Jambalaya

THE wonderful Withers may only have been to Corsica, but he appears to be suffering from jetlag - or perhaps that should be beerlag.
After an entertaining, and rather extensive, boozeday Tuesday WWW weaved his way home, arriving back at his door at around 6.30pm.
Feeling not so much emotional but exceptionally tired he made straight for his bed, stripped off and snuggled up under the duvet.
After a deep, untroubled sleep he woke to take a squint at the clock - and was shocked to see that it had clicked over to eight. With light streaming through the curtains, panic set in when he realised he had fallen asleep without setting the alarm.
Racing to the bathroom he quickly ran a hot shower, jumped in and vigorously started to scrub away the alcohol fumes of the previous afternoon.
Then he looked at the 24-hour digital clock in the bathroom. It read 20.05. Our wonderful one had been sleeping for the princely sum of one and a half hours.

Meanwhile, I have finely committed the ultimate betrayal. Yesterday I dropped Boo off outside our mechanic's garage, and she no doubt thought she was going to get the car equivalent of a makeover. Far from it.
Inside, her traitorous owner was writing a cheque for £500 and obtaining a new log book and MOT certificate for the little white hatchback Corsa parked just 50 feet down the road from my faithful old Tipo.
I left the garage, having asked Charlie if he could rip out Boo's CD player and install it in my new car which, incidentally, doesn't leak and has electric windows that work. But as I passed Boo to walk the rest of the way home I couldn't resist but kiss my hand and touch her bonnet.
Judas.

Last night I was in little state to cook, but on Monday I made my own version of Jambalaya, which is, in fact, my paella but with plenty of chorizo sausage, onions and cajun spice (plus a couple of hot chillis)
What you need:
Half a chopped red onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 chopped red chillis
A handful of mushrooms
A lump of chorizo, chopped into bite-sized pieces
A sliced red pepper
3/4 pint of veggie stock
Two cups of basmati rice
a handful of capers, black olives.
A seafood medley of cooked prawns, mussels and squid rings (you can obtain from Sainsbury's)
Frozen peas

Fry up the onion, garlic, red pepper in olive oil. Add the chorizo and cook until the paprika starts oozing out.
Add the mushrooms and cook, then add the red pepper and cook for another 5 mins.
Wash the rice then add it to the pan and stir for a minute until it soaks up the juices.
Add enough stock to cover the rice and bring to the boil.
Then stir and add the capers and olives.
When the rice soaks up the stock add some more and turn down to a simmer.
Five minutes before the rice is done, add the cooked seafood and the frozen peas.
Keep cooking for five or more minutes until all the juice is soaked up.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top.