A Bit of a Do

No recipe today (Gosh! Is it that long since I blogged?!). We had Quorn sausages and mash for dinner today on account of a teensy hangover. I did make the most delicious gluten-free ginger cake the other week, and when I get my head round the recipe (I made it up and will probably have to make another in order to write down what I put in it – shame!!) I will post it, as it really was quite delicious!

Last night The Husband and I went to a very posh do indeed, at the Cutlers Hall here in Sheffield.
http://www.cutlers-hall-sheffield.co.uk/
It was Sheffield FC's 150th Birthday Gala dinner, with all sorts of luminaries from the world of football (in which I have no interest whatsoever!!), some politicos, lots of journos, business people, and us. The Husband coaches Sheffield FC Women’s team and also 2 of the girls’ teams. Tickets were, I believe, £150 a throw, though we got ours for nowt! We actually got a nice dinner for a change – being veggies (Husband is, I eat fish but not meat, and it’s easier to say veggie) we often feel short-changed (yes, even when we’ve not paid!) by the food offered at these sort of do’s. We had a vegetable terrine for starters, which was very tasty, and for the main course a flat mushroom filled with a puy lentil mixture and topped with goat’s cheese, with tomato sauce, and the veg and potatoes everyone else had with their roast beef. Pudding was a chocolate torte with caramel sauce and a couple of strawberries (isn’t it always?). I ate all my starter, cos I was dying of starvation by then as the whole thing had kicked off late and the speeches had gone on FOREVER! I left some main course though, cos I was getting full, and I left the base of the torte (we had asked for mine to be gluten-free, but I didn’t dare kick up a fuss over the pudding, cos they’d have taken it away and brought me a fruit salad, and then I’d have cried!). I felt quite pleased with myself. The coffee, as ever, was rubbish, which I mentioned to the lady sitting next to me and she said, yes, it’s always far too strong isn’t it? Wow!! I was just thinking it tasted like water!!! The wine was included, and I probably had several too many glasses of red (there was a glass of champagne on arrival, and we managed to ‘arrive’ twice, as The Husband had to go out for a fag so I went with him, just so I could go by the champers table again!). So today I’m feeling a little under the weather (was off work thank goodness!) and just wanted mashed potato ALL day! I have cried off Belly Dancing tonight even though I know I would probably have enjoyed it, cos I didn’t want to go out and do anything at all! Perhaps I’ll walk to work tomorrow instead.

Next Tuesday it’s my birthday (I’ll be 43 – that’s not right is it?!). Think we’ll have some friends round for a meal next Friday. I’m hoping to collect enough money for my birthday to buy a new ipod, as my old one needs the battery recharging every day now!

The Boy took some photos of us before we went out last night, me in my new frock and The Husband in his rented tux, but they aren’t very good. Or perhaps it’s us that aren’t!!

Cake

Well, this is a bit radical! At least it is to me. I’ve just made a cake in the microwave. I was sort of vaguely aware you could do this, and have seen microwaveable baking trays. But it had never really occurred to me to try it. But tonight I wanted to make a gluten-free fruit cake, low-sugar, to have for breakfasts with some soaked dried fruit and Greek yoghurt. I googled ‘gluten free fruit cake recipe’ and the first one I found was this microwave one. It’s soooo easy, and as you melt the butter, that makes it even easier. I’ve just tried it, and it’s lovely! I tweaked the recipe a bit to suit what I’ve got (it said 1kilo of dried fruit but I could only find about 500g, it said a tin of crushed pineapple, and I left that out altogether, and I added a lump of muscovado sugar, there was none at all in the recipe, but I thought that it might need it, what with not having the pineapple in). So, here it is:

Gluten-free Microwave Fruit Cake

500g dried fruit - matters not what sort I guess, I used raisins, goji berries (yeah, I know!) and chopped dates, simply cos that’s what I could find.
A good glug of orange flower water (or a few drops of orange essence and almond essence – I didn’t have those).
125g butter
A medium lump of muscovado sugar - about the size of a Cooks matchbox perhaps, I wasn’t really paying much attention.
1 tsp nutmeg (or a good grating)
2 tsp mixed spice (or whatever cake spices you fancy)
4 eggs
125g ground almonds
1 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp bicarb
1 tsp cream of tartar
200g gluten free plain flour

Put the dried fruit and the orange flower water or essences in a bowl and add 2 tblsps water. Microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Melt the butter and the sugar.
Beat the eggs.
Mix everything together well in a big bowl.
Put some greaseproof paper in a big glass or pottery oven dish (I used a square lasagne dish) and dollop the cake mix in.
Wodge the top down as flat as poss, stand the dish on an upside down bowl in the microwave and cook on high for 15 minutes.
Remove and when it's a bit cooled, take it out and put it on a wire rack to finish cooling. Try not to eat it all while it’s still warm.

I am going to make some more microwave cakes; I’ll let you know how I get on. It’s all a bit 70’s – I’ll be fonduing next!!

I’m so fed up! I really don’t want to be on a diet ever again, I love not being on a diet. But I’ve put about 6lbs on since I stopped being on a diet, and now none of my trousers fit me. My jeans and most of my skirts are still OK. So, I said, I need some new work trousers. Perfect excuse for a shopping trip. Well, I spent 7 hours in Meadowhell last week, and tried on about 30+ different pairs of widelegged trousers in about 12 shops in sizes 12 and 14 (and several different lengths on occasion too) and NOT A SINGLE FUCKING PAIR FITTED ME!!!!!! I was so miserable by the time I came home, I was ready to either stuff myself stupid with chocolate or go on a mad crash diet.

I seem to be faced with a dilemma. I can either fatten myself into a size 14, or slim myself back into a 12. What would you do, dear reader? I am not, repeat NOT going to deliberately make myself a size 14!!!!! If it stays cold I can get away with tights and therefore skirts. Perhaps that is my best plan. I’m so down about this. So very down. Perhaps I need to focus on something else, which would be easier with some clothes to put on. I’m fighting with myself every day not to go back on a diet, just to lose a few pounds, just to get back in my trousers.

Anyway, here’s a recipe:

Smoky sausage, chickpea and cabbage soup.
In a big pan, sauté a chopped onion and then put in some chopped garlic, about 3 sliced carrots and about 4 smallish diced potatoes. Then put in a tin of chopped tomatoes and a litre and a half of water. Then put in about 8 runner beans, cut into small slices, and about 5 big leaves off a big leafy cabbage (mine was, apparently, a Hispi, which is dark green and crinkly; it matters not). Also a tin of chickpeas (just the chickpeas, not the tin). Then add 3 or 4 veggie sausages cut into slices (I used Lincolnshire, again, dunt matter, you could even use meat sausages if you must). Lastly add a teaspoon of smoked paprika (or ordinary, but not hot), a good shake of veg stock powder or 2 or 3 cubes, and a spicy element (chilli powder or that lazy chilli, or if, like me, you haven’t got any, a really good squirt of sweet chilli sauce from a plastic bottle). Alternatively you could use the hot paprika instead of chilli, and maybe some BBQ sauce for the smoky bit. S’up to you, and as I haven’t even finished cooking it and don’t know what it’s like yet, it’s all open to interpretation anyway. Smells lovely though!