I eat to live, I eat to live

Wow, I have eaten so MUCH over the last 2 days. Sure it's Christmas and all, but GOODNESS there was a large amount of food consumed in relatively short order!
I am sure I have put on weight. Oh dear. Back on the plan, back on the bike, back to it!

On the whole though Christmas was very much spending time with family, trying to avoid talking about politics (somewhat unsuccessful) and making peace between people who seemed to purposefully misunderstand and take offence. We got home this morning, and the house is quiet, there is no noise and it's bliss. So much so that an afternoon nap is in order!

Hope your christmas was as good.

Mathew's Plum Sauce

So Matt, made plum sauce on Sunday. A five hour marathon over a hot stovetop, stirring, straining, blending, tasting, stirring, stirring stirring. And the result? 5 bottles of DELICIOUS plum sauce just like what Nana used to make when I was a kid.

Recipe.
2.5 kilos of Plums
3 cups of Brown Sugar
Cayenne Pepper
Ground Ginger
Ground Cloves
Mace
Black Pepper
2 Granny Smith Apples
2 Red Onions
1 Garlic Bulb, crushed, chopped.
1 Litre of Malt Vinegar
1 Litre of Beer (We got the Grolsh in Swing top bottles, so we could use the bottles to put the sauce in)

Method:
Everything goes in the pot (you need a BIG pot)
Bring to the boil, stirring
Keep Stirring
Boil and keep stirring
When everything has been reduced to pulp, and the color has changed to dark red, and when you taste it it resembles Plum Sauce, take off the heat and strain through a colander to get all the plum stones out.
Put the remaining pulp in the food processor, and add back to the strained liquid.
Return to the stove, and bring to the boil again for about 5 minutes.
Bottle into sterilised bottles.

Apparently (according to Nana) if you wait a year, the result is even better, but we had some for dinner last night and it was fantastic!

Christmas

Instead of ranting on about how much i hate christmas... commercial holiday... gifts you hate... too much food... too much to do... I thought I would instead focus on what is good about it.

1. Family. Even if your family is a bit odd, mostly people make an effort at Christmas to catchup and reconnect. This year we are with my husbands family, I find myself looking forward to glasses of wine, games of 500, beating people at scrabble and just the general pleasure of chilling out with the people you love.

2. Friends. I know at christmas I always think about the friends we have and how valuable their friendship is. Do they think that about us? I hope so.

Ok, anything else i write is grasping at straws, but see, there are good things at this time of year, put the focus on the people you love, not on how much you have spent and what you have to get done...

Chocolate Whiskey Cake

• 200g Dark Chocolate
• 150g Butter
• 1/2 Cup Whiskey
• 2 Tablespoons Expresso (strong)
• 150g Castor Sugar

Put in pot and melt together slowly over low heat.

• 125g Ground Almonds

Stir in ground almond

• 5 Eggs Seperated

Beat egg yolks one at a time into the chocolate mixture
Cool chocolate mixture completely.

OVEN to 180 celcius

When cool, beat egg whites to form stiff peaks. Stir 3 tablespoons of egg white into cooled chocolate mixture to break it. FOLD remaining eggwhite into chocolate mixture. Make sure you have a BIG BOWL for this bit.

Grease a 26cm cake tin. THEN, get an extra nob of butter and grease the bottom of the tin again, then line the bottom of the tin with baking paper.

Pour in cake mixture. Pop in oven and bake at 180 for about 50 mins or until skewer comes out cleanly.

Remove from oven, put on a rack. Wait 10 mins, then run a knife around the edge. WAIT until cake is cooled (at least an hour) before removing from the tin.

Serve warm with berries and cream. MMM

Photo Phobia

So it appears that the only way you can get me to stand still for the camera is to ply me with alot of alcohol, and make it a flat outing.

Susan is wonderwoman and got a grade worth celebrating for her masters, so 2 bottles of bubbles later and it was a trip to the PORNO DAIRY (sports the biggest selection of porno in Sandringham) for scorched almonds, because after 2 bottles of bubbles in fairly short order this seemed like a good idea at the time.

Why is it though that we are all so afraid to see ourselves caught on film? I have always been this way, a shy shrinking violet emerges as soon as anyone breaks a camera from it's case. With Xmas looming on the horizon i know it will be impossible to avoid the mandatory "stand over there and look happy" portraits. Argh.

And the invention of the 2.5LCD screen attached to the camera only means that i can IMMEDIATELY see the finished product. What happened to the "olden days" where you had to wait for someone to develop a film, and you could at least live in denial for a week about the effects of all that Pavlova and Bubbles.

Perhaps i can consume the required amount of Lindauer before we go to lunch... it will be my secret weapon. One I am sure has been used much in the past.

Happy holidays everyone. Merry Christmas. There is a reason for the season and all that.
Love (hic) N.

P.s. oh the progression of the goals?
Since last week I said goodbye to another kilo of fat. So now at 116.8
There has been more drinking than exercise, but kinda made up for it a wee bit by biking to work this morning.
Yep. That's about it.

Hot and Hotter

Auckland. Mid December. Hot. Bitten (blood thirsty mosquitos). And satisfied with a days work. The first bike home from work. An awesome "rocket pop". A round of cricket in the back yard. And sometime in the near future a yum dinner.

Introductions are in order.
I am 29. Last 4 months of being in my twenties are flying by. I look back on my twenties and decided that although some pretty awesome shit happened, this is not the life that i want.
I am married (no complaints there), I am an accountant, I am a borderline christian, I am 117.8 kgs and 176cms (BMI = gigantor!), I love music, art, retro furniture, design-er-ee stuff, food and cooking and a glass or three of tasty Sav or a Pinot.
I drive a red Alfa 156, and a brand new Merida Speeder T3 (road bike) that i LOVE! I can run 2 kms without too much trouble, 3 kms with quite a lot of huffing and puffing, and 5 kms only if my life depended on it, and even then not so sure.
I am in quite a bit of debt, and have only some cool but ultimately worthless gadgets to show for it. I am also studying at uni for the next year.

So why am i blogging? Because I have only 4 months of my twenties left, and i don't want this to be my thirties. I want more from life and more from myself.

GOALS (no particular order):
1. 70kgs. I started with weightwatchers at 130.5kgs, currently weigh 117.8kgs meaning I have 47.8kgs to go.
2. Short term, compete in the Real Womens Duathlon onn 14th February (5km Run and 10km Bike)
3. Stop being a borderline Christian, fence sitter, opinion giver, and make a commitment to my Faith. Not go all loopy and trippy, but have a relationship.
4. Finish Studying
5: Get debt paid off. NO MORE HIRE PURCHASES
6. Run/Walk a half marathon
7. Run/Walk a marathon
8. Do a blog (can tick that one off)
9. Holiday somewhere tropical and exciting
10. Buy a House and have babies.

So that is me
This is the first blog I have ever done.
Will endeavour to be witty and awesome but make no promises.

N.