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.

17th August 2011 ~ Ode to Porridge

My sister is here, my sister is here!

It's so exciting that she's come to visit me (it's only taken two years!) and I couldn't have been more excited to see her when she arrived yesterday morning. Julia is visiting for 8 days and I've made a big list of everything we need to do together and how to show her around London. This morning is day 2 of her visit and has been a busy and great day.

I left Julia in my flat early this morning when I went to work (I'm taking a long-weekend, but still mostly going to the office) and while it is difficult to be at work while she's here, I've had some interesting projects and have been busy. This was really Julia's first day in this time-zone, so she relaxed at my flat a bit and then came to lovely Vauxhall to meet me for lunch. We were both craving a curry,  so went to a nearby Indian restaurant with my friend/colleague Kathryn.

After eating until we were all incredibly full, Julia went off to the Tate Modern and South Bank...and Kathryn and I went back to the office. Luckily, the afternoon flew by; partially because I offered myself as a guinea pig to my co-worker who is training to do the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (MBTI). After taking a MBTI test and having a long meeting (it was actually quite fun), we established that I'm most likely a Extrovert Sensing Thinking Perceiving (ESTP) preference type of person. If you want more info, let me know :)

After work I ran to Saint Paul's to meet up with Julia again. Did I mention that I love having her visiting? It's amazing. We walked to Covent Garden, dodged the rain, did some excellent shoe shopping and then headed to Soho for dinner and drinks. As Julia will tell you - this was a big day of eating.

We went to Fernandez & Wells, which is a tiny little Spanish wine bar with cheese and salami plates. Next we wandered up Wardour Street to this random 'Interactive Japanese Fusion' restaurant (check the link http://www.inamo-restaurant.com) that had projectors over the tables that you could use to order your meal and other things. Julia and I enjoyed a few rounds of Battleship throughout the meal. So random, but also fun.

We've just got home and are having a quick cup of tea, writing this blog before the night of the 17th has passed, and then going to bed. 

To get my full day off to the right start, I had my favorite breakfast item: Porridge.

I love my morning porridge. It's warm, apparently is great for your heart and it has been one of my favorite breakfast items since moving here. You can also put so many good things into it! Banana, walnuts, dates, cinnamon, blueberries, hazelnuts, honey, etc...I almost always have a banana in mine and now I also can't seem to get through a single day without a banana either.  Some would say that I'm boringly consistent, but it just makes me so happy.

Today my porridge was with a sliced banana and raspberries, which I bought from my 'fruit man' who sells them in the train station. There is nothing better than being able to buy fresh seasonal fruit as you get off the train!

17th July 2011 ~ Spaghetti Carbonara

So here it goes - my first blog post ever! I haven't thought through exactly how I'm going about these blogs (and how much info anyone will want to read) but I am excited to give it a try....

This past week I've actually been really sick and have barely left the house at all (except for Wednesday when I tried going to work and only survived a very 'productive' morning of buying alcohol for the office anniversary party, ha).  I hated missing work and feeling so unreliable and even more than that I hated missing out on the other plans that I'd made for the week...office party, dinner plans, and especially Jasmine's roadtrip to Bath! (thanks Jasmine and Jon for offering to reschedule!). I usually like to think of myself as a 'Yes' person who makes plans and stays busy, but suddenly I became the couch/bed girl who slept all day and cancelled things.

But I'm feeling more myself today. Success! Although I did sleep until 3pm and I still haven't left the flat or my tissue box today...but really I'm ready to start a new week and get back to my life.

After my extensive 15 hour sleep, I just read my book and finally uploaded photos from my trip to Amsterdam that I took at the beginning of the month with Adelina. And then, I prepared dinner, which brings me to Spaghettti Carbonara: one of my favorite comfort foods and the first thing that I've been really craving after a long week of no taste-buds and chicken soup.

For me this is a really simple and extremely quick recipe, which is like breakfast in a pasta. And while I love pasta, breakfast is also my favorite meal of the day, so you can't go wrong with this!


Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Eggs
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Pancetta, chopped up or cubed
Garlic, chopped
Spaghetti
Ground pepper

While boiling the water and putting the spaghetti in the pot, you can crack a few eggs in a bowl and whisk in some fresh Parmesan cheese. I hate when restaurants serve a cream based Carbonara - it's just not how it's supposed to be - but adding lots of Parmesan (my favorite cheese) will give the egg a slightly creamier texture, without the cream - although a small splash of cream or milk can't hurt if you have it on hand. Put the egg to the side, then start cooking the pancetta in a pan, it'll take about 3 minutes to cook so put the garlic into the pan after a few minutes have passed. Burnt garlic is never a good thing! If the pan needs it, then add some olive oil for the garlic, but otherwise the pancetta may have enough fat in the pan already.

When the Spaghetti is al dente, quickly drain it and put it in the pan with the pancetta and pour the egg mixture right on top, so it cooks on the hot spaghetti. Quickly mix the egg through the spaghetti until it's cooked - but make sure it doesn't scramble. Only ten minutes of cooking/preparing and you're done! Top with extra Parmesan cheese and ground pepper.