Week One - Korma

I've made New Year's Resolutions for many years. Nothing major and life changing. One year I vowed to be 'more high maintenance' in an attempt to be a bit more of a girl, put make up on every day, have regular haircuts, that kind of thing. Another year I decided not to put off things any more, mainly dull purchases of things that I needed but would rather not have to buy. Each one has worked out quite well, I wouldn't say I'm still a high-maintenance, well-groomed, perfectly-organised version of the person I once was, but I think it all rubs off on you a bit over the years.

And so, as I mentioned in my last post, we decided to cook a new recipe every week for the whole year.

Week One - (Not) Chicken Korma from Indian Food Made Easy by Anjum Anand

I made this recipe using Quorn pieces instead of chicken as we are veggies (the same weight of Quorn as she recommended chicken), and I added peas as we love them, but apart from that we followed the recipe to the letter.

It was a great meal. The korma was really delicate in flavour and the coconut tasted delicious with the spices. If I was going to do it again I would crush all the whole spices very slightly before I put them in again as I feel like the flavours didn't really infuse into the dish as much as they could have.

It was very straight forward though, really easy to make. The Quorn was marinaded beforehand and then as long as you have everything out and ready it is only a matter of minutes to have it bubbling away on the stove. Otherwise it would only have been a few more minutes to fish around in the cupboard - either way it is more of 'throw everything in' dish than a 'complicated cooking techniques' one.

The Boy and I are thinking we will do this again as the centre piece for a curry night, serving this with Daal and making our own naan bread.

You can see the recipe in full here.

New Year, New... Er...

And so it is 2011. Here we are. Another year is upon us. And what is this year going to bring? Well, goodness only knows!

I liked 2010, it was a good year but trying to look at the next one stretching out in front of me I seem to feel like it is just so full of potential and possibility that I could easily end up doing nothing with it at all.

I've not made any resolutions - well, one with The Boy to cook something new from a recipe every week but that's for fun, not self-improvement.

So this could be the year I do anything at all. Set up a new business, find a new job, a new home, move to another part of the country. Anything is possible and suddenly it's exciting all over again...

Posh afternoon tea by the sea...

Run dirty girl, run!

After having to pull out of the Windsor Half Marathon despite doing the training I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for another half marathon asap in order to keep my momentum going.

But the nights are drawing in, the weather is getting a bit wet and the excuses start to pile up. Do I want to go out for a run? It's so wet/dark/murky/cold/all of the above. Why don't I just stay indoors in the warm and curl up with a magazine/book/hot chocolate/chocolate/cake/all of the above (!!)?

The solution? Sign up for a half marathon where the dirt etc. is half the fun. And so, training began today for the Dirt Half Marathon in Leighton Buzzard at the end of November. I have my place, I have paid. I've checked the elevation of the course (slight hill between miles 6 and 8) and now all the reasons that were keeping me for running are reasons to be out. I have to train when it is horrid weather in order to be fully prepared for what is ahead.

I might yet regret this, but there is nothing quite like the buzz of coming in from a long wet cold run, so then again it might be just the boost that I need to keep the training up over the winter months.

Dirt Half Marathon

An ode to unwritten blog posts...

I realise that this title suggests that I might be about to write poetry - sorry, I'm afraid that I'm not. Given that my main thesis here is that sometimes time is against you I definitely don't have the time, or the creative inclination, to manage to make this scan or rhyme. Sorry. :)

However, this blog post is dedicated to all the blog posts that never quite get written. Whether you think of something and forget to scribble it down. Or write a title and never get round to filling out the body of the text. Or save a draft of something that just doesn't sound right and delete it. Or lose your train of thought half way through a sentence. Or for the mothers who blog you start to type and then... well, either they are in something they shouldn't be or they wake up!

So next time you think of something to blog and don't quite manage to post it, fear not. Remember that the times you do will mean even more as they shine with the creativity of all the others that could have been...

The perfect breakfast...

...French toast with fruit and maple syrup, as much toast as you can
slice and eat to toast on your own table in a Dualit and Monmouth
coffee... This is breakfast heaven!

Nostalgic morning snack...