So I've been wanting to do a Christmas post now for aboooooutt three months. Yeahh I'm really prematurely excited this year, not sure why. Feeling the magical times approaching!
Here are some things to be excited about...
Starbucks Red Cups!
Much love for these (although not to the extent to the maker of this website).
Confession: I've already had all but the eggnog one. Toffee Nut is my fave. Nothing like taking a break from Christmas shopping or just a cold winter's day with one of these in your hand and a lovely comfy Starbucks sofa.
Christmas songs!
Don't they just make you feel happy and warm inside?
Confession: I have been listening thoroughly already. Of course there is the classic (Mariah Carey) and the new buzz on the street - obviously Buble's new album, which is great. I'm not so keen on his Santa Baby, I think 'Christmas' is my fave. Also been branching out to a bit of a cowboy Christmas theme with Dwight Yoakam - a nice change!
Christmas Wear!
If there is one pattern I love, correction LOVE, it is FairIsle.. so beaut.
Confession: my Winter jumper has been bought and worn already, I've scrimped on one from Primarni, but they do have some nice stuff out atm. Here are some lovely things I've found online.
Jumper: Abercrombie (£94), Slippers: Accessorize (£13), OPI Nail Varnish: Asos (£12.95)
Curling up by the fire with a good book!
So looking forward to doing this when I get home home, we have a proper fireplace and it's perfect next to the Christmas tree, nothing could be cosier! Also nice to swap the book for a good Christmas special on TV, or the Christmas Lecures (love).
Confession: I have already researched the subject of Christmas Lectures 2011, it's on the human brain. Oooh!
And of course.. just the whole atmosphere.
For anyone stuck on Christmas presents check out here, here or here.
If you want a fairer Christmas, look to here, here or here.
But don't miss Christmas behind all the consumerism. Watch this.
And clearly, let's not forget the real meaning of Christmas, even in the run-up to it. What an amazing event we are actually celebrating!
So I've become quite a resident of the kitchen these last few weeks (sorry feminists), I'm not sure why but I think maybe it's a productive form of procrastination?! Slash missing good home food. I love cooking shows like River Cottage, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef, Great British Bakeoff etc etc and I would love to be a skillful chef! Really been keen to try out new recipes recently - here are some things I've been trying out...
(NB: in case it isn't obvious, none of the photos are mine. But let's just pretend that's how good my food looks).
Potato Rosti
Not an overly healthy dish with a good bit of carbs and oil, but so nice for a change for a hot at-home lunch. I got my recipe from 200 Veggie Feasts but here's a similar one. Top tip: serve with a fried egg on top.
Aubergine Gratin
Another one from 200 Veggie Feasts. Pretty healthy and a kind of carb-less lasagne. I would definitely change my recipe a bit if I did it again though - mine had an overly intense tomato and basil taste. Give it a go though (start here).
Chicken Curry
I'm pretty new to curries so I started with an easy one - here. For such a straightforward dish it was really tasty - and would be a great basic recipe to add to. I added some sultanas and desiccated coconut.
Coconut Flapjacks
I used some of the left-over coconut to add to a basic flapjack recipe (like this). Yummy!
Butternut Squash, Tofu and Pea Curry
And another from 200 Veggie Feasts. Again, quite nice but I'd tweak it if I made it again. Could do with another strong flavour next to the butternut cos it really dominates. Still, a fun adventure! Here's a twist on it using pumpkin instead.
Stir Fry
I've started stir-frying a fair bit cos it's easy, cheap and healthy! Add noodles (wholegrain if you wanna be good!), chicken (season with Mixed herbs while cooking) or whatever veg (sugar snap peas are the best!). A really simple sauce is to mix a tablespoon of Soy Sauce with half a teaspoon of honey.
Couscous
Also an under-rated dish! Mix dried couscous with hot water with dissolved stock cube. Add seasoning/sultanas/roasted veg/lemon juice.... Quick, simple, yum.
Onion Gravy for Bangers and Mash
There's not many recipes I've done a number of times, cos I tend to get bored repeating them! But this is a winner. From Sam Stern's Student Cookbook which I got free from a newspaper! Yummy addition to a simple dish. This one looks similar. Add sage.
Shepherds Pie
A Classic.
Vanilla Cupcakes with Butter icing and Choc flakes
Created these the other day as a treat for some friends! Just a simple cupcake recipe with added vanilla. Used a crushed Galaxy Ripple sprinkled on the top of butter icing to finish it off! (And some lovely Ikea cases of course).
Hope I've inspired you!
Here's a little something to make you smile. I find it funny how seriously people take food sometimes.
So I said I would try do a post about working at the Centre of Alternative Technologies. It's taken me a while cos there's so much to write and really I should be writing essays! But anyway hope you enjoy the pics and all, it was a really great week.
By the way, the place was in Wales and during the week we discovered that microwave in Welsh is "Popty Ping" - hence the title!
This is a long post so have a beautiful, beautiful song (and a lovely ginger wizard) to keep you company!
I hadn't heard of CAT before when I started searching for useful things to do over the summer holidays, but once I started talking about them it seemed like a lot of people had. The place started up in the 60s I think, as a bit of a hippy colony which aimed to be an example in self-sustainability in terms of food, energy, etc.
Now it's much larger and more education focused, and although continues to grow food and provide renewable energy, it isn't self-sustaining. I think the move to focus on being an educational 'tourist' centre was a good one though - it will certainly mean a bigger impact and influence.
So anyways, got the train up to Wales which took a couple of hours but I had plenty of reading material to keep me occupied! Got to Machynlleth (Ma-hunth-lith I think you pronounce it!!) which is the nearest town and had about an hour to wait for the bus to the centre so wandered around and found a cafe for lunch (which turned out to be run by CAT I found out later!). Felt like an intrepid explorer entering the little cafe in the middle of Wales on my own with all my luggage and backpack, lol.
Found the bus stop and asked the driver to tell me where to get off. Had a 5 min walk from there, then finally saw the centre! Was welcomed and ushered into this - a water powered clifftop railway to take visitors up the steep slope!
Then taken to the 'Tea Chest'. This is like the staff room where hot drinks are available and where lunch is served everyday. All the food was vegetarian (as it's more env friendly - meat requires a lot of land/energy/water to produce) but really good. There was a nice casual tree in the middle of the room.
About 10 minutes after I entered a girl with green dreadlocks came up and asked if I'd like to go foraging for mushrooms with her. I declined (interesting as that situation would have been, I'd been told to wait for someone).
Above the Tea Chest were the short-term volunteer (STV) rooms where I stayed with 3 other STVs, Bethan, Amy and Susie - all really nice girls I enjoyed spending the week with. It wasn't luxurious but it was warm and all that we needed!
One night we all walked about half an hour into the nearest village to go to the 'folk night' at the local pub. We played a bit of darts and befriended an old man wearing a fluorescent jacket, lumberjack shirt, unfastened jeans and not many teeth. He showed us how to play darts then tried to score for us. Sadly he could not see very well and shouted out very consistent wrong scores which we subtly ignored.
Walking back was ridiculously scary - pitch black deserted country roads with no sight of civilisation. We almost died.
(Me, Susie, Amy and Bethan)
The long term volunteers also started the same week, so it was nice to chat to them and not be the only newbies (there's tons of permanent staff - all v.friendly though).
We were given different tasks during the week. Susie worked in the office, but for the rest of us it was mostly just get-your-hands-dirty practical stuff to help run the place. There was loads of info about to read in our free time and the staff were really knowledgeable though so still learnt a lot.
The work was SO laid back, we had 2 1/2hr coffee breaks plus an hour for lunch, and if we wanted more time to explore it was given!
One of our tasks was helping in the organic garden which supplies food for the restaurant and staff canteen. A really nice ex-long term volunteer called Katie showed us what to do.
Another of the days we worked in the 'Eco-Cabins' which are used for school trips etc. They are off-grid and had displays to show how much energy they were using - the aim was to keep below a certain amount. People staying also had to collect their own water and wood (which they could bring up using this ladder contraption). The whole aim is to make people consider their energy use and not have a throwaway approach to it.
We helped a guy called Rennie ("like the indigestion tablets") fix up and paint the cabins. He had a sound system which blared out classic rock. The cabins were just above the gardens so this was also the soundtrack when we were working down there!
We also did some work in the forest, clearing invasive species like Rhododendron (let loose with saws and other good anger management tools), and putting together bundles of bracken to line the paths to prevent erosion.
While in the woods we saw this bird hide that some architecture students had made - amazing!
Here are some general views of the place - I think it's really pretty.
It's even more amazing to know that the site used to be an old quarry - you can still see parts of it, like in the photo below
Here's a photo of what the place used to look like.
Some of the technologies around included a woodchip CHP (Combined Heat and Power) generator
Roger the technician's alternative to a van!
Solar panels with clear backgrounds to let natural light and heat in
Wind Turbines - and scale models for educational purposes!
Hobbit homes!!
And a 'Rocket Composter'!
One of the newest editions to the site is this new eco building, built to house students on the courses they run. It used a lot of new technologies, like compressed earth walls.
In our spare time there was plenty to do. One night we hiked up to the reservoir and had a very brief dip in it! Someone had built a little hut/sauna next to it so heated that up and ran in from the cold dark lake!
Susie also had a grand plan to make a bicycle-powered smoothie maker, with the help of Roger the mechanic. Here's the progress they made during the week!
And finally we went home - this was the cute little train station
Wind turbines everywhere!
My favourite of Amy's many tattoos - Moomins!
Sorry about the mammoth post. Hope you enjoyed though! X
