So, January.
A depressing month, as I'm sure we can all agree. And it's looking especially depressing for me since I am self-employed and have chuff-all work in the diary; this after a December in which paid employ was also, as is traditional in the run-up to Christmas, thin on the ground.
So it was that yesterday, contemplating these and other weighty matters, I fell to making a sandwich using the tiddly bit of leftover cooked salmon I'd salvaged from the girlies' tea the night before and stuck in the fridge
Buttered the bread. Spread - nay flaked - the salmon on top. Ground some pepper.
And then thought - ooh, mayonnaise...
Mayonnaise!
God I love mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise on the sandwich = a transformation effected.
Mayonnaise is A Reason To Be Cheerful.
Mayonnaise is the sort of thing you need to Get You Through Jan.
So - a 'series' ! Oh lawdy!
With music I expect, yes - and lots of other things besides. Probably. I mean, we'll have to see how it goes.
The small things that keep you going.
My 'reality-altering' January thing.
Starting with mayonnaise.
Ian Dury & The Blockheads - 'Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt.3' (1979)
I have decided not to be "aff it" this month, as I am already depressed after logging in to the work laptop/millstone and realising that it ain't going to be any better than last year, workwise. I will not even mention what confronted me when I checked my bank. To go the whole of Jan without a drink I fear would push me over the edge.
ReplyDeleteTry making your own mayo, it really is quite easy and you will never go back to the bought stuff. However you may end up as fat as me and with a bloody awful HDL count.
Persnally, I'm looking forward to the new Spiritualized album and tour in March.
Double condiments is my rule for top sandwiches - I think the test is that you must at least have to consider eating it with a spoon. But mayo is a good call indeed and I look forward to more.
ReplyDeleteMore posts.
ReplyDeleteAnd more mayonnaise.
There you go.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the being 'aff it' in January - that is craziness: our ancestors, those hardy peoples of the North Lands knew that in the darkest months tall-tales and ales and a good logfire were all that'd get you through.
Ooops, sorry Adlad - I was responding to Drew whilst you were responding to me. Yes, I have a good feeling about this one, thank you.
ReplyDeleteMmmmmm....Mayonnaise.
ReplyDeleteI love the stuff, too. My parents made me mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch all of the time growing up. White bread and mayo. Nothing else. And it was divine. And cheerful.
Mayonnaise! It's its own sandwich filler!
ReplyDeleteCrikey Tricia, that is some pile of cookies over at yours.
Maybe mayonnaise layered between the cookies next time. :)
ReplyDeleteAles, fires and tall tales - that's it davy lad.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, in northern England until 1995 AD, Salad Cream was considered exotic.
And as a totally irrelevant small cheery aside; Phil Lynott died 26 years ago today. I passed Salisbury General in the snow early that morning and bowed.
He'd have been an interesting character now eh, had he lived on.
Not butter and mayo. That's just wrong.
ReplyDeleteDVD: Did you hear about the 700 (!) long-lost Lynott/Lizzy songs turning up?
Oo-er.
ReplyDeleteYes Lee, I wouldn't normally do both - the mayonnaise was unplanned. Like this blog.
Well, personally I prefer mustard to mayonnaise. Then again I prefer January to December, so what do I know ...
ReplyDeleteFish finger sandwich, with mayo, is God's own snack.
ReplyDelete"Until I had children I was quite unaware that fish had fingers" - quote from a particularly middle class friend of mine.
ReplyDeleteHer kids had come back from having dinner at someone else's house.
Dickie is right..mayonnaise came to the north with Aldi , I think
ReplyDeleteUntil I left home I didn't know ketchup and salad cream were condiments..I had been cleverly duped into believing they were expensive sandwich fillers.
I also thought that ice cream men rang their bells ...only when they had run out of ice cream !
altogether now...awwwww!
My grandad used to talk about Mayo, but that was the county in Ireland.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Lee - I'd not heard the news about Phil Lynott's 'lost' music. He was pretty prolific. However, given some of his, er behavioural moods, a significant amount was chaff. I wonder if he's met up with Gary Moore again?
Millie - I had that ice cream man story too. Phsycologically wounding. Remember when you could take your own jug/sundae dish out and Antonio/Rossi/Granelli would fill it up for you? (Or did I dream that?)
i was thinking that making homemade stock is a similar Jan-get-over thing. espeically if your killing an evening having to deciding to go aff it. if you can get veal bones to make the stock all the better. it also chimes with the middle-aged/class thang that your readers seem to connect with eating mayo so why not indeed.
ReplyDeletei have a yearning deep and unfulfilled for salad cream now. on an egg sandwich. it's been an awful long time since my last one. since my last most things to be honest.
ReplyDeletecheers to you davy boy for this cheerer upper. can't wait for more
x
Thanks all. There's a lot of pain out there, hey?
ReplyDeleteVeal anto? No.
From Wikipedia :
ReplyDeleteThe most probable origin of mayonnaise is that the recipe was brought back to France from the town of Mahón in Menorca (Spain), after Armand de Vignerot du Plessis's victory over the British at the city's port in 1756. According to this version, the sauce was originally known as "salsa mahonesa" in Spanish and "maonesa" in Catalan (as it is still known in Menorca), later becoming mayonnaise as it was popularized by the French.
Indeed I probably eaten 1 pot per week beetwen 13 & 17 years old, then suddenly stopped (I still do not know why).
But your post remind me of this fantastic taste..
Alberto
Guys, meet Alberto - Alberto, meet the guys.
ReplyDeleteI love mayonnaise too. And even if you have lots of exciting plans for the new year, January is still January and something to be borne.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I will always come back for a Reason to Be Cheerful. There are never enough.
ReplyDelete53 people have downloaded the Ian Dury track. Meaning 53 people reading this blog didn't already have it! We live in worrying times.
ReplyDelete