nanila: wrong side of the mirror (me: wrong side of the mirror)
( Dec. 28th, 2021 09:04 am)
This is my list for keeping track of the recipes I try out from my slow cooker Christmas present recipe books. We'll see how long I can keep this up next year once I'm not on holiday!

BBC goodfood "Slow Cooker Favourites"
NB: This book is a little annoying because quite a few of the recipes only seem to involve the slow cooker as an afterthought and suggest a considerable amount of prep either prior to, or after, putting the ingredients in the slow cooker. I plan to largely ignore such instructions so my versions of these are going to be modified.

Recipes tried:
  • Better-than-baked beans, p. 10. Made on 26 December 2021. This called for cooking most of the short ingredient list in a pan on the hob before putting it in the slow cooker, which I found ridiculous, so I just browned the onions and bacon and dumped everything else in straight from the can/chopping board. Made it with butter beans, ate it for breakfast with fresh bread. It was great. Next time I will crumble in the stock cube instead of dissolving it in 200 mL of water, to make the sauce thicker.
  • Herby bean-sausage stew, p. 22. Made on 08 January 2022. This was a very simple recipe so I added some stuff to it, including a crumbled stock cube, garlic granules, thyme, salt and pepper (!!), and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. I suspect it would have been quite bland otherwise as the only herbs were basil and oregano. It was pretty tasty. Humuhumu ate one of the chipolatas as well, which I count as a win because normally she won't touch anything that's been in homemade tomato sauce. 
  • Goulash in a dash, p. 112. Made on 10 January 2022, 08 February 2022 and 04 March 2022. This was awesome. The first time, I had no potatoes and a larger quantity of stewing beef than the recipe called for, so while I mostly followed the ingredient list, I deviated on quantities. I also added caraway seeds, chilli powder and a spoonful of corn flour on the advice of a different recipe. Served with couscous. Keiki yummed it up, as did the adults. 
  • Big batch bolognese, p. 80. Made on 13 January 2022 and 26 March 2022. Left out the bacon, mushrooms and glass of red wine (dry January), and two-thirds'd the recipe because of the amount of mince we had to hand. It was really good, we ate it over rice rather than pasta.
  • One-pan chicken couscous, p. 46. Made on 23 January 2022. I tripled this recipe because I had 700g of chicken. This meant using 3 tablespoons of smoked harissa paste, which felt like a lot and as turned out, was. It was very spicy and even the bloke needed to add buttermilk to it when eating it. I didn't add the couscous directly to the slow cooker as the children would never have eaten that if I did. Very tasty though, will make this again. Possibly with a little less harissa paste, and a tub of natural yoghurt for serving, so we don't have to use the buttermilk that we normally keep on hand for soda bread.
Recipe planning:
  • Spiced carrot & lentil soup, p. 26.
  • Mexican chicken stew, p. 48.
  • Five-a-day tagine, p. 144.

Miss South "Slow Cooked"
Miss South takes the view that most prep is unnecessary apart from caramelising onions or garlic. She is also very keen on using the cheapest  ingredients, especially meat, because everything gets tender in the slow cooker, and takes the trouble to describe where it should be possible to obtain those ingredients. She's fortunate enough to live in London where she can easily acquire unusual ingredients, herbs, and spices, but recognises that not everyone does and suggests alternatives. I like this positioning.

Recipes tried:
  • Macaroni Cheese, p.107. Made on 27 December 2021, 15 January 2022, 29 January 2022. This was really good. Even Humuhumu liked it without dumping an inordinate quantity of ketchup on it, and it involves mustard powder and white pepper. She asked me what was in it and I told her I had made it "as simply as possible". (Muahaha) It calls for evaporated milk, which I didn't have, so I substituted double cream that was left over from making Christmas trifle and that was fine. I also love that it didn't require doing anything to the 500g of dried macaroni other than coating it in corn flour prior to putting it in the slow cooker. The crunchy bits at the bottom of the cooker went down well with Keiki and me. I may butter the slow cooker next time as it did require some elbow grease to remove.
  • Tarka Dal, p 102. Made on 03 January 2022, January 2023. This is AWESOME (capslock fully merited). I doubled the recipe apart from the caramelised onions (I used 2 instead of 4), and I didn't have fenugreek seeds so I used ground fenugreek and didn't double the amount of that either. It was absolutely delicious and I will make this regularly. Additional: I'm finding that I don't seem to have to cook things for nearly as long as Miss South recommends. She said to put the slow cooker on high for 8 hours. I put mine on low for 5.5 hours and that was plenty. I turned it off and let it sit (another 2 hours) until dinner time, and it was just the right temperature for eating with fresh basmati rice and steamed mangetout. Perhaps I have an overpowered slow cooker?
  • Spiced Carrot and Parsnip Soup  p. 151. Made on 16 January 2022. I'm not very enamoured of this. It is quite a healthy recipe. Possibly too healthy. It needed a lot of salt to make it palatable (to me, anyway), and I ended up dumping in the leftover sauce from making chicken adobo, which gave it chicken fat, soy sauce, and sesame oil, all of which helped. It was a little weird, ultimately, as the adobo flavours didn't quite match the Indian spices from the recipe, but at least I enjoyed eating it. I won't make this again. 
  • Saag Aloo, p. 180. Made on 22 January 2022, 07 February 2022, 04 June 2022, 21 October 2022, 20 December 2022. This was so easy, I actually bothered to caramelise the onions, just because I like caramelised onions. The recipe didn't call for this. I didn't add the grated coconut because I didn't have any (!) but I did add a leftover half of an avocado. It's super tasty, but this is the second of Miss South's recipes that would benefit from a good deal more salt. I didn't add it to the pot directly this time but sprinkled it on top in the form of adjika spice mix.
Recipe planning:
  • French onion soup, p. 142.
  • Cuban style black beans, p. 88.
My recipes
  • My usual chilli. Made on 04 January, 27 February, 2 May, 5 June 2022, 28 October, 19 November, 3 December 2022, 5 February 2023, 11 February 2023.This consists of browning a 500g packet of mince (either beef or vegetarian depending on what I have to hand) in a pan on the hob, then dumping it into the slow cooker with the following. I use a teaspoon to scoop out the spices from their jars but I would hesitate to be accurate about the actual quantities.
tags:
I have been struggling to concentrate today. It was hard not to spiral back to that day. I had been living in London (and therefore the UK) for less than a year. I spent much of the day unable to contact family and friends to reassure them I was OK because the mobile networks were overwhelmed. I remember walking the crowded streets to meet friends and my then-partner. The faces of the shuffling Londoners. The relentless wail of sirens.

I'm coping by watching the BBC documentary series on the bombings. For some reason I need some kind of external validation for feeling the way I do today and this is providing it.

(Access locked) Posts from that date: DW, LJ

Here is what I wrote on the 8th of July, 2005.

Terrorism isn't about the reality of statistics. Of the several million people living in or visiting the greater London area, a tiny percentage were physically hurt or killed by the bombings. A slightly larger percentage witnessed them firsthand, and a huge number of them were temporarily inconvenienced by the shutdown of the London Transport system. The chances that the next bus or tube journey that the average Londoner makes will have a bomb on it are not much greater than they were yesterday or will be tomorrow. But, as I said, this is not about statistics. It's about the perception of statistics. However miniscule your chances were and are of being blown to bits by a terrorist attack, they are now at the forefront of your mind, whether you want them to be or not.

Terrorism isn't about the frequency of occurrence of terrorist acts, or of similar kinds of attacks made during open war. Londoners of different generations experienced the Blitz and the IRA bombings of the 1980s. Many of them have been through this before. However, it is the very unpredictability of terrorism that makes it so frightening, that makes a return to normalcy as difficult as it was the last time, because the ordinary citizen has no way of knowing when, where or if another attack will happen.

People deal with this in a myriad of ways. Some become defiant, others resigned. Some find themselves swallowing down fear for weeks, months or years after the events, every time they board a bus or enter an Underground station. This is the real point of terrorist attacks, not the body count. All emotional responses are fully permissible, but it is the way that we act upon them that will determine whether or not we build a world in which the slight probability of terrorist attack on the average citizen will continue to be a weapon that can wield so much power.
nanila: me (Default)
( Jun. 30th, 2025 10:04 pm)


I can't quite believe how much has happened this month. At least 60 days of stuff were packed into June's 30. And now we're halfway through the year. Dear Time, Please slow down, Love, Me.
  1. If you were a fruit, which would you be and why?

    I would like to be a guava. They are a tropical fruit that does not export well, and are almost as tetchy as avocados. Unripe, unripe, unripe, unripe, unripe, RIPE AND SUCCULENT, hahaha you missed the 10-minute window when I was perfect and now I shall rot secretly on the inside so you won't be able to anticipate your disappointment.

    When you do manage to catch them at the right moment, they are sooooo delicious.

  2. If you wake up and smell smoke, and you have to get everybody (pets included) out of the house safely, but you have time to grab one item, what would you grab?

    My phone. No question. Once upon a time it would have been passport or driving licence or some such, but we do everything on our phones now, so I can think of nothing more essential than that. Yes, the documents are a faff to replace, but how are you going to get online to do it without your phone?

  3. If you were stuck on an island, who would be the one person you would want with you and why?

    I hate it in films (and in fact in real life) when people are ordered to choose between beloved family members. I would want my partner AND my children with me, or else I would refuse to choose.

  4. If you could change one thing about your physical appearance, what would it be?

    I'm not sure changing one thing would make much of a difference.

  5. If you could spend the day with one famous person, dead or alive, who would you choose?

    I'd quite like to have a chat with Jaron Lanier.
nanila: me (Default)
( May. 31st, 2025 02:18 pm)


Vienna => home => Cambridge => home => Hamburg => home => Norfolk => home

Not a lot of Humuhumu as she's been away for substantial portions of this month. We'd all like a little rest from travel, I think, but it's not happening until mid-June.
nanila: (Bush Fire Hazard)
( May. 23rd, 2025 08:49 pm)
For those who might have been worried, I did indeed pass through Hamburg train station today on my way back home, and I have not been stabbed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm26v7n5y4eo.amp
tags:
  1. You're holding a dinner party and can invite three famous people from the past or present; who would they be?

    I never understood the appeal of this. I hardly get to see my friends and family. I would rather invite them to dinner than a group of people I don't know. That just sounds exhausting.

  2. You have the opportunity to question someone about something you've always wanted to know and receive a truthful answer; what would your question be?

    No no no. In my experience, if someone is holding back on telling you a truth, it's because it is not going to make you feel happy. I'll pass.

  3. If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?

    My workload. See answer to Q1.

  4. If you could save other people's lives by completing an act that would lead to your own death, would you do it?

    As ever, answers depend on the context. If we are talking about an overstuffed inflatable raft full of vulnerable children floundering in the English Channel, then unequivocally yes. If we are talking about an autocratic dictator and his henchmen, then absolutely not.

  5. Would you commit murder if you knew that you could get away with it?

    No.
nanila: me (Default)
( May. 4th, 2025 01:34 pm)


I rather missed the boat on this one, apologies for its lateness. In my defence, we've mostly not been in the UK for the past two weeks.

April starts off quite domestic with lots of cat clips, and finishes in central Europe with lots of adventure clips. We travelled from [home] to Vienna, Austria via nine different trains, one of which morphed into a German rail replacement bus services which turned out to be terribly civilised.
  1. Who was your first crush?

    Real person: It was a boy named Colin, in the fifth grade. I would have been ten years old. I can't remember anything about him except he had blue eyes and I could make him laugh until he cried.

    Fictional TV character: Jean-Luc Picard.

    Fictional literary character: Sherlock Holmes.

  2. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

    I have extrovert energy, but I'm an introvert and I very much need my alone time.

  3. What is your favorite non-sexual thing you like to do with the love of your life?

    I can't think of a particular favourite. I just enjoy his company.

  4. What is one quirky habit your partner does that either annoys you or makes you grin?

    This does both: throwing his pants at the laundry basket and missing. Like, every single day.

  5. Do you believe in monogamous relationships?

    It works for me. I do understand they're not for everyone.
Mushroom time lapse

The box had to sit in the dark for three months for the mycelium to form inside the black plastic, but once released, the mushrooms grew to edible size in just over a week!

Here's what they looked like just before harvest:

20250411_070409

(You may have to click the top image through to Flickr to view the time lapse video. For some reason the YouTube version uploaded as a short and I can't work out how to get to the embed code.)
nanila: me (Default)
( Apr. 1st, 2025 09:32 am)


Contains the usual round of cats, kids, a little bit more work than usual because I spent a lot of time in the lab, and a quick trip to Cornwall.
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