The cold chill has hit. I know this because the smart part of my brain tells me that when I see ice on the car wind-screen it is cold… unless you are at a party for crack loving car fiends, in which case it’s probably a heart warming sight. Also my nipples stand more erect then my willy can, and there is a tauntaun getting chased through my backyard by an ice monster. All things that make my brain tell me it is cold.

It is cold like the freezer section of your local supermarket. The place where the concept that these products had the potential to be good food goes to die. “Ready-to-eat” (loses all possible translation note should be included here) meals are packaged in their little cardboard and plastic coffins, set to rest in a sea of pre made hamburgers, stir fried sweet and sour pork and some thing which may have once been a distant relative of some kind of pasta.

Sometime my head wanders a little.

Sometimes when it’s cold and raining heaps outside, and it’s still pretty chilly inside, I just want to hide behind the warm blanket of the wafts and aromas of a good pot of slow cooked love.

I am very lucky that the same smart brains that notify my body that it is cold automatically switch my cooking neuron controls to cooking slow braised dishes, hearty soups and stews, and big ol’ pots of almost-tear-wrenching-memories-of-my-childhood. I say nothing. Winter is like an alarm clock for the slow cooking beast with-in. It’s not a literal beast with-in of course. No, no, no. If I thought for a second that a beast truly existed I would have worked out how to entice it out, kill it and eat it by now for sure. Mmmm, slow cooked beast with-in.

For the slow cooking you could invest in a slow cooker type thing from any good purveyor of these things, but for me I like to watch… and smell… and watch some more. A dirty little voyeur sitting in a darkened corner witnessing the food pornography going on around me. I love nothing more then being tied up and dished out a good ol’ slapping around the sensory perceptors with the smells and sounds and tastes of food. You should read a book about it. It’s HEAPS good.

Some recent slow cooking events for me have included (in no particular order… well actually, it’s the order they come off my phone so I would have to so they are in perfect chronological order… actually)

BRAISED LAMB NECK WITH RED WINE & CANNELLINI BEANS

12 HOUR PORK BELLY STUFFED WITH DELICIOUS THINGS

ROLLED BRISKET STUFFED WITH BACON, ONIONS, ANCHOVIES & CHARD

Go now child and cook things slowly. Rushin’ is for residents of Moscow…