Who's responsible for West Drayton?

[venta]

You get some odd conversations in our house. As ChrisC came in back from an emergency run to the shops on Sunday[*], the following dialogue took place:

Me: It's very exciting! Please can we go to the Camden Head on the 7th or the 8th of December, can we can we can we?
ChrisC: Are we not constrained by prelapsarian thought?

We don't usually need this kind of philisophical debate before committing to a trip up the Northern Line. However, he was way ahead of me and knew that this very exciting news might be on its way.

The Book of Job: The Musical! which I was so impressed by years ago is going to be performed again in London. For two nights.

Although apparently you're only allowed details at the moment if you do Facebook. Which I don't. Hopefully that will soon be sorted out.

If you are:

(a) in London
(b) not going to be offended by something poking fun at the Bible

then I highly, highly recommend you sort yourself out with a ticket forthwith. If you are allergic to musicals, then I suggest you think of it was an evening of comedy which might involve a guitar.

[*] Following a discovery by me halfway through making vegetable lasagne that we didn't have any tinned tomatoes. Really? What kind of household doesn't have tinned tomatoes in the cupboard? I despair.

Comments

[lathany.livejournal.com]

What kind of household doesn't have tinned tomatoes in the cupboard?

One with chrestomancy in it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, fair point.

I shall rephrase my question as "What kind of normally functional household, which does a reasonable amount of cooking, and contains no tomato-allergic people, doesn't have tinned tomatoes in the cupboard?"

Not as snappy...

(How's the ear this morning?)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Not as snappy...

And also deprives me of snappy replies. More on topic, we're always horrified when we run out of tomato as well.

(How's the ear this morning?)

It recovered from the ear drops more quickly as usual, which I think is a good sign. So I'm feeling moderately cheerful about it.

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I shall rephrase my question as "What kind of normally functional household, which does a reasonable amount of cooking, and contains no tomato-allergic people, doesn't have tinned tomatoes in the cupboard?"

One which buys their tomatoes in cartons?

One which grows their own tomatoes and has such an overabundance that they just use fresh instead?

[venta.livejournal.com]

One which buys their tomatoes in cartons?

Goodness, can one do such a thing? It must be the future.

Are they significantly different to tinned tomatoes?

One which grows their own tomatoes and has such an overabundance that they just use fresh instead?

... and has time to faff on skinning them to make them suitable for putting in lasagne on a work night :) (Which is wasn't in this case, but usually is, Sundays being reserved largely for roasts.)

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

Cartonny ones taste exactly the same as tinned ones to me.

I don't tend to make lasagne because I prefer other kinds of pasta bake, but for other things requiring a tomatoey sauce I quite often just use fresh ones with the skin on, and don't find it makes much (if any) difference. Is lasagne different for some reason?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm not aware of lasagne having any magical properties, I'd certainly skin tomatoes for any pasta sauce.

It's not a taste issue, as such, just I find that little bits of skin end up coming off and are really nasty, tough and bitter when encountered in isolation. So long as the skin remains attached to the tomato, it's fine.

Possibly I'm doing it wrong, or am just fussy - if you don't find it a problem, then I'd stick with the skin-on version as peeling them is a proper carry on (especially if they're not quite ripe).

(My lasagne did have sliced fresh tomato on its top, but because they just baked rather than cooking in a sauce their skin stayed on and they were fine.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I live in just such a cartoned household: they fit on the shelf a lot better. We also get various types of beans, chickpeas etc in cartons rather than tins.¹

Maybe tins will become a thing of the past?

---

1 From Sainsburys

[venta.livejournal.com]

Is it just tesellation you go for? Are the cartons recyclable? (I'd assumed they'd be landfill, where tins at least go in the recycling...)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Tesselation, yes. Our shelves are pretty well rammed.

They're tetra paks, so you can recycle them at quite a lot of places: including at our local Sainsburys, conveniently enough.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I don't do Facebook, but I keep a presence there for friends-who-use-Facebook-for-everything purposes.

I can think of nothing more entertaining than a musical based on the Book of Job, and would appreciate regular reminders of this fact when I forget; December being significantly more than three seconds in my future.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I was horrified while cooking fresh spinach curry yesterday to discover I had no tins of tomatoes. I find tomato ketchup works in a pinch as a tomato puree substitute, so I added a good few squirts of that instead, and a cheap tin of baked beans (which I would have added anyway, I find baked beans work really well for tomato-based veggie curries, daals or basic European stews. Makes a nice thick sauce.)

The spinach curry came out well, in case you're wondering!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Lots of people swear by putting baked beans in soups, stews, etc. On the very rare occasions I've had things with beans in, I've not liked them - there's something about the texture of baked beans cooked in things (rather than just heated up as God intended) that really puts me off.

Having said that, it's such a long time since I've eaten any that it's entirely possible my tastes have changed. Given I like tomato-y sauces and love pretty much all forms of beans, I can't really justify the horror than putting baked beans into a curry instils!

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Household: 50% Italian. (Well, 2x half-Italian, which I think still makes the household itself 50% Italian.)
Tinned tomato stock: 9 tins. (And 1 carton.)
Tinned tomatoes in cupboard: zero.

We keep them on top of the fridge.

[venta.livejournal.com]

"The top of the fridge" is a cupboard. You've just forgotten to put walls and a door on it.

A friend's household used to keep tins of tomatoes (and other veg) in the fridge. I queried this, being the sort of impolite houseguest who asks that kind of question. It was pointed out to me that, owing to the rather stupid design of the very small kitchen, there was in fact considerably more space in the fridge than anywhere else.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I like this definition, although it does reduce the available workspace even further (the bit where we keep the breadbin and the wine boxes is pretty much another cupboard for this purpose, for instance, as is the corner with the breadmaker and the slow cooker, and - currently - the toaster).

I do get quite twitchy if we have no tinned tomatoes, although luckily this very rarely happens. Picking up 8 at a time, particularly when they're on offer in the supermarket, is not uncommon.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I understand entirely. I get twitchy if I don't have lemons and garlic in the house, too.

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

having been intending to make lasagne myself tonight, I read this at work and thought 'at least I've got that jar of passata to use' how wrong I was . . .