Stuffing external

From time to time I mention the making of stuffing, stuffing which we no longer use to stuff a chicken, preferring it cooked outside.

So yesterday was a day for stuffing, taken, inter alia, with chicken and a nice little Chablis.

The stuffing was varied by being made with my own brown bread, rather than the usual white, bought in. The result was satisfactory, good even, and the stuffing vanished in reasonably short order, but I think I still prefer the white bread version, despite needing to make a special purchase. For one, it has a better colour. Other variations on this occasion included mixing some rape seed oil in, rather than adding a little to the protective bacon, and some freshly pounded black pepper. (Pound until you can smell the stuff at twelve inches seems to work for me). Two eggs rather than one, so not a particularly slimming dish - but one which makes the chicken go a good deal further than it might otherwise.

On the last occasion, I had some fresh (Waitrose) sage left over, so I hung it up in the garage roof, not sure whether it would dry or rot - with some people drying the stuff in a low oven before putting it away. As luck would have it, I remembered about it yesterday morning and found where I had hung it. It had dried rather than rotted, but did not look very appetising and smelt of nothing at all, but once crumbled up (between the fingers) a strong smell of sage emerged. The stuff still worked.

Supplemented by some more leaves from the potted sage on the back patio, now looking much happier than it did a month ago, when I had been making threatening noises about retiring it in favour of a new model.