a veritable feast

Last weekend, the very lovely Kit came to visit from Minnesota - she flew in for two days in London, and there was LSG hanging out and whathaveyou. And she brought me a big fuckoff box of reese's

Nomnomnomnomnomnom.

Like any normal person, when faced with a massive pile of pb cups, I immediately think "cheesecake!". Duh.

I used this recipe, with the following changes:

• 200g gluten and wheat free chocolate chip cookies for the crust, with 50g dove farm gluten free flour, and 100g of butter.
• 300g cream cheese (because fuck knows how big they make cheesecakes in Houston, but nobody needs a whole KILO of cream cheese in one cake)
• 3 small eggs (could have used two, thinking about it)
• 75g soft brown sugar and 75g caster sugar (because I forgot to buy more caster sugar)
• 50ml whipping cream
• best part of a jar of smooth peanut butter (roughly 200g)
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 8 reese's peanut butter cups

The base, gluten free for Ellie, who has coeliac disease but likes cheesecake:

I fucking love my little kenwood. It's actually awesome.

The only problem with so many cheesecakes, is that they need to be baked. So I did. And then I stuck it in the fridge overnight to cool.

Gareth approved.

However, before consuming the glory that was cheesecake, we had sort-of enchiladas. Fuck knows what to call them. Anyway. Here:

• 3 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bits.
• 50g cream cheese
• a dollop of sour cream
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• juice from half a lime - 1 tbsp
• 2 finely chopped garlic cloves
• about 1 tbps chopped coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• good dollop of salsa verde (see below for my version, which isn't salsa verde at all)
• 100g grated cheese - I used a mix of mature cheddar, mild cheese and mozzarella

Mix all together. Place double spoonful in centre of corn tortilla, and wrap to form a tube. Put seam-down in baking pan - repeat 7 times more; if you do two layers put a bit of cheese in between. Cover with more grated cheese, whack in oven for about 15 mins on med-high heat. Eat with sour cream and more salsa verde:

• 2/3 of largish cucumber
• 1 decent-sized green pepper
• 1 smallish green chilli
• 7 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp minced garlic paste
• 1 small red onion
• 1/2 a lime
• a bunch of coriander.

Chop cucumber, pepper, chilli, garlic, onion and coriander. Mix together. Put about half of the mix through a blender to chop it small - include garlic paste and lime in the blender, use a good few glugs of olive oil. Let it sit for a bit. The longer the better - a few hours is ideal.

Excuse the lo-res iphone pics. It's too much of a mither to go find my cantankerous camera every time I cook.

Fibro, Yarn, Kent... weekend as usual then

This morning, after getting up very early, and meeting the lovely Ryn at the station - she brought me pancakes. They were quite possibly the best pancakes in pancake history - we headed down to sunny Kent to meet with the downright adorable Patience and everybody's favourite Metalouise. It was very sunny, and we sat in the beer garden of Patience's local and knitted (well, they knitted, I crocheted, with my gorgeous yarn from Planetariumfish). Look at this yarn. Is it not fucking gorgeous? I'm making it into a slightly lacy cowl, and possibly some fingerless gloves. I don't normally wear limey green shades, because I'm scared of them, but this was just too pretty - I like the bruisey flashes of deep red and purple.


So, anyway. We were in Kent for World Wide Knit in Public Day, and all was well. Cider and chips and other excitement was consumed, talking was done, and I got sunburned across my shoulders because I'm cool like that. Oh yes.

I felt the need to take this picture on the way home:


Ryn and I hopped back on the train to London when the pub shut mid-afternoon (boo!); a few stops out of London Bridge, some of the local chavs decided to sit next to us. Their conversation was scintillating - I sound like such a bitch, but seriously, dude, you're barely 14, and your grasp of politics and geography has come from the headlines you glanced at while turning to page three of The Sun. Do fuck off now. Cow that I am, I abandoned Ryn at London Bridge to sit through their conversation for a few more stops, and got on the DLR home. And saw this:


Home was reached, G talked to, food consumed and I was dressed for Brackers' birthday party. So I pull on a cardi and say the magic word* to Indigo. Oh hai body fail time. I can haz working legs please? About halfway through our walk, I'm rapidly reaching the point where it looks like I'm going to need a zimmer frame in the immediate future (that would at least give me a reason to be moving so slowly). The fibromyalgia the doctors are thinking I might have - or lupus, but it's never lupus - is playing up.

I hate this. I hate not knowing if I'm going to make it home without a trip to the hospital because I can barely walk, or feeling like I've run a marathon and been beaten with sticks when all I've done is get up and make a cup of tea. I hate the headaches and how it turns me from a fairly self-sufficient person to someone who can barely make it down the stairs. It's fucking ridiculous, and I know it costs me friendships because I can't go out and do things - or stay in and do things, or I can't listen because I'm barely conscious, or can't type a coherent sentence. This week has been pretty good - I've been to the library, had meetings, walked Indigo, all sorts. And this evening I keep having to retype words because I can't fucking spell any more. So I'm going to bed.

*walkies!

Craft Excitement

Exams are approaching. That means it's craft time!




Apparently, procrastination can also be constructive. Even if I fail, I will now have a warm head. Which'll be handy for when I move into a cardboard box.

projects

I have a monstrous to-do list, as usual.

• Make dresses, plural - I have fabric for three dresses, and patterns for them; two wrap dresses (red knit and a printed jersey), and one vintage 1950s vogue dress that I have to make up in white polycotton to make sure the sizing is right before I start. I then have to find suitable fabric.
• Fix the dress that i've got hanging in my wardrobe, and has been half-finished for a year now. I really need a dress model
• Make dress model. For this, I need an assistant to wrap my torso in masking tape - any volunteers?
• Make a dog coat for a certain hound.
• Make something for F - probably a hoodie or cardigan. For this, I need F, or an item of his clothing, and I currently have neither.
• Do something with my cross-stitches. I now have three squares, and an idea for a fourth, and I really ought to do something with them.
• Find something to do with that pink cord.
  
• Learn to crochet.
  
• Tidy my house
  

The wonders of the internets

My university has recently joined the bandwagon and registered with Facebook. I've been nosying around on it for most of the past two days; finding friends from uni and manically trying to get as many friends as possible. Oddly enough, I was talking about this with an old friend of mine - who I haven't seen for years, but myspace is a beautiful thing for that - and we were discussing Facebook. It turns out that my old school has also registered - and so I've been trying to see who is on and who is doing what. Unfortunately for my inner bitch, I can't see their pages unless they're my friends. Ah well, back to myspace for that one. And bebo.... my internet toys are multiplying but I only have myself to blame.

I've also signed myself and a friend up to do a craft show in London at some point; neither of us can really afford, or want, a table to ourselves, but half each seems fair. I'm not sure when, or indeed where, it is, but hopefully I'll get some details soon. I'm looking forward to this. I might even be able to justify getting a proper website.