Will Bob lose weight?

Tuesday April 5th. I haven't repeated the pate because it dictated my meals for too long a time. I worried that it would not keep for too long and it didn't seem to be the the sort of substance that would freeze well or perhaps unfreeze well. There have been a few more cakes but the problem is that it is difficult to judge how long to cook them and it seems easy to burn the ouside without the core being fully cooked. They are of course completely delicious and don't last long. It is possible that my baking endeavours will cool down when I return to work in the near future though I won't be working at weekends or covering nights so a weekly cake is still very likely. Gardener is a mystery to me so I dont know who to ask to borrow 'The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro'. I have to admit that I have never heard of the author Antonio Tabucchi. He may love food but is his work crime or detective fiction? Anyway its nice to know that someone is reading the blog. It is interesting that there is now a heading on the page after signing in that reveals the number of hits the blog gets; very few actually. A rather meanspirited review in the Guardian of Henning Mankell's latest Wallender thriller called'The Troubled Man' went out of its way to slag off other long running detective series. It included comments about James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux whom I must defend if only because it all takes place in and around New Orleans and regular meals are eaten which clearly reflect the cuisine of that locality. I don't know how much the oil leak in the gulf will have affected the crab and shrimp catches in that area but they feature regularly through his stories,eaten with 'dirty' rice. Other favourites are 'beignets' (doughnuts) and 'boudin' (sausages of cajun rice). The setting of these stories makes a refreshing change from most of American crime fiction which seems to be mainly based in NY, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Furthermore they are quite good stories though I don't know why so many detectives seem to be flawed in some way, in Robicheaux' case by an alcoholic binge in every tale. I have commented in the past in these blogs about Scandinavian crime fiction and my comments have been recently reiterated in the press apropos 'The Killing'. However, John Crace's dissection of the latest Mankell in the'Digested Read' article in the Guardian made any further review superfluous. I have continued to read the only Australian crime writer I know, namely Peter Temple. His investigators also seem to carry some deep scars from their previous occupations in the army or the police. I have one major complaint about his works and that is that there are too many characters with similar names and I have to keep looking back to see who is who. This doesn't bode well for my plan to read 'War and Peace' which has a cast of hundreds often with several names each! Return to work will inevitably affect the time I spend reading and on the allotment but perhaps I will just become more efficient. The allotment is in good condition and I am now digging parts that have been under thick black polythene sheeting for several years. I have peas in pots in a friend's greenhouse which will be planted out in a week or two and then it will be time to plant some early runners in pots. I hope to cut some asparagus this week and there is a great crop of purple sprouting broccoli. Rhubarb is very tender and quite sweet and plentiful and the recent rain has worked wonders on the spinach. All things therefore are looking very encouraging there which is more than I can say for my weight.