Yelly Writes

Migraine malaise

Yelly

Since late Saturday night I have had a constant companion.

Nope, am not talking about Alan.  I wouldn’t mind having Alan around all the time at all!  If anything, if he wasn’t around I don’t think I’d have survived the last few days.  I’ve been visited by quite a mean migraine.  It started late Saturday night.  I didn’t really think of it as a migraine, as such.  I thought it was just a headache.  I thought that if I went to bed, it would go by the time I woke up on Sunday.  No such thing happened!

I woke up with a stonking-make-me-cry-buckets-like-a-baby headache.  I moved, my headache pounded.  I shifted, I felt nauseated.  Even a faraway neighbour’s dog barking was causing me torturous pain!  Everything looked intensely bright, like everything was a huge, over-exposed photograph.  I felt like my head was going to explode!  I blubbered whilst I was talking to my parents and sister, occasionally asking them not to talk to loudly (I don’t think they were talking too loud though).  So finally, I took massively strong pain killers and burrowed under the duvet and slept.  I woke up nearly 3 hours later feeling like my head had been hit by a sledgehammer then wrapped in a turban.  I was not well.

I stupidly thought that I would be able to manage work on Monday.  I pushed myself, despite the throbbing head, to finish an entire day of work.  I went home barely able to make it up the steps without crying out for someone to carry me up to the train platform.  For the first time in a very long time, I actually enjoyed sitting in the cold wind because the cold helped ease my headache!  But I got home and I was a useless shell of a human being (I probably wasn’t but I certainly felt like it!  I felt absolutely spent!).  I didn’t go to work the following day and then took myself off to the doctors’ to get checked.

I got signed off from work for a week, but did I stay home?  Nooooo!  I got up the following day, got ready for work despite the massive headache and took the hour-long train ride to work because my sick note said “until migraine settles” and I thought that if I worked, my migraine would settle.  But I got sent home!  Mostly because I was signed off and wasn’t fit to work and my firm wasn’t insured in case anything happened to me at work on account of my current state of unfitness.

Fast forward 48 hours and I am climbing the walls a tiny bit bored.  It’s weird because I can definitely say I feel much better because my headache isn’t as bad, but it hasn’t left.  My head doesn’t feel like it’s going to explode anytime soon though.  That’s a vast improvement!

I have my fingers crossed that I am going to get better soon.  I am a bit tired of this headache…and a bit annoyed with it now.

Yelly Eats

Mongo bread!

Yelly

It has been quite the stressful few weeks.  Mostly because of the changes in my work environment.  When I get really stressed I get really homesick.  And when I get really homesick I bake something that I can eat from home.

I’m really grateful my sister has bought the Goldilocks Bakebook for me.  I have had feedback from friends that the book has been discontinued due to the errors and omissions in the book.  I must agree that the book could do with a few editorial tweaks so that it will read smoother.  The recipes and baking instructions need a little reworking so that the procedures are clear, so that the users and bakers know exactly what to expect from the recipes and the steps.  But I am still thankful for the book.  It has allowed me to bake things that are familiar, things I grew up eating.  It has helped me with the homesickness, because even the act of simply reading the book makes home a little closer.

This weekend wasn’t any different.  I’ve been planning the baking of mung bean bread for a while.  Mung bean is mongo in Filipino (pronounced mong-goh).  Mongo bread is a bakery staple and most local bakeries in the Philippines have a version of this bread.  The Goldilocks Bakebook recipe called for red mung bean and red mung bean isn’t exactly something you can pluck from the shelves of the local supermarket.  I had to go to a supermarket in Chinatown in London to find red mung beans (and even now, I’m not quite certain what I picked off the shelves were actually red mung bean, but hey, they worked!).  So after having purloined the main ingredient, I studied the recipe and made certain tweaks.  After following most of the directions, I have made notes and am ready to try the recipe again with my additional tweaks.  But the first attempt has produced quite a pretty loaf!  Hopefully, when I attempt the recipe again (and post it on the blog!), it will still turn out like the first loaf.  Fingers crossed!

Presenting, my mongo bread —

Mongo bread

Yelly Eats

Mackerel and vegetables

Yelly

One of my current favourite supermarket buys is mackerel fillets.  I am thankful that Iceland has frozen fillets for £4 for a pack of 5 or you can buy 3 packs of frozen fish for £10.  It’s a brilliant buy because fish is always healthy.  This isn’t an advert for Iceland mind you.  I thought it would be nice to share my supermarket find!  I used to poo-poo buying things from Iceland but now that they’ve expanded their offerings and the food range is so much better, I always go by Iceland to see what I can get!

Back to the fish, a quick way of prepping the fish is to rub olive oil over the frozen fillet, salt and pepper it and grill for 7 minutes on each side.  I usually have the fish with leftover roasted veg and sometimes, when I want some carbs, I have a few pieces of baby new potatoes (also roasted!).

Mackerel and roasted veg

Yelly Eats

The Owl Cake

Yelly

I bought over 3 kilos of fondant icing because I intended to make beach huts for a bake off fundraising do at work.

But I think I overestimated my capabilities and my fondant confidence.  So instead of wimping out and wasting the fondant that I lugged all the way back to Harwich, I had to think of an alternative way to use the fondant that I purchased. I wasn’t giving up on the cake with fondant dream!  Besides, it was my birthday and bringing cake would be for a good cause.  So I had a think and regrouped.

I had a brainwave and thought, “Oooooh owls!”  I did a bit of googling and found the easiest way to make owl cake toppers.  I knew the cake would be okay (it was a vanilla sponge with a Nutella filling with a vanilla cream frosting), I just had to make it pretty.

The owls weren’t too difficult to make.  I just needed a round cookie cutter and a smarter way of looking at owls.  I must say, what a treasure trove Google can be!  After doing the cutting and a little shaping, the ingenious use of a fondant embosser and artful food colouring dotting, my owls looked cuter than I thought it was possible!

2015-05-12 23.32.09So here it is, my owl cake!  It was, truly, a hoot to make!

My owl cake

Yelly Writes

Mothers Day

Yelly

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”- Washington Irving

She held me when I needed to be held, when I needed to feel safe. She dried my tears when my heart broke and told me everything would be okay in the end. She taught me how to read and write and made sure I treasured books so that I would learn, and never be bored on my own. She taught me how to speak so that I would find the right words to express myself. She told me the harsh realities so that I wouldn’t walk the world with rose-coloured glasses, so that I could be pragmatic too. She also taught me that kindness should always be my guiding principle. She walked with me as I grew in faith…it would take me forever to write down how much my mum has guided me and held my hand as I was growing up so that I could be independent when I grew up. I cannot say thank you enough Mama. I love you.

I am glad that I get to celebrate this amazing woman I call “Mother” twice.  Happy Mothers Day Ma!

Happy Mothers Day

Yelly Writes

It’s a girl!

Yelly

So the UK celebrated the much anticipated birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s second child.  The UK has a new princess and she is to be called Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge (queue strings of Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely).

Princess Charlotte

Yelly Eats

Hudson New York Bar and Kitchen, Colchester

Yelly

I’m not much of a beef eater so I hardly order steaks.  If I do order anything made from beef, it would probably either a salt beef sandwich or pastrami (the more kosher, the better!).  So imagine my delight when I found out you could get a salt beef bagel from an American-inspired bar in Colchester!

I read through the menu and wondered what the food would be like.  It looked promising with club sandwiches, salt beef bagels and hotdogs on offer.  With a claim that they served fabulous Atlantic cuisine and that they were inspired by downtown Manhattan, I was looking forward to tucking into my salt beef bagel.

Well, I’ve had my salt beef bagel and I was a tiny bit underwhelmed.  The salt beef was a tad on the dry side but I guess I’ve been spoiled by the Bell & Brisket and Monty’s Deli because they made REALLY good salt beef from scratch and each sandwich would be prepared as ordered from a batch that was probably made the same day.  The space was amazing and it was big and airy.  But the concept confused me a little bit because it felt like I was walking into a southern restaurant instead of a Manhattan bar.

Will I be going back to Hudson?  I’m not sure.  Maybe their other offerings are okay, they may even be really good.  But it’s quite hard to get a salt beef sandwich wrong — if you have great salt beef to begin with.  Don’t get me wrong, the food looked okay and the coleslaw and fries that came with it were really nice.  I’m just really picky about my salt beef.  And unfortunately for them, I wasn’t too impressed.

Hudson's salt beef bagel

Yelly Reads

Now reading: The Year of Taking Chances

Yelly

I am so far loving this book!  I think it’s mainly because I can relate to each of the characters.  I am at a crossroads in my life where I want to gain a better perspective on all the aspects of my life: my relationships, my career, my passions and my life plan.  I’ve been constantly sighing and whinging about wanting to change things and yet I am plagued by an immobilising inertia that stops me from going after what I want.

This might just be the book that I need to inspire me!  Well, realistically, if it isn’t, it’s a brilliantly written book that is definitely entertaining! 🙂

The Year of Taking Chances

Yelly Writes

The perfect Sunny Afternoon

Yelly

So I apparently love the music of the Kinks!  Who knew?

Alan has brilliant taste in musicals and he’s always challenged me (in his own quiet way) to watch something different each time.  I didn’t think I was going to love Rock of Ages, but he won tickets, we went and I was standing up and jumping up and down like a mad thing towards the end of the musical.  I thought I was going to hat We Will Rock you, but I was bopping my head to each song.  I didn’t think I knew a lot of Queen song, but apparently I did!  I didn’t know what The Commitments was about.  Alan got the movie, we watched it and I fell in love with the songs.  The theatre version was even better!  I was up there dancing like a woman crazed whilst Mustang Sally was sung!

One musical I was totally unsure about Sunny Afternoon.  I wasn’t entirely sure I liked the Kinks so I wasn’t sure I’d love the musical.  But Alan had already booked tickets so we were going.  But guess what, I apparently knew more songs by The Kinks that I thought I did.  And I loved the musical.  So much so that I agreed to watch it again!

Sunny Afternoon - Stage

I was so pleased that Sunny Afternoon won Best New Musical in the 2015 Laurence Olivier awards.  Because it was well-deserved.  If you get the chance to (I think they’ve added more dates – don’t quote me as I could be very mistaken!), go and see it.  If you don’t, at least buy the CD of the London cast performing.  My favourite of favourites is the a cappella version of Days.  It will tug at your heart strings!

Harold Pinter Theatre - Sunny Afternoon

Yelly Writes

Easter Love

Yelly

Amidst all the posts about Easter egg hunts, chocolate eggs and bunnies, I allow myself to wallow in the real meaning of Easter.  I rarely write about my faith.  But I get through all the difficult situations in my life by clinging to my faith.

I love the commercial celebration of Easter.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love all the Easter themed cakes, chocolates and all the food that people normally serve during Easter.  But to me, first and foremost, Easter is a celebration of God’s love for us.  Because God loved us so much that He allowed his son Jesus Christ to die in our place for our sins.  Easter is God’s gift to us, because through Christ’s death we are saved from eternal death, and through Christ’s resurrection, there is the hope that one day, we will be with God the Father, just as Jesus Christ rose to ascend to heaven to sit at God the Father’s right hand.

One of my favourite Easter quotes is from Basil Hume: “The great gift of Easter is hope – Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in His ultimate triumph, and in His goodness and love, which nothing can shake.” 

So HAPPY EASTER everyone!

Easter is LOVE