Curry dinner

I thuoght I would cook a nice curry dinner on a work night as a treat.... I got a bit carried away!

I cooked: Tandoori style marinaded prawns and monkfish, Buttery lentils, Curried swiss chard with tomatoes and chappatis. I must say it was yum. The close-up photo you can see is of the swiss chard. It was really nice mixing an English veg with heavy spices and then lightening it all with a few chopped tinned tomatoes.I particularly liked the flat bread to dip and wrap the food in. Real hands on food. And since I got so carried away I managed to have another round for lunch the next day!

Rules that kids could do with learning

I read this on the TES website. How true!

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 (£40,000) a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters (or terms). You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

If you can read this - Thank a teacher!

Valentine cutie

Just a quick one as I feel really bad I haven’t done this before. What an amazing boyfriend I have – he sent these lovely roses to me at work on Valentine’s Day. Very cute!!!!

Random Sunday tea

Tonight we wanted some quick food as we’d spent quite a lot of time preparing a nice lunch for Mothers Day. So I picked out some bits we’d bought recently to see what we could create.
Yesterday I bought my first plantain after seeing a tv show where they’d been fried lightly in oil. I thought it sounded easy enough. When I went to the Caribbean food shop the owner advised me to buy a really black one as this would give a better flavour. I took her advice but was lucky that it was left alone long enough in my kitchen to be eaten – it was very nearly added straight to the compost heap! I discovered that plantains are very tasty. To finish off the fried plantain I added salt and chilli flakes. Delicious. I can only imagine how good it would taste with some spicy chicken or something.
Oddly our meal featured no meat and the only animal product was a small amount of butter used on the okra (ladies fingers). I am madly in love with okra this weekend. I had some yesterday deep fried with chilli, salt, mango powder and garam masala added. They were so good that I went back and bought some more today. I had read here about frying okra in butter. I actually dry fried the okra and then added a teaspoon of butter at the end with a pinch of salt. Oh my gosh it was tasty. I can’t wait to get my hands on some more okra!
The other thing we ate was a noodle dish with ginger, oyster sauce, swiss chard, bamboo shoots and spring onions. It was not my best effort though to be fair. Oh well, we live and learn. It got eaten so that’s the main thing.

Mystery vegetable

I always like to try new foods and today I bought this vegetable today in the Indian cash and carry in a nearby town. I have no idea what it is. The woman in the shop did tell me but I didn’t recognise the name and now I can’t remember even how the name sounded. She told me it’s very bitter but good for your health. She suggested frying it in a little oil and eating it with potatoes and garam masala added. Sounds yum! Any suggestions on what the vegetable might be will be gratefully received – I can’t find it in any of my ethnic cookbooks…

Temporary borrowed penis extension

Not literally since I'm a woman!
I'm not the kind of person who is overly interested in cars. Someone was talking to me about A3s and A4s and I thought they were on about sizes of paper which was really confusing! I now realise these are types of cars.
Now, a few days later, a coincidence has occured: bf has his very own Audi penis extension on loan from work! Even better: it's red! Could it be any more typical...
Having been on a short run in it I have to admit it goes quite fast. But speed, as any woman will tell you, isn't everything.

Creative blockage

For some time I have been trying to write a post on here but am experiencing some kind of creative blockage. I have been creating lots of nice food and reading creative magazines and yet I have made nothing over half term with scrapbooking supplies. It’s getting to be a tad frustrating. How to unblock the blockage?!