Sunday 24 February 2013

Sun rises

I had a week full of working on projects, so I was up at about 6 (hungover or not... #proud) everyday. 

There were a lot of beautiful sunrises, because it was a beautiful week of weather... of course it was; I had work to do.











Monday 18 February 2013

Giving up on Lent, and Deadlines

Little bit nervous about my review tomorrow, but never mind.

Gave up on 'No Processed Food' - It's so difficult. It's harder than giving up sugar last year, because at least then I could eat pasta, bread and cheese.

I procrastibaked on Friday (maybe?), and made a weird fruit cake. I substituted butter for a touch of oil, and switched sugar for honey. I also added sunflower seeds.

IT WAS SO GOOEY.

... verging on "I will never be cooked".

It was kind of like Soreen, in the way that it stuck to our teeth.

It didn't last long at all....

I particularly like the gesture of leaving a little tiny bit...

Housemate Points: 9/10 - very surprising
Presentation: 8/10 - very normal, nothing special
Yummy points: 9/10 - maybe more spice!

Saturday 16 February 2013

Woodland adventures

I have the luck to be able to walk a gorgeous dog every saturday. Today was sunny so I took a LOT of photos...



Garden is coming into bloom. Super happy!



Gem, the wonderful dog.





Wednesday 13 February 2013

Lent - Day One

Today is the first day, and I've put all my bread in the freezer.
There are a few things I am keeping that are processed - bacon, green tea, and oil. I think that this little list might grow and grow, but for now, it's veg, lean meat, milk, water.

Lunch today - stir fried carrot and leek, with pumpkin
seeds and raw almonds cooked in. On top of  baked potato.

Lent begins

We had a good pancake day in the house yesterday, but now its down to business.

This year I am giving up all processed foods. Which should be super good for me.

Sounds pretty simple, and I'm going to have to get creative to avoid missing out on my baking resolution, but I think I can make it. 

Some snaps of our pancakes last night:


Squiggley heart

Giant cupcake





Sunday 10 February 2013

Sussex for the Weekend

This weekend I went home. It has been very good, especially since I have horrid tonsillitis.
Also, it's raining. WAH.

The Friday night 6 hour journey was hideous,
 but the sunset over Dorset was pretty.


Piano Players in ST.Pancreas were delightful
Walk to the tiddley tiny Hatch pub with Sophie and the gang

Chai Tea with soppy

Jasmine's BEAUTIFUL Viennese swirls


Today I baked some chocolate orange cookies, which were definitely too crumbley for my liking, but everyone else seems to want more.

Chocolate Orange cookies baked today (sunday)

Apology cookies

On Tuesday night, I went out with my housemate. We were pretty loud when we returned in the wee hours of the morning. So I made some 'sorry for waking you up' treats.

Oatmeal and Raisin cookies.
Was still a little on the wrong side of tipsy, so it's a miracle that these came out ok. I used a Joy of Baking recipe, but deviated. A lot.

Crumbs stand as evidence that they are great warm
(there were two dozen)

Housemate Envy: 9/10 - a simple recipe that simultaneously helped hangovers and mended fences.
Presentation Points: 9/10 - I could have wrapped them up, or presented them on a nice stand, but they were too yummy to waste time doing that. They had a nice 'golden brown' going on, and soft in the middle.
Yummy Points: 8/10 - need more raisins and oil for a more gooey cookie. A real homely bake, that dangerously feels like it should be healthy. Maybe substitute sugar with apple puree? More dried fruit?


Tuesday 5 February 2013

Cabbage Rolls

Don't scream 'she's going vegan' so quick - these are bloody lush. And only 381 cals.

Basically it's a load of veg (mushrooms, spinach, kale) mixed with pollock and rice wrapped in steamed cabbage leaves. And of course, a yummy amount of soft goats cheese on top.

OM NOM NOM.





Hail and Easy-as-hell Porridge

Couldn't make it into the studio today - poorly girl!

So instead, I have been working on opera house plans in my room, serenaded by hail, and with some very yummy porridge!



Master planning with porridge. Life's pretty sweet.

Little recipe for the best porridge in the world! Totally work friendly. I often take this into the studio, because porridge is bloody great and this version only needs a kettle. I started doing this after looking at the Quaker instant porridges in sainsbury's. Not only is this version cheaper, it also is not wasting packaging either. Throwing one of those pots away each time is crazy lazy. Jars? ECO POINTS.

What you need to do:
  1. Find yourself a jar - mine is an old peanut butter one.
  2. Into the jar goes: half a cup of rolled oats, handful of dried fruit (raisins, craisins, dried pinapple - go crazy!!!), seeds, nuts, whatever you want really. I then put in 1 tsp of peanut butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Today's was raisins and peanut butter.
  3. Put the lid on
  4. Take it to work (don't forget a spoon), and wait for the distracting hunger pangs
  5. When you need a little foodie break, whack on the kettle, and pour boiling water into the jar.
  6. Pour enough in so that the water line is about 1 cm above the oatline. 
  7. Wait about 5 minutes until it looks like porridge. 
  8. Dig in, and witness your colleagues' envy.



Sunday 3 February 2013

Films, Rugby and Coffee cake

The last  couple of weeks have frightened me in how fast they go. It's crazy. 
On the 28th January, I filmed a music video of my talented friend Mary Jane. We visited different locations and filmed the same song over and over. I then edited it into a very raw-feeling video, where you can hear the changes in sound in each cut:


Please also see the write up on my architecture blog!


I also made a coffee cake on Friday. I used a hummingbird bakery recipe as the baseline. But I halved the quantities, added more coffee and a dozen toffees.  My idea with shape was to make a house... Not a great success.
Nevermind, it was great and we ate it with cups of tea whilst watching the rugby yesterday.

Housemate envy: 10/10 (it got rave reviews from all of them, plus guests we had back to watch the rugby.)
Presentation Points: 5/10 (very questionable, and not how I envisioned)
Yummy Points: 9/10 (I know this is my best coffee cake yet, but I felt the sponge could have been less dense. Buttercream was a dream -no recipe.)