Baking is how I relax and I like to try different things, over the past couple of years Smitten Kitchen has been a huge source of cake inspiration. When I saw this, I had to try it.
I made it for Maxanne and Danielle when I went to meet Murphy for the first time (new parents always need cake). It was good, so I made it again last week! It’s a zero effort cake and the only problem I had was trying not to eat it all at once!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again..this boy is just lovely…
Even if I have to spend the afternoon chasing him around a park…and rescuing him from over friendly puppies..
I love being his aunt…
I’m not keen on mojitos, usually, but I saw this one on Eat, Live, Run, Jenna got it from here and I just loved the colour. I mentioned it to Matt & Michael, who tried it, tweaked it and presented me with this version. I don’t know how the original tasted was but I love this version. It strikes me that this would be fab at a summer party but it is quite strong. So if you are planning on having more than one, you might want to consider diluting with soda water or lemonade (if going the lemonade route omit the sugar) or use less rum!
What
3oz white rum
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons lime juice
10-12 mint leaves
4-5 oz watermelon juice
How
1. First make your juice. Puree some watermelon and strain through a sieve. (I used 120z of watermelon and got about 8oz of juice).
2. Muddle the mint, sugar and lime together.
3. Add the rum and watermelon juice. Stir.
3. Fill a tall glass with ice. Pour the cocktail in. Garnish with mint and lime.
4. Enjoy.
This week, as I was making faces about drinking the ‘orange’ flavoured fizzy CoQ10 tablet, godchild 2 asked “Why do you drink it if it tastes nasty?”
Good question. So I thought about the supplements that I take and for lack of anything else to write about today, thought I’d share what I take and why.
Multi-vitamin with probiotic
I know that my diet should be good enough that I don’t need to take a multi-vitamin. I also know that it probably isn’t, so just to be on the safe side, I take this….and it’s stripy, which for some reason makes me happy..
Joint care tablet
I have osteoarthritis in my feet, causing bunions and quite a bit of pain, and crunchy knees, caused by flat feet. When I was first told this, I asked my GP if there was anything I could do to slow/improve it etc. According to him, osteoarthritis can’t be improved by diet, losing weight helps (less stress on the joints) and some people have found that glucosamine helps, so I could try that but it probably wouldn’t help. I’ve been taking this tablet, which contains glucosamine, chondroitin, fish oil and ginger all of which are supposed to help with joint health. If I don’t take them for a couple of weeks, my toes start to hurt all the time, rather than when it’s going to rain or it cold, so I keep taking it…
CoQ10
I had heard about this but not taken it until last year, when I read an article about how it can reduce the intensity of a migraine. I get migraines and having done the trigger diary, I discovered that my seem to be triggered by hormones (I only have migraines in the last 2 weeks of my cycle). I try to make sure that I get regular sleep (it’s not enough to get 8 hours, you need to get 8 hours at the same time each day!) and I try not to eat too much junk or drink too much wine because all these things can contribute. I added the CoQ10 and sure enough the migraines are less severe, although having said that, I stopped taking the CoQ10 for a while and have just had a doozy of a migraine at the beginning of the week, which is why I was taking the nasty tasting drink and why godchild 2 asked the question!
That’s it. It’s not a huge list but it seems to work for me. Although it didn’t help me run any faster this morning or feel any less wrecked when it was over!! Anyone else take them? Any thoughts..
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor and I know very little, I have talked to my GP about what I take and he reckons that it might help but isn’t proven (and for all I know it may be a placebo effect, in which case that’s fine by me), but this is is no way encouraging you to take them.
My reading slowed right down in May due, I think, to a number of things. Not commuting anymore, that’s 2 hours a day I’m not reading when normally I would be. I’m training for the 10k, so am leaping out of bed to go and run rather than staying in bed and reading. Mostly though it’s applying for jobs, by the time I’ve filled out applications, amended my CV etc, I just don’t want to look at anymore print…
However, this is what I have read in May
34. Across the Universe – Beth Revis
I feel like I should have liked this more than I did. It could be that I’m just burnt out on the dystopian future but it felt like it was going through the motions and while I really wanted to care about the characters, I didn’t.
35. A Clash of Kings – George R. R. Martin
I am obsessed with these books, this is book 2 in the series and I’m trying not to burn through them too quickly, but dammit I need to know what happens next!
36. The Last Dragonslayer – Jasper Fforde
This is a children’s book by Jasper Fforde and I’ve yet to read one of his books that I didn’t ultimately enjoy. I liked it, the godchildren loved it…and spent a lot of time asking how things worked…
37. A Conspiracy of Kings – Megan Whalen Turner
I’ve loved all of the books in this series and although this was slightly different, I loved it too. I loved that you see Sophos, grow up and face up to both the reality of his situation and his character, he can’t escape his fate but he can change it slightly. I really can’t recommend the series enough. Please go and read them and if you don’t like them come back and tell me why! I would have read this in one sitting if I hadn’t have made the mistake of taking it to Suffolk with me, when I went up for the Grace weekend. People kept interrupting me as I read it (almost as if they expected me to be part of the community or something!).
38. The Changeover – Margaret Mahy
This is a re-read, I read it when I was at school and it’s one that stayed with me. It’s also comfort reading when I don’t want to engage in a new story. It still reads brilliantly, but feels slightly dated now, the references to cheques and so on.
Of the 39 books on the list at the beginning of the year, I’ve read 12, which is a really poor show, I’ll have to try and improve that in June!
Things in my kitchen that I love partly because I like bowls (it’s something I’ve clearly inherited from my mum as she does the same thing) and it’s about how we build our homes. Once you get past the things you have to have in a kitchen (kettle, toaster, cutlery etc) the things you have and you use start to tell a different story. These things aren’t really worth anything but they are in my kitchen for a reason that goes beyond the fact that I use them practically, they have stories and history.
The the wooden salad bowl..
This one is from Cote d’Ivoire, Jo and Lazare took me to Grand Bassam for the day and on the way we stopped to look at something, Jo then proceeded to barter for me because I really am far too English to barter, I just can’t, I get far too embarrassed..(at one point she made me get back in the car and started to drive away) finally they asked a price that Jo thought was right and I handed over the cash. Lazare was convinced that we were robbed but I love this bowl, more so I think because I brought it home in my suitcase..
This bowl/plate wasn’t a gift, I painted it…
I wanted something simple and plain and this seemed right, it’s great for eating pasta out of and I love that I had an idea and it worked (it makes me feel quite crafty!)
The blue salad bowl…
Way back in the dark ages when I left home, this was a gift from Stef. I use it a lot and it’s still in pretty good nick.
The little painted bowl was another gift from Jo.
I have no idea where it comes from, it could have been brought back from her travels, it could have come from a shop down the road, but it’s very pretty and I like it..
Lastly is the tiny bowl that came from the Chinese supermarket via Tina.
It was part of a set of 4 and I have no idea where the other 3 went, but I suspect they got smashed when I moved. Tina bought them because she liked the way the light shone through the sides, they are mass produced and you can probably buy loads of them in any Chinese supermarket, but that’s Tina’s gift, to see something worthwhile in everything. I also love that it’s the last of it’s set and I could replace them but this one is the only one in my house.
Bought these.
Drank this.
Made this.
And this.
Had lunch with them.
Met her.
I also got a haircut, spent time with my mum, started a new book.
Pretty good weekend..
I’ve been running quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. The Nike+ app tells me it’s been 46.76km since I started (except there have been 3 runs that didn’t get logged due to ‘spotty’ GPS, which is Nike speak for it’s raining and boy, did it rain today.
Anyway, the exercise has been happening, crunchy knee and all, my eating has been less that great. Nothing to worry about, probably more pasta than I would normally eat and less vegetables, but no weight loss.
Honestly, I’m not too bothered, the weight loss will happen but (as I’ve been saying for the last year) weight not important if I can fit into smaller jeans! That’s happening and so I feel I’m moving in the right direction.
What’s more important than weight loss is mood control. I know, have known for years now, that regular exercise keeps all my types of moodiness under control, mild depression*, PMT and stress levels rising due to my lack of job and worry about paying the rent. I know that the only reason I got through Stef dying and the subsequent emotional chaos and trauma, was ’cause I got off my bum and went to the gym and that not finding exercise that I could do that didn’t cost a fortune when I was unemployed in 2009, made that time much worse emotionally that it needed to be (and it was pretty sucky anyway!).
So the running thing, isn’t only to make sure that I’m faster than my mum in July’s 10k and it’s not entirely because I want to fit into my clothes better or even so that I can keep up with this guy.
They’re all great side effects. Running is worth it because it prevents me from sitting on the sofa weeping because life sucks, it keeps my in control of my emotions and temper when PMT hits, it ensures, that at this point of my life, I’m calm and centred enough to apply for jobs, knowing that they’d be lucky to have me.
That’s why it’s important to me and that’s why I have to do it….
*I’m not talking about hard core medical depression here, that’s serious and needs doctors, pills and maybe therapy. If you have this type of depression don’t bite my head off, I know that exercise on it’s own won’t help, but I am talking about me, not you!
I don’t buy bread. Actually not strictly true, I do buy bread, baguettes for putting cheese on when people come to dinner. What I don’t buy is everyday bread, you know the normal bread that people use to make sandwiches and toast with. Instead, I make it. Why? Because it tastes nicer (which is the best reason for doing anything) and because it gives me a sense of huge accomplishment for not very much work! All in all it takes about 20 minutes prep over a couple of hours, you do a bit, leave it alone, come back do a bit more, leave it again. Relaxed is the watchword. I don’t knead the dough by hand and I don’t have a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook (dammit), I use the dough hooks that came with my electric hand mixer and look like this…
I have done it by hand though and if you are going that route just remember to do so for 10 minutes and use extra flour to stop it sticking to your hands too much. (If you have never kneaded dough before have a look at this video.) Bread is quite forgiving, flour and water really do react differently depending on the weather..so if it doesn’t look right to you, add some more water or flour.
So this is how I do it and what I use…
What
8oz wholemeal bread flour
8oz plain flour (I don’t use bread flour, I probably should but I’m too lazy and too cheap!)
8oz (ish) of mixed seeds (I use Holland and Barrett’s Salad and Omega sprinkle but you can use whatever you fancy)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 fluid oz olive oil
10 fluid oz warm water
1 packet instant yeast
How
1) In a mixing bowl, mix flours, seeds, salt, sugar and yeast together.
2) Add your water and oil and mix for 5 minutes. (See note above about kneading)
It won’t look good. It will look nasty and gloopy, something like this..
…but have faith.
3) Cover it with a tea towel and leave it for an hour or so until it doubles in size. Go and watch a movie, wash your hair, whatever you fancy!
4) Don’t get too hung up about how long to leave it for, sometimes I leave it for 4 or 5 hours, sometimes less than an hour, when it looks something like this…
…….knock it back (punch it if you want!) and stick it in a bread tin.
5) Cover it with the tea towel and leave it for another hour or so. If you’re worried re-read step 4!
6) When it has risen above the lip of the tin and looks like this….
7) Bake at 200C for 20 to 30 minutes. If you’re not sure, if it doesn’t release from the tin, it’s probably not done. If you tap it on the bottom, when it sounds hollow, it’s done.
6) There you have it, bread. How easy was that?
Anne Shirley used to have ‘jonah days’, where nothing quite went right. I had one of those days yesterday. Allow me to list the ways that yesterday sucked..
1. I smashed my cafetiere before I made my coffee
2. I went for a run and the heavens opened…I tried to run through it but it was like taking a shower while I was running.
3. I gave up and walked/ran home, just as I got home the rain stopped
4. I dropped body lotion and the stuff went everywhere on the wooden floors. Fun to clean
5. I left the house for food, it rained buckets, I had an umbrella but it was pretty wet especially that given that the umbrella kept blowing inside out.
6. Unpacking the shopping a bag of flour disintegrated all over me and the kitchen floor.
7. During the thunder and hailstorm, I realised it was raining in my kitchen..
8. I went out to have the run I didn’t have this morning, slipped and fell on my arse.
Today will be better, I made bread last night!!
