never in my life have i ever won an award for any sort of athletics. until now!
i , miss p, the canadian in england, kicked a football the fastest out of all the english teachers in my school! this includes the male p.e. teacher! 40 miles per hour. shock horror.
i am on a food roll!
160g pancetta, chopped (i used back bacon)
2 garlic cloves, minced
100g asparagus tips
225g linguine
1 lemon, juiced
olive oil
5-10 leaves basil, chopped
5-10 leave mint, chopped
fry pancetta in large pan with oilve oil until crisp, turn off heat.
blanche asparagus until tender, shock in cold water to stop from over cooking.
cook pasta.
reheat pancetta; fry garlic; add pasta and asparagus; toss with juice of the lemon, basil and mint.
serve, yum!
hear ye! hear ye! it's official....i'm moving home.
well....i'm coming home for longer than the 3/4 weeks i've been averaging over the last 5 years.
i'll be in victoria around august time (hopefully before my birthday, so clear your schedules for the chin dig) and i'll stay for the entire season of autumn. i'll then hop a plane back to londontown for new year's eve and be ready to teach my new class in january.
maybe i'll find myself a nice little job in a bookshop or maybe i'll live like a bum at my parent's abode. either way, it'll be nice to take a short break from teaching, the burnout is starting to take hold.
so that's the plan thus far. and of course, it is all subject to change without notice.
thank you for your attention.
(what the recipe called for)
100g smoked pancetta cut into pieces
200ml creme fresh
2 eggs
3tb parmesan freshly grated
250g dry tagliatelle
(what i used)
2 pieces back bacon
100ml double cream
1 egg
some freshly grated parmesan
some pasta shells
fry pancetta in a large pan until crisp and brown, turn off heat.
boil pasta until tender.
mix creme fresh, egg and parmesan.
reheat pancetta on high, add pasta and cream mixture, take off the heat immediately and stir through.
i think i kept mine on the heat a little too long and ended up with something that resembled a bacon and egg breakfast pasta. the aim is to slightly cook the egg, not scramble it. but maybe mine turned out that way because i used cream instead of creme. it doesn't really matter because it sure was yummy and shockingly easy.
look at my tomatos! they're so pretty and colourful. i apologise for the bad lighting of them. apparently english heriloom tomatos are in season, if i had a garden and had planted tomatos i'd be reaping what i sowed right now. but i don't have any garden to speak of, so luckily i got tomatos in my veg box. i just made a tomato/mozzarella/rocket/balsamic vinegar salad. yum! it went fantastically with my left over risotto.
yum! only make this when you have time to commit to the kitchen. these amounts are for 2-3 servings
1 medium butternut squash, cubed into edible pieces
1L vegetable stock (i'm not ashamed to say that mine came in cube form)
glug of olive oil
generous sprinkling of paprika
150g risotto (i've made up this amount according to calculations, use the amount you want to serve)
glass of white wine
optional
handful of grated parmesan
drizzle of double cream
boil the liter of stock and add cubed squash, cook 10 minutes or until squash is fork tender; turn off heat.
fry oil and paprika for a few seconds in a large saucepan on medium-high heat, add risotto, fry for a minute or so.
add enough wine to just cover risotto, stir continuously until wine has been almost completely absorbed.
add a ladle of stock to risotto, stir continuously until liquid is absorbed, repeat adding stock a ladle at a time for 15 minutes or until risotto is just tender.
add squash and another ladle of stock (if you have any left over), stir continuously for another 2 minutes or until all liquid is mostly absorbed.
serve onto plates, sprinkle with parmesan, drizzle with cream.
the parmesan and cream gave the risotto a 'macaroni and cheese' feel, which i enjoyed. but you could leave those out and it would still be a creamy and delicious dish.
i'll let you know tomorrow how the left-overs are.
i was just attempting a wee bit of spring cleaning -with procrastination.....2 blog entires in as many hours- and noticed something. while organising the cds scattered around my stereo, i saw the one cd that has stood the test of time. the one cd that has remained at the stereo's side when all others were put away on the shelf giving room to the next musical interest. the one cd that has firmly remained in constant rotation for a year.
faithless
no roots
a brilliant album. it's completely written in the key of C, so every track bleeds into one another creating a homogeneous record. it's beautiful to listen to. inspiring lyrics mixed with 
funky instrumental tidbits.
everyone should love a rapping buddhist and a fantastic, british, female dj. and for those of you who like dido, you should listen to her in her other context, a backing singer.
do you all know about wikipedia yet? it's a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
i enjoy perusing the daily articles, features, news and pictures on the main page. but it can also be a handy research tool.
did you want to know something about the dutch painter vermeer?
or maybe you want a little history about the place you live.
or maybe you need to know everything you can about soap bubbles.
wikipedia can be the place to look for all the things that make you go 'hmmmmmmm?'.
i used to mock the uk for being very behind the times when it came to environmental issues. but i've recently come to discover, it's not all bad here, the government is sometimes trying to be green.
the point of all this is that i'm having an issue with my recycling. my borough has only recently implimented a recycling plan.
gasp horror! only recently?!
yes, only recently. it's not the first area in the london sprawl made to recycle, but it's also not the last. the problem is that my recycling hasn't been picked up for a month. my block is no longer in the computer system. no one knows how it happened, and so of course no one knows what to do. i started to get into a flap over this but then noticed something yesterday morning. the recycling truck came down my street and i watched as everyone else's recycling got picked up. there was no sorting, there was no seperating, there was no distinction between rubbish and recycling. a large, pink rubbish lorry collects the recycling -from the hot pink recycling bag- and crushes it all together. how can that work? surely it's easier to seperate first, instead of picking bits of broken glass out of the cardboard.
then it all started coming together in my head. recently watched bbc documentaries came flooding back. rumours in the news flashed into my head. apparently, a british journalist travelled to china, sorted through the dumped recycling and retrieved a bank stamement from someone in yorkshire.
but then i read that china is buying the recycling as fast as it can. i just don't know what to think.
trying to live a greener lifestyle because i'm an evil petrol consumer, is not the easy way to go.
oh a happier note, i got a new mobile and know exactly what i'm going to do with my old one! i'm going to dedicate a tree.
i miss having an oven at my beck and call. tonight i had the enjoyment of cooking in someone else's flat. *three cheers for jonathan - robin's new beau - and his fancy pants kitchen with an oven and mini food processor*
stewed pears
one pear per person, quatered, cored and chopped chunky
1 or 2 c apple/pear juice (mine was infused with ginger-lemongrass tea - which probably didn't do anything but make it pink and pretty)
a long sploosh of white wine
a goodly dollop of honey
top with water until chopped pears are just covered
handful of hazle nuts, coasely chopped
dollop of creme fresh
heat in a medium pot, pears,juice, wine, water, honey, on the stove top, on slow simmer, until pears are tender.
strain pears and reduce simmering liquid by more than half.
at this point, you could eat the pears with the creme fresh and chopped hazlenuts which is yum; or you could now make this into a cobbler, which i really suggest you try.
cobbler
preheat oven to 400*F / 200*C / gas mark 6
1 stick of butter
1c flour
1c sugar
1c milk
melt butter in oven proof dish on stove top.
mix flour, sugar, milk into a batter.
add batter to melted butter, followed by pears and chopped hazlenuts.
bake for 30 minutes or until oozey, bubbly and brown.
serve hot with a dollop of creme fresh and some of the reduced simmering liquid
this was so fantastically simple to do! and so very, very yummy. i'm just glad i'm not the one who has to clean the baked-on, sticky, nasty, dish.
it's midnight on sunday and i've just gotten home from the pub.
but robyn! what about your strict sleep ethic on school nights?
i have no sleep ethic for 17 days as it's my easter/spring holiday!
spring is in the air, i'm sleeping with the window open without the fear of frostbite, i'm on holiday, i haven't killed my pea plant yet, and i've been gorging myself on british easter chocolate. life is nice.
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens
