If It Doesn't Have 8 Legs, Don't Eat It!

10:00
I'm not too horrified by the man who found, killed and then ate the six legged octopus, I'm more concerned that (from the little that I've read, not a serious journalist I don't feel the need to do deep research) he found it on a beach and decided it was still okay to eat. It's a bit like not-quite-dead road kill, surely?

My octopus is defrosting nicely on top of an ice pack in the kitchen and I'm looking forward to putting it in the oven - it will go in for about 2 hours, with 100ml of olive oil, at a temperature of 150'c (or whatever the oven decides it should heat to). I might add a few garlic cloves as well to see what happens. I really like roasted garlic, so slow roasted garlic might be equally nice; I may also be able to use it to flavour the garlic mayo to go with the octopus.

Husband#1 has just made pastrami sandwiches, which were quite delicious with a few pretzels, gherkins, tomatoes and (homegrown) cucumbers. Even Booboo ate hers, and really quickly.

Biggie has become a fussy eater. Everything she sees me cook, she looks at, turns up her nose and says "I don't like that" or "Oh, I don't really like rice with that." She has grown a massive hatred for cucumber - a vegetable she ate constantly before. And there isn't a fruit I can tempt her with apart from grapes. What is a Working Mum to do? In fairness to her, she is a big fan of baked beans, but the toast has to be on a side plate - as do any fishfingers - in case it goes soggy. Her saving grace is that she loves crab, smoked mackerel, white fish of any kind, prawns, whelks, lobster, fishfingers and is devastated that we're having octopus tonight without her. I've promised that the next octopus to be cooked Chez Working Mum will be for all four of us and with chips.

And Booboo has eaten as quickly as I've ever seen - polishing off her pastrami sandwiches without a word today (and the gherkins were gone in  seconds).

19:43
Since writing the above, the octopus has gone into the oven and has been in for about an hour. It is smelling delicious. Husband#1 (who from here-on-in has requested to be called Handsome Husband#1 - request denied) has just furnished me with a bowl of nuts - I can tell they won't be the first :-)

21:28
And the octopus has gone. Eaten in about five minutes, it was deliciously tender, chopped and sprinkled with a little cayenne pepper and went perfectly with the patatas bravas* and makeshift aioli really well. I squashed the roasted garlic (three whole cloves, not peeled) into the patatas bravas sauce, BTW. Even Biggie managed her first try of octopus as she came out and attempted (even though Booboo was actually asleep, unknown before 11pm at the caravan!) to get into our bed. We got her back to the own with half a tentacle and didn't she just love it. Tomatoes? Yuk. Cucumber? Bleurgh, Octopus? More please.

And that goes for us all!

*Patatas bravas recipe from the Guardian online - third or fourth search result down, How To Make Perfect Patatas Bravas - the one I use is the ultimate recipe and I usually go with the homemade Aioli as well.