that's been in the fridge for well...days. But it smells alright.

But to be on the safe side, it's in the oven right now. Diced and covered with a chicken stock - oxo based - with mushrooms, it's just boiling away now. Give it a minute or two, not long enough to over cook - and it'll be perfectly safe, if it wasn't already.

What's this got to do with cleaning? Because I'm playing with food that's got the slightest risk of being...well...old. So even if it was ok today, I won't do the clearing up till tuesday. So there's plenty of time for things to go wrong.

But hot, cooked chicken with ceaser salad sounds good - but I have a slightly barbaric twist. You remember that chicken stock I cooked the chicken and mushroom in?

I'm going to save that. Put it in a mug, let it cool over dinner...and it becomes a drink. Slightly fatty. A touch salty.

But all the favour of chicken in a meaty broth.

I'd better not tell mother....