...with Jennie, for a lecture on the Antikythera mechanism. Fascinating. Bizarre. Evidence of technological sophistication in Greece in the first century B.C on a level that would normally be associated with Western Europe, one and a half millenia later. The implications are vast, since it suggests a serious re-think about how technologically advanced society actually was in ancient Greece, and that preconceptions hitherto about relatively primitive living conditions at the time could be fundamentally wrong.
As I've discovered I have been in my disdain until now for microwave ovens as anything other than a means of re-heating cold coffee. They do have other uses. Like making Hollandaise in no time at all, for example - as explained in the '70's by Madame Benoit (who had actually been a pupil of Doctor Pomiane himself, in her salad days). And her method works! A third of a cup of butter microwaved for a minute, then two egg yolks, a little salt and a squeeze of lemon juice whisked in, the whole thing microwaved again for 25 seconds, re-whisked....and voila! And all made from scratch during the time the asparagus is already plated and waiting to be served...
Tonight's dinner:
Egg-white Cheese Soufflé (yes, the egg-white mountain is with us once again).
Pork cutlets with mustard butter; lentils with lemon and coriander.
Apples baked with amaretti and hazelnut syrup.