My extraordinarily ordinary life!
It was quite the frosty morning this morning and Jack Frost was quite the busy boy! It is such a trial walking to the train station in cold weather and it does take its toll on my nails and cuticles. But as the train was passing through the frosted trees bare of their leaves and the undisturbed meadows, I couldn’t help but wonder at the beauty of it all!
When everything is undisturbed, quite and pristine, everything seems to be right in the world.
Tonight is a night for accentuating the positives! And I am determined to do just that.
While it did snow today and the snow created a lot of upheaval for the commuting public, the snow does look very pretty when it lays.
On Friday, I was reading an email from Emerald Street about the Twitter folk that they follow. One of the people they follow and they recommend their readers follow, apparently, tweets “witty and oh-so-true observations”. So I followed the person and then read through the tweets that they had posted previously.
While reading the tweets, I sat there thinking, “Awww, I say these things too! Why don’t I have two thousand odd followers? I make witty-slash-pithy comments too. Why don’t people find my comments funny and oh-so-true?” A little voice replied to my mental whining and said, “Maybe it’s because you whine and don’t really say things matter-of-factly?”
I think I’m fairly normal and I have a fairly normal amount of self-confidence. I like to think I have a realistic idea of how capable I am. I think when I was younger, I used to think I was the bees’ knees. I used to think I could do everything: sing, dance, write, speak properly publicly, perform on stage and be, generally, amazing. I was raised to believe in myself and my abilities. I was raised to know how to carry myself in public. I think I was blessed to have parents who raised me in an environment that encouraged realistic self-confidence. But there are days when I think back to when I was younger and wondered whether I thought I was better than I was?
I mean, if I was truly witty and funny (I was about two or three years old when I had a funny conversation with my grandfather. I said to him “I love you Lolo!”–Lolo is grandfather in Filipino–to which he replied “I love you too!” Apparently, to my grandfather’s delight, I replied “I love you three!” He apparently thought that was very smart!), why don’t more people follow me on Twitter or follow my blog? I made the same observations as that woman Emerald Street recommended their readers follow (albeit in a whiny and maybe annoying tone). How come they didn’t notice me?
After this realisation, I’ve just realised that I do want attention, despite the protestations otherwise! I love the attention I get on Twitter when people reply to or retweet my tweets. My heart does a little dance when people follow me (and you cannot believe the crash when I realise that the person following me is a spam bot!). I love it when people read my blog. I smile when I see how many people follow my blog or like my blog post or even visit my blog.
I am still disappointed that not a lot of people post comments on my blog. I sometimes still wonder why my blog doesn’t get more comments or visits? Mind you, as soon as I start going down this narcissistic road, I tell myself, quite sternly that there are over 7 billion people in the world and there are tens of millions of bloggers out there. I am only one drop in an ocean of bloggers and I write about the most common of blog topics: food, books and family. I like to think I have an amazing writing style because I write like I talk and in my head I sound interesting. But then again, that’s me, and I have a healthy sense of self appreciation (I think we should all have a healthy dose of self-respect and self-confidence, otherwise we’d all be wringing our hands pathetically all the time!). The truth is, I may not really sound amazing or my writing style might really, really suck (oh dear!).
I think sometimes when a person is highly adaptable and seems to thrive in different environments, one forgets that adaptability doesn’t necessarily mean that when one adapts, one is amazing. I sometimes forget that I’ve moved to England and while I speak English better than most people, I don’t necessarily converse in English in quite the same way! I forget that my expressions aren’t necessarily British. I may speak English but not necessarily British English, with the same nuances and the same colloquialisms.
I think I crave the attention because, like everyone else, I want validation. Validation that my thoughts, my ideas and my values matter. We all want that. Validation that we matter. I think that’s why social media has the effect that it does. Humans want validation, however they get it. People want to know that someone, somewhere in the world thinks the same way.
I think we forget that the people who give us the most validation are the people who love us, who care about us. Because they listen to us, give us the time of day and even if they don’t agree with every single word that comes out of our mouths, they still respect us because what we say comes from who we are. And they respect who we are.
I am thankful for the 229 followers that I have because somehow they provide validation (even if they might be bots or spammers anyway!) that I crave. But the end of the day, what I appreciate the most are the people in my life who love me for me, my faults and my frailties. They provide the validation that I need. They make me feel that I matter. A lot.
I haven’t blogged in a while and I think it’s quite fitting that my next post is about family.
A little family book promotion can’t be bad, can it? My cousin Karen Bendersky has written a book with Catherine Chastain-Elliot called College Orientation. It’s available on Amazon on to pre-order and the release date is 01 January 2013. Amazon describes the book as:
College Orientation targets freshmen entering four-year institutions and is designed for use from college orientation programs until graduation day and beyond. It provides a roadmap for campus staff and faculty offering orientation programs to facilitate behaviors that increase retention, improve four-year graduation rates, and ultimately, reduce student loan debt. Students receive the information they need to adapt to college life and stay on track towards a degree–all the while learning behaviors that promote achievement after graduation. This comprehensive reference tool is written from an insider’s point of view and has a distinct focus on promoting appropriate college conduct. It covers a multitude of topics that help students navigate the university system while learning how to adapt this information to their future workplace.
If you’ve got someone prepping for college or, as they say in the UK, uni, this book might come in handy!
I’ve been wanting to bake scones since I saw this Gary Rhodes show on TV. He made making scones look so easy. Mind you, I’ve always believed these experienced chefs always make everything look so easy to make!
So I started looking up scone recipes. I started with opening Paul Hollywood’s book. The recipe was quite interesting because it used bread flour instead of regular flour. I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t taste like the scones that I’d loved so much from The Delaunay counter. So I decided to look through Mary Berry’s Baking Bible. I looked at Mary’s recipe and thought this was going to taste more traditionally scone-y.
Mary’s Baking Bible is lovely because the instructions are straightforward and not formidable at all. It tells you what to do and if you do it, then it’ll come out wonderful. The recipe said it would make 20 small scones and it made 21. I probably made a couple of scones too thin, which made it possible to make an extra scone.
When the scones came out the came out soooooo lovely and golden brown!
I couldn’t not have scones, clotted cream and jam. I’d been having quite the sickly week as there is a bug making its rounds at work, so I thought I deserved a tiny bit of a treat. Because I was feeling a bit blecchy, I was worried about how the scones would turn out. It was definitely a comforting treat. The next time I do Mary’s scones, I’ll put a bit of fruit in it! Should make for lovely fruity scones!
I am a wannabe domestic goddess (you wouldn’t think so if you saw what my front room looked like! Martha Stewart I definitely am not!) and I have illusions of joining the Great British Bake Off. I say illusions because I am in no way, shape or form ready to bake at that level just yet! I say “just yet” because it is the great dream…and I am slowly self-training my way into readiness.
I love to cook and I adore my tiny kitchen. But there are days when I really don’t want to spend to much time in it. Tuesdays, more often than not, are days when I don’t really want to cook. It’s my I’m-so-tired-I-could-cry day for some reason. So on a Tuesday night, I will usually find myself sitting on the train hoping there are leftovers in the fridge, or me buying a ready meal from the supermarket to pop in the oven when I get home or there is the phoning-takeaway-of-choice route.
Tonight however, is different. Tonight is fajita night! While I cheated yet again tonight (I bought a fajita spice packet from the supermarket!), here’s a fajita spice mix recipe that I know works really well:
Ingredients:
Spice Mix
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1-2 teaspoons chili powder (or go without, this really depends on how hot you want it to be!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika (sweet variety, or if you can find the smoked variety, that will work too)
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon crushed chicken bouillon cube
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
650g chicken thighs, diced (I use chicken thighs because they don’t dry out as much as chicken breasts)
1 medium sized white onion, sliced thinly
1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow bell pepper, julienned (pepper colours can be changed, of course, depending on what’s available)
Directions
And there you go! A meal that’s quick, easy and surprisingly healthy (especially if you go easy on the condiments!).
I’ve been looking for a pan de sal recipe that I can work with and I have think I may have found it.
Pan de sal is a Filipino bread roll that is sold at very nearly every corner bakery shop in the Philippines. I’ve missed it so much that I’ve told myself it’s necessary for me to learn how to make it. This is the third adaptation of a recipe that I’ve seen online. As usual, I read and reread the recipe to make sure I could follow the steps without reading through the recipe over and over (even if I had the iPad open on the recipe anyway!). I always worry when I’m making bread because I’m never sure it’s going to turn out right. But there was something right about how the dough looked while it was being kneaded in the Kenwood. I kneaded the dough by hand and the dough felt right then too. When I oiled the dough to prepare it for proofing, it looked right. Ha! Listen to me waxing philosophical about bread dough!
After following the baking instructions and making the bread rolls, I must admit, I was a bit worried again. It might’ve have looked right as proofing dough but I always worry that I’m too heavy handed with anything I bake! With a lot of whispered prayers I popped the trays into to oven and waited (impatiently) for 15 minutes until the timer pinged to tell me the rolls were ready. They looked gorgeous and they tasted even better. They finally tasted like the pan de sal I remember from the Philippines!
And, yes, I am very, very please!
This arrived in the post today. My Kenwood bowl with handles arrived in the post today!
Happy days!
…is blueberry cheesecake!
I made this cake yesterday to bring to work today. We were having a buffet for someone’s leaving do. I thought as I wanted something chocolatey and the person was Irish (or at least I think he is), I thought an Irish-themed cake would be a great idea. So I went and baked a chocolate guinness cake!
The recipe was from Hummingbird Bakery’s Cake Days cookbook. I’ve made this several times now and one thing that I completely love about the Hummingbird Bakery books is that if you follow the recipe to the letter, the cakes turn out beautifully!
Yellywelly 