Life Lately: February 2016

If I had to sum up February in one word it would be… food. Whenever I feel in a bit of a muddle I gravitate words the kitchen — this has it’s benefits though. I’m pretty sure Pret Guildford will have noticed a sizeable dip in lunchtime sales this month. Other than making and eating good food I’ve been … err … actually I can’t think of much else 🙂

Watching

• The new series of the X-Files (series 10). What a plot twist! I won’t say any more than that in case you haven’t seen it yet.
• Transparent

Reading

I finished The Circle by Dave Eggers. I was a bit disappointed to be honest, the story felt repetitive and there was no real ending after 491 pages of tiny tiny text. Next on my reading list is the beautifully designed Ernest journal no.3. It’s full of information about weird and wonderful things. Grim discovery of the month though is Pemmican – a cake made from animal fat and meat.

Eating (and drinking)

• Spiced vegan lentil soup: cookie and Kale’s recipe is the best lentil soup recipe I’ve come across
• Pineapple cashew rice: basically a pina colada in meal form. What’s not to like?
• Yarde Real Cider: a Christmas present to Scott from my family
• Pinto bean chilli: one of my favourite cold weather meals
• Lemon biscuits: I dipped one side in lemony glace icing and sprinkled grated lemon zest on top for a bit of decoration

Baking bagels has become a bit of a Sunday ritual over the last few weeks. They are so simple to make and so much tastier than the stodgy ones on supermarket shelves. I still need to work on getting a tidy join but they taste good; seeds hide a multitude of sins 🙂

I’ve been using this recipe from the River Cottage Bread book. Bagels are easier than you think, so give them a go!

Making

Nothing at all! I’ve hit a bit of craft slump this month but resting my hands after so much knitting over December and January is probably a good thing.

Dreaming

The last few weeks have bought plenty of sleep weirdness. One night I’d shut myself in an old fashioned blue room to try and stop a bull getting in. It bashed through the door so I climbed inside a wardrobe and then decided to get on top even though it was wobbling around. Other sleep weirdness includes me waking up convinced I’m half way through swallowing something I shouldn’t be like rubbers (!?!), cotton wool, coins and ear plugs. And the other night I said, “Two plastic bags. That’s my contribution.” in a very matter of fact tone. I’d love to know what’s happening inside my brain when I think I’m done for the day.

Enjoying

Our windowsill garden of hyacinths and daffodils. Let the Good Times Roll face scrub. Thanks to changing weather and central heating, the skin on my face started to look like desiccated coconut. So I went to Lush and bought something to compensate for my very lax (read: almost non-existent) skincare routine. The scrub is magic.

That’s all for February!