To warm the cockles of your heart...

 ... made for you, by me, from paper. Mon dieu, how I love paper. xo Happy Valentine's Day

Celeriac (my ugly friend and yours)

Don't you just love it when something defies expectations?

Celeriac is a perfect example. Ugly as sin, but tasty to beat the band. Such a humble vegetable - it even makes me feel bad for calling it ugly.

Alarming looking, yes?

This time of year in the UK, celeriac is easy to find and I do suggest you seek it out (it's kind of hard to miss). I've used it to make soup before and it's super easy to use (once you get that skin off), filling and tasty (like a sweet, nutty potato maybe? or kind of like parsnip but nicer?). Last night I decided to try it in a different incarnation though and made smashed celeriac.

 
(Some photos... nude celeriac after you've whacked off all the rooty bits and peeled it, chopped and in the pan, and smashed with bok choy/pak choi and veggie sausages. Apologies for the poor quality.)

I used a recipe by Jamie Oliver (who, btw, I LOVE but in a really platonic way) and be warned, it was quite garlicky. I'm pretty sure I still smell of it today though my work friend Dan assured me I was in the clear...

You could make a really simple soup instead by following the recipe and then adding a low salt veggie stock cube and enough water to cover. Boil it for a little longer (about 35-40 mins) and then whizz with a liquidizer. Alternatively, add more veg to start with - some celery, a leek, a potato, some parsnip or butternut squash - for a fuller flavour. I made the recipe exactly as called for and added chopped bok choy 2 minutes before serving. The heat from the dish gently steamed the greens and this addition is good for your intake of vitamins C, A and K. No joke.

I imagine celeriac would be amazing done like sweet potato fries in North America - a bit of salt and a bit of spice, deep fried with some chiptole mayo to dip in - my arteries are positively singing with joy... maybe I'll just have to give it a bash (a homemade, low-salt version, low-fat version that is). Don't worry, I'll take photos and let you know how it goes.

Awe... (can I have) ...some.

My mind was blown this week. Absolutely, no words for it, inspired beyond compare.

In September (or maybe May ;-) my high school bff, Bhavna. is getting married. We've been talking about wedding plans and ideas and she'd mentioned taking a course and learning to make her own wedding cake. I said, 'I can help!' and something was born.

I told Bhav I'd send her some pictures to help with ideas and in looking, I stumbled over... The Caketress.

The. most. amazing. cakes. I. have. ever. seen. Full stop.

(I found it difficult to work after I found this website/blog. My life needs more awe, more inspiration. I seriously considered quitting my job and offering to open Lori Hutchinson's mail just so she'd have more time to create awe-inspiring cakes. And she's a Canuck - ah but, of course.)

And if that wasn't enough - edible lace! It exists! My life is complete!

Inspired, I decided I would make a cake this weekend to practice some techniques and try out some ideas. It's no Caketress cake, but it's a start.

Cycle 1: The Fear

If I could sum up my early cycling-to-work experiences, it would be in the above. This has become my mantra and it honestly helps LOADS.

I realise that I went all shy and quiet just as the biking was getting interesting. (Well actually, choosing my bike and what happened next was a whole lot of waffling and pretty damn boring.) In another post I'll introduce you to my bike (not quite named as she's yet to settle down and sort herself out).

(A side note about fear: I would have ridden in to work either yesterday or today for the third time in 2012 except that on Saturday it snowed and oddly for England, it hasn't all melted yet. My post is about overcoming the fear, but I'm not a frickin numbskull and until England has sorted out some snowplows and cleared the roads, me and Ethel (one name for the bike bandied about) are playing it safe and I'm taking the bus.)

So: the fear. The first fear I overcame was that I quite simply wasn't going to make it. Twice in my first ride back in November I very nearly turned back and went home and it was only knowing that I would be ridiculously late for work that kept me going. This kind of makes me laugh - now - but there's something very strange about knowing that it is your own body that is going to get you the 6 miles to work. It's kind of a lot of pressure. The second fear is of the traffic.

There are two routes I can take to work - one picturesque, over hills and along canal tow paths (which I'll take in the summer when it's light out and I'm more confident) and the other: on the road, in the road, of the road. Cars generally give me a pretty wide berth (you'll understand when you see a photo of me on my bike) but I still have to bike alongside them and get in front of them and slow them down. (I hate slowing them down - how embarrassing!) That first ride when I nearly turned around and went home, I was in the way of a car as I tried to muster up the courage to bike on the road where the cars giving me wide berth would be risking it by crossing into the oncoming traffic around a blind corner. There is no fear here though if you... *drum roll please* keep calm and carry on. Just keep biking! Don't stop and it's all good. Particularly when biking between lanes of traffic on a roundabout. I won't explain the ins and outs of this except to say, it must be done, I have to cross lanes of traffic while going around the roundabout and having done it once, it's actually quite exhilarating (I'm always thinking 'I'm like a car! I'm like a car!') and I'm happy to do it again and again.

Those of you reading from Canada will be familiar with lululemon and their manifesto. I think it's a good mirror for the jpg I started this post with. One of the things from the manifesto also runs (cycles?) around my head as I cycle - do one thing a day that scares you (that and floss every day). On days when I ride to work, I definitely tick that one off the to do list.

Happy THE Year!

2012 is going to be THE year. It seems this year, I'm aware of new year's beginnings more than ever before. Get out there, try new things, make this year OUR year. I like the Chinese New Year (such good celebrations!) and celebrating it after the 'calendar' new year means that January gives me the chance to take stock and make some decisions - what is going to be a priority this year? What's on that list of resolutions, or in my case, what am I asking for this year - from myself and from the universe?

2012 is the Year of the Dragon. Chinese dragons are a symbol of power, strength and good luck. The perfect emblem for what promises to be a year full of big and exciting changes. The fireworks Steven and I watched last weekend at the Lakeside Arts Centre were amazing - a goosebumpy sign of things to come. I'm a bit scared of 2012 too if I'm honest (power, strength and good luck can be scary!), but as my friend Sonja says 'leap and the net shall appear.' Heck yes.

Roasted Butternut Squash, Parsnip and Thyme Soup

Ola! I'm back!

Over Christmas and in the last few weeks I had some positive comments along the lines of 'Where's your blog gone? It's still on that mushroom soup!' and that in combination with more friends having blogs to follow has made me want to come back and keep on.

With a twist - of course.

Just making soup is kinda boring right? Anyone could just make the soup out of a recipe book, n'est ce pas? Why read about me banging on about it? What about reading about soups and other recipes I've created? Sound slightly more exciting? I readily admit I am no expert - heck, I'm not even a novice - but I'm going to attempt to bring you dead easy recipes from the things in your fridge (actually my fridge) as well as introduce to ingredients which may not be in your fridge but are well worth finding.

First up in 2012: Roasted Butternut Squash, Parsnip and Thyme Soup

Ingredients
Serves 4
1 butternut squash
2 parsnips
1 large onion
2-3 tbsp of olive oil
handful of fresh herbs (I used thyme here)
1 low sodium stock cube
Boiling water to cover (about 1 litre)

Step 1: Roast your veg

This could not be more easy. I sliced the butternut squash lengthwise in two and scooped out the seeds. You could peel it, but I didn't bother and did this later. Peel the parsnips and cut them into cubes. Peel the onion and chop into large chunks. Chuck all of this on a baking sheet lined with foil making sure that the squash is scooped side down. Toss a bit of healthy oil on the vegetables and throw some fresh thyme on top. (I think most any fresh herb would be nice. I don't usually have fresh stuff but happened to this time and they were nearly out of date - bonus!) Stick your baking tray full of veg into the oven on 200ºF for about 40 minutes.

Step 2: Make soup

When the vegetables are done roasting, remove the thyme and crumble the toasted leaves into a soup pot. Peel the squash, cut it into chunks and put in the pot with the roasted onion and parsnip chunks. (Watch your fingers, the squash will be a little warm.) Toss in a stock cube and cover with boiling water. Whiz with a hand blender (do you like our shiny new one?) and serve with bread. Yum if I do say so myself.