In the lead up to Christmas, I had planned to be oh-so creative in the kitchen, whipping up a frenzy of sugared treats and the like. And indeed, one day of the 4 I had off was spent lurking over a pot of bubbling sugar and fat in an ill-fated effort to test several varieties of fudge recipe (none were successful. Here endeth my efforts at fudge making without a candy thermometer. I'm pretty sure I've said that before though, so there's every chance that there will yet be a third effort sans practical equipment). Other than that, I did bugger all. I should probably feel guilty about that, but I don't. I don't actually remember what I did, but suspect that I spent quite a bit of those precious 4 days on the couch. One of them, I remember distinctly, was spent in consumer/snow-hell when I decided to go and do the Christmas shopping (nb. This year I WILL be doing all my Christmas shopping stupidly early and online. Shops be damned). A total of 2 hours shopping and 3.5 hours of travel time (for a round trip that ought to have taken 35 mins tops. Damn ye snow and shoppers of Milton Keynes of similar organisational skills to moi. Damn ye I say). Horrifying.
Anyway. I'm faffing about even now. I meant to write about the fact that it's the 5th day of the year and I am already woefully behind on pretty much everything which seems to me to be fairly impressive an effort in uselessness. What I should have been doing on my precious 4 day holiday, it would seem, is ignoring the fact that I'd taken annual leave and settling down to some industrious marking. I didn't, and as a result now have 2 days (including today) to do all my sodding marking. And write an assignment reflecting on my teaching practice in light of theory (gag). And I've now spent more than my allocated 10 mins of web-surfing time, so I had better go to it and keep reading obscurely written attempts to discuss the role of NGOs in global society.
Oh. I knew there was something else to say. I got a Magimix food processor for Christmas (am v v spoiled and feel that such a treat is not really deserved given my total lack of useful kitchen activities of late.) It is red and incredibly shiny and ever-so pretty. Since I have had to force myself to Do Some Work Dammit and thus can't play in the kitchen for hours, I sort of just stand in front of it gently patting it. At some point, however, I will use it and will regale you with truly exciting tales of blending and mixing (a New Years' treat that I bet you can't wait for). I will say that aside from fondling it, I've also made a smoothie in it so far and the sauce for last night's dinner (nb. Chilli Chicken from my new Chinese cookbook by Ching-He Huang. Result? Seriously seriously average. This is why I don't try new recipes more often. It sounded delicious with promises of 'tangy, sweet and just the right amount of spicy' and was instead bland, not sweet and certainly not tangy. It managed to be both just about too spicy and yet lacking in any actual flavour. Now I'm dubious about the rest of the recipes in the damn book. So disappointing).
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