u/DollySheep32

What it says on the tin.

For the 1984 nostalgia obviously, not that weird noisy thing our phones all did earlier.

Sausages, bacon (both PB) and pasta only go so far. I've got a cooler that plugs into my cigarette lighter port in my car - car camping - so I can keep veggies for longer.

I'm thinking grilled mushrooms, tomatoes, small batch chili, dahl. This is all for one person (me lol) so larger batch meals aren't super useful.

TIA!

Penne Arrabiatta - penne in a marinara sauce with extra garlic and hot peppers of some description.

Zaza Harpenden - my GOAT, went here every Tuesday with my grandma during free period when I was in school. Bonus points for cooking cherry tomatoes in the sauce to the point of near-breakdown. Back in the early 2010s they did bottomless pasta and you bet your boots I ate two bowls in one sitting. Medium serving size so good with an appetiser or pudding. Will always be 10/10 in my nostalgic mind.

Per Tutti St Albans - pretty good, large serving size but a more on the mild side despite the warning of the waitress. Texture of the sauce was nice - more on the importance of sauce texture to follow. 7/10.

Bellacino's St Albans - the chilis are sliced too thickly (and not even fully!) so the texture of the sauce can be lumpy and the spice uneven. The sliced garlic is a nice extra flavour punch. The green peppers attempt to elevate the colour profile but really don't. Good lunchtime portion size but they took it off the lunch deal menu which sucks. 5/10.

L'Italiana St Albans - I'm trying my hardest not to cut the rating because the staff have been pretty rude to me. Really nice sauce, good blend of garlic and chili with much finer slicing and bigger portion sizes. The macerated basil is a nice touch. 7/10.

L'Artista Watford - its...fine. Needed a lot of ground black pepper to perk up the otherwise bland sauce, chilis were a sliced a bit thick and the sauce needed longer to cook or added starch water from the pasta. 4/10.

Il Pellegrino Watford - good blend of chilis, had my nose running and the texture of the sauce was nice. The pasta was the right side of al dente. The portion size was just this size of too small for a lunch but otherwise well seasoned. 8/10.

I was reading in my usual coffee shop and a couple of girls at the table asked me what I was reading. Annoying yes, since I'm trying to like...read. But we got to chatting about books. I mentioned the book I'm reading has queer characters and one of them made some not-so-nice comments about the LGBT community, then asked for some recommendations since it looks like our taste in books is otherwise similar.

So every book I recommended had queer characters. Queer romance, even if its a sub-plot or tangential, you wouldn't necessarily guess is queer based on the title alone.

Will she read them? Probably not. Will she waste her time looking them up? I hope so.

I've only done it once and don't want to do it again. Got up in the night to use the facilities on-site and nearly tripped over my guy lines. Thankfully no damage to anyone or anything, but I'd like not to risk it again. They're bright orange but obviously in the dark it isn't particularly helpful.

Anyone got any suggestions for avoiding them or spotting them more easily in the dark?

I managed to acquire an unreasonably large amount of them and I need to do something besides stir fries and mushroom pasta.

Any genre except recipe books.

This might be a bit niche but I'm a big nerd for polar expeditions and I chewed my way through Ally Wilkes' *Where the Dead Wait".

I also enjoyed *The Black Hunger* by Christopher Pullen. This one was very unique and I'd highly recommend it.

I've read a lot of survival narratives (Adolfus Greely's idiot mission, the Franklin Expedition, various books on the whaleship Essex etc) so I'm open to historical fiction and non-ficfion.

TIA!

I've got a recipe for quick pickle cucumbers I have yet to try and I want to try red onion, but are there any other veg that make delicious pickles?

(Eggs and things like ginger etc are also fair game even if they aren't veggies).

(Except COVID-19).

I've set the flair as historical fiction but modern fiction is also welcome!

I have just finished *Year of Wonders* by Geraldine Brooks which I enjoyed, and Christopher Buelman's *Between Two Fires* which I didn't enjoy as much as I thought I would. As a child I read a short-ish "introduce your child to history" type book series which included the plague of 1666 which I remember fondly.

TIA!