me, myself and i - day 3

this is not a happy picture
can you see the white dots on the leaves
whitefly consarn it
do you have a solution?

Oh dear.  I am very embarrassed.  I have only just realised that the last two posts read 'my, myself and i' instead of 'me, myself and i'.  Ooops.  I guess I should explain that this mini-series of posts is a project to stave off loneliness whilst CNN is away.  I must be having success as I've not bednested at all so far....

So when you first met the girls life was good.  Cherry, Minty, Corrie, Basil and Little P had moved into their flat share.  It was a tight fit but they were all happy on their windowsill.  However, their evil landlords decided that one of the girls should move out onto the Juliet balcony (a description that allows real estate agents to claim a property has a balcony when it only has a half-hearted imitation of one).  Cherry volunteered - she was the biggest and thought she was the toughest too.  The first two weeks out there were great - no more squabbling with the girls about space (can you imagine four ladies and one cramped bathroom?  It was a nightmare!) and plenty of peace and quiet.  Things took a turn for the worse on Sunday when she saw a few whiteflies and things gradually spiralled out of control despite bathing in neem oil like her mama taught her.  [begin narrator's voice here] What will happen to Cherry?  Will she survive the deadly whitefly attack?  Tune in next week to find out.

Poor Cherry.  It can't be any fun out there.  The wuss in me feels itchy every time I go out to water her - even thinking about it makes me itch.  I am doing a neem oil solution spray every five days as advised by the internets - does anyone else have any tips?

what we ate (non-food post next, i promise)

sorry all my food pictures
are of half-eaten food
i only think of sharing the momen
when my belly is happy and full

I have been reading all about kabocha at Happy Little Bento.  If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have bought the Japanese pumpkin I saw in the greengrocers the other day.  It's beautiful - very sweet, tender and moist.  Last night, I cooked some up in the yummiest rissotto.

Ingredients

- kabocha (or any pumpkin)
- onion

- celery (optional)

- garlic
- olive oil
- arborio rice (or another risotto rice)

- white wine
- stock
- thyme

- basil

Instructions

- Peel and deseed your pumpkin.  Cut into bite-sized chunks.  Roast at 200 degrees C until done.  (I didn't have to do this step because I deliberately roasted extra pumpkin when I made a salad the other night.  The excess went into a box in the fridge ready to be made into something else - the easiest way to save time and energy!)

- Chop onions and garlic.  Fry in olive oil on a medium heat - the idea is to let both soften without colouring (not that I achieve this very often, my onions were pretty brown by the time I'd chopped the garlic and chucked it in!).

- Add one and a half metric cupfuls of rice (this should be enough for three people) and stir to coat the grains in the oil, onions and garlic.

- Add one cup of white wine or white vermouth.  (we used a sparkling white leftover from New Year's - why we didn't finish the bottle that night or soon thereafter, I'll never know - it was still perfectly good for cooking though)

- Stir until the rice has absorbed all the wine.

- This is where most recipes ask you to add small amounts of hot stock, stirring until absorbed and then repeating until the rice is al dente.  I cheat by using cold water and then adding powdered veggie boullion at the end - I just find it is easier to adjust the flavour that way.  I also added one teaspoon of dried thyme at this stage.

- Stir in your pumpkin.  This is where kabocha is amazing - it's so tender that some of it breaks down and melds with the risotto goo in a glorious orange ooze.

- Serve with chopped fresh basil.  I got mine from here:

meet the ladies
l-r: cherry, basil, corrie, little p and minty
(there are no good girly nicknames for parsley
sorry about the light it has been grey here today

We picked them up on the weekend (CNN and I are masters of lady-picking-up, don't you know) and I'm so happy to have them here.  Plants really make a house a home, even if they do attract flies (what can I say?  They're ladies who pick up!).  At least now I have a good reason to get a venus flytrap.