Yelly Snaps

What’s in my handbag?

Yelly

Ever since I had the operation on my right hand (I suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome) I’ve been looking for ways to stop me from having to carry heavy things.  They’ve become very weak and I can hardly carry a kilo without my hands, arms and elbows telling me off for a good 72 hours.  I have the most beautiful bag from Modalu but because it is 100% leather, it is slightly heavy and with the amount of things that used to put in my bag, carrying my lovely Pippa would, right now, not be a good thing.

I’ve recently acquired a lovely Radley bag that is beautifully lightweight.  I also bought the matching purse, quite by accident.  But because the purse is smaller than my usual handbag, I am forced to carry less.  I think I’m becoming smarter about the things that I carry with me on a daily basis.

For the cosmetics in the bag, you can find out what they are here.  But I will always have my wallet, my keys, my phone (which obviously isn’t in the photo because I used it to take the photo), my mifi doohickey, my trusty ticket holder from Cath Kidston that carries all my train-related paraphernalia, Olbas Oil sniffy stick, a pocket mirror and a notebook and pen.

Now what’s in YOUR handbag?  Care to share?  Let me know if you’ve taken a photo of your handbag and I’ll repost your blog post on the blog!

Yelly Eats

Croque Madame Muffins

Yelly

Rachel Khoo burst into the TV cooking scene early this year with her little Paris kitchen exploits.  When I first saw the TV adverts for her show on the Beeb, I wondered if it was all too good to be true.  Everything was neat, tidy and oh-so-trés-Français.  But I was very (very!) curious so I made sure her show was sky-plussed.

I loved everything about the show.  It somehow de-mystified french cooking for me and seemed to make it more accessible.  I’ve got Julia Child’s Mastering The Art of French Cooking, but have never tried any of the recipes.  French cuisine is, really, quite daunting (to me it is, anyway).  I’ve cracked the book spine by reading it but haven’t really had the courage to actually try one of the recipes (yes, I know I really should!).

Because I enjoyed the show and the recipes that were featured (and thought I’d be a dab hand at trying out the recipes) I bought Rachel’s book and it really is quite adorable.  The illustrations in the book are completely hers (and considering her visual arts background, I wasn’t surprised that the little illustrations were good, and really quite refreshing to see in a cook book!). 

The first recipe I’ve tried and have always come back to in the cookbook is the recipe for croque madame muffins.  They are simple to make and they taste absolutely scrummy.  There are only 6 ingredients: bread, butter, eggs, ham, cheese and bechamel sauce!  If you are considering buying this book, do, if only for the croque madame muffin recipe!  They’re wonderfully tasty and oh-so-easy to make.  And, they do, come out quite beautifully.  When you pull them out of the oven and see their lovely golden bakedness, you can’t help but say, “Oh wow!  I made that!”

Yelly Eats

Baked Figs

Yelly

Figs are my fruit du jour.

My favourite dessert at the moment is baked figs with Greek yogurt and honey.  It’s a quick, comforting dessert.  And very easy to prepare: cut the figs into quarters and roll them in sugar.  Then place them in a baking pan and bake them at 200°C for 20 minutes.  Serve with yogurt and honey.  Figs will give out a syrupy juice so make sure you spoon the syrup onto the yogurt too.  Makes for a very tasty dessert!

Yelly Snaps

Lovely Keele Hall

Yelly

My job takes me to all sorts of places.  I don’t really see much of the places that I get to, it’s mostly train stations or airports, cabs, the venue and then back again.  But there are times when you get to be in absolutely lovely places.

On Monday evening, I was overseeing the dinner at the conference that I was managing.  We were fortunate enough to be in a wonderfully old building.  I’m sucker for old buidlings and this was certainly a treat for me.  We had dinner in the Salvin Suite in Keele Hall.  Keele Hall was originally built in the 16th century and was rebuilt in the 19th century.  After dinner, everyone who wanted a bit more tipple moved to the bar which is actually an old library.

Sometimes, even though you’re at work, you can stop and still enjoy your surroundings!

 To see my other Keele Hall photos, click here.

Yelly Writes

Working Sunday

Yelly

I am at a train station cafe waiting for my train to arrive.  Such is the joy of timed tickets.  You buy a ticket for a particular train to, quite possibly, find the lowest fare that is available.

I feel slightly sorry for myself because I am, in fact, working this weekend.  Whilst  the rest of the country is enjoying a wonderfully sunny Sunday, I am here, at a train station, waiting for a train to take me to the venue of the conference that I’m going to be managing tomorrow.  Lovely.

I’m also resigned to the fact that I won’t be sleeping much during the next few days.  I don’t sleep well in a bed that isn’t familiar.  It takes me about three days (MINIMUM!!!) to get used to an unfamiliar bed.  I don’t necessarily have that much time to get used to the bed I’ll be sleeping in.  After the conference, I’ll be flying off to the home of the deep-fried Mars bar to attend a meeting.  Yet another night in an unfamiliar bed (at least I’ll have TV!).

And yet, despite my whinging, I do enjoy my job.  I enjoy the challenge.  I know I am more fortunate than most people because I do have a job and I do love the job that I have.  I constantly tell myself off for complaining.  Because I shouldn’t.  Not really.  I am fortunate that I have a job that I enjoy.

But sometimes, it would be nice not to have to travel on a lovely, sunny weekend.

My train’s nearly here.  I should probably be gathering my things together.

Yelly Eats

Comfort food for dindins

Yelly

It’s been quite the tough week, this week.  I’ve got a lot on my plate in terms of the day job.  So it was fitting that today, of all days, I cooked adobo for dinner.   Nothing fancy.  Just adobo, rice and braised sliced greens in a bowl.  I had prepped the adobo earlier and it had been marinating for a few days in the freezer.  I brought it down a couple of days ago so that it could thaw in the fridge until I decided to cook it.  There is nothing better than making a dish that reminds you of home when you’ve had a relatively rough day.

Yum!

 

Yelly Writes

It’s a struggle, isn’t it?

Yelly

I remember when I was part of  Post A Day 2011.  How did I manage that?!

The goal (then) was to blog about something (and in my case, post a picture) every single day.  I did struggle most days but I managed to put together a few sentences that may have made sense to some people.  I managed.  There were days when I even managed to post more than one entry a day.  I tend to chatter, so I probably allowed myself to chatter online.

But these days, I find that I struggle.  Not with ideas for blog entries (I have a few hundred of those, I love food and can wax lyrical about it, I think!).  I struggle to find the time to sit down, gather my thoughts and write them down.  The eternal excuse is that it’s all my day job’s fault (I manage scientific conferences and scientific organisations for a living) and there are days (like today) that I can be too tired to sit and tap on my laptop about my favourite subject in the world.

Now, I constantly tell myself off when I allow myself to use this as an excuse for my non-blogging.  If I love food, if I love writing about food, I shouldn’t be limited by this piddly little thing called my day job.  When one is absolutely passionate about something one should pull out all the stops, right?

I need to find out if there are any blogging apps that will let me blog on WordPress on the go.  My experience with the WordPress app wasn’t very good (I had another blog, you see) and posting via the app messed up my margins and things.  Does anyone know any good blogging apps that will allow you to connect to your WordPress blog?

All suggestions are absolutely welcome.  I’m determined to blog more.  I’m sure technology has a way of helping me out!  Help!  Anyone?  Everyone?

Yelly Eats

New drink in town!

Yelly

I went out today to look for things to buy…in other words, I went on a shopping spree (mainly for the kitchen: I got 2 spatulas and a cleaver!  How exciting!).

I went into Starbucks for an afternoon coffee break treat.  I used to go to Starbucks all the time because there were Starbucks coffee shops everywhere in Manila.  Not the same here.  If you don’t live in London, Starbucks coffee shops are few and far in between.  I remember going through a really bad Starbucks withdrawal period when I first moved to England because there wasn’t a Starbucks coffee shop near enough to visit every other day.  Anyway, I digress.  I saw the little advert signs about this drink at the beginning of summer but have never had the opportunity to try it.

I had a eureka moment!  I love this drink already!  I love hibiscus-based drinks and this drink just hit the spot.  I am in love with the Starbucks Berry Hibiscus Refresha drink.  Now available at a Starbucks near you!

Yelly Eats

Carrot cake!

Yelly

I found something wonderful in the supermarket!  Shredded carrots!  And when there are shredded carrots available, a carrot cake will be baked!  Anything to save my hands from doing the grunt work!

The recipe needs perfecting and I may have to work on adjusting the measurements as this makes a VERY big cake.  But the cake has turned out pretty well!  I’m bringing this to work tomorrow to share it with my coworkers so I can get feedback!

 

 

Yelly Eats

Pistachio, coconut and cardamom burfis

Yelly

We’re having a curry lunch at work tomorrow and we’ve been asked by the work colleague hosting the curry lunch to bring anything that we think will go with curry.   I’ve decided to bring roti bread (shop bought as I haven’t learned how to make them yet!) and pistachio, coconut and cardamom burfis.

I’ve always liked Indian food, but I must say that I’ve never really had proper Indian food until I moved to the UK.  One of the consultants who used to work for the government corporation I used to work for in the Philippines used to bring us Indian-inspired dishes and she introduced me to roti bread which I am now in love with!

Anyway, apart from the adorable roti bread,  I’m bringing pistachio annd coconut burfis to work tomorrow.  A burfi (or barfi or burfee, or borfee) is a sweet confectionery from India.  It is usually made with condensed milk cooked with sugar until it solidifies.  I saw this version being made about 5 or 6 years ago on a food-related channel on the Discovery Travel and Adventure channel.  It wasn’t until about 4 years ago, when I moved to England, funnily enough, that I had the opportunity to try making this recipe.  On the programme I was watching, it looked easy to make, and it was—very, VERY easy to make.  Most burfis ask for the condensed milk to be cooked in sugar until they harden, but as I am diabetic (and very lazy), I thought I’d try it without the long cooking process and the added sugar.  The condensed milk is sweet enough!

Here’s my recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 250 grams dessicated coconut
  • 200 grams shelled pistachio ones (avoid the salted pistachios)
  • 10 cardamom pods
  • 350ml sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

  1. In a small food processor, roughly chop the pistachios until they resemble small shards.  The chopped pistachios don’t have to be too processed because you do want to be able to bite into the occasional chunky piece of pistachio.
  2. Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods and, using a mortar and pestle, grind the seeds into a fine powder.  I find this particular part of the preparation very therapeutic!
  3. In a large bowl, combine the 200 grams of the dessicated coconut (reserve 50 grams to roll the burfis in later), the chopped pistachios, the ground cardamom seeds and the condensed milk.  Mix until everything is well combined.
  4. With lightly oiled hands (because the condensed milk is very sticky!), scoop enough of the pistachio-condensed milk-coconut mixture to make a ball that’s about 1inch in diameter.  Once the balls are formed, roll them in the dessicated coconut you reserved.  Place on a plate or box to store.


The burfis can be eaten as soon as they are made but it’s much nicer if you refrigerate them for at least 2 hours before you serve.  These keep in the fridge for about a week.  Although, I very much doubt that they’ll last that long as they’re very moreish (moreish, or more-ish, is a word I learnedafter moving to England.  It means causing one to want more–usually food!)!