Nope, this is not about Game of Thrones.
Instead, it's just a comment on the horrifying torrents of sleety rain currently sloshing over my very cold and desolate city.
I've been suffering with a bit of cold-weather malaise today. I'd got a little too used to the glorious English springtime and being able to sit out in the garden and bask in the sunshine whilst playing with the lovely cat who may or not be a stray (I want to call her Shadow, the Man says that's a stupid name for a cat. Bastard). Now the nasty rain stuff is coming down so hard that the lamp post across the road looks like it's going to snap in half and alarms keep going off as the rain hits them. This doesn't bode well for getting to my tattoo appointment tomorrow, but I am sure it will be fine. A little snow never stopped British Rail, right? Right? Oh...
Still, it's terribly exciting to be getting my ink finished tomorrow, I really can't wait.
On the other hand, it may have been miserably cold and horrid today but I have been productive. Yay! My mother gave us a mirror from her house as a little present for Chez Kitten which is rather lovely, but featured a rather...obnoxious...stained frame. I stripped it down to the natural wood (although it turned out to be rather uninspiring pine) using the little hand held sander (a slight case of vibration white finger only!) and then finished it with two different grades of sandpaper by hand, and followed it with two coats of beeswax. It looks lush. Pictures will follow eventually.
I also made a very tasty dinner; risotto with turkey and leek. The recipe is:
1.5 cups of arborio rice.
2 turkey breast slice thingies. Not the ones in crumb!
A large leek.
A medium red onion.
1 litre of chicken stock. I cheat and use a cube.
3 cloves of garlic. Or less, if you like.
Garlic and herb Philadelphia.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil until the onion softens but doesn't colour. Add the rice. Stir until the liquor is absorbed. Add a cup or so of the stock. Stir until absorbed. Repeat until the rice is squishy and you've used the stock.
Slice the leeks. Sweat in a little butter and stock. Add to rice. Stir together. Add a generous dollop of Philly. Stir some more.
Slice and fry off the turkey in some pepper.
Dollop some risotto on a plate, top with the turkey. I also had some lovely sliced red pepper on it and it was NOM!
About Me
- one_lost_kitten
- I am a late 20-something kitten living in a large city in Northern England. I live in a little house in a big city with my cat and my chap and try to make enough money to get by with. My dreams don't involve making a lot of cash but do involve being happy, receiving love and owning more cats.
Showing posts with label Naptime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Naptime. Show all posts
Pin Me Up
I say all this after just having had pizza for my dinner. My excuse is that I am really kind of ill and honestly don't feel like doing anything at all. The Man has suggested that it might be something to do with our ghastly leaky damp house and that I don't seem to be getting well because of the mould. Suspect that's got something to do with it, but I'm so sick of feeling rotten and sleeping all the time.
Things
A list, mostly for my own reference, of things I want to make/try making.
Think that's it for now. No doubt there will be more but I think five projects is quite enough for the time being. And now I shall find something to watch (easier said than done) and crack on with that bastard blanket. I will not nap. Not. No napping...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
- Fascinators/hair accessories - I found lots of cute flowers for cheap on ebay. I figure for the cost of one of the really fancy fascinators I lust after I could get enough flowers and bases to make about 10. One for me, nine to sell.
- A circle skirt. This is my project for Wednesday afternoon/Thursday morning. I am currently thinking a patterned fabric with contrasting velvet ribbon waistband. Ideally I want to wear this out on Thursday night. Total budget for the project: £10 or less.
- A man-scarf. This is already in progress. Using green-mix double-knit yarn and a 5.00 hook.
- Hair sticks - I still have the bits for about another four sets; again these can go on ebay or etsy.
- Finish the Blanket Of Doom! Nearly two years in the making and I am getting sick of the sight of the bastard now. God damn granny squares.
Think that's it for now. No doubt there will be more but I think five projects is quite enough for the time being. And now I shall find something to watch (easier said than done) and crack on with that bastard blanket. I will not nap. Not. No napping...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Do You Know What the Coming of the Dragon Means?
Well? Do you?
The Man's copy of Skyrim arrived today - hurrah! I stupidly and rather shamefully failed to get him a birthday present on time this year - I blame my mental health and lack of...oh, bollocks, I just forgot okay? - and got him Skyrim as a late present/make-up gift. Unsurprisingly he's spent most of the day playing it but now claims he "needs a new graphics card" to properly appreciate it. Bless him. I suspect not even a schoolgirl outfit and the promise of oral sex could drag him away from it.
As a consequence though I've had a lot of time to myself, and would love to say I've been productive and all that jazz, but mainly I have been asleep, trying to trounce my horrible chest infection before it really gets started. I want to get rid of it so I can get back to the gym and start getting my body back under control. I don't want to get back to the point I was at where I buried my head in the sand and got fatter and fatter and less and less fit until even I couldn't pretend any more. The modeling shoots I'm doing are really helping me to feel better about myself, as are the wonderful compliments I get on my shots from the delightful perverts on Fetlife. God love 'em! So by next year I'd like to be a couple of stones lighter and a whole lot fitter. I know I can do it - I've done it before and it really can't be that hard. It just takes motivation and desire and at the moment I have desire in spades. Motivation, however...
Part of that motivation has to be that next summer I want to show off my tattoos and my (hopefully healed) navel piercing. At the moment it's giving me some gyp - very red and angry-looking and was discharging a bit this morning, but I've been doing SSS all day (these are sea salt soaks, for the uninitiated) and trying to leave it alone for as much as possible. I never realised how much I touch my belly button or use my stomach for things until I got some metal stuck in it! The bruising is now an ugly yellow but that means it should be gone soon - hooray! - just leaving the redness. Luckily it isn't particularly sore unless I knock it, but when I compare it to my VCH it's certainly a hell of a lot more trouble! It's now about two months (I think!) since I had that one done and it's completely healed and is no trouble at all. The only thing I'd like to do is maybe change it for a longer bar, but even that isn't a particular challenge, and I don't notice it's there 90% of the time. It's a pleasant surprise when I'm getting self-amorous sometimes and ooh! there it is. Saying that I knew the navel was a harder place to heal, particularly for us rather chunkier ladies! Time to get back to the salads (no dissing, I actually really like salad, and used to make the most amazing ones for work when I had a Real Job. Feta cheese and beetroot was one of my faves), and cut down on the takeaways and convenience crap. As a positive shoutout to the universe for my intentions, here's my favourite recipe for a lovely winter soup.
Spicy Sunset Soup (serves about six ish)
1 smallish butternut squash
2 parsnips
2/3 carrots
2 sweet potatoes
1 regular potato
3 cloves of garlic
1 large white onion
1 litre of vegetable stock (I like Kallo Organic)
Cinnamon
Smoked Paprika
Chili powder (I used mild because I am a wuss)
Cayenne Pepper
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Olive Oil
The process itself is piss easy. Peel and chop all the veggies into cubes, with the exception of the onion. Pop them in water to stop them discolouring in the air and taking on a weird flavour.
Then dice your onion nice and fine. I soften mine in the olive oil with the crushed garlic and a little of the smoked paprika until it's almost browning, then add about a third of the veggies and cook them off with a pinch of each spice and a grind of pepper. After they start to colour or soften around the edges I repeat with some more veggies and then the rest...you get the idea. When they're all starting to soften I add about a third of the stock and cook off for ten minutes or so, or until reduced, then add the rest of the stock bit by bit. When it's all in, cook for 20 minutes or so and taste. This is the point where you add more spice and any salt you need. I rarely add any as I find the stock salty enough as it is.
When your veggies are soft, you can either leave the soup chunky, perhaps adding some rice or pearl barley for extra filling power, or blend using a hand blender. I usually decant half the soup and blend and then add it back into the main pot to get the best of both worlds.
Enjoy!
The Man's copy of Skyrim arrived today - hurrah! I stupidly and rather shamefully failed to get him a birthday present on time this year - I blame my mental health and lack of...oh, bollocks, I just forgot okay? - and got him Skyrim as a late present/make-up gift. Unsurprisingly he's spent most of the day playing it but now claims he "needs a new graphics card" to properly appreciate it. Bless him. I suspect not even a schoolgirl outfit and the promise of oral sex could drag him away from it.
As a consequence though I've had a lot of time to myself, and would love to say I've been productive and all that jazz, but mainly I have been asleep, trying to trounce my horrible chest infection before it really gets started. I want to get rid of it so I can get back to the gym and start getting my body back under control. I don't want to get back to the point I was at where I buried my head in the sand and got fatter and fatter and less and less fit until even I couldn't pretend any more. The modeling shoots I'm doing are really helping me to feel better about myself, as are the wonderful compliments I get on my shots from the delightful perverts on Fetlife. God love 'em! So by next year I'd like to be a couple of stones lighter and a whole lot fitter. I know I can do it - I've done it before and it really can't be that hard. It just takes motivation and desire and at the moment I have desire in spades. Motivation, however...
Part of that motivation has to be that next summer I want to show off my tattoos and my (hopefully healed) navel piercing. At the moment it's giving me some gyp - very red and angry-looking and was discharging a bit this morning, but I've been doing SSS all day (these are sea salt soaks, for the uninitiated) and trying to leave it alone for as much as possible. I never realised how much I touch my belly button or use my stomach for things until I got some metal stuck in it! The bruising is now an ugly yellow but that means it should be gone soon - hooray! - just leaving the redness. Luckily it isn't particularly sore unless I knock it, but when I compare it to my VCH it's certainly a hell of a lot more trouble! It's now about two months (I think!) since I had that one done and it's completely healed and is no trouble at all. The only thing I'd like to do is maybe change it for a longer bar, but even that isn't a particular challenge, and I don't notice it's there 90% of the time. It's a pleasant surprise when I'm getting self-amorous sometimes and ooh! there it is. Saying that I knew the navel was a harder place to heal, particularly for us rather chunkier ladies! Time to get back to the salads (no dissing, I actually really like salad, and used to make the most amazing ones for work when I had a Real Job. Feta cheese and beetroot was one of my faves), and cut down on the takeaways and convenience crap. As a positive shoutout to the universe for my intentions, here's my favourite recipe for a lovely winter soup.
Spicy Sunset Soup (serves about six ish)
1 smallish butternut squash
2 parsnips
2/3 carrots
2 sweet potatoes
1 regular potato
3 cloves of garlic
1 large white onion
1 litre of vegetable stock (I like Kallo Organic)
Cinnamon
Smoked Paprika
Chili powder (I used mild because I am a wuss)
Cayenne Pepper
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Olive Oil
The process itself is piss easy. Peel and chop all the veggies into cubes, with the exception of the onion. Pop them in water to stop them discolouring in the air and taking on a weird flavour.
Then dice your onion nice and fine. I soften mine in the olive oil with the crushed garlic and a little of the smoked paprika until it's almost browning, then add about a third of the veggies and cook them off with a pinch of each spice and a grind of pepper. After they start to colour or soften around the edges I repeat with some more veggies and then the rest...you get the idea. When they're all starting to soften I add about a third of the stock and cook off for ten minutes or so, or until reduced, then add the rest of the stock bit by bit. When it's all in, cook for 20 minutes or so and taste. This is the point where you add more spice and any salt you need. I rarely add any as I find the stock salty enough as it is.
When your veggies are soft, you can either leave the soup chunky, perhaps adding some rice or pearl barley for extra filling power, or blend using a hand blender. I usually decant half the soup and blend and then add it back into the main pot to get the best of both worlds.
Enjoy!
Life at the start was not complex.
For some reason I decided it was a good idea to start writing a blog on a day when I am frankly as sick as a dog and feel approximately as rough as the aforementioned animal's bollocks. Why this seemed like a good idea I have no fucking clue at all, but hey, here I am, living proof that one does not have to be a man to have man-flu.
As this is my first blog experience I do feel like I should do more than complain about being ill, like perhaps introduce myself. So, here I am:
Hello! I am Kitten. I am 27 years and one month old and live in a City, in England, somewhere in the North. I am a rather socially-inept feline living in a House, with a Man, and two other Men, and some weird fungus-like life-forms. The Men have names. The Fungus does not.
I like to make things: I crochet, paint, make jewellery, write poetry (rarely) and prose (equally so) and make clothes, costumes and other bits and bats. I also like taking photographs, which no doubt I will make the world suffer.
I like purple, tattoos, reading things, alphabetising stuff, organising things into little pots and watching films. And a bunch of other stuff too, most of which is more of an adult nature. But that's all just stuff. Oh, and zombies. Zombies are awesome.
I don't like being messed around, jelly, soap operas, littering and people with bad manners. All of the above things are wrong. Particularly jelly - uggh.
So one day this might be something worth reading: today, it's mostly something worth waffling at myself about while my brain fizzles in it's own little bath of chemicals and toxins. And now I am going to have a nap.