Supernatural, let me count the ways I love you

Or, the ways I started to love you, or the ways that I realised I loved you from the beginning.

The music.  Oh the music.  I can't remember ever watching a TV show where the music was so integral to the story.  Guardians of the Galaxy did the same, with Quill's mixtapes (I wanted to call him Kevin there... why.. brain...just why...).  Dean's taste for classic rock permeates every episode, until approximately season 6/7.  It sets the tone, it establishes the brothers' background, it tells you about their tastes, it provides a constant in their chaotic lives.

I found Dean's playlist on Spotify (it's probably this one), and started listening to it and then stuck the songs onto a playlist for myself and now I have a Supernatural theme wherever I go.  As an added bonus, the child now likes Kansas' Carry On Wayward Son.  Don't know it?  It's played at the start of every season finale and it takes all my self control not to whack it up to 11 and throw my arms about.  Here are the lyrics:

Carry on my wayward son
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high
Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say

Carry on my wayward son
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know
On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say

Carry on my wayward son
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you

Carry on my wayward son
For there'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

I have ALL THE FEELS.  Honestly, the song makes me emotional and it wouldn't have done if it were not now indelibly connected with the Winchester brothers.

Dean's appetites. For food and sex.  I think that Dean is a pretty uncomplicated man.  He hunts, he's loyal to his family, he'd do anything for his family, he drinks, he eats, he has sex, he watches Westerns and Scooby Doo and horror films and he's not filled with existential angst.  Mostly.

He loves his food. He takes such great pleasure in his food.  It's an ongoing thing, not a couple of throw away scenes or pieces or dialogue.  I don't recall ever seeing this on a telly show before.  Buffy's Giles had a hankering for jaffa cakes and tea, but usually the specifics of the food isn't such a big thing on telly shows.

Same for the sex.  Dean likes sex, he's often out hooking up with a woman, he'll flirt with everyone, he's usually successful when he's hitting on women, but we also see the times when he's not.  I'm used to prudish America telly, where enjoying sex is reserved for villains, and casual sex is frowned upon.  Again, my mind casts back to Buffy, which had a horrible attitude to sex.  Thinking of Smallville, it was all very vanilla and lovey, until Lois came along and it was clear she liked sex too.  That struck me as unusual when I was watching it, and then she obviously ended up with Clark, presumably having lots of hardcore sex and introducing Clark to kinks.

Dean Winchester doesn't really do long term.  There's a few longish term relationships, but mostly he's just shagging around.  Importantly, these one night stands AREN'T criticised by the show, it's not used to show that he's gone evil, or is possessed, or is on a morally downward spiral.  He just likes sex.  And porn.  He doesn't disrespect the women he shags or watches either.  He just enjoys sex.  I love that.

Sam and Dean's unspoken conversations.

They have all the facial expressions and all the reactions.  They don't need dialogue to get feelings or opinions across, it's all there on their faces, plain as day.  I don't know if the show was planned like that or if it developed from the two main's chemistry, but it works.  They are brothers, growing up they just had each other, their Dad and Bobby.  These physical conversations reinforce that and it;s a really good use of screentime.

The actors' camaraderie.  They just seem like they genuinely like each other.  I like that.

It's a show about brothers.  Family too, but mostly brothers.  I don't usually like such male oriented shows but this works.  I have a lot of thoughts about how the women in the shows are treated too, but that is a whole other blogpost.  It will include joy and rage. 

There is a frigging twitter called Jared as Cats.  How can you not love a show that inspires such delightfully mad fandom?

That's it for tonight. More tomorrow. Probably.

New year goals - an update

In January I wrote about what I wanted to achieve this year. In February I did an update.  I want to update again, so here goes.

Find a work/life balance

- Achieved.  I have been part time in a  new role since March and my mental health has improved considerably.  I still get tied up in knots and make stupid decisions but the balance is vastly, vastly better.

Spend more time with my toddler.

- As I now work 2.5 days a week only I get lots more time with my boy and it's wonderful.  I've got to know him much better, we do loads of fun things and he is much happier having me around more.  I've had a period of several weeks of frustration and crossness as he goes through a difficult phase, but that is far preferable to working full time in a job I don't like and can't do.

Teach the toddler to say thank you, tidy up after himself and like vegetables.

- He is now so polite! He says please, thank you and you're welcome in nearly every appropriate situation.  Other people comment on how polite and kind he is.  I'm in awe of his manners, he's better than me.  After prompting, he now tidies up with little complaint.  He is also eating vegetables now - that was clearly just a developmental thing and just took time for him to get there but he's got a better diet now.

Do yoga a few times a week

- Not managed this. But I have booked an outside personal trainer session for next weekend so we'll see how that goes.

Spend less money

- Given that I earn a lot less than I did I am now far more careful with money and I budget for and record everything I spend, so I am far more in control now.

Work on reducing my trichotillomania symptoms

- I started having electrolysis in August and my electrologist is amazing.  After my first session with her I threw away the tweezers.  15 years of relying on the damn things and I threw them away with not much concern. Since the start of August I have plucked on two occasions, which were each days that an appointment was cancelled.  Inbetween appointments I shave or trim my chin hairs and the only hair removal is by my electrologist at the appointment. I have just done 2 weeks without having any hair removed by myself or her (due to a gap in appointments).  I never ever thought I would be able to do that.  My skin is looking far better, far less pink, and the hairs are considerably finer and lighter in colour,  I am amazed.

Be more appreciative of my parents

- Hmm. I don't know if I do this, I can't be objective about my relationship with them.

Get my asthma and knee twinges under control

- Asthma is up and down. I took ibuprofen for a knee flare up and it made me wheezy.  My knee flare ups are less regular than they were, but I do need to work on strengthening the muscles.  Hopefully the personal trainer can help with that.

Cycle to work more - don't get the bus because it is easy.

- I usually cycle.  If my asthma is acting up, or my knee, I get the bus, but mostly I cycle.  I have realised how exhausted I was in my last job so actually I don't feel bad about not cycling in every day then.

Give up sugar for lent

- I did this. It was really hard, then easy, then hard again.  It hasn't stopped me wanting sugar but I go through periods of reducing my sugar intake. I'll do it again next year.

Sugar free (ish)

I've nearly completed my Lenten fast of sugar. Tomorrow (thursday 29th march) is ky last day.
I've done pretty well. I have accidentally had sugar a few times but only in the following things:
Ketchup and brown sauce. I hadn't thought to check they had sugar.
Liquorice - i thought i was buying sugar free. I wasn't so i put the packet away after 2 bites.
Gravy - after the first time i realised sugar is an ingredient. I've since knowingly had ut two or three times because I was in a grump and didn't want a dry dinner.
Crackers - i have absentmindedly ate my son's leftovers, realising after one bite they are sugary.
Croissant - 2 bites of. First bite was automatically going for my son's leftovers, second bite was trying to persuade myself it was sugar free. It wasn't.
Cappuccinos- i kept forgettibg to request no chocolate. But when i was asked i said no.by week 3 i was requesting lattes instead.
Alcohol - i chose to not quit alcohol and have had my usual 2 beers, or 2 gins, or two glasses of wine one night on the weekend.

I have found sugar free chocolate, sugar free cereal bars and made sugar free scones. I continued to eat bread and didn't think to check the ingredients. I've eaten a lot of dried fruit and sugar free crisps. I have had honey on toast a few times. I discovered choc shots, like a sugar free hot chocolate but made with fruit juice, agave syrup and cacao bean powder.

The sugar cravings went at week 3. That was the point I stopped wanting to cry whenever I walked past the chocolate aisle. That feeling lasted a week then on the final countdown i have been craving cake again.

I would do it again, but I probably wouldn't fast on Sundays. Allegedly that's how the Catholics do it, and i was brought up catholic (it never stuck) so I wouldn't feel it was cheating.  I think i might end up eating less sugary stuff after this but i am not going to give it up forever.

It's been an experience and I'm glad I've done it. 

New year goals

I wrote about what I wanted out of this new year.  I was at quite a low point when I wrote this but it seems I have already achieved some things. Let's see:

• Find a work/life balance and Spend more time with my toddler.

Achieved.  I go part time soon.  I am so relieved.  I am already happier and planning things to do with my son.

• Teach the toddler to say thank you, tidy up after himself and like vegetables.

This should be achievable when I'm part time and have more energy to parent him.  Mind you, he's already started saying sorry and excuse me more, so part of him learning thank you and please and other manners is just waiting for him to get old enough to get it.  I also want to teach him table manners because right now he's atrocious and I don't feel like I can take him out to lunch.  Although going part time will mean I can't afford to take him out to lunch.  As for the vegetables, he's starting to broaden his tastes anyway, nibbling on the odd bit of green stuff.  I will be following the advice in the First Bite book I mentioned in my last blog post and hopefully he will have a greater range of tastes soon.

• Spend less money.

Going part time means I will have less money to spend, so this one should be easy...

• Get my asthma and knee twinges under control/Do yoga a few times a week/cycle to work more

My asthma is already loads better - preventive inhalers are the bomb.  When my asthma is better I should be less prone to chest infections which means I will be able to cycle more.  being part time means I will spend more time on my feet and less at a desk which should be good for my health and my knee and. Doing yoga will mean that my knee should get better as well. I have had problems these last few days so I did a few sun salutations and seated forward folds tonight and was a bit narked at how far I didn't move.  So, another reason to do more regular stretches.

• Work on reducing my trichotillomania symptoms

I've not done anything about this yet. I appear to be pulling less at work, which is good, I hope that will continue.  I plan to get electrolysis on my chin done too, if I can afford it.  If that gets rid of some of the fuckers then my trich should reduce.

• Be more appreciative of my parents

I'm trying.  I've certainly be more truthful (in a kind way) to them recently.

• Give up sugar for lent

This will happen from Wednesday.  I will give up all processed sugar, including savoury food that has sugar added to it.  The exceptions are that I will keep eating honey and I will have alcohol as normal.  So about twice a month then.  I might blog it.  It might not be interesting and might just detail my dreams of cake, but wevs.  My blog, my writings.

Books that I have read recently

Some thoughts about a few things I have read recently:

First Bite - How we learn to eat by Bee Wilson
This is a non fiction book I recently finished reading. I don't think I've ever been so enthralled by non fiction. This book is highly readable and absolutely fascinating.  There are 8 chapters - Likes and dislikes, Memory, Children's food, Feeding, Brothers and Sisters, Hunger, Disorder and Change.  It covers how tastes are formed, why babies and toddlers don't like certain tastes, how we can teach children - and adults- to change their tastes, the relationship between eating and hunger and how family affects how we eat.  And more.

Seeing as I have a vegetable refusing 2 year old this book was a real eye opener.  It's not a parenting guide, it isn't about getting your child to eat, but it does contain some useful info about eating well.  A lot of it is written from the viewpoint that a great majority of people have disordered eating patterns, that we don't eat purely to fulfil hunger and that anyone can change their tastes with time and repeated exposure to new tastes.  I took a few things away from it, which are:

• We should enjoy every mouthful we eat.  If we don't like what we are eating, we should change it.
• If you want to enjoy new flavours, try them.  Try them repeatedly.  Give yourself  20 or so exposures to them before you decide if you like them or not.
• Cooking and eating should be pleasurable.  You can learn to enjoy cooking and eating.
• Children don't like bitter food.  But they can learn to.  If they refuse vegetables, don't turn it into a battle, don't hide veg in the rest of their dinners.  Offer them tastes of things outside of mealtimes, a lick will do, or a tiny pea sized amount of it the new food, which they can put in their mouth and spit out again.  Reward the try with a sticker or similar, do not reward them with chocolate or other food.  persevere with new tastes.  They will get it eventually and they can learn to like bitter food.
• If we feed our children sweet things to cheer them up when they are little, or as a reward for doing a good thing, then they grow up to associate sweet things with feeling good, and these sweet things become comfort food.  If we were to reward our kids with healthy food they would grow up to associate healthy veg etc with comfort.  Wouldn't that be a fab thing.
• Children's formula milk is manufactured to taste sweet because that's what adults think children's food should taste like.  The tastes and likes of children are most heavily influenced between the ages of 4 and 7 months.  What they eat then has a correlation to what they like as older kids and adults.  If we flavoured formula milk with spinach or other veg they would be more open to these vegetables as they get older.
• Breastmilk contains the flavours of what the mother eats.  However eating lots of veg and other good stuff does not guarantee that the toddler will like vegetables.  Don't I know it.
• When a child or adult is disgusted by a food they are genuinely disgusted.  Force feeding them the food won't make them like it, it will just continue to disgust them. If you want to get over your disgust of a certain food you need to repeatedly an gently expose yourself to it over a period of time.
• Food is a joyous thing and it's quite sad that lots of people don't enjoy a wide range of flavours and textures.

Bike Topia - Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories in Extreme Futures
This is a brilliantly enjoyable set of short science fiction stories which involve the use of bicycles.  I think cycling is the most civilised way to travel, and in a future where there may be little petrol or diesel available it makes sense that people will rely on bikes.  And that those in power will control the use of bikes.  I enjoyed all stories apart from one, which I found quite disturbing, but that's down to my personal sensitive points.  Find more info about the book here:
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/6675

Hitler's Forgotten Children by Ingrid von Oelhafen and Tim Tate
This is a non fiction book about the children of the Lebensborn - those with racially pure parents that were selected to be raised in Nazi ideology and to form the Nazi warriors of the future.  I'm halfway through and so far we have mostly covered Ingrid's early post war life and been given an overview of her adulthood.  As a young child she found out her parents fostered her and I have just got to the bit where she is discovering that she was a Lebensborn child and she is trying to track down her biological family.  This is a really interesting book that makes clear the horror of a government directed drive to create racially pure citizens, and shows how not knowing your origins can seriously affect your life.

A food tour of Brugges, Brussels and Dordrecht

The best part of going away anywhere is the food.

In Brugges:

In Brussels:

In Dordrecht:

Foody souvenirs from Brugges:

Favourite places to eat were the Carpe Diem tearoom (red bush tea served with orange slices, coffee, waffle and pancake with mixed fruit), the Li O Lait cafe (chai latte, cappuccino with squirty cream on top, bagels and tapas) and the Moka cafe in the Galleria near Brussels Grand Place (hot chocolate, sparkling water and apple pancake).  If you go to Belgium you must buy Speculoos biscuits and chocolate sprinkles (for putting on your toast for breakfast).

I should also give an honourable mention to something non foody, but comic related.  The De Striep comic shop on Katelijnestraat.  It sells American stuff (English and translated) and a massive, massive range of Bande Dessinee comics.  It made my superhero taste feel really immature and inadequate.  It's just a lovely, lovely space to be in and the range of stuff they have is breathtaking.  It's so different to a UK comic shop.  This is their bag:

Photo-an-hour day

Every so often on twitter I see photographic challenges.  I suspect these are designed around the idea of getting nice shots, showing off your photographer, and I suppose improving your photography.  However I just like taking pictures of things, and recording my life, and jumping on bandwagons so when I decided to do it the pictures were obviously pretty bad, but since I did decide to do it I'm going to do a blog about them.  Lucky you!

I did this last Saturday.  I think I was spurred on by the idea that I'd be in all day and so would have my camera to hand.  I got up late, about 11am, and realised this meant I'd have less hours to forget to take the photos, which seemed like a good idea.

So. My first photo. Breakfast at 11.40am:

Or rather half a breakfast. I have no idea what was on the plate.  Possibly a cookie.  More likely toast with jam.  In the bowl is thick porridge with sultanas.  Getting up late means I'm much hungrier than when I get up at 7 or 8am for work, which is why I had the porridge and unidentifiable but eaten plate of stuff.  Usually I just have porridge.  The pills are a combination of vitamin pills and an antihistamine for a shitty dust mite allergy I developed about 8 years ago.

Second photo.  Our fully stocked fridge, 12.40pm:

We do 90% of our weekly food shop at the market and we get our vegetables from the organic veg stall.  It's more expensive than non organic stuff, but it's better for you.  I like shopping from the same people each week and I like now knowing what you can get.  We just buy whatever they've got and then I think about what to make with it.  This sometimes means we have a mix of assorted veg which don't really go, but we usually manage to use it all up.
The brussell sprouts got turned into bubble and squeak (brussells, cabbage, garlic, onion, butter to fry, bacon and potatoes, it was delicious).
The mushrooms eventually got used in a vegetarian bean chili.
The fennel, cucumber and celery get turned into a salad for my lunch (add balsamic vinegar and pepper, have with cheese and crackers or add to brown rice).
The red peppers can get put into a tomato and pepper sauce for pasta (always add sun dried tomatoes) or can go into the chili mentioned above.

Third photo.  Tea, 1.54 pm:

I had to work on Saturday and I think this tea was me reconciling myself to it and gearing up to make it happen.  My mug is wonderful.  You could almost say super.  Boom tish.  Sorry.

Fourth photo.  The en-warmening. 14.42pm:

I'm not very good at remembering to take photos on the hour. Oops.
OK, so this photo is all about the stuff that makes me warm.  I loathe winter.  I hate the cold and I'm too tight to turn our house into a sauna, so I wrap up from October to March.  In this picture is:

• My amazing fire coloured fleece/knitted jumper
• My ombre/dark fire fleece/knitted mittens, which are perfect for winter and keep me going.
• My slippers, a couple of years old now but warm and fluffy.
• The blanket we bought in Derbyshire over Christmas which quite often goes across my legs.

Fifth photo. Leisure activities, 15.58pm:

I'd been working for a couple of hours by this point but my boyfriend was having a much better Saturday.  He was making marmalade - that orange mess in the pan - and watching the birds.  You can probably just see the bird feeder through the windows.  1 minute before I took this photo the feeder was covered in blue tits, great tits, blackbirds and long tailed tits.
The blackbirds have worked out how to sit on the seed holder and get the food out, and they can eat 70% of the food in a day.

Sixth photo.  The work station.  16.48pm:

The book isn't part of the work.  That's the boyfriend's.  It's a collection of Edgar Allen Poe stories, non fiction and poetry and is apparently quite dire.  I appear to have switched mugs by this point, to a British Sea Power (a band) bee gone mug.  The pepper mill was there since my mid afternoon lunch, which started off as heinz chicken noodle soup.  I soon realised that was pretty rank, threw it out, and had noodles, frozen beans and cheese instead.  With pepper.

Seventh photo. Computing data, 17.31pm:

Twitter is what I would have liked to have been doing.  Looking up synonyms for combat is what I was actually doing.  For work.  Yes, I was still working at 5.30pm on Saturday.  It's a good thing I quite like my job.

Eighth photo.  Casual cosplay, 18.23pm:

I'd by this point finished work (hooray!) and had changed to go out for dinner. The blue top is a dress that I added the blue lantern patch to a few years ago for a Blue Lantern outfit for LSCC.  I put the green light cardigan because a) it's winter and the dress is sleeveless and I get chilly, and b) blue needs to be combined with green for hope to work.  Only DC Lantern fans are going to get that.

Ninth photo.  Starter.  7.30pm ish:

From now on times are approximate because I was too busy with dinner to tweet the photos at the time I took them.

We went to an vegetarian Indian restaurant called Namaste, which I hadn't been to for a couple of years,  It's really good.  This started is called Special Chat and it's a mixture of puri bread, potato, chick peas, bombay mix, onions, yogurt, tamarind sauce, pomegranetes and chat masala (I don't know what that is).  It's served at room temperature, which in February in England means cold.  It's nice, but I found it a bit much towards the end of the bowl.  I suspect it would be better when the weather is hot.

Tenth photo.  The main course, 8pm ish:

  

I'd been determined to get this since we'd decided on the restaurant.  It's called a dosa.  It's a massive pancake stuffed with spicy potatoes and peas, served with a runny dahl soup and a coconut chutney and it's delicious.
The thing in the background that looks like a pizza is an uttapam.  It has chillis and onions on it so really wasn't the sort of thing I liked.  It also had a dahl with it.
My boyfriend got the pav bhaji which is a vegetable curry served with rotis and was also delicious.
This restaurant is so damn good,

Eleventh photo.  The remnants of dessert.  9.30pm ish:

I forgot to take a picture of it before I ate it so here's a photo of the dessert's empty bowl.  It was ice cream with a gulab jamun (little doughnut in cardamom syrup).  I preferred the ice cream and syrup to the doughnut but it was all pretty good, and small, so you weren't overpowered by it.  There were also some nuts in it, I think.  My friend got the dish named Vegan Paradise, which is chopped up banana, cashew nuts, almonds and mango pulp.  That looked amazing.

Bonus photo: picture of the artwork on the walls.

One of the reasons this restaurant is so good is because they don't serve alcohol.  They allow you to bring your own wine and beer but you have to pay a corkage charge, which means people don't turn up and get wrecked.  The emphasis is on the food and creating dishes which suit the vegetables.

Twelfth photo.  Bedtime.  10.30pm ish:

I've been reading this book for a few weeks and it's not bad.  Some stories are fun and surprising, others are more dull.  I like reading fantasy anthologies, I find them a great way to get to know new writers.  So much of fantasy is turgid by the numbers crap I am dissuaded from just picking up a new title.  But this one is alright.

So that was my day.  I told you the photos would be terrible quality!  Did you notice what was missing from this day?  Comics, that's what.  Because I was working I didn't get to the shop.  I intended to go in today, but had to work late, so I determined to go in tomorrow.  I think I've got 2 or 3 weeks worth of stuff to pick up.

Rogan josh recipe

I've decided that I want to make lots of Indian food, however I only have the time and space to do this on the weekend, so I think that for a little while Saturdays and Sundays will be reserved for Indian food.  Given that, I'm going to blog the rogan josh recipe I did last Saturday.

Beef rogan josh, from a Madhur Jaffery book, adapted by me.  Serves 2.

Ingredients
2 inch piece of root ginger
7 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon olive/groundnut/rapeseed oil (we use rapeseed oil)
10 cardamom pods
2 bay leaves (or more if your bay leaves are really old as they'll have lost their flavour)
1 inch piece of cinnamon stick.
Half a pound of stewing beef
2 or 3 onions, depending on how much you like onions
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander (or use about a tablespoon of whole coriander seeds, but crush them in a pestle and mortar)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1.5 tablespoons paprika - NOT the smoked variety, because that is rank
2 teaspoons of tomato puree (or a good dollop squeezed from the tube)
300ml water
The recipe also calls for a bit of salt for seasoning, but I never add salt to my meals.  You may want to.

If you don't like your food too spicy reduce the amount of cayenne pepper and paprika.

Method and commentary on how I cook it.
1. The recipe directs you to bland the garlic and ginger in a food processor, with 4 tablespoons of water, to get a smooth paste.  I can never be arsed doing this as it seems like a hassle to get out the blender and then it's another thing for my boyfriend to wash up.  So I just chop the ginger and garlic up into small pieces.  You could also crush the garlic, but if you do that, don't do it just yet.  If your ginger is all woody, throw it out and use some better, fresher ginger.
2. Put the oil into a non stick pan and turn the heat up medium high.  The recipe says you need 6 tablespoons of oil to create a proper sauce, and recommends spooning the excess of the top of the sauce once cooked.  I refuse to use that much oil so I use just one tablespoon to start and would add more if needed once I got to the meaty bit.
3. When the oil is hot put in the cardamom pods, bay leaves and cinnamon stick.  If you've cinnamon piece came from a longer stick and you've broken it off and it's now in lots of pieces, that's fine, don;t worry about it.
4. Put in the meat.  If you've got a decent sized pan it should all go in in one layer.  If you are using a small pan put the meat in one layer at a time.  On a medium heat, brown the meat on all sides and remove onto a plate to sit until later on in the recipe.  If you have more meat to cook do the same with the rest of it.
5. Add the onions to the oil left in the pan.  Fry over a medium heat until the onions have softened.  Stir occasionally while this happens to stop it sticking.
6. Add the chopped ginger and garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
7. Add the cumin, coriander, cayenne and paprika. Stir so it doesn't all dry up and add the tomato puree.
8. Add the meat along with any oil and spices on the plate with it, and the water.  Add salt if you hate your heart.  Stir everything.
9. Bring this to the boil, then turn the heat down, put the lid on and simmer it for one and a half hours, or two, if you think the meat needs to be more tender.

I eat this with vegetable pilau rice and dahl and it's lovely.  This turned out hotter than I remembered so we also had yogurt with it.  Be careful of all the whole spices in it though, especially the flakes of cinnamon stick.

It takes a long time, but it's simple and well worth the effort.  It's a good one to make if you are having a bad day, as it's not delicate or fiddly and it can be left if you need to have a sit down and a cry.

I want to try making samosas this weekend, which I think I'll serve with this dahl, sag aloo and probably some spiced up rice.

Linky time

Look, here's a great post of the vast majority of skirt, bag, dress, shoe etc styles:
http://fullofwhoa.tumblr.com/post/107079509098/dixiejos-right-here-is-it-everything-you-ever
There's a few styles missing, but the vast majority are there.  It looks useful for when I want to start making clothes.

Alternate universe Harry Potter where Aunt Petunia takes him in and loves him:
http://katzenfabrik.tumblr.com/post/106896187643/ink-splotch-what-if-when-petunia-dursley-found
It's beautiful and gut wrenching and well worth reading.

A North Korean defector's view on The Interview:
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/23066/1/i-watched-the-interview-with-a-north-korean-defector
Really interesting.

A really, really good dahl recipe:
http://georginahayden.com/my-go-to-south-indian-dal-recipe/
Seriously good.  Seriously seriously good.  The recipes on this woman's site are great - always tasty and simply to do (at least I've chosen the simple to do ones - I leave the complicated ones!)

A little trip to Lille

I went to Lille with work a few weeks ago and I took photos.

Lille is a strange little city. It's grey and concrete and a little bit grotty, but nonetheless has a certain charm to it that makes me rather quite like it.  I didn't get to see much of it because I was there at a work conference.  We stayed int he world's shittest hotel - it smelt of smoke, it was noisy, the temperature control was just bizzare and the sliding door to the bathroom broke so I had to really struggle with pushing it open and closed.  The shower was a tray with a curtain and at the end of each shower the floor was sodden with pools of water.  When I arrived I found this delightful towel on the bed:

It doesn't make up for the shitty hotel.  We went out to a cafe for the breakfast each morning - croissants and coffee - which was alright.  The second morning I got some street harassment - it was 7.30 am and a bloke in his 20s/30s starts walking beside me and asking me questions.  Fuck off.  I thought he was going to follow us into the cafe at one point, but thankfully he didn't.

The conference had some good stuff:

Mmmm delicious French pastries.

Artisan lemonade.  They also had pink and yellow stuff.  It was tasty.

Being so close to Belgium there was good beer:

And food baked in beer:

This was the sweetest stewed beef I had ever tasted.

We also briefly visited the Christmas market before we left:

It sold tat.  Made up gifts that only exist to fill the consumerist clamouring in our capitalist souls.  I didn't buy anything.

There was this ferris wheel.  If you look closely you can see that the cars are painte dliek Christmas puddings:

I read Raising Steam while I was there.  This page reminded me that the romantic relationships I want in fiction are those where the couple has been together several years and are comfortable with each other and still deeply in love, but also have lives outside of the relationship:

In summary, if you can visit Lille, do it.  Also read Raising Steam.