17th April ~ Apple oatmeal cookies

So there is a definite pattern here: I always forget my blog day until RIGHT before I plan to go to bed. Last month it was St Patrick's day and I didn't even get myself to write anything.

Anyways, today I woke up earlier than usual and attempted to leave the flat early to avoid the painters. The painters have been arriving every morning the last week before 8:15am to fix up the flat and I just don't want to be stuck getting out of the shower when they arrive!

It was pouring rain this morning, so I grabbed my brolly and fast-walked to the station. Unfortunately my contract is ending on the 30th April and I am only two-weeks away from unemployment. I don't want to get into it right now (I just want to finish this post and go to bed) but I'm still planning what to do next. It's exciting to have a real reason to change things around, so I want to use this as an opportunity to move again and to get some field experience.

After work I came back to the flat and found that the painters had finally finished. Horray! My flatmates are also away, so I used the evening by playing music loudly as I reorganized my room and refilled my wardrobe, which I'd cleared for the painters to move furniture.

I ate a quick meal of leftovers from yesterday (spaghetti carbonara with zucchini) and then relaxed by baking cookies. The baking idea was last minute and I didn't have any chocolate chips, raisens, etc, so I decided to experiment with the two apples I had on hand.

Apple, Oatmeal, Cinnamon Cookies = delicious!
After some googling, I got this recipe from another blog http://www.mrsregueiro.com/2011/02/apple-cinnamon-oatmeal-cookies.html. While I usually can't resist chocolatey baked goods, I have to say that these were amazing and I'd make them again. And I definitely ate more than my share this evening.

17th February ~ Cooked nothing!

So it's 11:46pm on Friday night and I just barely remembered today is blog day! This entry will be brief however, because I have no food to report. Typical!

As I got to the office at 9am today, I began to rethink my arrival time. Really, maybe I'm spoilt for choice, but I may need to start going in for 9:30am - that extra half hour in bed would make a big difference and, let's face it, I'm just not much of a morning person.

While grouchily pondering the question of extra sleep, I made a cup of coffee and prepared for a 3 hour departmental meeting. As far as long-meetings go, this one was fairly interesting and I made many enthusiastic notes in my notepad.

At one, we all headed to the nearby pub for a departmental lunch.

The rest of the afternoon flew by and I was more than ready to head to the nearby pub (again! pathetic?) with some other friend/colleagues for a few drinks. I love that there are so many people from my organisation that do Friday drinks, but I found myself feeling torn about where to sit. Different sets of people chose to sit at separate tables and I found myself rotating around. If tables weren't so convenient, I'd much prefer we all stand and mingle. Alas.

After a few pints, a friend and I went off for dinner in Fulham, where we could really catch up.  It was a wonderful and relaxing night.

17th January ~ Risotto

First blog of the new year and I've already forgotten to write my blog on the correct date. So here is a quick catch up, just about a week late!

The 17th January was a Tuesday and happened to be my first week back in London, after having taken about 3 1/2 weeks of annual leave to go home to Washington D.C. / McLean over Christmas and New Years.

It felt so good to be back actually and I didn't even suffer from a hint of jet-lag (success!!).

My memory is a bit vague and I don't think anything particularly exciting happened that Tuesday the 17th... I went into the office for 9am and I had lunch in our office kitchen area with my friend/colleague Kathryn. I'm pretty sure I also had my new Kindle Fire with me - to read my current book The Paris Wife and to show it off a bit! Surprisingly, I really love this new Kindle.

That evening I stayed in the office pretty late to do some extra work I'm doing with the Policy Team and then basically ate and went to bed as soon as I got home.

Now, because I have zero photos to add from last week, I'm going to cheat by sharing a photo of the risotto I made tonight.

I've always shied away from risotto, but my friend Jasmine inspired me to learn how to cook it. After going to her house a few times this past fall and watching her whip up a delicious risotto recipe without hesitating, I decided that 'cooking risotto' would be my one goal for the Christmas break.

This one I put together as a variation off a recipe with pancetta that I cooked over the xmas break.

Red wine and mushroom risotto
1/2 pound mushrooms (chopped, but I quartered some to have bigger pieces too)
1/2 an onion, thinly sliced and diced
Glob of butter (okay...so my measurements aren't precise)
1 cup Arborio risotto
1 cup red wine
3 cups chicken/vege stock
Parsley
Parmesan cheese 

In a side pot, bring the chicken stock to a simmer.

Heat the butter in a large pot. Add the onions and chopped up mushrooms.  Cook the mushrooms and let the onions cook clear...Then add the risotto rice and stir with a wooden spoon. After about a minute, slowly stir in the red wine a little bit at a time. For the next 20 minutes or so, make sure to keep stirring the risotto and use a ladle to add a bit of stock at a time, which you will stir until absorbed and then add more.

At some point, I threw in some fresh parsley and at the very end I added in Parmesan cheese.

17 December 2011 ~ Asparagus Frittata

The 17th flew by and I didn't get a chance to write anything yesterday, so here is a quick catchup....

It was a seriously busy week filled with work deadlines, dinners, Dexter, drinks with friends and office Christmas events, so I really wanted to take a slow Saturday. I should also mention that I somehow managed to watch 20 episodes of the Danish tv series 'the Killing' this past week (in between work and my other plans) and it was definitely a contributor to my exhaustion! I realise I can get totally addicted to a TV series and people really shouldn't give me an entire DVD set at once because I'll watch late into the night.

Anyways, I woke up to a head ache and stayed in bed until 12pm on Saturday, only rising when I decided I was hungry. As always, I had very little in the fridge. The entire contents included: asparagus, eggs, Parmesan cheese, bread, raspberry jam and one can of beer. But this meant I could make an Asparagus Frittata!

The rest of the afternoon seemed to disappear as I tried to watch TV and then fell asleep on and off. I also briefly Skyped with my dad, who wanted to show me his new rendition of 'my guitar gently weeps'. I'm sure we'll be playing more guitar together soon when I get back for Christmas this coming Tuesday!

Then Saturday night I had a few plans and I managed to wake myself up again by playing some good music while getting ready to go out :)

First I met up with my friend Kara around 6pm to go to one of my favourite spots in London for a quiet evening in Soho. We split some wine and a cheese board while we caught up on each others lives, etc.

Then at 8pm, I left Kara to join my friend M's goodbye dinner. M is moving to start a new job in the US but I'm happy to know that I'll get to see her over this Christmas period, so it's not quite goodbye yet. Phew! Still, she got a few friends together at this tapas place, which also had a flamenco performance during the dinner. As the night went on I got more and more energy, until before I knew it Mara and I had decided to miss the last tube and go out dancing. After a long night of dancing, I finally got home just after 6am.

Which brings me to today and the reason I'm only writing this now.

Asparagus Fritiata
3 eggs
Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Garlic
Asparagus

The best thing about the Frittata is that you can do any variation on it that you crave - potato, red pepper, spinach, zucchini, etc. Just mix up the eggs with some grated parmasan. In a small pan, heat up the olive oil with a bit of garlic and the asparagus. When the asparagus is pretty much cooked (maybe about 3-4 minutes) you can pour the egg mixture around it.

The trickiest part to the frittata is flipping it over to cook both sides. I find it can be good to let it cook a bit more slowly and then only flip it once it's necessary to stop the bottom from getting overcooked. I also tend to flip the frittata onto another plate and then slide it into the pan again. This one flipped perfectly!

17th November 2011 ~ Anyone for a cuppa?

Good thing I've set a reoccurring phone alarm to remind me of this blog day. I received the reminder about 10:30pm (while still hanging out at my friend's house) and suddenly had to start brainstorming what I'd eaten today. How had I totally forgotten??

But really I didn't make anything myself today but a simple cup of tea, which I am currently drinking while writing this entry at home.

My day started with a handful of dry cereal, grabbed as I ran out the door to catch a train to work. Later I ate my trusty banana (hardly a day goes by without one!) and some store-bought lentil soup for lunch. After work, I went over to Jasmine's and Jon's to have dinner and continue watching Dexter. It's been weeks since we'd last watched and tonight Jasmine cooked this delicious risotto with chicken, asparagus, red pepper and pistachio nuts. If I'd been smart and remembered blog day, I would have tried to help cook more with her and taken a few photos...but instead I was super lazy and just chatted away and listened to music with Jon. Missed opportunity for you to see a yummy dinner photo!

Today has been pretty busy, which is how I prefer it to be. I had a few meetings throughout the day and I also got some really positive feedback on two projects I've been finishing up recently. During lunch, I attended a lunch info session and I also got involved in another project that is really relevant to what I want to be doing. Not feeling like getting into any details now though and it's time for me to go to bed anyway.

But here is a photo of my cuppa tea before bed. I really have gotten into Rooibos tea since some of my South African friends introduced it to me. No caffeine and it's really tasty. Now that it's getting cold and wintery, I tend to always have a cup of tea by my side.

17th October 2011 ~ Easy salmon for one

After a busy weekend spent in Leeds, I wasn't quite ready for Monday morning. Even though I love the organisation I work for and was feeling pretty inspired after a support event on Friday, today totally dragged and I couldn't wait for it to end.

Jasmine, Jon and I have started watching the 6th season of Dexter together and tonight we had planned to watch the two latest episodes, but Jasmine unfortunately has gotten caught by an autumn cold! Since she stayed home from work today, we figured it'd be best to postpone :(

It seems like everyone is getting sick lately and I've even started taking some multivitamins in order to ward off any germs. That, and my hand sanitizer for when I'm on the tube or train!! 

Anyways, now with a free evening, I grabbed a train back to my area to do some errands and then hit up Waitrose. It's my favorite grocery store here. Well, actually the Whole Foods on High Street Kensington is probably my favorite and is the best one - trust me because  I like to spend time wandering around grocery stores for fun - but Waitrose is consistently good and within 10 minutes of my flat! There I bought a few basics for my empty fridge and decided on salmon for dinner (again, this was me trying to be extra healthy to avoid getting sick and to get my Omega 3's!).

The end of my day consisted of cooking dinner, dabbling a bit on my guitar (my flatmate now has Bob Marley's Redemption Song in her head, whoops!), and then doing some job-searching while watching CSI. I hate job-hunting, but my contract ends the 31st December and it's time for me to start looking more seriously.

This salmon is really easy to do and actually it's basically cooked the same way that I do my easy baked lemon chicken! I put it with a wild rice and green beans. (Sorry about the crummy photo, but my camera battery died as I went to take the photo and I just used my blackberry's camera).

Easy Salmon
Salmon
Lemon
Olive oil
Oregano (or Rosemary, any seasoning etc)
Ground pepper

I started by putting the rice on to boil, since it takes the longest, and then moved on to the salmon. Rice is one of those things I have no confidence on; my family has always done' more pasta than rice and I've only started experimenting with it recently. Today I put some chicken stock in the water to give it more flavor and I think it was tasty! My aunt  does a similar style rice but adds lentils, chopped carrots, ginger and coriander to it and I think I'd try that next time to make it more interesting.

For the salmon, I just put it in a pan but wrapped loosely in silver foil. Before closing the foil like a package, I drizzled the fish with olive oil, seasoned it with ground pepper and oregano, and then crushed a garlic clove to tuck around it. Finally I squeezed half a lemon over the whole thing and chopped the rest of the lemon to put around it. Throw it in the oven for about 12-15 minutes, or so, at 180 F/350 C and then you are done!

I just boiled the green beans in some water for about 4 minutes, before straining

17th September 2011 ~ Not much in the fridge

What is better than a lazy Saturday?

After a busy work-week involving swing dancing, work drinks, theater (go check out the Southwark Playhouse to see Belle's Stratagem if you get a chance! it's a cool venue too) and then a great celebration for Kathryn's birthday last night, I was excited to have a slow morning today.

I had a really lovely catchup with my friend Michelle and then lounged in bed. I also finally got around to buying the new Fleet Foxes album.

Finally, this afternoon I met up with Jasmine because she offered me an extra free ticket to go watch the filming of the comedy 'Argumental' with Sean Lock at the BBC. I've finally gotten to the BBC HQ! I arrived without knowing much about the show, but it was really funny and now I know what it's like when filming live in the audience.

I got home about 9:30pm and grabbed a few things at the shop across the street, since my fridge was completely empty. Not even bread in the freezer! I've basically eaten pizza, sandwiches and chunky chips/fries throughout the week, so I grabbed a few salad things and hummus. Nothing exciting, but exactly what I was craving.