pieces

My version of Nigella's Spanish Chicken using red onions & red skin potatoes. Sometimes I use orange peel, sometimes lemon. Maybe both. I am fickle like that.

I made sushi for the first time. I didn't even use a mat. I am a rebel, see.

He gets up in the dark, leaves the light low as he finds his clothes, kisses me in my hair before shutting the door. "Bye sexy girl" he says.

distracted

It is saturday night and we had plans; the sofa and our favourite TV show (maybe even catching up from 3 weeks ago) yet somehow we found ourselves on the bed and shag ourselves into a sleep coma, waking in the early hours with our legs glued together with his cool stickiness and the imprint of the diamond patterned bedspread pinkly pressed onto my face.

bedridden

He is handy with knots too.

Berry Red

To My Valentine

(Chocolate, Raspberry and Beetroot Cake)

temple soup

Carrot Soup with Miso & Sesame (with thanks and credit to Smitten Kitchen)

I use Clear Spring Organic Sweet White Miso, which, in their online blurb, it is recommended to use (sparingly) instead of milk or cream in soups or mashed potatoes. An excellent tip for dairy-free goodness. 

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds carrots, peeled,sliced

2 leeks, chopped and washed - my option - or an 1 onion, chopped
4 cloves, peeled and smashed
1 tablespoon (at least) finely chopped or grated ginger
4 cups vegetable stock
1/3 cup white miso paste

Toasted sesame oil

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots, onion, leeks (if using) and garlic sauté until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add broth and ginger. Cover and simmer until carrots are tender when pierced, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Puree soup in batches in a blender. In a small bowl, whisk together the miso an a half-cup of the soup. Stir the mixture back into the pot of soup. Taste the soup and season with salt, pepper or additional miso to taste.

Ladle into bowls and garnish each with a drizzle of sesame oil.

(Temple soup: my body is a temple, pure in spirit if not in thought).

                                                                                     

My supper; mashed potato & celeriac, a tin of canned tuna and seasoning - shape into patties and cook in the oven until crispy-hot. I have a thing for tartare sauce.

I seem to need a great amount of sleep this week. 

It is debilitating to be constantly at the point of exhaustion.

dotty love, part 4

In these few years of my sexual development a particular characteristic of mine has become pronouncedly diverse. Whereas, when I was less confident, I used to hide my orgasms between tightly closed thighs, muffling their intensity in my own flesh, these days I prefer to fling my knees as far apart as they will go and scream my exuberance for him and I to share.

*

I forget to say: Don't forget the sun cream, and get those freckles checked!

For M

Count the number of ways to cook red cabbage; 1 .. 2 .. 3 .. and so forth. The varieties are infinite, delightful and always easy.

I have my favourites.

Red Cabbage with Apple  (perfect with shepherd's pie) 

1 red cabbage 

2 eating apples
2 onions, halved and peeled
2 garlic cloves

nutmeg, cinnamon

3 tablespoons soft brown sugar
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
butter
Shred a red cabbage (I use my new mandolin), a couple of onions and a couple of cored apples. Layer in an ovenproof dish with a couple of cloves of minced garlic, half a grated nutmeg and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of soft brown sugar and the same of white wine vinegar. Dot with a little butter (or a splash of oil), cover with a lid and bake in a low oven (150ºC) for 2 and half hours. Reheat at will.

Red Cabbage with Orange  (ideal with baked gammon)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red cabbage
1 onion, halved and peeled
1 tablespoon sea salt
3 tablespoons soft light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups red wine
Juice of an orange
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
2 eating apples

Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed saucepan or casserole. Finely slice the peeled and halved onion into thin half moons and add to the pan with the salt; this will stop it catching. Fry gently until the onion softens but doesn’t become coloured.

Finely shred the cabbage and stir it into the onion in the pan layering it over the top. Sprinkle the sugar over the cabbage, and then add the wine, orange juice and mixed spice. Peel and core the apples, and then chop them into small pieces. Add these to the pan, and when everything has wilted down a little carefully give the pan a stir.

Cover with a lid and cook very gently at the lowest possible heat for about 2 hours. It really can’t be overcooked and is often better reheated and eaten the next day. Check the seasoning when the cabbage is ready at the end, as the flavors only really come out once the vegetables have cooked down and softened.

And one more .. using the cherry coke stock from Nigella's Cherry Coke Baked Ham. Nothing else needed in the pan and it makes the most divine braised cabbage. 

More freckles to come.