10 Days of Haikus

So I'm trying to blog at least once everyday. Aside from making the bloga little more interesting to read, and also because I'm trying to give myself more of a routine. I have checklists of certain things I want to make sure I do every day.

Usually I have an update for Project 200 or the Discworldathon, or some other randomness to blog about. For days that I don't, I have a list of blog memes/challenges and things. This is the first one.

10 Days of Haikus.

A haiku is a Japanese form of poetry characterised most famously by its structure of 3 lines and 17 vowels. The first line has 5 vowels, the second line has 7 vowels and the third line has 5 vowels. They're short and succinct, but that does NOT make them easy to write. I'm going to attempt to write one a day for the next 10 days.

An extra challenge is that I haven't actually written any poetry in years. I've had writers' block for a good 5 years at least. So wish me luck.

Here's haiku number one:

Sweet potato pie
A crazy mess to create
Delicious to taste

2012 Fantabulous Things: 76-100

76) Reconnecting with an old friend

77) Red Dwarf - rumour is that it's coming back!

78) Reeses pieces

79) Refresher chews

80) Relaxing in a hot bubble bath with a good book

81) Russell Brand - I saw him live once. My friends and I went to the filming of the Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2007. He was hilarious.



82) Russell Howard - very funny man, and kinda cute too.



83) Sanctuary - the tv show.

84) Sausage and cheese muffins - I make these every Christmas. They're scrumptious.

85) Sherbert burps

86) Sleep

87) Slush puppies

88) Slush puppies with a splash of alcohol

89) Smallville - the tv show

90) Smell of fresh cut grass

91) Smiley face sweets - I may have a mild addiction

92) Sorting paperwork - except when it's regarding my debts

93) Sorting yarn

94) Stephen Fry


95) Stephen Fry and Alan Davies - I'd go and see Stephen Fry anytime, but I'm not sure about Alan Davies on his own. Ripping off Stephen in QI he's excellent. He's coming to Stoke in October - maybe I'll give him a shot.


96) Stickers

97) Superman

98) Supernatural - the tv show

99) Sweet potato biscuits/scones

100) Tall glass of cold orange juice

My Christmas Post

So... are you ready for a nice picture-intensive post about my Christmas day? No? Tough :P

I started off the day with some delicious Sausage and Cheese muffins...



Then I put my prepared-on-Christmas-eve turkey in the oven and spent a few hours staring wistfully at my pile of presents.



Actually, I watched The Santa Clause and did some crochet, but I just wanted to show off how many presents I had :P

My turkey was a magnificent success!




The kitties enjoyed it too.



Lexie wasn't too happy with the hat from her cracker though. Hehehe



Then it was time for presents! And my god, I was spoiled. Aside from books and chocolate and teddy bears...



... and jewellery and socks and monkeys and candles and soaps and bubble bath... I got 34 balls of yarn! 34!!!



They varied from small balls of toy yarn, to huge expensive hanks of yarn that were specifically dyed for me. Look at them!






And I got this amazing little angel ornament that someone made for me.



And oh oh oh! One of the partners I got in a swap makes a living from handmaking colourful accessories and things. She made me this cute little Slytherin bag...



Check out the label she put in it.



Even the cats got presents. Quite a few actually. Here's one of their favourites.



And finally, just before the Doctor Who Christmas special, it was time for dessert. When we were little girls, Dad used to make Jennie and I a baked alaska for Christmas dessert, but once Tracy and the boys came along, it just wasn't possible. So this year I made my own.



That's chocolate cake, with mint choc chip ice cream on top, covered in meringue and stuck under the grill to brown. It was delicious, but took a bit of a strange effort to make.



Lol.

I hope you all had a lovely day :-)

Project 200 - 51/149

As you all know, I've recently taken to baking. I'm also very very messy. So I made myself an apron. It's a reasonably good one too. I love the dotty fabric. And it's all hemmed by hand because I don't have a sewing machine. Let's not mention how many gazillion yards of fabric it took because I'm a heffer.



51 down
149 to go

Not as Miserable as I Sound

For anyone who actually read my last post, or my blog in general, I just wanna let you all know that I'm not actually as miserable as I sound. Yes, I have depression. Yes, just getting up everyday takes a tremendous amount of effort. But I'm not miserable every second of every day.

My entire life when I've had a journal I've had the same problem. I write when I'm stressed, or frustrated, or miserable. And I rarely write when I'm happy and contented. So it looks like my life copmletely sucks. I've just never had an internet read my journal before. So I'll try to write more positive posts.

I did eventually get back to sleep yesterday. And I slept for a whole 17 hours. Felt great afterwards. Still do. I've been up all night technically (woke up at midnight), but I've gotten quite a bit done. I feel productive. I like feeling productive. One of my OCD things is writing lists. Obsessive lists. Lists of everything. The biggest being to-do lists. Lots of them. So when I get to check things off that list, it makes me feel good. I've crossed off a few today, and even though there's still a bajillion things left on it, I feel good.

Of course, feeling good might have a little to do with the hot chocolate cobbler I just ate, but I've counted it in my daily points total, so it's even guilt-free chocolate cobbler.

My life really isn't that bad. I could sit here and easily list the bad things, and there are plenty of them. But if you read my blog at all, you know most of them already. You probably don't know many (if any) of the good things.

I'm talented. I forget it sometimes, but I am. If you look around my house there are dozens of examples of beautiful cross stitch and cute little crochet/knit creatures. And although I've got writer's block at the moment, I have files of some pretty good writing. And a shelf full of books that my poems have been printed in.

I may not be conventionally attractive, but I'm cute. I have a little button nose, and big bright blue eyes. And if you ignore the myriad of scars, I have lots of soft, smooth, clear skin.

I'm generous, and kind, and friendly (once I get past the crippling shyness and anxiety). I'm good with kids. I'm good with animals. I cook the most delicious muffins, and I have a few other recipes I excel at. Creamy chicken and corn chowder, anyone? Chocolate cream pie? I know a certain gentleman who'd eat three of my chocolate cream pies if it wouldn't make his stomach explode.

And I'm lucky. I don't always feel like it, but I am. I have a roof over my head, and food to eat. I don't live in an area where I need to worry about terrorists or war. I have water and electric and heat and clothes. A lot of the time I feel like my life is completely pointless and that it isn't worth living. I need to remember that there are so many millions and millions of people who have it a lot worse than me. I may have trouble finding the energy to leave the house, but I do have a house I can be agoraphobic in. And I can afford the chocolate cake to binge on.

I might not have a social life, or many friends, but I still have people I can talk to. I have two friends who have stuck by me throughout all the shit I dole out, and who don't mind my foibles. They haven't abandoned me when I ranted about them. They're still my friends, and sometimes it might take them a while to reply to messages, but they always do. One of them is just simply wonderful. I admitted some things I'd lied to him about, and he didn't bat an eyelid. He's kind, and friendly, and sweet. And even though he has a lot of his own troubles, he's always there to help me deal with mine. He walks into town centres to get my meds when I can't, even though he's feeling ill himself. I wish I could adequately explain to him how grateful I am that he's my friend.

I have two beautiful cats, even if they are completely cuckoo. They pee in the wrong places, and they scratch, and they run around the house making a racket while I'm trying to sleep. But they're cute, and affectionate, and funny, and they give little nose-kisses, and they're my constant companions. Without my pets I'd be even more insane than I am now. Right now Smudge is asleep on a box. Well, she's trying to sleep. Lexie is on top of her, chewing on her own tail. Smudge is staring at her, like she wants her to explode. It's quite cute to see.

I'm not always happy, but I'm quite often content. Right now I'm content. My butt hurts from sitting on this awkward chair for too long, but I'm content.

Just wanted to let the internet know I'm not always miserable and stroppy.

Double Chocolate Cream Pie

Hey, look at me. I can bake :-)

This was delicious. Gone from the plate very very quickly.

A bit of a rant

More ranting about how crap my life is. Feel free to skip it.

For the past week, one of my friends has been AWOL. Heard from him the evening before we were meant to meet up, then nothing. He never showed up to meeting me, he didn't answer his phone, he wasn't on MSN, he wasn't on Twitter or Facebook, he wasn't responding to texts or emails. Just gone. Very unlike him. And I'm a paranoid person. One of my biggest fears is that a friend will die, and I'll never know because no one will think to tell me. So that's been preying on my mind. I messaged a couple of mutual friends we have, and one got back to me saying she hadn't heard from him either, which didn't help. I was going to look up his parents in the phone book and try calling them, but then he got back to me this morning. When I logged on to MSN this morning he'd left me an online message. He's ill and depressed, but he's alive. So I feel a little better.

Still feel crappy though. BIG BIG BIG family issues, and at the moment there is nothing I can do about it. My mum is having trouble dealing with my teenage sister, and it's causing all kinds of chaos. I've offered to have her live with me, but two hundred miles is too far away. So I made the decision last week to move back to Basingstoke. I hate Basingstoke, but I don't have a lot up here in the Midlands for me anymore. Two friends - one of whom works a lot and has just moved in with her boyfriend. I'll see her as much as I see her now, just with a bit more planning. The other has parents a couple of towns over from Basingstoke, so I'd still see him when he visits. There are a lot of benefits to moving back down south. I'd be closer to my sisters, and my step-brothers and their kids. I'd get to see all my little cousins and neices and nephews grow up. If I get stir-crazy or lonely there are lots of family friends in the town who'd love to have me over for a cup of tea. Generally the south is more expensive, but the weekly bus ticket in Basingstoke is about £6 cheaper, so I could afford to get out and about, and there are lots of societies and clubs I'd like to join. And, most importantly, I'd be able to help mum out with Michaela. If nothing else, I'd be somewhere for Michaela to go when things get too much.

The quickest move is to go private, but to do that I'd need about £800 for a deposit and first month's rent, and I can't afford that at the moment. So I've applied to the Council/Housing Association's Housing Register. I have connections in the area, and my Dr is writing a letter to prove that it'd be good for my depression. So I won't be at the bottom of their list, but it'll still take a while.

Yesterday the situation down there blew up a little bit. I need to get down there as soon as I can, and until I do there's nothing I can do to help the situation, which is killing me. I'm helpless up here. It's aggravating my depression, and I'm currently festering in a pit of episodey-ness, with no outlet.

I've been cooking. I have a peanut butter pie setting in the freezer, and garlic-ginger chicken marinating in the fridge, but once again I have no one to share my delicious goods with, with is depressing.

And I'm tired. Been sleeping odd hours, and I'm tired. My depression makes me tired, my anti-depressants make me tired, my current situation is making me tired, and not sleeping properly is making me tired. I'm fucking tired! I so desperately want to go lie down and sleep for months.

Desperate attempt at distraction

Hey there world. Right now I'm fighting those I-want-to-do-Something-Stupid feelings. And those of you who know me know what "Something Stupid" is code for. And since there isn't really anyone I can talk to, I'll tell my blog instead. Not that anybody really reads this. I don't even know why I keep posting. It's a diary, basically, and not even one I can be completely honest in. Sometimes I feel like I should just give it up, and go get a notebook. Go back to being private. At least in a notebook I could scribble down exactly what's bothering me and not be vague and semi-secretive.

For instance, there are some issues with my family. Chaotic, big, messy issues that I can't escape from. But I can't talk about it freely on here. Because I don't know if any of the people involve will ever come on here. Not to mention that it's an issue with a minor, and there are probably lots of legal issues involved. Besides, if I said that I was planning on kidnapping my baby sister, there would be all kinds of uproar. But it's driving me crazy. I moved 200 miles away to get away from family, and I'm still messed up in everything. And I wish so much that I could just forget about it, and pretend it doesn't all exist, but I can't do that. Because it's a big fucking great big mess and I worry too much and can't switch my sodding brain off.

And it's not just the family issues. It's everything. And I mean everything! At all times of the day I have a million things being worried about in my head. I worry that I can't stop Lexie peeing on the damn bed. I worry that someone I care about it is going to get mugged or attacked randomly. I worry about the floods in Memphis - I don't even know anyone in flipping Memphis. I worry about the friends of a friend who live in Japan. I worry about being depressed forever. I worry about having to throw away some milk because it's expired, but I shouldn't be throwing food away cos there are people in the world starving. I worry about my current situation with Neil. I worry about whether or not my friends are still talking to me when I haven't heard from them in a day or two. I worry that Smudge isn't happy anymore. I worry about whether the pain in my chest is a heart attack or angina or something. I worry about whether that headache is a migraine. I worry about whether or not I make too much noise for my downstairs neighbour. I worry about whether that low rumble is thunder, or a truck, or a bomb gearing up to explode somewhere. I worry about EVERYTHING. All the freaking time. And the only thing that stops it is sleep. Except for when the worrying becomes nightmares and I wake up crying, or sweating, or shaking. It sucks. I want a lobotomy.

And I'm just generally feeling crappy at the moment. I've been episodey for a week, and every day some new little thing happens that just makes me feel worse. Like the baking. In the past few days I've made peanut butter muffins, a delicious toad-in-the-hole and an absolutely exquisite apple crumble. And I've had no one to share it with. I'm developing this skill and talent and delight in baking, but I have no one to bake for. So I can make the Butter Pecan cookies I have a recipe for, but there's no one to try them, and eating them all by myself probably isn't good for me either.
I'm so pathetic and lonely I have no one to bake for.

And lonely is definitely the word for it. I have three friends. Three fucking friends! One of them is my ex-boyfriend I shouldn't even be talking to, anyway. One of them is very busy caught up in work and in moving in with her boyfriend and I've barely seen her in months. The other one went home for two weeks and I missed his company like crazy, and was really excited for when he got back, but he's barely spoken to me since and I know he's injured himself and is busy, but I'm crazy and paranoid and insecure and I feel like he's mad at me or is avoiding me. So I worry about that.

And I'm not dealing so well with the Neil thing. I love him. Every single part of me loves him. I love him as much as I did when we first met. My heart still does flippity flops when I look at pictures of him, or when I see a text from him on my phone. And yes, I was unhappy with the situation we were in, but I am so much more unhappy without him. I hate that he's not a part of my life anymore. I hate it. I want to take it back. I want to go back to how we were. And as much as not talking to him would kill me, talking to me is kind of killing me too. I have to be careful about what I say to him, for the first time since before we met. I've never, ever, had to think about holding back before. I've always been able to tell him absolutely anything. And now we talk, and we're friends, but I can't tell him that I miss him like crazy and want so much to be in his arms. I can't tell him that I love him.

I kinda hate life as it is at the moment. I'm rapidly heading out of episodey and right slap bang into Episode. There are several things I know can get me out of it, and I can't get any of them. I can't get compliments or cuddles from Neil. I'm out of ice cream, and the chocolate in the fridge is designated for those cookies. I can either have the three cans of ravioli in the cupboard, or use my grocery money to buy a curry, or more ingredients for ice cream. Or I can do Something Stupid. And right now, Something Stupid is incredibly appealing. Other alternative, curling up and crying myself to sleep. I'm good at that. I do it a lot.

Week of the Muffins

I like to bake. I'm not always very good at it, but I like to bake. And, without blowing my own trumpet, I'm actually pretty good at muffins. I have a million muffin recipes, but I haven't been able to bake properly in months because of the stupid issues with NPower and the gas. This week I've had gas.. and a working over... and so muffins.

Monday night I made peppermint muffins - they were absolutely delicious.
Yesterday I made sweetcorn & chilli muffins - they didn't rise, and were a little dry (which I fixed by adding more milk for the second half) - but they were also delicious.
This morning I made gingerbread muffins, which were so good I gave a few people foodgasms.
In the oven right now are some bacon and cheddar muffins. I'm sure there'll be delicious.
Tomorrow I'm trying out a chicken and sweetcorn muffin, and on Saturday I'll be making chocolate cheesecake muffins.

Then I get paid next Tuesday, so I'm thinking of stocking up on ingredients for even more muffins! Sweet potato, roasted chilli and feta cheese, anyone? Pineapple and passionfruit? Peanut butter and banana?

I'm going to turn into a muffin at this rate.

So, that was 2010...

It's over. Well, not quite. Technically there's still six hours left of it for me, but I honestly can't see me moving off the sofa for it. I've had a really exhausting day. It'll be a miracle if I even make it to midnight.

Anyway, last year I had a lot of plans for 2010. If you don't wanna read that post, I'm about to list the highlights, and how I did.

Be better with money

Ummmmm. Well, in spring I had a major breakdown money-wise. There was a Brownies thing, and a rent thing, and then there was a selling the Wii and tv thing, and it was a big depressing mess. A few months later I handed my finances over to my mum and asked for help. She called everyone I owe money to, and all my bills and things, and arranged for me to pay them. Now I have lots of standing orders going out on payday. It's been a little tough having hardly any money. I mean, I have enough. After all the bills, and gas and electric, I usually have £20-30 ish to play with, and to get food (per fortnight). That's not bad. But considering when I didn't pay any bills I had £200ish to play with, it's a bit of a drop. I'm getting used to it. As far as the resolution goes, I'm actually doing it. When I asked mum for help, the original plan was to hand control of my internet banking over to her or my sister, so I couldn't delete or change the standing orders. But there was a delay in some of the bills and things, and I never got around to it. But I've been paying the bills, not fiddling with the standing orders. Which for me is a huge improvement. I've paid off one debt already. By the end of 2011, I should only have one or two huge ones left.

Start saving

Not so good. I have difficulty saving anyway, and then with the money issues this year it's been impossible. With Project 200, I'll be saving via Cayden or Jen, and maybe I can give them some extra money too.

Pay damn bills

See above comment about money

Classes and courses and groups

In that post last year I listed a hundred different classes and courses and interest groups I was going to go to. I never got to any of them. I haven't had money to go anywhere other than on pay day really, and I've settled back into my old routine of not leaving the house. But I don't mind. I don't have anywhere to go, and I have plenty to keep me busy. It's not like I lounge on the couch watching tv all day. I do a lot.

Lose weight

I did go back to Weightwatchers. I went at the end of April and discovered that I very nearly hit that 30 stone threshold, but not quite. It was a shock, so I made an effort. I couldn't afford to go every week, but I went roughly once a fortnight. I lost a total of 18 lbs by the start of September, but then I had the big money decrease and haven't been able to afford it. I plan to go back in the New Year now I have a tiny bit of extra money.

Swimming

Nope. Never happened. I'd still like it to, but I'm highly doubtful it'll happen this year.

More writing

I have been doing some writing, but not nearly as much as I used to, or as I'd like to be doing. On my daily checklist, I have down to either do some math from a GCSE book I'm working through, or to do some writing. Trouble is, I've been counting blogging as doing writing. I'll change that.

Weekly photography missions

These never happened either. Although I do still like the idea. I may try it again this year. Perhaps not 50 pictures a week. I'll do 10 a week; much more manageable.

New incarnation of 52 New Things

I did this one! I completed 52 challenges. Well, I documented them all, I didn't necessarily complete them all. I'm quite proud of myself for that, and for last year. I don't normally manage to maintain a project, let alone one that lasts a year, and I've managed to keep these up for two years now. The new incarnation for 2011 is Project 200.

Moving

I did this! I moved on January 16th, and I love my flat. It gets a little lonely, but I have my Smudge....



...and I'd much rather be lonely occasionally than be in shared accomodation again. I love not having to compromise with anyone.

Keep my depression at a handleable level

Now this one is debateable. I've had a LOT less episodes than years past, but I've also been finding that my depression has been manifesting differently, so I'm not entirely sure. I haven't been suicidal quite as often, and I haven't self-harmed very much. But my dermotillomania is off the charts, and all my energy and oomph has a tendency to just vanish and leave me staring at the wall for hours at a time.

Stay with Neil

It has been a VERY rough year. Especially for Neil, with the loss of his brother, and a full year of episoding. His episode finally subsided a month or two ago, and his grief over Paul kicked in. He's had it hard. And relationship-wise it's been hard on me, because I've only seen him a few times. The last time was the end of July. But we're still together. I still love him with all my heart, and I'm still planning to stay with him through whatever life throws at us.

Be happy

I wouldn't say I'm 100% happy. There is still a lot in my life that I'd change if I could, and some stuff that I can change and that I'm trying my hardest to. But I can say that I'm content.

There's been developments that I didn't consider last year. It's been a year of pets. I haven't been too successful with them. When I moved, mum gave me a kitten. Tippi. Who turned out to be a boy, so he was Alfred Hitchcock, aka Alfie.



And then I got a rabbit to go with him. Sir Reginald Fortescue, aka Reggie.



But then Alfie escaped while I was down at Mum's one weekend, and I couldn't find him. And then my landlady decided she didn't want me to have a rabbit, so we took Reggie to the rehoming centre at PetsMart. So I was petless, which was not good. Then I got Pixel.



She was found by someone as a stray, with lots of little kittens. They took her in, but couldn't keep her, so I had her. Then I got Smudge, who is quite possibly the cutest cat I've ever had.



But Pixel tried to eat Smudge. Pixel really didn't enjoy being an indoors cat at all. She was always loud and restless and trying to escape, so I rehomed her with someone who could let her be an outdoor cat. Now I just have Smudge, but hopefully that's changing soon - there's a plan for kittens.

And the baking. I've developed a fascination with baking. No idea what triggered it, it just happened. Now I'm obsessed with it. The muffins! I've made six batches of muffins since I've been down here at Mum's. I made sausage and cheese ones Christmas day, and chilli and sweetcorn ones. Then I made gingerbread muffins. The gingerbread ones were so good one of mum's friends requested her own batch, so I made more of those. And yesterday I made more sausage and cheese ones because we had sausagemeat left. Today I made banana and walnut ones which were also delicious. But that's it! No more muffins til next year! Mind you, we went to Hobbycraft yesterday and I got cookie cutters, so I might make cookies next.

It's been a long and hard year. I hope 2011 is better, for everyone. Best wishes from me and Smudge.

So, that was Christmas

My Christmas in pictures...



Mum's dog Gracie. Lovely little ball of fluff.



My sister Michaela, who spent most of Christmas on her laptop. She usually hands out the presents, but this year my chair was closer to the tree, so I assumed I'd be doing it. Oh no, she insisted she had to do it, but she took her laptop with her, and to respond to all twelvety-hundred of her conversations between each present. Took a bit longer than normal.



Smudge is doing a lot better down here than I thought. Mum has a dog and two big cats. We've been keeping the cats out of the living room, so Smudge hasn't encountered them. And she and Gracie have managed to be within inches of each other without fighting, but then Smudge gets anxious and hisses. They can generally manage to be in the same room, as long as Gracie doesn't get too curious.



Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, your baubles are so sparkly! And just because it reminds me of this...



Hehehe, I do loves those Lolcatz.



PRESENTS!!!





Shiny (slightly blurry) baubles.



Me in my funky Christmas hat :D



Christmas gingerbread biscuits. Store bought...



...but no less tasty :D



I made tasty muffins for breakfast. The red ones are Chilli and Sweetcorn, and the green ones are Sausage and Cheese. Both absolutely delicious. I make good muffins.



This is what Neil got me for Christmas, in his usual way.
Me: "Neil, can I buy this, take it off the money I owe you and say it's a gift from you?"
Neil: "Ok"



And Yeti enjoyed my muffins too. Lol, I'm such a child.

It was a good Christmas. I got lots of goodies, as usual. I was a little cheesed off when my 13 year old sister got a box of my most favourite chocolates - Guylian Sea Shells - and chomped through them like they weren't expensive and insanely delicious. But I got a big box of three different types of belgian chocolate cookies, so I was placated.

Oh my goodness, only 363 days til next Christmas! Better start making presents!!

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Despite being laughed at, I still believe in Christmas, and in Magic and in you. I do know that you only have time to read the letters of children though, so I haven't written you anything in quite a few years now. But this year, I'm hoping that one of your elves will read my blog and pass on my messages.

I'm going to be at my Mum's house for Christmas, as usual, but the weather here is really bad at the moment, so please drive your sleigh carefully. And make sure you wear all your layers.

My wish list for this year is small, and reasonably practical. I need more yarn. Actually, that's not quite a whole-truth. I have plenty of yarn, I don't NEED any more, but I could always find a use for more! Especially soft purple stuff, since I used all mine on the Mammoth Secret Project.

And I've been working hard on my baking this year, so I'd like cookie cutters and baking trays and icing equipment and things. I promise that next year I'll leave you some handmade cookies. I might even manage it this year, if my sister helps me.

My final wish is something a little less tangible. I'd like for Neil's family to have a good Christmas. It's going to be hard on them this year, and I hope they can still enjoy themselves.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, Santa! Give my best wishes to Mrs Claus and the reindeer and the elves.

Cleo, aged 28.

Lapse blogger

I have this wonderful habit of setting up themed days and forgetting about them. I gave up on the One Day One Sentence thing. Writing Wednesdays have gone awol - coincidentally about the same time my writer's block hit in full force. Food Fridays are absent because I haven't had the gas to do any baking. I'm having issues with my gas supplier, but they should be sorted in the New Year. Stitching Sundays are also missing. I've been doing a lot of stitching, but most of it is Christmas gifts I can't put on here just yet. Which is a shame, cos some of them I'm REALLY proud of.

I feel like I'm making excuses. I could find past writing to feature, and there is stitching I've been doing that I could share. I just don't. I don't know why. I like typing. I like to blog.

Actually World of Warcraft might have something to do with it. Last week Neil decided he wanted to reactivate his account, and he paid for a month for me, so I've been playing that a lot. I'm already having trouble balancing WoW with Christmas stitching. And I can't really blog whilst doing either of them. But I'll try to be better.

Maybe...

Food Fridays

Last weekend I did quite a lot of cooking. I made copious amounts of a delicious Frank and Bean Chowder, to freeze for future meals. I made one batch, and liked it so much I brought the ingredients to make three more batches. But man, I could quite happily eat it all. The stuff is scrumptious.

Baking wise, I had a go at some basic chocolate chip cookies. I got some nice Hotel Chocolatier chocolates from Neil (sort of) that came with a pack of their 70% dark chocolate chips, so I used those. And to make things different I added a splash of peppermint. They were amazing. I LOVE mint chocolate stuff.

Food Fridays

So, while I was at Mum's for the week just recently, her neighbour Linda asked me to make her a banana cream pie. There was all kinds of hassle with the base. Mum went to Tesco to get the ingredients, but they didn't have any sweet pie cases, so she got a savory one, a flan base AND a pack of frozen filo pastry, just in case.

The flan was a disaster. Mum had brought a can of cherries and some jelly for me to make dessert for the Sunday roast. Except that the can of cherries didn't spread far enough, and I didn't wait for the jelly to set, so it just soaked straight into the flan case. Oh well, I don't like cherries anyway.

I used the savory pie case to make a quiche, with leftover chicken from the roast. It was my first ever quiche. Chicken, sweetcorn, cheese and lots of paprika. I wanted to put some red onion in as well, for colour, but mum forgot to buy some. It was delicious. I'm very proud of the quiche. Plan on making some more.



So, I used the filo pastry for the banana cream pie. I've never used filo before, but there were instructions in the box. It's very fragile that stuff, but it tasted okay. For the banana cream bit, I tend to use cheesecake topping. It's delicious. And since my sister got me the electric handwhisk I wanted for my birthday, it was easy to mix up. The pie didn't exactly look grand, but it tasted scrumptious.

Food Fridays - Birthday Edition

Last Friday was my birthday. I spent it baking, in preparation for the food-themed celebration the next day.

I made this delicious cheesecake...



The base is chocolate chip cookies. The top is chocolate chip, with swirls of caramel ice cream sauce. Unfortunately, the topping didn't set. It stayed liquid, so the chocolate chips became more of a layer. It was delicious though.

Then I attempted to make a chocolate marshmallow crunch brownie thing.

Problem 1: I don't have a baking tin, so I ended up cooking it in a cake tin.
Problem 2: It took forever to cook, and by the time I gave up it was practically still liquid on the inside.
Problem 3: The marshmallow layer kept rolling off because it was in a cake tin and not a brownie pan, so they all ended up in the middle.



It may have been a disaster as a brownie, but it was scrumptious.



And then came my best bit of baking. Maple nut cookies. They were a little thin, because I think my mixture was too runny so they spread out too far. And they ended up stuck together in a big pile, but I don't have cooling racks and stacked them to cool, like a muppet. But, they are absolutely adorably scrumdiddlyumptious.



In other birthday baking related news, here's my birthday cake.



Jen made it. It was green :D