Stay tuned... please?

Bad news: I'm a douchebag with the attention span of a newt and can't keep this blog up.
Good news: I'm going home for the holidays which means a) I'll be doing a lot more cooking and b) I'll have access to my step-dad's awesome camera and will therefore be doing a few more posts.
First up, mince pies?

I know, I know, I'm a total weiner.

A delightful photograph of a lady, her pet, and a hotdog.
It's my little way of saying 'I'm sorry'.

No posts in three months??!
I don't even have the excuse of 'I've been busy!' because frankly, I haven't.
I'll try to be super-good and do a post on the party food for my 18th.
Stay tuned folks!
(And try to forgive me?)

In 11 days..

...I start training as a patisserie chef!
Well, technically I start training as a chef chef, but then I'll branch out into doing more desserts etc.

I'm looking forward to this - it's a little baby step towards my ultimate (and whimsical) dream of owning a very cool cafe with beautiful little cakes, a chocolate counter like they have in France, and proper pastries made with butter.

I don't really know what will happen to this blog.
Will I be too cooked out at the end of the day to even contemplate making a meal for one?
I really, really hope not.

See you in a week!

I feel bad about not posting recently.
My laptop broke and I've been using - or not, as it seems - the big communal desktop.
Then I realised that I was going on holiday today (had no idea!) so I obviously can't go ahead with a new one right now. But I promisepromisePROMISE I'll come back with something about homemade pasta (hint: never again).
Hope you all have amazing summery adventures.
x

Tip of the day!

Get ready for beach season
Is swimsuit anxiety kicking in for anyone else yet?
Eat most of your carbs in the morning, and end the day with a light dinner.
Walk more.

Yeah.. that's it.
I don't try hard enough.

I have a shameful secret..

My name is Sophie and I am a fussy eater.

There.
I said it.

Alas, dear friends, it is true. I am and always have been very picky.
It's not that I don't try different foods - how can I not? I'm mixed race after all - but it just so happens that most of what I try I don't like.
I really, really hope I grow out of it, but to be honest I'm not holding my breath.
I mean, how can I write about food, photograph food, savour food, and love food when I don't like half of what I cook?
Remember those cute little spiced beef patties I made on Wednesday? Yeah, didn't eat them.
And the Italian beef stew that I waxed lyrical about? Didn't touch it.
Other things that make me ever so slightly green are:

-fish
-shellfish
-in fact, any seafood
-beef, bar the occasional burger or steak
-dried fruit and candied peel
-curries of any kind
-mushrooms
-lamb
-sausages
-bread & butter pudding
-charcuterie
-stew
-meatballs
-Middle Eastern spicing
-Indian spicing
-risotto
-celery & celeriac
-aubergine
-pork (except bacon, duhh)
-coconut
-lemongrass & lime leaves
-ravioli

Okay, let's stop there before you lose all faith and denounce me as a philistine and person of ill-repute, as this lady clearly does.


I thought I should own up before continuing with this BLOG OF LIES. I am so ashamed.
So next time you read about me fawning over some lovely fat, speckled sausaged that were delivered from the farm, you'll know I'm talking bs.
Oh dear, I really haven't thought this through..

How frankly atrocious of my tastebuds to betray me in this way!

At the moment..

The disadvantage of having your birthday so close to Christmas is that you have to wait a whole year to have gifts bestowed upon you. Those with summer birthdays only have to wait six months.
I want these items so bad that it hurts.
I fear that if I have to wait for another 7 months I may implode.
Yes, I know I shouldn't be focusing on material goods because that's badbadbad, and that other children have nothing, but I can't help it.
Feast your glazzballs on these beauteous objects and tell me you don't feel the same way:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH.
I told you!
Look how beautiful and gorgeous and appealing and charming and colourful and amazing and fantastic and [insert more adjectives here] they all are!
Only 169 days to go...

At the moment..

So I feel I ought to apologise for not posting anything in what feels like weeks but is in actual fact two days.
I haven't been eating anything very interesting.
We did have a chicken dish which was thighs and drumsticks roasted, coated in a sort of Chinese BBQ sauce*, and roasted again. A beancurd, cucumber, beansprout and peanut salad was served alongside. I was planning to write about it because it tasted great but was in a slightly weird mood that day and decided that the photos were, frankly, rubbish. So I forgot about it. Sorry.

But anyway, I was half-heartedly surfing through youtube and stumbled across something called 'Cooking Coarse' (purposefully misspelt). It's a series of little lessons in methods of cooking, rather than actual recipes. I completely agree with his 'philosophy', and ended up watching about 15 of the videos today alone! So to understand what the heck I'm babbling about, I must implore you to check out the below video:




*soy sauce, ketchup, sesame oil, chinese vinegar, five spice powder, sweet dark soy sauce, salt + pepper seasoning (which includes five spice powder, ginger powder, salt and sugar)

At the moment..

I'm listening to Franz Ferdinand on Youtube of all places, since I can't afford the CD right now. Ugh, and I call myself a fan! I should be peddling crack just to be able to purchase it.



I dropped the boy off at nursery today. He was sporting a large cut underneath his eye from some toy-related incident.
I was wondering why the first thing the nursery lady said to me was 'What happened to his eye?' and was even more perplexed when she proceeded to ask him the same question as I was leaving. Being the naive idiot that I am, it didn't occur to me that she might have thought I/mother/step-father had beat on him until I had walken halfway back to the house. So rather unfortuently I am now a renowned child-beater. Fantastic.




On a more positive note, I made cookies!
Yes, yet another batch of deliciousness!
It's okay though, because I'm at the house so the family will eat them all to save me from myself. I just thought they should try the doughy awesomeness.
Today they're extremely grown-up cookies with 70% Green & Black's chocolate and hazelnuts. G&B's chocolate is quite interesting - it almost tastes like black olive and is very intense. I still can't decide if I like it or not.
Also, are cookies something that shouldn't be dressed up? Should they be trashy with bad milk chocolate all the way? Is attempting to make them more sophisticated a travesty? I am very undecided on this most controversial issue.

At the moment..

I'm watching Archie the inventor gyrate suggestively to a musical picnic hamper on Balamory. They also focused in on his sporran-clad crotch which was rather alarming. Children's programme my arse.

Tonight - chilli con carne.