Chilli Chocolate Brownies & Cookbook Giveaway

You’ll all start thinking I’m some sort of domestic goddess if I keep blogging about baking. If you are beginning to have thoughts of this persuasion, please rest assured that I am just greedy.

In anticipation of that most controversial of days, Valentine’s Day, I have made some chilli chocolate brownies. I think they’re a little bit more grown up than your average sickly sweet chocolate treat, and perhaps they represent how we should all approach this lover’s holiday: with a little bit of an edge to temper the sweetness. Chilli and chocolate is one of those flavour combinations that is always going to scare some people away, but it works really well here. Then again, what do I know, I have happily eaten Marmite chocolate in the past.

If you would like to bake these too – and I really think you should – here’s how.

You’ll need 150g softened butter, 150g plain chocolate, 150g chilli chocolate, 175g sugar, 3 eggs, 75g plain flour, half a red chilli, and 75g almonds.

Heat your oven to 170C, and grease and line a tin. First of all you need to melt 100g of the plain chocolate and 150g of the chilli chocolate, along with the butter, in a bowl over a pan of water. Once it has melted, leave it to cool for a moment, then beat in the sugar. Add your eggs one at a time, then sift in the flour. Once everything is combined, stir through the remaining 50g of plain chocolate, almonds and red chilli. Pour the mixture into your lined tin and bake for around 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. A good trick with brownies is to shake the tin – if the mixture wobbles, put them back in the oven. If there’s the tiniest of ripples in the middle of the tin, you can take them out and leave them to set for really gooey brownies, or if you prefer them more cake-like leave them until the mixture doesn’t move at all.

For more baking ideas, try some firm favourite cupcakes, or go for something different this Pancake Day.

I decorated a few with some tacky icing sugar hearts, and stashed them away to give to my boyfriend. The rest I cut into smaller pieces so that I can share them with whatever hungry people happen to stop by (and eat them myself, of course).

Now for what you’ve all been waiting for – the free stuff. I have two lovely cookbooks to give away to one lucky UK based reader: The Big Book of Bread, and British Baking in 2012. (Trust me, the recipes will be just as delicious in 2013.) To win, all I want you to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what you would choose to bake for Valentine’s Day, and leave your email address so I can contact the winner. Entries close on the 13th February.

This post was created in cooperation with Baking Mad. All words, pictures and opinions my own. The recipe is recreated in my own words but comes from the website. I had to make a few small changes to the original recipe due to availability of ingredients. For more Valentine’s Day baking ideas click here.

February 1, 2013
by Emily 8 Comments

January

January has been quite a boring month. In fairness, I don’t very much mind starting the year with a month where nothing really happens, because it means I can only hope the coming months will hold a bit more excitement. If January had been too good, I’d be worrying that the other eleven won’t match up. (Or at least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.)

It snowed, it rained, it froze, it flooded, and all the rest. I’ve started my ‘2013’ album on Facebook (I upload so few pictures to Facebook I only need one album per year) and all that’s in it s far is pictures of snow and frozen things. As I said, not the most exciting month.

You might think that with the terrible weather and the not-leaving-the-house, I would have read millions of books. I would have thought the same, if I’m honest, but somehow I did not. I read two books. Three if you want to count the fact that I listened to an audiobook of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. One of those books was Warm Bodies which was supremely awful. The other was The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared, which I actually loved, even if it was unexpectedly long. I did write a couple of book reviews at Judging Covers, though.

In terms of work and education and all that self betterment, I’ve been working on a freelance project that I feel very good about (but don’t want to go into detail about on here), and I have signed up for some courses on Coursera. If you’ve never heard of Coursera, go have a look! I can’t vouch for any of it being useful in ~the real world~ but learning is fun and free learning is fantastic.

So, even though I have next to nothing to say about the month just gone, there it is. How did your January go?

January 1, 2013
by Emily 1 Comment

2012 in Pictures

I did this last year and enjoyed it, so here I go again with some narcissistic pictures of myself over the past year. 2012 was a lovely year: I spent time with amazing people (though sadly didn’t see nearly enough of some other amazing people), learnt new things, ate and drank and saw awesome things, travelled, and generally just had an ace time. I hope 2013 can be just as smiley, silly, friendly and filled with cake and beer.

I attempted to follow some sort of pattern, either chronologically or according to theme, but they’ve ended up as a massive disjointed jumble. The pictures were taken in Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, and of course my homeland. They were taken in cafes, at parties in disused factories, on trains, in art galleries, in bars, on walks, at Christmas markets, and simply on the street. They show me, my boyfriend, a small selection of my lovely friends, and all sorts of other bits and pieces that make me happy. Happy new year everyone! I hope 2013 is good to you.

December 12, 2012
by Emily 2 Comments

Is Quality Better Than Quantity When It Comes To Clothes?

I have a wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a stand-alone rail and a number of plastic bags filled to bursting with clothes. Clothes of varying quality, but most of them languishing quite near the bottom of the sartorial hierarchy. Just a few years ago this wouldn’t have struck me as anything even vaguely resembling a problem. What’s wrong with having loads of clothes? What’s wrong with everything being cheap, mass produced, and shoddily made? As long as it’s fun and didn’t cost the earth, I want it all and I want it right now.

I’ve always been keen on second hand clothes shopping. Yet, it’s only ever been as a way of supplementing the clothes I bought from Primark, New Look, H&M and so on, or as just another way of procuring more clothes which I would never wear and would take up valuable space. There was no epiphany. I’m not sure when I stopped buying so many clothes, and I don’t know when I realised that I was buying less clothes. Now I have come to a point where I am making an effort to follow the little motto I keep reading everywhere:

Buy less, buy better

(I have to admit that this phrase annoys me as much as it interests me. It seems similar to everyone going mad and writing ‘keep calm and carry on’ on everything without really understanding or agreeing with the sentiment. So that may hopefully be the last time I write that precise phrase.)

This is a concept that was genuinely alien to me up until maybe a year ago. Why would I buy one thing when I could buy lots of things? Why would I not buy a dress that was £1.50, regardless of how it fit or what the material was like? It’s still not something I can entirely grasp, as I am stingy at heart and would always rather buy the £19 jeans and worry about replacing them in a few months time than buy the £70 jeans in the hope that they will last a few years. Spending money – large amounts of money – on clothes is not something I am fond of doing, and I get a huge amount of pleasure from ‘nabbing a bargain’, to co-opt tacky magazine speak.

During a moment of madness the other day, I went through my wardrobe and stuffed a variety of things into plastic bags. Things that are too small, too big, unflattering, plain horrible. Things that I bought because they were ‘fun’ and have never worn, and things I wore for a month straight when I was 17 and have never touched since. Into a bag went all these things, and from there they went to the Sue Ryder Care charity shop. I went in with a bag of stuff that I didn’t want and didn’t wear, and then I ended up leaving with a cardigan. Just one cardigan, that appears to be well made, in a classic print, and a flattering versatile shape. I didn’t leave with a polka dot blouse that was a size too small, or a pair of jeans that were too short. Just one item, because I really liked it and knew I would wear it.

It’s a work in progress, of course, and I’m not likely to give up shopping or frivolous things any time soon. I guess my mission at the moment is to make my wardrobe one defined by quality (a subjective term here) rather than quantity.

November 19, 2012
by Emily 4 Comments

Last Chance

Believe it or not, I am actually working on two proper posts with actual content and they might even be funny or interesting or intellectual or something like that. (‘Might’ being the operative word there.) But while those fester in the drafts waiting for me to either finish them or give up on them, here is a survey that I spotted today.

Last food you ate….

Just this minute I finished consuming a packet of salted peanuts. What I really wanted was salted cashews or almonds, but the cheapskate within won when I realised that the peanuts were 35 cents as opposed to €2.50. I’m planning on cooking some actual food quite shortly, however. (By that I mean eggs and bread.)

Last beverage you drank….

Strawberry herbal tea. Before that it was strawberry and rhubarb tea. Before that it was peppermint tea, and before that it was green tea. Now I’m considering some chamomile tea. Mmm, tea.

Last workout….

Does running through Budapest to catch a train count as a workout? If so, that would be yesterday evening. After my friend Hannah and I had miraculously boarded the train and were wandering through the carriages trying to find seats, a man moving through the carriage in the opposite direction remarked ‘What happened to you?!’ Running in winter layers is not ideal.

Last thing you pinned….

Nothing, I gave up on Pinterest not long after I started. It was a really boring waste of my time, and given that there are so many things I could be doing that are either an interesting waste of my time or just, you know, productive, I deleted it and never looked back.

Last place you visited….

Budapest! I would quite like to go back and just hang out at the Szechenyi baths forevermore.

Last show you watched…

Last night I watched Fresh Meat, and I’m just getting ready to watch Misfits. I’m all about young British comedy at the moment, apparently.

Last thing you baked….

I don’t even remember. I’ve been oven-less for 3 months. Maybe it was this cake? Otherwise, it may have just been a Sunday afternoon batch of scones for my cheese scone obsessed father. I’m quite looking forward to baking something. What should I bake when I regain the use of an oven? What’s new in the world of baking?

Last item on your to-do list today…

‘Serbia-EU questions’. The to-do list is my hand, and that is scrawled across the back of it. That’s how classy and organised I am.

July 20, 2012
by Emily 7 Comments

Blogs that are better than mine

I appear to have fallen out of step with this whole ‘writing blog posts’ business. I promise to produce some actual content soon – I say this as though you are all waiting around with bated breath – but until then, here’s a little round up of some of my favourite blogs and what they’ve been writing.

Sophie went to Paris and I am so jealous
Amber went on holiday, looked amazing, was hilarious
Danielle also went to Paris – albeit four years ago, but still. Get you, you jetsetting ladies
Lizzy recently started a new blog which is just lovely
Emily writes about delicious lazy dinners
Sara went to Meat Liquor and it sounds awesome (she also writes about vegan and vegetarian food)
Mona can advise you on how to have a super-duper cheap French holiday
Maria wore some floral Doc Marten brogues and looked lovely

So there’s your weekend reading. Enjoy!

June 14, 2012
by Emily 14 Comments

I’m a Professional, You Know

You may have noticed that I have acquired a .com. Which means that I am now a professional blogger.

No, it doesn’t really. I don’t make any money off this. I don’t even get all the free things that some bloggers do. I’m doing this out of love, people. Well, love and vanity and a compulsive need to write. They’re all good things.

Now I’m even more professional, as these business cards have landed at my door. They do not say ‘blogger’ on them because, as I say, this is not my job and not a form of income for me. I’m still not even sure that my blog address should be on a card that I plan on giving to potential employers and professional contacts. Will they think I’m just some silly girl writing a diary and expecting people to care?

What I’m hoping is that my blog will show that I have a passion for writing, as well as an understanding of and interest in social media and online communications. I’m hoping that it will fill in some of the blanks on my CV, and that it will explain that I have not been sitting around being lazy for the year since I graduated. It should show that I’ve been writing, reading and learning. I’ve been volunteering and working. I’ve been writing for money and writing for no money. I’ve been writing for local websites and national websites and international websites, and I’ve been writing for my own little website. I’ve been working in social media, in PR and communications. I’ve also been doing my fair share of non-work related things, like falling in love with Italy and then cheating on Italy with Prague.

If this blog is going to put somebody off employing me, or working with me, then that’s a real shame. I have a lot to offer. I’m smart and I’m hardworking and I’m enthusiastic and ambitious.

This blog is not my job, and I don’t want it to be. Nobody is expected to pay me for writing about my life, about the fun things I do, and the things that anger me. But you could pay me to do some freelance (or in-house) writing. You could pay me to help you with your PR & communications. I’ve been looking after the online PR for my parent’s business for around a year now. Earlier this year I worked with a small charity for a month in order to help improve their social media presence. I help with the communications and content writing for a National Trust property, as well as for a local community project.

I’m pretty good at it all, too.

(I promise to resume normal posting now that I’m done with this shameless and sickening bragging and own-horn-tooting. As you were.)

May 21, 2012
by Emily 5 Comments

Book Q&A

So, the rules of this Q&A:

1. Post these rules

2. Post a photo of your favourite book cover

3. Answer the questions below

4. Tag a few people to answer them too

5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you’ve tagged them

6. Make sure you tell the person who tagged you that you’ve taken part!

I love the whole set of these Haruki Murakami book covers. They’re very clean and sleek and very eye-catching when you’re browsing in a bookshop.

I was tagged by Louise (the book) and Claire (That In Black Ink) – thank you both! I tag Sophie (Love, Live & Learn), Allie (Forgotten Beast), Mara Eccentric Owl) and Mackenzie (whatever, gatsby). I would tag Danielle (The Oxford Comma) but I think Claire tagged her so that would be redundant. (Just as redundant as me pointing that out. Hm.) And everyone else reading this right now. (That means you.)

What are you reading right now?

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, along with a non-fiction book about the August riots and two short story collections.

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?

I might read Chocky by John Wyndham. Or I might not. Once I choose a book to read next my brain sometimes goes ‘No! That is the last thing I want to read!’

What 5 books have you always wanted to read but haven’t got round to?

Almost every classic novel falls under this heading – despite always being a bookworm and spending years studying English, my interest for contemporary fiction has always trumped my interest for classics. But I feel like I ought to read them all. I won’t bother listing them, so here are five contemporary novels I have wanted to read for a long time.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale, If Nobody Spoke of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor and The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

What magazines do you have in your bathroom/lounge right now?

None. I’ve pretty much given up reading all magazines except the ones that come with the paper. When I imagine my dream house, I must admit that I picture a huge stack of glossy mags on the coffee table. Magazines might just have to stop being so shit before this happens, though.

What’s the worst book you’ve ever read?

I don’t know about the worst, but I only got through about one chapter of Beauty Story by Luke Jennings before I had to throw it at the wall and leave it there.

What book seems really popular but you actually hated?

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Hate might be too strong a word, but I definitely did not love it as much as everybody else seemed to. So much of it seemed to me like irrelevant rambling, and it just never quite made me feel how I thought it was supposed to make me feel. The idea of it is great (well, not great, you know what I mean) and some parts were fascinating and moving, but in the end I just felt completely let down.

What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?

I recommend Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell to pretty much everybody I know, and nobody has managed to read it yet. This won’t stop me.

What are your 3 favourite poems?

Poetry tends to leave me quite cold. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to admit that, as an English graduate, but most of it just passes me by.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I decided that if I was ever going to get through this so-called poem without going insane, I would have to learn to enjoy it. So I did, and thankfully avoided insanity.

Strange Meeting by Wilfred Owen

I fell head over heels in love with war poetry and literature when I studied it for an A-Level module, and this one poem stuck with me. I really enjoy the half rhyme – it looks a bit stilted when you read it in your head, but try reading it out loud and you might appreciate it more. Also, ‘The pity of war, the pity war distilled.’

The Tyger by William Blake

Sentimental childhood memories.

Where do you usually get your books?

Charity shops, Amazon, Waterstones or Tesco when they’re on offer, Kindle.

Where do you usually read your books?

Absolutely anywhere. I’m that sort of rude person who has been known to sit with a group of friends and announce ‘I’m sorry but I just have to finish this chapter’ and whip a book out from my bag. I rarely take public transport anymore but it’s the perfect place to read. Mostly I read at work while it’s quiet and in bed before I go to sleep. In my dream house (let’s see how many times I can mention my hypothetical abode in a post that has nothing to do with living quarters) I would like to have some sort of reading room, or at least a specific area in which I can read.

When you were little, did you have any particular reading habits?

I read everything. I would read the manual for the microwave if I couldn’t find anything else.

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

This happens more often than it should. The last one was What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn. In fact, 8 out of the 14 books I’ve read this year have had this effect on me. (Unfortunately Never Let Me Go is not keeping me up at night. I’m enjoying it, but it’s a slow burn, which is disappointing as I’ve heard other people say that they devoured it in one sitting.)

Have you ever “faked” reading a book?

I studied English – of course I faked reading books. I only skim-read Cold Mountain during my A-Levels and I got 98/100 on the exam. Because I’m just that good. I tried my best to read The Heavenly Twins by Sarah Grand but I ended up not having enough time to read that beast of a novel. (I really enjoyed the parts of it that I did read!)

Have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover?

Not for the cover alone, but obviously a snazzy cover will draw me to the book in the first place. I think this is actually one of the good things about the Kindle – I can no longer judge a book by its cover.

What was your favourite book when you were a child?

The best book series I read when I was younger was certainly not Harry Potter, it was the Whitby Witches trilogy. I sometimes wonder what the world would be like if they had become hugely famous instead. (I genuinely do.)

What book changed your life?

Maybe I’m not old enough yet, or haven’t read enough books, but I do not think a book has yet changed my life in any significant measurable way. Because I’m a bit of a drama queen I think almost every half decent book I read has blown my mind but really, no life-changing has occurred. Sorry, crap answer!

What is your favourite passage from a book?

I can’t think of an all time favourite. I’ve mentioned on the blog before that I found Cool Hand Luke surprisingly poignant and touching, so here’s my favourite passage from it.

“And I knew that it wasn’t over yet, for any of us. There was still more hope and disappointment way out there in the Free World, where the traffic still swished and roared along restless highways. There was more battle to be given and lost, rewards to be sought and forsaken, more loves to be wooed and unrequited.”

Who are your top five favourite authors?

David Mitchell, Margaret Atwood, Haruki Murakami. I can’t think of another two that I would call favourites.

What book has no one heard about but should read?

Ark Baby by Liz Jensen. It’s been years since I’ve read it but I remember that it was hilarious and bizarre. I don’t think I’ve met anyone else who has read it!

What 3 books are you an “evangelist” for?

The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell, the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker, and South Riding by Winifred Holtby.

What are your favourite books by a first-time author?

It might not be my favourite but I loved The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and thought it was seriously impressive for a debut novel.

What is your favourite classic book?

I’ve been using my Goodreads shelves as reference during this survey and it just occurred to me that there are no classics on my ‘favourites’ shelf. Unless South Riding counts? I also loved The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

5 other notable mentions?

I don’t know if this means classics, or what. But I’ll just list 5 of my favourite books.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch, The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and The Flood by David Maine.

If you want to buy any of the books I mentioned in this post, have a look at my Amazon store! Any books you buy through my store may earn me a little bit of commission, but will cost you no more than if you bought them straight from amazon. Any commission I earn I will use to buy books which I will then review on the blog – it’s a win/win situation!

February 8, 2012
by Emily 13 Comments

11 Things

The beautiful Sophie asked me to do this 11 things survey. (I initially typed her blog address as loveliverandlearn. I do quite like liver, but I don’t think that title would be quite as catchy.)

Survey rules (OK!)

#1: You must post these rules.
#2: Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.
#3: Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.

1. I am incredibly bad at talking about myself in a specific sense. I’m great at talking about things I did and people I know, but you know that weird moment when you’re with a group of people and somebody decides that it would be so much fun if you went round the circle and everyone said their name and something interesting about themselves? I clam up. All of a sudden I am not sure that there is one interesting thing about me. I have a trick up my sleeve, though, which is…

2. I live in Wensleydale! Trust me, people find this more interesting than you might expect. In my first year of university I thought it was amazing information that everyone needed to know, and so I told everyone I met. ‘HEY GUYS! GUESS WHERE I’M FROM?!’ Everyone was all ‘where the cheese is from? Wow!’ and eventually I realised that my place of residence was not a conversation starter. I stopped announcing it with such excessive bravado and behaved like a (semi) normal person. Then, when people asked me where I was from (all conversations at uni consist of your name, where you live at uni, what course you do, and where you’re from – true facts) I would quietly and calmly say, ‘Oh, I’m from Wensleydale’ and try to move on. And guess what? People, albeit drunk people, would still say, ‘Oh my god, like where the cheese is made? That’s like so totally awesome!’ (Did you know I went to uni in an American teen drama? Like, totally!) So now I ham it up. I’m from Wallace and Gromit land. Represent.

3. I also live in a pub. As in, my parents own it and they, my sister and I live in it. My older sister lived in it too before she flew the nest. This is a fact that some people will probably say I talk about far too much, yet there are people who have known me for 3+ years who have no idea about it.

4. I have serious hoarding tendencies, which I believe I have inherited from my father. It pains me to throw out magazines from a year ago that I’m never going to read again. The thing I hoard the most? Cards. As in, loyalty cards and so on. Every day I carry around loyalty cards for Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Milly’s Cookies, Pumpkin cafe, Costa, Superdrug, Tesco and Boots. As well as a tastecard, my blood donor’s card, my national insurance card, my EHIC, and obviously my driving license and bank card. I carry all this with me when I go to the local supermarket. Even though, as I mentioned, I live in the middle of nowhere. I do not leave the country on a daily basis and therefore am unlikely to need my European health insurance card. I have serious issues. Don’t laugh at me: feel sorry for me instead.

5. When I was younger I had what I can only describe as a speech impediment. I couldn’t pronounce any ‘s’ sounds. So school was cool, and my uncle Stuart was my uncle Tuart, which eventually become uncle Toot. All I can remember from my speech therapy is being tricked into pronouncing s sounds by being shown cards in quick succession and having to say what I saw. I’m sure there was more to it than that: any speech therapists reading, I’m sure your profession is far more worthwhile than I remember it being. I can speak properly now, or at least I think I can. Some people think I still have a lisp. One day I might record myself talking and ask for an honest opinion.

6. My food tastes change all the time. Things that I hate so much that I cannot eat, I used to love, and things that I could eat all day, I used to despise. For example, as a child I used to eat chocolate raisins by the handful, and now I can’t stand raisins, whether they’re coated in chocolate or not. I used to gag at the thought of bananas, but now banana & peanut butter is my dessert of choice.

7. I’m short-sighted and slightly astigmatic. I also had an ulcer on my cornea when I was about 16. This was partly caused by wearing contact lenses. Which I still wear. Because I am stupid.

8. I’ve never broken a bone, and I’m not allergic to anything, which I think is pretty good going for a 21 year old.

9. I really enjoy wearing bright colours, and have no real concept of what colours match each other, or flatter me, or any of that stuff. I always think I look pretty good, but I am aware that others (one of my old housemates, for example) will look me up and down and announce that I am wearing 6 different colours in one outfit and none of them match.

10. I am so clumsy. My boyfriend will happily attest to this. We can’t spend a single day together where I don’t hurt him or myself multiple times, or drop or break something. Clumsiness is sometimes portrayed as cute and endearing, but I’m sure that people do not look at me and go ‘awww! She just tripped up the stairs!’ but actually laugh at me.

11. I always seem to be overdressed or underdressed.

Now here are the questions Sophie asked me:

1. What is your favourite thing to bake? I’m still getting to grips with baking. I have the most fun making fairy cakes, because I can decorate each one however I want it.

2. Who is your favourite fictional character? Even though I don’t think you’re meant to like her, the character of Maria from Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays. Which may mean that I missed the entire point of the novel. Still, I wanted to be her friend.

3. Arts or Sciences? Definitely Arts! I think science is awesome, and I actually read a lot of science blogs and try very hard to understand it all, but a lot of it just hurts my brain.

4. What is your main goal for 2012? Get some experience, get a job, move out. Most of all, be happy.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would you choose? This question has so many possible answers, because I change my mind almost every day. Over the weekend I decided I want to live in Edinburgh. Then I decided I wanted to live in Brighton. Then it was Florence. This never ends with me.

6. Strength training or cardio? Hmmm. I haven’t been to the gym in so long that this question is completely alien to me. So, my cop-out answer is: both. My gym routine used to consist of 15 minutes on the exercise bike, 15 minutes treadmill, 15 minutes arc trainer, then roughly 15 minutes going round the strength training machines. I never plucked up the courage to enter the free weights section. Various people told me that this routine was wrong, though I’m unsure as to how exercise can be wrong, as such.

7. Favourite quotation? I don’t know if I could ever pick a definitive favourite, as I’m always highlighting phrases and copying out paragraphs. Here’s a quote that I had written on the front of all my notebooks while I was at uni, and which often helped me put things in perspective when I was stressing out about work.

Your success in reading is invisible to others unless you know how to write.

Completely boring, I know. It comes from this book, which is not a wild read. But, as an English student, this was the most useful thing to keep in mind at all times.

8. Which famous person would you most like to meet and why? My standard answer since the age of around 14 has been Keith Richards. And I stand by this.

9. Sweet or savoury? Savoury. It is well documented how wonderful sweet food is, and there are desserts that I would crawl through hot coals for, but it’s savoury all the way for me. When dining out, I want a starter and a main course, not a main course and a pudding. When it comes to junk food, I’d rather have a burger, or something involving cheese or fried potato, than ice-cream or a chocolate bar.

10. Which film do you always turn to and why? The Commitments will never fail me. It’s funny, it’s a bit weepy, and it has really good music.

11. What is your greatest achievement to date? I would say graduating university, but some days I don’t feel like that was much of an achievement. I really haven’t done anything spectacular… yet. I’m working on it.

Now, for 11 questions set by yours truly:

1. You’re going on all expenses paid holiday, 10-day holiday. You can go anywhere, provided you can get there and back in 10 days. Where are you going?

2. Do you have a lucky charm? (As in, something you take to exams or job interviews with you.)

3. What’s your dream career?

4. What would be your death-row meal?

5. What would you do if you didn’t have to work for a living?

6. What made you start blogging?

7. Do you like where you live?

8. How many books do you own?

9. Stripes or polka dots?

10. Fruit or vegetables? (Yes, you have to choose one!)

11. Poetry or prose?

I tag the following people:

I tag Amy @ Girl Looks Like A Pony, Al @ Forgotten Beast, Mara @ Eccentric Owl, Louise @ The Book, and anyone else who wants to play along. Let me know if you fill it in so I can have a read! If you’ve already done it but want to answer my questions, feel free to answer them in a comment. Ready… steady… GO!

And so ends the longest blog post in the history of the world. I hope you enjoyed it, or at least tolerated it.

January 11, 2012
by Emily 8 Comments

WIAW

In here we have: a Thornton’s chocolate, salad, halloumi stuffed pepper, beer, balsamic vinegar, Fuji apple, apple + blueberries, crudités + homemade tortilla chips with hummus + spicy bean dip, far too many Miniature Heroes consumed in bed at the boyfriend’s house, and Bolognese tortellini baked with halloumi, cheddar, pasta sauce, peppers + peas.

To make the halloumi stuffed peppers: deseed however many peppers you would like to have stuffed. Stick them in the oven. While they’re in the oven, chop up some halloumi, and make some couscous. (We put some Quorn mince in, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. It was flavourless and very dry. Use real mince if you’re a carnivore, or otherwise just go without!) Take the peppers out of the oven before they’re fully cooked, and cram the couscous and halloumi inside. Put them back into the oven for a few more minutes, until the pepper and the cheese are how you want them to be.

To make the baked tortellini: (This is really not an interesting recipe. Don’t get your hopes up.) Get a packet of tortellini. Cook according to packet instructions and drain, then pour into a casserole dish. Empty a jar of pasta sauce over it. Add chunks of halloumi (because you have it leftover from your stuffed peppers, of course). Mix in some red peppers, peas, and whatever variety of vegetables you might have lying around. Put in the oven for five minutes or so. Take out, put some grated cheddar on top, stick it back in until the cheddar has melted. We had homemade cheesy garlic bread with ours – to make this we toasted some bread, mixed chopped garlic into butter and spread that on, topped it with a little bit of cheese and then finished it under the grill.

Have you ever tried halloumi?

Am I the only one still eating leftover Christmas chocolate?

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country living, city dreaming

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