Pillows of Joy

Dinner club: my turn. Wasn't as prepared as I could/should have been but not a bad job considering. To start I wanted to stuff the chillies my bro gave me from his plants at the weekend so I went a-searchin' on the net and found this baby. Sometimes you find good recipes in the most unlikely places, like tucked away on someone's blog. But... I forgot to take a picture of them. They looked like the pic on the recipe only jalapeno shaped/coloured.

I went out on a curiosity-fuelled limb for the main and made gnocchi. It#s true what they say-it's tricky. They were a bit misshapen but they were fluffy and creamy at the same time and I was pretty chuffed. I boiled them then tossed them with sauteed red onions, chestnut mushrooms, wilted spinach, gorgonzola and a smidge of creme fraiche, with grated nutmeg. Bang tidy:

Then served it up with a simple baby plum tomato, rocket and avocado salad.

While I was home at the weekend I also managed to blag a few Cox's from the garden and I thought these would go down a treat stewed with some pears from my garden and a bit of rosewater, all wrapped up in shortcrust with a dollop of that creme fraiche on the side. Turns out I was right.

End Of The Road

I'm off to this festival today! It's only a little 'un, but the line up is great and as I couldn't afford a ticket, I'm stewarding! I've never done this before so it will be an experience, I'm guessing a tiring one. Wish me luck!

Long time no blog

It's been a long time since I last posted and a lot has changed. I have moved into a new flat with my friend Hayley and her boyfriend, I have a new pair of skates, a new laptop and a new job!

Times haven't been the easiest lately but it's been "character building", as they say. This basically means"shit", but the kind that makes you stronger for doing it rather than just a waste of your life, like watching Friends for 2 hours.I won't go into detail, but focus on the good things to come out of it- my new flat is rockin' and I'm much happier there than in my previous house (shabby chic without the chic). Maybe I'll post some pics of my favourite bits sometime. I start my new job on 20th September, and although it's not doing something I'm massively passionate about it is in a university so the perks are great, it's close to where I live and a bit better paid, so I can't wait to start!

Derby is going so well, I'm now on the committee and it occupies a vast proportion of my thought space, and as such I'm going to start a new blog about it, thusly: Derby Diary. It's not up to much yet but I think this will end up being where most of my blogging gets done. I'll carry on updating this one with photos and recipes and other hobbies and musings, if I have time for any!

Squirmy

Roller derby is taking over my life- I've never found a sport I genuinely enjoyed this much before. My confidence on 8 wheels is growing session by session and there are three a week. I'm getting loads of exercise out of it too, which is a welcome byproduct. I find myself wishing away the days between training and daydreaming about the super shiny, super fast floor of our Sunday training hall. I got taken out by a girl on Friday and landed on her wheel. I can't help but feel a certain sense of pride every time I look at the huge bruise on my backside, and almost look forward to checking its colourful progress every morning.

I spotted an ad for a second hand pair of  Riedell entry level skates on facebook yesterday and have enquired about them as I can't afford a new pair at the moment. I'm checking for a reply nearly every five minutes. This is sickening!

But I love it...

Photos from the weekend

Spring again

Scratch that- I have taken a couple of pics, they just weren't on my own camera. Here's some cherry blossom at Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire.

Spring

It's definitely spring now, the last week or so has been beautiful. I've been out on my bike loads which is even better since I got my Dad to fix it- now I can use all the gears and don't have to stick to the top three! Hills were hard for a while...

I went to a session with another roller derby team last weekend and they were much more organised and seemed more like my kind of people. I've got a skate practice tonight at the outdoor velodrome, yipes! I'm not sure I'm ready for it but hell, I've got all sorts of pads and a helmet, what's the worst that can happen?

Haven't taken any pics for a while, maybe after I've checked out the velodrome situation I'll take some next week. I'm off to a wedding this weeknd at this beautiful house so I imagine some photo opportunities will pop up.

In the meantime I will be purchasing two vintage storage trunks to help hide all my mess tidy up all my stuff, and waiting for decor inspiration:

Slack

So I never got round to posting about Barcelona... suffice to say we had a great time and Gaudi is cool. Since then I have been busying myself with things like CV overhauls, job applications, Spanish exams and roller derby practice. I'm really enjoying it all but boy am I tired! I have two more Spanish lessons left this term, then the summer off. I can't wait. Then I need to get planning for our trip to Morocco!

And here they are...

Roller Derby!

A few local teams have been holding taster sessions so the other day me and a friend took ourselves off to have a go. After we had managed to stop ourselves running away in fear at the last minute, we had a right larf. It was really badly organised and we didn't get to skate for long due to the shortage in hire equipment but I've ordered my first pair of skates at the ripe old age of 25 and am heading to another team's session on Sunday! I have already bought some sparkly gold laces for my boots.

There can't be anything better than getting to dress up like a little emo in full war paint and a really short skirt then skating round a track where you're supposed to push people over, right? All that, and I get to use a scary name too! Watch out girls, Blunt Force Norma is coming to get you...

Once I have learnt to skate.

Swings and Roundabouts

Long time no type, old friend internet. I have been away on travels again, this time to Barcelona. Photos and musings to follow of course, but as usual life has been getting in the way of me telling you about it. Picking up some sort of lurgy while I was there didn't help.

Before I went away I had an interview for my line manager's job. I didn't get it. I didn't really want it. But now I don't really want to be here (want to be here even less?)!! The days go by slowly but thankfully this malaise has lead to a burst of enthusiasm for applying for other jobs. I could so easily get demotivated and apathetic, I am so lucky my mind doesn't work that way.

Onward!

I marvel that anyone has the time and motivation (and patience) for things like this, but glad that they do so that I can stare at them in wonderment. My favourites are 15, 24 and 38.

 http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/easter-eggs#slide_1

Los viajes

Next week I'm off to Barcelona for a few days with el chico and his fam. I've been studying Spanish for 2 years now (although I skipped a level as I wanted to learn faster and I'm arrogant- I have progressed very quickly but as a result my vocab has suffered) and the pressure is going to be on!

I have an iPod touch and look around for apps to help with Spanish occasionally but there never seem to be any particularly good ones- until now. I read about this one somewhere and can honestly say it's really good- it has an offline dictionary and phrasebook without taking up too much memory and has an awesome word game!

Ooooh I haven't posted for a wee while! Mostly because I haven't had anything to post about, but here is my own recipe for a pie I'm sure tasted yummy, because it all got eaten before I got any :(

As it's my own recipe, measurements are really just down to judgement/preference. This recipe makes a pie that fits a standard-looking pie dish (28cm ish?)

Ham and Mushroom Pie

Filling:

3 handfuls gammon/ham, cooked and diced (cured/smoked gammon gives more flavour)

10 medium sized mushrooms

couple of handfuls of peas

2-3 diced carrots

1 large/2 small onions, diced

knob of butter

1 tbsp plain flour

200-300ml milk

bay leaf

nutmeg

Worcestershire sauce

Pastry:

150g cold butter, cubed

300g plain flour

water

Method:

Sweat onions and carrots in a bit of oil or butter until soft. Add ham, mushrooms and peas and heat through. Melt knob of butter in a large saucepan and stir in tbsp flour to make a roux, then add milk slowly and stir until there are no lumps. Pop in the bay leaf, grated nutmeg, Worcestershire sauce and seasoning and bring to the boil to thicken (i.e. bechamel sauce). Stir in the ham and mushroom mixture and make sure everything is cooked. Add more cornflour (dissolved in a bit of water) if it's not thick enough. Transfer to pie dish and cool.

To make the pastry, put the butter and flour int a food processor. Whizz until breadcrumb-like txture is acheived then add water slowly until mixture comes together. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for min. 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to Gas 6-7ish, roll out the pastry and whack it on top of the pie. Then do pretty things with the pastry and give it an egg wash. I think it took about 40 mins in the oven, and it's a good idea to put the pie dish on a baking tray to catch any leaks!

Weekend creations

Hummingbird Bakery Peaches and Cream Cupcakes...

And the boy's Hummingbird Carrot Cake for Mother's Day (he's getting good at this, do I have competition on my hands?!)

Then on Tesday ight the girls came round so I put my game face on and made chicken liver pate (Leith's cookery bible) with "French rustic" bread (au breadmaker, of course) and roast pork belly with rosemary, thyme and cider with moonblush tomatoes and red onion gratin. You can just see the bread and gratin nestling under the daffodils...

Wasabi peas

Currently addicted to these. They have nothing to do with the wasabi plant, and aren't even flavoured with wasabi (apparently not much that says it is, actually is, due to it being rather expensive) but mustard and horseradish powder, but they're rather tasty.

Bare all

I've noticed that nudes have piqued my interest this season, and I'm not talking art gallery. I'm not a very girly girl and have never been interested in pink/beige/cream, but I keep finding myself looking at or lusting after nude shades. I bought a gorgeous pink/beige flowy top from Topshop (Limited Edition) a couple of weeks ago but had to eBay it as it is was way too big for me. Now I'm searching for something to fill the gap...

Latest loves

Yesterday I made this butternut squash and pear soup, it was pretty sweet but also had a good bite from the curry powder. Nice and simple too, I hate recipes with more than ten ingredients!

Having had chocolate chip success with Cat Can Cook's Awesome Banana Muffin Recipe I thought I'd try it with fudge pieces. They turned out darn tasty and very sticky, but when in the oven the fudge melted, boiled then exploded out of the muffins like lava leaving little holes in the tops! When baked as full size muffins in paper cases rather than in mini silicon cases there was less eruption of fudge lava, but I think I'll try toffee next time (but how to chop the toffee up small? Hmmm....)

In the world of clothes, it is now 6 days after payday and I haven't bought anything!! I'm frankly amazed, but the extra cash will come in very useful when I go to Barcelona in less than 5 weeks (I know, I can't wait). Some current favourites:

 

I have the tights in pink on grey and they look much better than these!

Sgwd Yr Eira

You won't have a clue how to say that, betcha. It means "fall of snow". We didn't manage the whole 10 mile waterfall walk in the end due to overindulgence in the picnic, but we did manage a couple of hours and a couple of waterfalls. I got some really good practice using different shutter speeds out of it, I think.

 

 

Political comment

The main message here is that really, on this blog, there won't be any. I have my views on politics and the economy, but I am not an expert in these subjects at the moment and therefore do not profess to know what I am talking about.

This post has been sparked by something you may have heard about - Robin Hood Tax. It is a simple idea and proposes to tax bankers a tiny percentage to raise money for use in charitable exploits in the rest of the world. Sounds good- of course it does- but I am clever enough to know that the complexities of the economic world will mean that it is just not that simple. This campaign will gather a lot of support from people who don't scratch the surface and think about how it will work and this is why it has 10 times as many supporters than opposers.

People need to ask more questions.