Food!

Well, there is obviously going to be something of a time delay getting pictures and blog entries up given that we should be out and experiencing Paris rather than sitting in front of a computer! Since I'm recovering from a late night and also reviewing the pictures anyway I thought I'd do a few posts.

And the first subject is FOOD! (yes, I'm feeling a bit hungry as I type this, must get a move on). Anyway, this is what we feasted on yesterday brunch time and it was delicious!

As well as capturing the food I was trying to show off with the new lens as well, it certainly does give nice clear and sharp pictures, hmmm looks good enough to eat (must get up soon, getting really hungry).

I'll leave you with a bit of a puzzle. Spoons in drinks, why (had several like this yesterday):

Frizzy Hair

My hair is causing some minor difficulties at the moment as it is, obviously, growing and getting quite long, though nowhere near the length that I want it to reach.

I wash it every day and I'm going through experiments with various products to see what will tame it to the point that it can at least be considered manageable and not just look like a rather over-grown birds nest.

This picture was taken at Yo Sushi in Manchester (more on that in another post) and it did actually feel like the hair was being relatively well-behaved and didn't look too mad. I quite like what I'm wearing so this post is essentially pure vanity!

Risotto with Pesto

Well, I wasn't convinced I'd done this right and I ended up with enough for a whole weeks worth of meals so at best I'd have to say it's a qualified success, or at least not an unqualified disaster.

Here's what I did:

• Put water + chicken stock cubes + olive oil into a pan and heat on low setting (3-4 out of 9 on my hob)
• Cut two cooking onions into small pieces and add to the stock
• After a few minutes when the stock is starting to heat add the rice - I used a pint glass full which was way way too much!
• Now panic that you've done this all the wrong way round and spend the next 10-15mins stiring rice+stock and adding more water
• As the rice nearly gets to the point of being cooked add 400g (two packets) of 'seafood selection' including the fluid in the packet
• Add small amount of cheddar cheese (strong), peppers (cut into small pieces), lots of black pepper
• Cook a little longer until the rice is done and then add about 150g of pesto (I had a jar of Sacla pesto), stir in thoroughly and allow to heat through - turn the hob off at this point if it's electric

Yes, it was all very random and completely down to luck that it was even barely edible and didn't all just stick to the pan (any offers of doing the washing up for me will be appreciatively received). I think the amount of black pepper (I put in loads of freshly ground black pepper) and the pesto (just enough, not too much) gave the risotto a nice warm/hot taste and interesting flavour. Probably won't get it right again ... which is fine as I have enough for about five more meals I think!

Sunday lunch ... on Wednesday

Away this weekend and just fancied a roast dinner for a change so had it tonight instead of on Sunday. Not conventional I know but it still tasted fab. And the smell was amazing - cooked the chicken with olive oil and black pepper coating it and half a garlic bulb inside. Potatoes and parsnips par boiled and with some oregano as well.

I actually really quite enjoy cooking and you shouldn't infer from this blog post that I'm new to it at all. Thankfully my Mum had my sister and I cooking tea as a way to earn extra pocket money and also passed all she knew about baking as well. Also credit to being at university for four years (you soon learn to cook when you have to) as well as B for some advanced cookery experience as well.

Now if only I had a dishwasher!

Busy week

As I mentioned before, I have had a very busy week since returning from the holidays and it's probably worth a quick mention of everything that I've been up to in order to catch up:

• Met up for shopping and cakes (well Tiramasu) with a fab person from blog-land
  
• Continued that night out by having a a few drinks on Canal Street as well!
• Met up with for lunch an ex-work colleague, followed by
  
• Meeting with an out placement service (help me with CV etc)
• Having my son stay for another night after we saw G-Force at the cinema (it's silly but entertaining if you like that kind of thing)
• Playing football (badly - and not just letting him win) with my son in this lovely weather - really tired me out!
  

All this was interspersed with general bits and pieces and obviously job hunting, sending CVs, and trying to sort my life out.

Saturday was a totally lazy day when I didn't get out of PJs until well into the afternoon - I think I needed that wind down time but I got bored towards the end which was why Sunday had a little bit more activity in it.

Cooking!

Quite hard to really capture the pie accurately, particularly without smell! There are a few thing that I can cook without a recipe and this is one of them. Actually to be more honest I cook practically everything without having to refer to a recipe which is probably why there is quite alot of variation in quality and taste and also why I stick to simple things!

Anyway I spent last night making the chicken, bacon, and leek pie but ran out of time for cooking it. So it went into the oven this evening and seems to have cooked quite nicely! Need to get some oven gloves I think because I was close to burning myself.

Might try and be a bit more adventurous with food in the future, watch this space!

In the meantime I'm off to bed for an early night!

"Made here!"

"Freshness", "Quality", "Choice" the video proclaims while showing things like

• Peppers being thrown into clear water
• Ham being sliced from a joint of meat
• Salads items (still glistening from a quick dip in the water) being tossed/chopped/prepared
• Posh jam tarlets being prepared and cooked
  
• etc ...

First off, I wish they'd give me the nice LCD monitors from the food court in T2 at Manchester airport, I can think of much more useful things to be doing with them than running this pretty amateur, and frankly pointless video!

Second, I'd like to know how where all the nice lettuce was when they made the rather costly Tuna baggette that I ate. Okay, we're not talking the manky brown lettuce here, but what I got certainly wasn't as as full of life as I'd hoped having being rammed into the tiny baggette to hide the pitiful amount of tuna!

"Quality" - interesting term that, will have to look it up but I'm sure I've seen a definition before where you can refer to anything having "quality" or "qualities", i.e. characteristics. So for the tuna, it had an almost non-existant quality about it!

"Choice" .... at this point I had to smile to myself. There is really little choice; there are no other eatery places around in T2 (well okay, WHSmiths have a few bits and pieces but not much - the one after security is good but the little one before is a bit limited) so you're kinda stuck with the "Food Village". The selection there is pretty limited as well - didn't see an awful lot of veggies (not that this bothers me) and the sandwiches were pretty uninspiring.

I mean, call be a snob (a fair accusation actually) but I'm kinda comparing to M&S here - now they have a pretty good "choice" in terms of food, even for a picky eater like me (can't stand cucumber, tomato, avacado or similar and I can *still* find nice things to eat).

So, in a literal sense, yes "choice", but not much.

But* that's okay really, it's what you expect from a UK airport, train station, or service station; low quality, limited choice, and astronomical prices. What's ironic is the little video campaign trying to convince you otherwise!

[ * So what's the actual problem with starting a sentence with "But"? Must look that up as well]